George's Gems
GW Discourse tells you what DC has to offer
Kramerbooks & Afterwards Café and Grill
By Lainie Frost
Any fast-paced Washingtonian pedestrian might miss one of D.C.’s best in their hustle and bustle commute home. However, if one were to venture past the corporate Books-a-Million and Starbucks which are most prominent in the Dupont Circle area, perhaps he would see that just further down the street lies Kramerbooks & Afterwards Café and Grill.
Kramerbooks is a unique fusion of bookstore, bar, pie-to-go, and even an all night eatery on weekends. This bookstore and restaurant provides a quaint oasis for social networking, celebrating, and good eats.
For its quaint, petite size Kramerbooks devotes two rooms for its variety of books. They offer every genre from philosophy to cooking and even how-to relationship books. (While in line to put your name on the wait list you’ll find Why Men Marry Bitches: A Woman’s Guide to Winning Her Man’s Heart right next to other self-help books in the same book kiosk. While I’m not exactly sure as to why these are the books closest to the waiting line, they do act as incendiary devices for engaging conversations.)
Besides losing yourself in their plethora of books, another option during a wait – and there usually is one during dinner and post-work hours—you can tantalize your senses by wandering to the glass display which showcases their homemade pies, cakes and cobblers.
A personal favorite is the mixed fruit crumble which is plated with raspberry puree and is topped with cinnamon ice cream and whip cream. For those who wish to take their pie back to their apartments or dorms here is a tip: DO NOT order your pie to go at the pie display. While that makes sense to most first-timers, to get pie-to-go you must order it in the bar.
On weekends after bar hopping or even late-night studying, Kramerbooks is the place for an after midnight snack since it is open 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays. (Every other day its hours are 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.)
Almost every day Kramerbooks hosts a musical performance for customers. Usually on weekends you can find Mr. Charlie Sayles playing his harmonica during his blues music set which permeates the café’s and bookstore’s urban bourgeois atmosphere. No matter what genre of music, the tunes at this D.C. hot-spot always augments the experience. Although the wait can be annoying, the food, service and entertainment greatly surpass the frustrating anticipation of such an experience. Even its web-site boasts from The New York Times review that “Kramerbooks is a cultural landmark of sorts...Many people do not consider themselves true Washingtonians until they have received a phone call that begins as an invitation for drinks after work and ends with ‘I’ll meet you at Kramer’s.’”