Bike-friendly place for drinks and food in Alexandria?

[creadinger]

There are probably a ton of great places to go, but I might suggest Bilbo Baggins in Old Town, for the location near the waterfront, the food, and beer and bike friendliness.

Or alternatively you could go to Del Ray and stop in any of those restaurants. Del Ray is very bike friendly, and the restaurants are all pretty good.

[PotomacCyclist]

Why not use Capital Bikeshare? There are stations in Old Town now. CaBi would make the trip much more relaxing since you wouldn’t have to worry about keeping an eye on your own bikes. Then you can go anywhere you want in Old Town.

[Amalitza]

There are gazillions of restaurants in Old Town and I’ve never had any of them give me the stink eye for showing up in cycling clothes.

By “keep an eye on the bikes” do you mean you won’t have locks with you and literally want to have the bikes in full view while you eat? Outdoor seating is less common, but off the top of my head there’s MaiThai on King and Union and A La Lucia on Royal and Madison that are convenient to the trail and have outdoor seating.

[Dickie]

My wife and I often ride to Hotel Monaco in Alexandria on the weekend and sit on the patio in our cycling gear. We just rest our bikes on the railing next to us and we have never been given a hard time. The food is decent as well and it had a nice atmosphere.

[OneEighth]

Mai Thai

[DaveK]

Rustico’s patio on Slaters Lane is regularly infested with cyclist types on nice days for lunch.

[KLizotte]

Teaism won’t give you the stink eye for showing up in cycling clothes and they have a nice outdoor patio. There aren’t any nearby U racks on the street for a u-lock; I lock up to a nearby street light via a cable lock. There are wave style racks in the next door parking garage for the Trader Joe’s supermarket (immediately on the right when you enter the garage); they do get quite full though.

Del Ray is a good choice since there are racks and street signs you can lock up to and most restaurants have big windows/patios that are right on the street.

[KLizotte]

@DaveK 52765 wrote:

Rustico’s patio on Slaters Lane is regularly infested with cyclist types on nice days for lunch.

Same with the bakery next door to Rustico’s.

[consularrider]

@KLizotte 52767 wrote:

Same with the bakery next door to Rustico’s.

Do you mean Buzz across the street. It gets two thumbs up from me!

[KLizotte]

@consularrider 52770 wrote:

Do you mean Buzz across the street. It gets two thumbs up from me!

Yup, it’s also open to midnight most nights.

[Terpfan]

Both Buzz and Rustico (part of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group) will not care if you lock your bike to their railing. They also don’t care if you bring a dog (outside).

As for general recommendations, I bike through OT every morning and night and used to live there. You can lock your bike up almost anywhere for a few hours during nice times of year without worry of theft. (Note I did say lock it up, you leave it unlocked and who knows, but it never had DC’s problems of ulock bike theft in broad daylight). As for cycling attire, I can think of maybe one restaurant in OT that would actually say anything, and even then I would be surprised. Someone mentioned it, but ironically enough there isn’t a ton of bike parking on King St given the volume. Supposedly the city was installing two new bike racks down by King & Union, but I tend to avoid that way when I commute through. I know there was a rack outside the one bike shop a block off Union. I always just locked mine up to a bench.

Del Ray was also a great recommendation. I’ve biked up to Cheesetique a few times–I love that place. It’s also very easy to get to from the trails. And similar to OT, no one would bat an eye at someone in cyclist clothing.

[oldbikechick]

Thanks everyone for the great recommendations. We ended up going to Bilbo Baggins and it was great! Nice long beer list, nice people, etc. Even a very cute little bike rack to lock up to. I’m now going to need to ride to Alexandria several more times to check out the other recommendations. It was also my first time completing the loop, which was a lovely ride on a nice evening. My brother also enjoyed watching the planes come in at Gravelly point. He was very impressed with our bike path infrastructure around here and the sheer numbers of people using it.

[PotomacCyclist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ_duzQzS1I

[PotomacCyclist]

And this, to show that Leonard Nimoy has a sense of humor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WPkByAkAdZs

[Author]

Posts