Free tastings and samples anyone can walk into, and the cheap local classics that keep a day of sightseeing going.
FreeA vegetarian community lunch served to everyone after the Sunday service, eaten sitting together. Cover your head and take off your shoes, and offer to help clear up.
Sundays, served from about 1:30 pm after the morning program
Source: Sikh Gurdwara DC
FreeA one-hour guided coffee tasting at the roaster's training center, where staff brew several coffees side by side and explain what you are tasting. No experience needed.
Fridays at 10 am. Seats are limited, register on the roaster's Eventbrite page first
Source: Counter Culture Coffee
FreeMore than 60 embassies open their doors with no ticket, and many hand out small tastes of their national food and drink alongside music and dance. Lines for the popular ones pass an hour.
First Saturday of May (Around the World Embassy Tour) and second Saturday (EU Open House)
Source: Destination DC
$4.25Washington's real local cheap bite is Salvadoran: a griddled corn cake stuffed with cheese, beans or pork, served with pickled cabbage and tomato salsa. This family restaurant has made them since 1982. Two make a meal.
Daily, open late on weekends
Source: El Tamarindo
Washington's own house and farm on the Potomac, 15 miles south of the city, with the mansion rooms, the tomb and the quarters of the people he enslaved. It is privately run, so it charges admission and stays open during federal shutdowns. Nothing free in the city gives you a preserved 18th-century plantation, and it fills a full day.
Everything above is free. This is the only paid pick on the page, chosen because no free option replaces it.
