Practicing My Food Photography at Bottomless Brunch – Masa 14, DC

We always go to DC with big plans to eat. There is research required, email and text message threads discussing where and when we will eat, and sometimes there’s even persuasion and begging. Valentines weekend was no exception. Charlie’s sister Jordan and her boyfriend Craig joined us for two dinners, brunch, and an evening of one too many fancy cocktails. I don’t ask for presents or flowers on Valentines Day, but I do ask for meals.

Brunch is always an inevitability in DC and one must put careful thought into whether there will be bottomless mimosas (always) and/or bottomless food (sometimes, depending on the importance of your post-brunch plans). After an impressive bottomless brunch at El Centro DF on 14th street last year, we headed to Masa 14, a restaurant nearby that’s also owned by Richard Sandoval. With little debate, we went for the full bottomless. (Craig: “You guys going all in? We’re going all in? Okay, let’s do this!”)

I promised myself that this time I wouldn’t take a three hour nap immediately afterwards.

I also brought my camera. Everybody was really excited about that (this is complete sarcasm). But with the variety of dishes we were about to take down, how could I not use this as the perfect time to practice my food photography skills?! Lots of hipster jokes were made as I pulled the big ass camera out of my purse and lurked over every dish of food, rearranging things on the table and pushing people out of the way.

My friend Mary Ann noted that my plaid flannel shirt wasn’t helping my cause much. “Total douchebag hipster”… is what I assume everybody in the restaurant was thinking, even the other douchebag hipsters. But whatever, I got some pretty good food pics. Except maybe that one above – it looks a little too dark now.

We ordered nearly everything on the menu, because when it’s a set price ($39 per person) then why the hell wouldn’t you? The theme is a bit Asian meets Mexican. Pork belly benedicts, breakfast tacos, smoked chicken hash, grilled chorizo over grits, cuban paninis, burger sliders, spicy beef and pork meatballs, chilaquiles, bacon fried rice (excellent!), crispy smoked brisket buns (also a favorite), and all of the desserts. At one point, I told the waitress while pointing at the menu, “Yes, can we please have all of the sandwiches?”

The food was all around good, some things were of course better than others and some things were fantastically great, and while it’s not like we were blown away, we had unlimited mimosas (lychee, traditional, and mango-blood orange), bloodies, and lemon lagers, so what else could we really ask for? The service was rapid fire and our server didn’t blink at our repeated orders of the bacon fried rice. Trays on trays of food just kept appearing from the restaurant’s kitchen. We forgot what we ordered. Things just appeared. We became drunker. And we weren’t even kicked out despite the fact that we clearly exceeded our two hour maximum time limit. So nice of them! (I will say that I prefer the food at El Centro though, just throwing that out there.)

These crispy brisket buns though. Such a winner. I wish they would have come earlier in the meal when I wasn’t quite so stuffed.

We left Masa 14 drunk tipsy, happy, and incredibly full. We then headed back to Jordan and Craig’s apartment to watch basketball, continue drinking, and try to get ourselves hungry for our carefully chosen dinner out that night.

Happy Valentine’s Day to me!

FYI, I’m linking up with Travel Tuesday at Compass Rose. Check ’em out!

What do you guys think? Are these photos with my new camera better than my iPhone pics? Do you also enjoy a bottomless brunch?