Fine Dining and Fellowship at Langdon Lodge Hall

Tucked up in the Northeast quadrant of the City, in the Langdon neighborhood, on Rhode Island Avenue, is a charming, yet unassuming, Italian bistro.  Unreported by Zagats or the local restaurant journals, it appears to be an undiscovered gem, even among the locals.  Last night, checking up on reports of the excellent fare, the Grand Secretary and I drove out to this unknown trattoria for Friday night dinner to kick off the weekend.  What we enjoyed was a dining experience of fine Italian fare to go head to head with the best of Washington, DC, Chicago, or even a certain haunt of my former shipmates, in the summer of '86, off Via Alabardieri, in Napoli.

Ably assisted by the sisters of Langdon Lodge and Fidelity Rebekah Lodge, Chef Albert James crafted a palette of gustatory delights of the semolinian variety that would have made Dr. Robert Atkins publicly recant his heresy.  Serving dishes stacked high with veal parmagiana, chicken piccata, and my own childhood comfort fare, meatballs in tomato sauce, rounded out the carne courses.  When Bro. Ward brought out the vintage red and white libations, the Scene was complete, lifted directly from Billy Joel's, The Stranger album.  Every dish was superb; and I sampled them all.  It was an act of extraordinary will to keep from reprising Terry Jones's character, Mr. Creosote.

With the excellent food and beverage was the fine company of the brothers and sisters of the Odd Fellows and Rebekah Lodges of Washington, DC, their friends and family.  The conversation ranged from the internal affairs and intrigues of the jurisdiction, the summer vacations and activities of our brethren and sistren, to a comparative discussion of the Scorsese canon.

Eventually, as all good things must, the evening drew to a close and the ranks of our once ravenous band began to thin.  Our Brother Grand Secretary and I agreed it was an outstanding evening and that we would have to come back.

My thanks to the brothers and sisters of Langdon Lodge No. 26, for hosting this excellent meal and event.  It was an enormous success.  It is unfortunate that some of our Order could not join us last night - on hearing the tales of the evening retold, they will almost certainly carry with them a gnawing regret that will burn their souls until the end of their days, or at least until next year when, we hope, Langdon will again host this pinnacle of the Washington, DC Odd Fellows calendar and, if only for the evening, redefine our three links as: Fettucine, Linguine, and Tagliatelle.

The password this evening was, without a doubt: Buon Appetito!  (Pass it on.)