Cupcakes with Jess: an East Coast odyssey.

Back in October, my friend Jess had a birthday. She’s the first person I ever baked a birthday cake for, way back in 2004, in our pathetic little apartment kitchen. I only baked one more birthday cake after that before deciding that frosting was for suckers, so Jess’ cake remains my crowning glory. See?

You see why I stopped with the cakes, right?

Anyway, Jess and her awesome husband Matt live way the hell up there in Massachusetts. They are the sweetest, goofiest couple and they have a kitty named Luka. (You can sing the Suzanne Vega song; they do.) Anyway, for her birthday, Matt surprised her with a trip to Washington, D.C.! I was super-happy because I missed my friend.

Jess recently celebrated her first veggie-versary, so we spent quite a lot of time on the phone and over email planning where we’d eat. We settled on Soul Vegetarian’s Exodus for lunch and Sticky Fingers for dessert. I’d never been to either place before—I know, I know, bad vegan who’s never experienced the glory of Sticky Fingers!

Soul Vegetarian was great. I had to be different, so I ordered a Garvey burger (YUM) while my companions sampled different items from the buffet. Matt, our lone omni, admitted that if he could eat Soul Vegetarian’s mac-n-cheese every day, being vegan would be a snap.

Jess’ birthday present: chocolate-chip cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar!

Then, we set out for the walk to Sticky Fingers. Normally it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Jess was nursing a sprained ankle and the Metro was of no use. So, hoof it we did, slowly and gingerly. The lure of vegan cupcakes is most powerful.


This is when Jess and I wanted to die, because we realized that Sticky Fingers has lunch, too. Instead of our death-march from Soul Vegetarian, we could have saved ourselves (and her ankle) and just met up at Sticky Fingers to begin with. It was not our most brilliant moment. But, the day was sunny and the company grand (plus Sticky Fingers was packed with hungry dessert fiends), so we splurged on tasty vegan cupcakes and grabbed a table outside to enjoy them.



They were delicious, indeed. I surprised myself by ordering a Coconut Delight cupcake instead of something chocolate. Red surprised himself too, by ordering a Peanut Butter Fudge cupcake. He hadn’t realized it was so densely chocolatey, but it took care of his chocolate fix until New Year’s. Here’s Jess’ sweet little Cookies ‘n Cake cupcake:

This look of disapproval was brought to you by the pot-smoking gutter punks at the next table.

After all the drama we had getting there, I wasn’t leaving Sticky Fingers without a souvenir. I bought a cinnamon bun and a Little Devil to take home. They were awesome the next day. Thanks for making my breakfast memorable, Sticky Fingers.

It was quite a large cinnamon bun. The Little Devil was long gone at this point.

Following our cupcake binge, Jess and Matt needed to get back to their hardcore sightseeing routine. (I saw their list, and it was epic.) I’m glad we loaded them up on sugar to power them through the rest of the day’s itinerary. See you soon, guys!