A few weeks ago we were were out late in the wilds of Virginia, and decided to try to grab dinner on H Street before heading home. We tried Toki Underground first, but even at 10:30 we were still looking at a wait of 2.5 hours (!). We moved on to Sticky Rice, which also had no free tables. Cold and dejected, we were about to admit defeat when the hostess at Sticky Rice called out to us "There's a new place a block down - Copycat - buns and skewers." Perfect!

Copycat Co. is divided into a cocktail bar up top and bare bones dining/kitchen on the ground floor. We ate downstairs and it was pretty much everything I like and nothing I don't. Think, bare bones stainless steel counter with bar stools, behind which is a guy rolling out the wrappers for potstickers, and an open kitchen off to the side. Almost no decoration, and three choices for food - potstickers, bao, and skewers. Oh, and four options of beer, one of which was Tsingtao.

A limited number of options is a huge plus for me in a restaurant - in my mind, the fewer decisions I have to make, the better. I'd rather select the venue and general type of food, and let the chef figure out the rest. I really liked that Copycat chose a few street food items, and did them well. But my favorite part was something a bit more intangible. For a brief while, when it was just us at the bar sipping Tsingtaos, and the guy rolling dough, and the smoking kitchen, I felt like I could have been somewhere else. I felt like I could have just as easily been tucked away in a bar on the other side of the world, as I could have been tucked away right in the city I was in. Which was a nice feeling, and one I'd go back for.

Has anybody else been to Copycat Co.? Thumbs up, thumbs down?