California Tortilla + Ramones = Pretty Good Lunch

I really have come to love this place over the years. Always popular with my coworkers and probably some of your coworkers, California Tortilla is an extremely popular lunch spot in Penn Quarter on 7th Street. There are others; its a local chain, which I believe is franchised by individual owners at each location. Anyway there are several reasons I have come to rely on "CalTor" (sometimes the shortening of words phenomenon goes too far) for a satisfying lunch.

Well, first they have vegan food. Pretty simple; veggie burritos, soft tacos, decent ships and salsa and some soups. Second, and actually most important, IT'S CHEAP. My usual lunch is $6.35. And third it's close to work and you can be in and out within a few minutes.

The bonus though, is they always have pretty good music on! Usually there's a steady diet of 80s. But yesterday they broke out a Ramones song, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend. Then back to the 80s, but good 80s. There was some R.EM. and the Police and even Phil Collins. I guess they use one of the satellite radio services, but whatever it is, keep it on that channel. Love it.

Chop't

I surrendered to the hype and went to Chop't today. For lunch. Like everyone else. Cut to the chase: it was a quality experience; pricey, but quality. Unlike yesterday when this new addition to 7th St gave away free lunch, today was business as usual. I got a "custom crafted" salad, which just means I had to pick the ingredients. They also serve "chef designed" salads and wraps. I guess if I had to eat a wrap designed by someone, I'd want that someone to be a chef? Not sure who else is qualified to design wraps.

Anyway, the salad was huge and all the ingredients were very fresh. They are nice to the vegans. I ordered a salad with mesclun mix. To that I added broccoli, tomato, tortilla chips, avocado (+$.99) and smoked tofu (+$1.49). After adding an iced tea my total was $10.20. That's a lot for a salad. But the portion was so huge, I'm still not really all that hungry and its 7:45pm. OK, that's an exaggeration because I just drank a whole carton of Silk Nog. Still a hearty salad though. I can get lunch at "CalTor" (I didn't make that term up, by the way) for 5 bucks, so Chop't will have to be a nicety until I finally decide to start working for a for profit employer.