Washingtonian and AT&T’s Best of Washington Party

Guests line up outside the National Building Museum

Washingtonian Magazine, together with AT&T, hosted the annual Best of Washington party at the beautiful National Building Museum last week. This event brought together restaurant winners from Washingtonian’s July “Best Of” issue, allowing attendees to nibble on bites from nearly 75 local top restaurants.

National Building Museum

The main bar

Being the best eateries in our nation’s capital, as expected, everything was delicious. Among my favorites were Founding Farmer’s bacon lollies, Rasika’s avocado puri, papad crab rolls from Indique, the pink cadillac drink from BlackJack, and I couldn’t pass up a second serving of Rosa Mexicano’s freshly made guacamole. Dishes included everything – savory spoonfulls, mixed drinks, chilled soups, salads, and desserts – including entire cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake. Needless to say, I left feeling very full – and completely satisfied.

Papad rolls with crab from Indique/Indique Heights

Pink Cadillac cocktails

Guacamole from Rosa Mexicano

Goat cheese caesar salad from Central Michel Richard

Georgetown Cupcakes

Although the food stations were the main focus, there was much more happening at this event. Guests enjoyed posing in the photo booths, hitting up the candy bars (my personal favorite…I took home 2 goodie bags!), getting caricatures, sampling cocktails from multiple bars (many of which were from sponsor Patron), and there was even mini golf at the BMW tent. The energy level was high all evening thanks to the bumping playlist from HOT 99.5.

Sponsor BMW provided a car for the caricature drawings

American Beverage Association brought along a few familiar faces

Attendees were given Patron popsicles to help beat the heat while waiting in line

#bestof and @washingtonian were trending all night long

This event was trending on Twitter all night – live updates were shown on the jumbo ipad hovering in the air. Favorite foods and all mentions of @washingtonian and #bestof were tweeted and retweeted, both by restaurateurs and attendees. Check out my tweets below! (and don’t forget to follow me on twitter @kgarnick)

This event wasn’t all fun and games – it was also a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A silent auction benefiting LLS included items such as autographed redskins items, David Yurman bracelet, and dinners at the “Best Of” winning restaurants. As mentioned in one of my previous articles, the LLS is hosting their annual Light the Night walk in October.

Proceeds from this event went to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

This evening was so much fun, I’m already anticipating next year’s Best Of Washington event. I guess the only downside to going is now I want to try full meals at all of these places! To see more photos of this event, click HERE.