Subway

Once in a great while Shawn and I end up not having left overs and we're forced to purchase lunch. Whenever this happens, four times so far in my new job at USAID, I am secretly excited because it means I get to eat at Subway! I always get the 6-inch veggie delight. I know the foot longer is more value for your money, but the Subway in the Ronald Reagan Building sadly does not participate in national Subway celebrations such as the $5 foot-long campaign.

Anyway, yesterday after I purchased my Subway sandwich and I noticed that the receipt says that taking a 1-minute online survey results in an email with a coupon code for a free subway cookie!

I just filled out the survey and tomorrow will claim my free cookie. Subway cookies, always soft, are really fantastic. They cook them right there, and if your cookie was sitting out for a while they will even microwave your cookie upon request.

While we're on this topic, if you have never heard Mitch Hedberg's joke about Subway you have to listen to it here now.

Check out expensive furniture over free cocktails and hors d'oevres

On Feb 1 from 6-8 PM Room and Board invites us to indulge in cocktails and hors d'oeuvres while previewing their 2011 furniture collection. Free! Located at 1840 14th Street, NW.

Save 30% at Top DC Restaurants: Sushi Taro, Vidalia, Mie N Yu, etc!

I've blogged about restaurants.com before, and have used other sources like the entertainment book and groupon for discounts for DC restaurants. However, I have often been less than pleased with the selection of restaurants that these sites offer.

I just learned about Village Vines, a website that lets you pay $10 to receive 30% off at top DC restaurants. Click here to register.

Below are the restaurants taking Village Vines discounts right now:

30% off your entire bill at Redwood

30% off your entire bill at Sabores

30% off your entire bill at Juniper

30% off your entire bill at PS 7's

30% off your entire bill at Fahrenheit

30% off your entire bill at Sushi Taro

30% off your entire bill at AGAINN Tavern

30% off your entire bill at Café Dupont

30% off your entire bill at Mendocino Grille

30% off your entire bill at Levante's

30% off your entire bill at AGAINN

30% off your entire bill at ZENTAN

30% off all food at Restaurant 3

30% off your entire bill at Tony and Joe's

30% off your entire bill at Il Canale

30% off your entire bill at Sou'Wester

30% off your entire bill at Mio

30% off all food at Village Bistro

30% off your entire bill at The Prime Rib

30% off your entire bill at Bistro Bis

30% off your entire bill at Co Co. Sala

30% off your entire bill at Tuscana West

30% off your entire bill at LIMA

30% off your entire bill at Ristorante Piccolo

30% off your entire bill at Panache

30% off your entire bill at Teatro Goldoni

30% off your entire bill at La Sandía (Tysons Corner)

30% off your entire bill at Peacock Cafe

30% off your entire bill at Zengo (Chinatown)

30% off your entire bill at Cabanas

30% off your entire bill at Vidalia

30% off your entire bill at Mie N Yu

Free events this week!

Monday, January 3 from 10:00 – 11:00 PM, enjoy a Food Network Viewing Party at Founding Farmers, 1924 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Chef Robert Irvine will showcase Founding Farmers' Devil-ish Eggs Combo for The Best Thing I Ever Ate reinvented classics episode. Chef Irvine sampled the decadent snacks while visiting Washington, DC. Open to the public, www.WeAreFoundingFarmers.com.

Thursday, January 6 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM, visit Yelp's Most Wanted Party at the National Crime and Punishment Museum. Enjoy three hours of fun including exhibits on crime: investigate the filming studios for America's Most Wanted, fire off laser bullets at the shooting range and participate in a simulated high-speed police chase. Free and open to the public, info/rsvp: www.yelp.com.

Restaurant.com Coupon Code!

This weekend (11/26-28), use promo code SAVE on Restaurant.com to get 80% off any dining certificate, Dinner of the Month Club membership or Restaurant.com gift card. A $25 dining certificate valid at local restaurants is usually $10 at Restaurant.com, so with this promotion you can grab one for only $2. Often you need to dine-in to use the certificate, so be sure to read the fine print.

Free with I VOTED sticker

I hope you have voted by now!! Polls close soon.

Take your I voted sticker to the following places for free food:

Stop by California Tortilla with an “I Voted” sticker on Tuesday (11/2) and get a FREE Taco. No purchase necessary.

Stop by Harris Tap Room (Pentagon or Clarendon) for free dessert today and tomorrow.

Know of other deals? Let me know here!

FREE Food and Wine Fest this weekend

Regal Discovery Tour
To secure your spot, RSVP with code WDCBUICK at regaldiscoverytour.com for you and up to 3 Guests

Hey, DC, come on a journey of culinary and automotive discovery: hit the Westin for custom cocktails, a Food & Wine-approved menu offering up the mouthwatering secrets of vaunted NYC chef Michael Psilakis, products crafted by local artisans, an insider's view on driving America's backroads to find hidden food gems, and a test-drive of the new, sport-injected Buick Regal -- just make sure to keep those food gems off the seats.
Where:
The Westin Alexandria
400 Courthouse Square
Alexandria, VA 22314
When:
Saturday, 9/25/2010 &
Sunday, 9/26/2010

FREE Food Today!

Today is your lucky day, fellow freegans!

It is Cow Appreciation Day, meaning free entrees at Chick-Fil-A! All you have to do is dress up like a cow. EASY!!! just put white circle pieces of paper on your outfit. unless you're wearing white, then do black. Click here for more details.

Also today, Cosi is giving out free drinks from 2-4 PM! Present your registered CosìCard and choose from our featured cold beverages including Così® Iced Tea, Così® Sangria, Così® Habanero Watermelon Lemonade and more.

Free Slurpees on July 11th

Every July 11th, 7-11s host an event where they give out free slurpees from 8 AM until 11 PM. My husband and I love slurpees from 7-11 (especially mixing the coke and cherry flavors), but honestly this is not worth it.

Last year I went to this event at a 7-11 in Virginia and they gave us tiny dixie cups to fill up. Really 7-11? You can't give away smalls? They cost the consumer like 79 cents and cost the store nothing.

It's not worth it for a tiny dixie cup's worth!! Sad times.

Free Mie N Yu food!

Mie N Yu is a really neat restaurant in Georgetown. They get a 10 for decor and a 9 for food. Only a 6 for price (it's on the costlier side).

However for all of you freegans, there is an hour of free food and drinks catered by Mie n Yu at the Art Whino art gallery at the National Harbor.

This event is taking place on Friday, July 9 from 7-8 PM. From 8-11 there is a sit down meal if you want to pay $65 for a 3-course meal (I don't).

Please note that it isn't really "free" as you have to pay to park at the national harbor, 24 hours a day (grrrrr). Parking for 2 hours is $4. If you haven't been before this is a good opportunity to go. Plus you can visit our old friend the Awakening.



Anyway, more information below.

Art Whino invites you to join us for an evening of sensory delights in our Premiere night of a monthly series of Indulge events. This sensational event combines an exciting exhibition of art, a delicious food spread from noted Mie N Yu restaurant, a special drink pairing for each dish, and live music performance by Tamara Wellons. Combining the area’s best art, food, music and drinks, Indulge event celebrates the connection between all of these sensory delights that make life so enjoyable.


Friday, July 9th, from 7pm – 11pm

7-8pm Open to the public Free Food and Drink Tasting.

8pm-11pm Ticketed Main Event. Seated food tasting. Musical performance by Tamara Wellons with guitarist and percussionist.

Location: Art Whino Gallery
173 Waterfront St.
National Harbor, MD 20745

Tickets - $65 in Advance (No tickets sold the day of the event). Admission price includes 3 courses tasting. Also with the price of admission 3 complimentary specially crafted beverages and musical performance by Tamara Wellons.

To purchase tickets, email INDULGE@artwhino.com

This is a 21 and older event.

Restaurant.com coupon code

As you have heard from my in the past, www.restaurant.com is a great place to buy discounted coupons to local area restaurants. They sell $25 off coupons for $10, but with discount codes you can get these for only $2. There are usually rules like you must spend $35 to use your $25 coupon but even then with 18 percent tip and tax the bill comes to $17 so you get a $42 meal for $19 (including the $2 coupon fee).

To get 80% off your order type in the coupon code SUMMER. This ends tonight!

Don't forget you can get an additional 15% off your restaurant.com purchase by using your ebates account (you should use your free ebates account for EVERY online purchase you make). To join ebates, click here.

When you purchase your coupons, they are valid for one year. A sad thing happened last night when we got to a Crystal City Thai restaurant- Neramitro- with a coupon we bought back in September, they had a sign up near the front door that they were no longer accepting restaurant.com coupons as of June 1.

I was really bummed but when I spoke with the manager they said I could have $10 off my tab. So of course we ordered one $10.95 dish. They ended up telling us not to pay anything, though we did leave a tip of course.

Anyway I'm not as angry since I only paid $2 for the coupon, but that still shouldn't happen since the coupon is really a contract once you pay for it.

Founding Farmers

My husband and I went out to Founding Farmers for the first time a few weeks ago. While they have some pretty expensive menu items, they also had some great food at great prices. Plus I was impressed by the value of the food as the plate size was very generous.

I thought the best thing on the menu was the Creamy Brie, Onion Jam, and Sliced Organic Apples Flat Bread for $8. This was really delicious and I would go back and just order that. The corn bread appetizer for $5 was also incredible and I don't usually like any of the aforementioned things- brie, apple sauce, or corn bread!

Founding farmers is also great because the chefs use locally grown foods.

Sweet Charity Gala

I lucked out this past Monday when my friend Chelsea told me she had an extra ticket to the Heart of America's Sweet Charity gala and invited me to go with her.

The event was at the Mandarin Oriental (home of CityZen restaurant which I'm too cheap to try despite it's rave reviews), a beautiful hotel near the waterfront.

This gala was the best DC gala I've been to. It features over 60 of DC's top chefs who serve you savory and/or sweet treats from their restaurants. Once you're in all of the alcohol and food is completely free. I'm not a huge fan of alcohol but the food was incredible!

Jose Andre's people were there from the Mini Bar and I got to try his liquid nitrogen popcorn with curry powder. You put the popcorn cube in your month and chew it with your mouth closed as watch smoke out out of your nose as the liquid nitrogen reacts to your body temperature.

I though Blue Duck Tavern's orange chocolate cake was to die for. As was the passion fruit cheesecake on a stick dunked in chocolate with fried pieces of crepe dough around the edges (sorry I forget where this was from). I also loved the strawberry cloud on seared tuna with a balsalmic glaze. Some of the best truffles were chocolate caramel truffles with rock salt on top (what a great mix). Oh and BlackSalt restaurant has an amazing chocolate bark with pretzels mixed in and pistachios and salt on the top. There was so much food that someone mistakenly thought I was pregnant by the end of the night! Since I'm so thin I wasn't really offended, just shocked.

Anyway, after you eat the food and go to some of the culinary demonstrations they have a fashion show with models dressed in sweets and chocolate. The winner was Cruella de Vil, whose hair was sprayed in white and milk chocolate.

May 18: Haagen-Dazs' Birthday= Free Ice Cream!

On May 18th Haagen-Dazs will celebrate its birthday by giving out free scoops of its original flavors (chocolate, vanilla, and coffee). GO to any haagen-dazs shop between 4 and 8 PM on the 18th to take advantage of this offer. Find out more about this offer and find your nearest Haagen-Dazs location here.

ohhh Free Food on Tax Day!!

If you're like me, you did your taxes in February because you find filing taxes fun and exciting. Why wouldn't I want to get my tax rebate as soon as possible?

If you're not like me, you're filing tonight or tomorrow. My husband and I used tax act deluxe. We paid a $17 filing fee to use their program and the deluxe edition helped us ensure we weren't forgetting about any potential deductions.

Anyway regardless of when you filed or will file, you can celebrate tax day with free food tomorrow at participating locations! Here is a somewhat comprehensive list of free things.

It does not list, however, DC specific actions such as Dairy Queen handing out ice cream during lunch in front of the IRS.

FREE CONE DAY

Has arrived!!!!!! Thank you Ben. Thank you Jerry. Let us us celebrate everything that is good at Ben and Jerry's. Enjoy!!

FREE Rita's Ice today

Finally the first day of spring has arrived! Just in time for tomorrow's immigration march on the national mall!

Anyway, today you can enjoy free rita's ice from 12-10 PM in honor of Spring!!

Enjoy and click here to find the nearest Rita's location to you. There are several in DC!

march 23: FREE CONE DAY

Mark your calendars for Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day on March 23!!
I'll remind people when the day comes but be sure to get this on your calendars now so you don't over book your calendar that day.

Try Foods for Free from Kraft

Sign up here to receive offers for coupons for free Kraft foods. You'll be able to share your thought with their online community afterward. Sign up here.

Restaurants.com plus Ebates = Amazing Deals

Take advantage of restaurant.com's sale today. You can buy $25 dining certificates for $2 using the promotion code SAVE. Do this through your ebates account and earn an additional 20% cash back on anything you spend. Do this with your AmEx Blue card and earn 1.25% cash back on top of the rest!

I often wondered if anyone ever found enough percentages back that they end up paying nothing...