God of Sandwiches

So Greta and I had a great weekend taking in the excellent M83 show at the Black Cat on Friday and watching Muse blow the doors off of the Cole Field House at the University of Maryland on Saturday.

We were both pleasantly surprised by the U of M as a venue. The show was held on the basketball court. Seating was general admission, easy to come by and the perfect distance from the stage. The high-ceilings made for awe-inspiring huge acoustics which created a big stadium sound in a small space (which Muse took full advantage of). And the parking and lack of club-cigarette stink made for a fast and refreshing getaway.

But what really sold this place for us was the post-show eats at Plato’s Diner. The diner is right on your way back into the city from U of M’s campus. You can’t miss the sign in all its neon glory.

Now me being from South Jersey (arguably the diner capital of the East Coast) I’m pretty critical of diner’s around the DC area. And while Plato’s wasn’t the greatest diner ever, it was a very nice surprise compared to the Metro 29 or that trendy one in Adam’s Morgan. Don’t get me wrong both of those diner’s are okay but neither of them featured the Mile High Meatloaf open-faced sandwich, which is without question one of the best sandwiches I’ve ordered at a diner ever; be it in New Jersey, DC or elsewhere.

The Plato’s Diner Mile High Meatloaf consists of two 2-inch thick slices of homemade meatloaf buried beneath a mile of mashed-potatoes topped with two onion-rings and smothered in BBQ gravy, all of it impressively stacked on top of two slices of fresh-baked sourdough bread. Mmmmmmmmm…

This thing was huge, delicious perfection. I couldn’t even finish it, which of course made for perfect baseball watching left-overs this afternoon.

So now Greta and I are rooting for more concerts at University of Maryland, because we’ll never have any other reason to hike back out there for the Mile High or as I’ve been calling it all day, god of sandwiches.

(Oh yeah, their Eclairs are pretty damn impressive as well.)

Originally published on April 18, 2005.