Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle might be our country's most famous traffic hub, but it's also a vibrant neighborhood where you can easily spend a day. You can stop in the shops along Connecticut Avenue, and then take side streets to discover boutiques and little art galleries. And don't miss the stately homes and embassies, marked with flags and plaques, on Massachusetts Avenue, west of Dupont Circle. Here are a few spots I discovered on a recent visit:Panas Gourmet Empanadas: This casual little place with counter service specializes in crescent-shaped turnovers stuffed with meats, veggies, and all sorts of spices (pictured above). Empanadas hail from the Latin America countries and a basketful of them makes a perfect lunch. The meat ones are the tastiest, such as the the chipolte steak with shredded sirloin or the carne with green olives, Spanish peppers and beef. Each order comes with salty plantain chips.
The Phillips Collection: While the museums on the Mall are huge and overwhelming, this one is small and intimate and you can easily see every painting in an hour. And it's an absolutely lovely collection of impressionist and modern works, with paintings by Renoir and Rothko, Bonnard and O'Keeffe, van Gogh and Diebenkorn. Opened in 1921, this is actually America's first museum of modern art, opening eight years before the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Pizzeria Paradiso: The cooks here pull blistering thin-crusts crust pizzas from an oak-burning oven at this popular spot. Expect to wait but it's worth it.
Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe: Browse the tables piled high with books and then stick around for a piece of pie and a cup of tea in the cafe at this well-loved local institution.
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