Steak And Cheese At The Washington D.C. Auto Show

All photos by Joel Patel

After looking at all of the lackluster cars at the Washington, D.C. Auto Show, I worked up quite the appetite. Like the cars, there was a limited amount of food vendors in the convention center and prices were absurdly high. I can’t say I didn’t expect this, because I have gone before and it is something D.C. is known for – ridiculously high food prices.

After wandering the entire auto show for an hour and a half, I stumbled upon a small Philly Cheesesteak stall. I was in the mood for a cheese steak so I thought that it would be the perfect lunch after walking around so much.

To put it kindly, the cheesesteaks were utterly terrible. The bread was soggy, the steak was dry, it had no flavor, something about the sandwich smelled bad and the extra peppers from a jar were bland. Oh, and there were a bunch of large raw onions scattered throughout the sandwich. I wasn’t a huge fan of it and when considering it cost $10 for just the sandwich, I’m pretty sure I could’ve gotten better at Subway.

Besides the sandwich, I also got some French fries. These were surprisingly good. They were a little cold, but they had garlic, pepper and hints of thyme on them and were the perfect size for snacking on. A large carton cost $5.

So far it was a bland lunch and I was upset for choosing this place. But luckily, I ordered a large lemonade to wash all of it down, which I thought was divine. It was $6, but it was huge and tasted similar to lemonade found at the Washington Nationals stadium. It brought me back to warm summer days and baseball games, which was a nice change of scenery.

The food wasn’t much better than the cars. In such a diverse location, one would think that there would be a plethora of food stalls to choose from, but there wasn’t. The food at the D.C. Auto Show was like the proverbial icing on the cake, but in this instance it was like stepping on dog poop.

Price for two people: $31

Overall taste: 5/10

The saving grace of the entire auto show was the lemonade. Even though I got some seeds stuck in my straw, that stuff could’ve brought Matthew McConaughey back from space in Interstellar or solve General Motors’ recall woes. Seriously it was that good. Everything else was lifeless.