Outta the Way Cafe

A modest little sports cafe for Steelers when there is a game (several TVs). It has lovely stained glass decorations and paintings. It serves good food and has nice servers. The prices are very reasonable. Not an elegant cafe but very nice. Thumbs up.

This is a place to get great food where you also feel you could kick off your shoes and stay as long as you like, even on a busy night. It's the only restaurant in the DC area that matches the good-humored friendliness of eateries in my hometown of Pittsburgh. (I discovered the Cafe when joining some other transplanted Pittsburghers there one Sunday to watch a Steelers game. If you're not into the Steelers, you might want to avoid the 3 hours of Steelers game time on a football Sunday, when the place is wall-to-wall black and gold.) But it's classier than most of the restaurants I've been to in Pgh. (which may say more about me than the restaurants in the 'Burgh.) The food and decor are solidly and excellently American. The dividing wall between the restaurant and bar areas contains a very cool series of colored glass panels depicting scenes of the U.S. from east coast to west. The chandeliers are made of some kind of funky bubbled colored glass. The back walls of the restaurant are lined with fascinating b & w photographs of the American West. If you stop to admire the photos, somebody will inevitably tell you that the owner's brother, Michael Berman, is a Guggenheim Fellow who contributed many of the photos, The decor always keeps me interested, but it's the food and good vibes that keep me coming back. On our family outings, every meal has been dependably excellent. I'm partial to the beef dishes, but my wife and son are into the wings and ribs. If you're looking for a friendly place to kick back, unwind, and enjoy a good meal, you'll enjoy the Cafe.