Cafe Japone

I just have a few more weeks in DC, so I'm trying to do as much as I can as time permits. One of my co-workers is also leaving DC soon and this past Friday was her last day in the office. We had a sort of going away at Cafe Japone Saturday night.

Cafe Japone is a Japanese restaurant at 2032 P St NW near Dupont Circle.

As an aside, most of the other circles in DC that are named after people have a statute of the person in the middle of it. However, Dupont has a fountain. I asked my friend who Dupont was, but she didn't know. I wondered if it was named after one of the du Ponts of the chemical company family. Do you know any duPonts not related in some way to that family? I don't ether. Turns out the circle is named after Samuel Francis Du Pont, a Union Admiral during the Civil War.

The sushi at Cafe Japone on Saturday night was decent, but it didn't smell or taste as fresh as at a lot of other places. I ordered the $40 chef's choice sushi for 2 with my friend. There was the usual selection of sushis and sashimis, nothing overly exotic or interesting. There was some octopus, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Now, the reason to go to Cafe Japone is not the food, but for the karaoke that starts at 9:30. My friends were sitting at a corer table and sang a couple songs. I wasn't nearly intoxicated enough to try my hand at it though. The table next to us was a group of guys who sang everything, with or without a mic. They were totally drunk, but a lot of fun too. There were some other people at the restaurant who wanted to try to seriously sing and seemed upset at those guys. The format is an open mic restaurant, not private rooms. Also, there were no scores posted after the performance, so your singing couldn't be electronically rated on its badness. No, there was no Simon Cowell treatment, unfortunately.

It was Cinco de Mayo and the weather was pretty bad, so maybe that's why the place seemed so empty. It was moderately fun, the food was overpriced. I don't think I'd come back personally, but it could be a fun place to go.