Uneasy Rhetoric

Downtown Déjeuner:
J’s Café ***1/2
1004 J Street
$7-$9

Atkin’s dieters beware — what you get here requires two pieces of bread and fat, beefsteak fries with lots of ketchup and salt.

From the outside, J’s looks like a seedy little dive with less-than appropriate hygiene. Come to think of it, so do most of the restaurants on J Street. Inside, though, is a light and airy (and clean) dining room with ceiling fans and comfortable tables.

The menu is small and mostly variations on “burgers and fries.” There is a chicken sandwich and fish and chips as well; however, since I don’t recall seeing a vegetarian option, go for the burgers because they are big and wholesome and will satisfy a comfort food craving any day.

Two items on the menu stand out: the patty melt and the pastrami burger.

I am a huge fan of patty melts, and am particular about how they are made. A good patty melt will always have grilled onions, swiss cheese, and rye bread. You would be surprised at how many restaurants forget one of these ingredients. J’s has them all and goes further with what I suspect is American cheese or something like it, and, wonder of wonders, sautéed mushrooms! The mushrooms make this melt extra special; the American cheese, or processed cheese product, or whatever it is, can be forgiven, and may even add to the taste.

The pastrami burger fooled me. I assumed I would get hot pastrami served burger-style with all of the “fixings.” Actually, what I got was a hamburger, patty and all, with pastrami on top. The glutton in me died and went to carnivore heaven.

A daily visit to J’s is not likely to be good for your health (I don’t think the meat is extra lean), but an occasional visit might be good for one’s soul, especially since Jim Denny’s Burgers, so I hear, is always crowded (review may or may not be forthcoming).

Three and a half stars for comfort food and for improving on the patty melt, for friendly service, and for a nice interior with enough ventilation to move the overwhelming fumes of frying burgers, bacon, pastrami, fish, chips, and chicken away from the diners. However, their menu is small and heavy on the grease, without much in the way of either vegetable or vegetarian choices.