Image: Meats!

Last Updated: June 2022

Current Status: Closed “for the summer” in 2022, but yet to reopen.

Overview:

The small shop, a few doors down from Bistro Lepic on Wisconsin, is an homage to street food from East Asia. With a few exceptions, all the food is skewered and grilled.  It draws on multiple cuisines, Choices including beef teriyaki, chicken satay, and a Thai dish called Crying Tiger that is beef and a spicy dipping sauce and is a crowd favorite.  Vegetables are also subject to skewering, like okra, but asparagus is spared the rod.  Dumplings supplement the grilled options.  The meal can be scaled for a solo diner or you can get a meat platter for a group.  In life, it is often a challenge to do something simple at a high level.  Sticx focuses on a limited menu and executes it well. 

The space is divided.  The first floor is a small dining room with about 20 seats.  Walk-in only on Friday and Saturday.  Upstairs is a small wine bar called Stonz. It serves food from downstairs and has an extensive and well-priced wine list.  Neither upstairs nor down serves anything harder than beer, wine, or sake. 

It must be conceded that the concept is a bit of gimmick (the necessity of the stick for street food is not as integral to a sit-down spot) but it conveys a spirit and an idea that the team behind the spot had when traveling in the region.  Owner Aung Myint, whose family was behind the Burmese restaurant Mandalay in Silver Spring, and his business partner were in Bangkok eating at a street vendor’s stall.  As he told (former award-winning journalist, now international do-gooder) Laura Hayes, “The vendor said he gets the sticks from producer who makes half a million per day.” They looked around and took note of dozens of other vendors. “There were so many of them. We were doing the calculation in our head. Oh my god, it is possible to need half a million sticks a day.”  They may not be at that volume yet, but Sticx is a good addition to a neighborhood that is developing its own stock of good places that justify taking a walk up (or skipping the walk down) Wisconsin.

Summary:

Cuisine: Pan-Asian
Neighborhood: Georgetown
Address: 1728 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007
Website: https://www.sticxdc.com/
Reservations: Walk-in.  Call for large groups.

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