Eastern Market

Introduction

Eastern Market is an area that is basically compulsory for young people to go and hang out in Washington D. C., and is situated in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood.

The name comes from the community's renowned public market, situated in 7th Street, also called Eastern Market. However, in the end, this includes a much larger area - in other words, the area surrounding the market itself.

Eastern Market is a very pleasant area: it doesn't have any monuments, nor is it home to an important building, but it does indeed have numerous restaurants, children's play areas, banks and shops all concentrated into this small community.

Shops and restaurants

Amongst the shops and food outlets in this area, you will find the ubiquitous Starbucks (American coffee shop chain) and Dunkin' Donuts (chain of doughnut stores), as well as an organic supermarket, Le Pain Quotidien (French bakery-restaurant), Taco District (Mexican bar), Java City Port (another coffee shop). These are all the places that I have been to thus far. Amongst the restaurants and bars, I have only been to Matchbox (which I have already told you all about in another post), but there are several more to choose from.

District Doughnut

In this area, you can find one of my favourite doughnut stores, which sits towards the end of 8th Street and is called "District Doughnut". It is in no way related to Dunkin' Donuts, but it does sell those typical American doughnuts that you always see in crime movies.

You can order the doughnuts to take away, be that just one or several in a box, or you can also eat them right here in the store with a coffee. Admittedly, there isn't a lot of space inside, but there's sufficient to comfortably spend a little bit of time there.

District Doughnuts sells six different types of doughnut (there isn't much variety, but I can assure you that they are exquisite). There are three permanent fixtures on the menu, with the other three changing on a daily basis. The three "permanent" ones are the Vanilla Bean Glazed, the Dulce de Leche, and the Brown Butter. And, with regards to the others, the ones that I saw the first time I went were the Goodfellow, the Cannoli, and the Maple Butter (which you can see for yourselves in the following photo).

As I am the kind of person who can't say no to something sweet with chocolate, my only option was the Goodfellow, which contained Nutella and bacon. It's a combination that I would never have thought of, but it was really good.

I have also tried the Vanilla Bean Glazed doughnut and it's like a little slice of heaven! I really hope that I can try more very soon.

The prices of the doughnuts here is somewhat expensive in comparison with other places ($2. 75 plus tax), but it's better if we need a deterrent to not go very often and avoid putting weight on.

Public library

On the other side of the market, just next to the metro, you will find of the city's public libraries. From the outside, the building is beautiful, but the interior isn't actually that big. I have only been to the children's section, but there are large tables, free-to-use computers and a large selection of books (of course). Besides, unlike libraries in Spain, here you can take out up to 50 children's books and up to 15 CDs or DVDs at a time. And, if you are late to return or renew them, there is no penalty in the sense that you have to wait X number of days to be able to borrow more books. However, if you go over a month of their renewal date or you break/damage the items, you have to pay a fine.

Little open-air market

In addition to all of this, there is a little open-air market that takes place at the weekend, which is situated outside the public market. Here, handicrafts and food are sold, amongst other things. You can buy fresh apple juice, and then have a wander around with family, etc. It's very popular, not only amongst the Capitol Hill residents, but also with citizens from across Washington D. C..

How to get to Eastern Market

To get to Eastern Market, the best thing to do would be to walk from the Capitol Building along Pennsylvania Avenue, in the opposite direction of the National Mall, and you will find it. It would actually be even better to take the metro and alight at the stop, "Eastern Market", which is served by the blue, silver and orange lines.