Here’s the short version:  if you want to eat at Central and spend under $100, you must go at lunch.

And the long version: It’s so worth it!  Not only are you getting a great deal, you’re having a little workday holiday.  But the food is, of course, the main draw.  Now until November 11, you can have a three course lunch for $20.  Don’t worry, after that, it’s only $21.

Central reinvents American staples, but not in a scary why is there foam on my sandwich?! way, but in a oh, that’s what it should taste like! kind of way.  With hamburgers, fried chicken, steak, and mac and cheese, I call this haute American: American food with high creativity and style.  I’d recommend…everything.

The clam chowder was thin and savory, the broth poured over the contents at the table.  The beet salad was not alarming.  And as a staunchly anti-beet person, this salad, cubed beets on top of spring greens with melted cheese croutons, won me over.

The entrées were small by American standards, in that they were served on lunch plates, not dinner chargers.  The pasta bolognese came with as much sauce as pasta, the fine Italian way.  The mushroom sandwich looked like paté toasties but turned out to be “the best grilled cheese in the world.”  Seriously.  The best.  You must go taste it.

The dessert was all about the Chocolate Bar, in that it totally cancelled out the presence of a very excellent carrot cake.  I am fascinated by the existence of the Chocolate Bar: it is a Kit Kat bar, homemade and writ large.  I know, right?!  Amazing.  But of course, the restaurant can’t call it The Kit Kat; that’s been copywrited.   So, you might never notice that what you’re eating is the Platonic ideal of a Kit Kat bar…but it is!  Crispy wafer, rich chocolate mousse, topped with dark chocolate sauce, all with lots of wink, wink fun.

I enjoy Central so very much.  One shouldn’t make a habit of it, of course.  Then how would you know that when you are there, you’ve arrived for your vacation?

Located at 11th and Pennsylvania, NW.  Take a gander at the lunch menu here.