Dining with DJs at Kuba Kuba

Maybe it was the nice weather, but when I got to Kuba Kuba at 5:30 there was already a 25-minute wait.

 Luckily, the two people I was meeting, DJ types form Northern Virginia, were already waiting inside and, even better, there were three bar stools available.

Within 10 minutes, there were six or seven people waiting for tables; half an hour later there were more like a dozen.

People were circling like vultures to score a table or bar stools.

At one point, a threesome waiting up front spotted a recently vacated table still littered with glassware and dishes and swooped in and sat down.

The servers who saw this were dumbfounded.

"They couldn't even wait till we cleared the table?" one asked. Obviously not.

With the exception of breaking bad once, I have always gotten the same thing at Kuba Kuba since it opened, so I don't really need a menu.

Given the crowds breathing down our backs, it was probably good that we ordered right away, too.

As always my camarones y mejillones were perfect, as much because of the Tasso ham broth as those mussels (I opt out of the shrimp; I think the dish is better served with all mussels).

One of the two guys commented that he didn't eat mussels or clams which seems like such a shame, but I also know a guy who loves mussels but won't touch the broth, not sopping it with bread or enjoying it with a soup spoon. I told him he didn't deserve to eat mussels at all then.

This guy tonight did say that he'd rather crack crabs and eat them than have a crab cake, though, so he can't be all bad.

Naturally, with two music types there was plenty of that kind of talk, the two of them having been doing/listening to the 80s show on WRIR this afternoon.

Nothing like Songs from the Big Hair to remind you of your youth or to demonstrate where so much of today's sounds came from.

Let's just say Oingo Boingo came up in conversation.

It's saying a lot when you can order the exact same thing from a restaurant for years and never be disappointed in it; somebody's doing something consistently right.

The only wild card is how good the company is and these two music geeks were fun, if very male.

It was a good beginning to my Saturday night.