The Drifting Nomad

Ummm can I give 5 stars for them closing? Good riddance to bad rubbish. Hope something better comes in!

Not so good. And $ 8.64 for a vegetarian sandwich — yipes. The cucumber was old and so were the tomatoes, I had to take them off the sandwich. That left me with hummus, sausage, lettuce and sprouts. Not bad, but not good at all and definitely not worth the money. I want to love this place, but they just need to try and little harder and up the quality of their ingredients.

Like most of the annoying hippie places in TKPK (do we have really anything else?), The Drifting Nomad likes to substitute «charm» and «whimsy» for «competence» and «quality.» I asked for a bagel with cream cheese, and asked if the veggie cream cheese had green peppers in it. The guy said he didn’t know, but would go and check. «Check» meant opening the container and looking at it intently. He then came back and said, «can’t tell so better not risk it» instead of, say, offering to let me taste it, or asking his boss, who was standing right there. (it was a bit early in the morning for me to be sharp enough to suggest this, but that is not my responsibility– he is supposed to be serving me, and it’s not like they were busy at all). Then he asked if I wanted the bagel toasted. I asked, «was it baked today?» He said yes; so I declined toasting. It is my firm belief that there is no good reason to toast bagels unless reviving them from staleness; a fresh bagel has enough chewy/​crunchy texture all on its own.
Needless to say, it turns out it was NOT fresh, and tasted about two days old, and the onion bits on the surface were wet and slimy. All he had to do was tell me it was not baked this morning, and I would have just had it toasted. Passive– aggressive idiot. Or maybe just an idiot who doesn’t understand the first thing about food service. Did he think I would think better of the experience if he SAID it was fresh, and then it wasn’t?
The other sign of incompetence was that it was about 8:15 in the morning and, he said as I walked in, that all the baked goods were still in the oven. 8:15am on a Friday, right next to a metro station! It’s a good thing all I wanted was a bagel (no, wait…).
I was hoping it would be a convenient option because of its closeness to the train, but I won’t be going there again. There is nothing special about it, and more important, there is nothing just normal and okay about it (which would be all I needed).

Well. I don’t know where to begin. My friends and I were lured in by the Drifting Nomad’s proximity to the Takoma metro. Looking through the windows, we saw what appeared to be a yuppie-​leaning café, with menus for «herbivores» and «omnivores» and French presses sitting above an espresso machine. As you’re probably aware, looks can be deceiving.
They opened a few months back and it’s clear they’re trying, but our visit was somewhat of a shit show. For instance, they were out of a lot of items. No cucumbers for the conspicuously advertised special drink, cucumber juice. No pesto to make the chicken pesto or pesto veggie sandwiches. No artichokes or mushrooms. When asked about some of the menu items, it was clear the staff did not know what they were. For instance, the «southwest paste» used in the «Cere’s sandwich.» No clues as to what constitutes southwest paste (is it a salsa? mayonnaise?)
For me, the kicker was when I tried to order coffee. I asked for French pressed coffee. The cashier replied that they didn’t do that. I pointed out that they had four presses and a coffee grinder, presumably also a source of hot water. She countered by saying they were for pouring the espresso. This is when I considered demonstrating how to use a French press, but my better instincts got the best of me and I shrugged it off and ordered coffee with a shot of espresso instead (a move which I later regretted).
We waited a while for our food, taking in the scene and comparing notes. The cashier seemed to be assisted by her boyfriend, whom we were pretty sure doesn’t actually work there. There’s an odd art installation that incorporates a violin with one string, a Boggle game and what looked like ants, and a kiwi for good measure. There’s free wireless but other patrons were complaining that it wasn’t working. Frankly, if they can’t handle their menu, I wouldn’t expect internet.
Our food arrived piecemeal. General consensus was that it was mostly pretty good, but not worth the prices, which, incidentally, were not advertised. We surmised them to be somewhere around $ 6 for normal-​sized sandwiches. They seem to be trying to be eco-​minded by using paper cups made out of corn, however, for eating in, this is unnecessary waste.
As we were leaving, the cashier and her boyfriend invited us to come back for open mic night. Given that open mic night started ten minutes after we were leaving, I’m not sure what they meant, maybe hinting that we’d want to BYOB. There were no signs, as we were leaving, of any appreciable crowd being present for open mic night, so go figure.
Came here after visiting the Museum of Health and Medicine (reviewed here:
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For: a memorable dining experience.

Completely awful? No. Room for improvement? Yes.
A group of friends and I happened to be in the Takoma area and this was the first place we stumbled upon (actually, I was in the same group as Stuart S., see his review below as well). I tried to order a chicken pesto sandwich, but they were out of pesto. However, the cashier did recommend the chicken steak sandwich as something similar (helpful), but couldn’t tell me what the southwest paste was on another sandwich (not helpful).
Service seemed kind of slow given that it was 3 pm on a Saturday and we were the only people in there for a while. I ordered a smoothie and a chicken steak sandwich (which was good for the most part, the bread in particular; it could have used some kind of dressing on it – another person got the same sandwich as me and we both agreed it needed some kind of dressing as we were choking it down), but the smoothie came out a good 20 minutes after I got my sandwich (which I could have used to wash down the aforementioned sandwich).
Strangely and annoyingly enough, the menu only had the prices for some of the items so I just placed my order and just hoped it wouldn’t run me $ 20 for a smoothie and a sandwich (the menu touted its organic fare and we’ve all seen Whole Foods prices…). At our table, we guessed that the sandwiches were around $ 6 which seemed a bit high for just a normal-​sized sandwich.
Atmosphere was very hipster/​granola (okay, it is Takoma) from the book shelf full of books on –isms to the art installation with a Boggle board and suspended one-​stringed violin to the «herbivore» and «omnivore» menus. I would say this is more of a grab-​and-​go place on your way to or from the Metro (it’s literally across the street) than a sit-​down place.

I really wanted to love The Drifting Nomad. Right off the bat, it has a few things going for it: the space is really cute, and it isn’t Starbucks. Sadly, they brew plain ol’ Mayorga coffee, nothing interesting. I wasn’t too happy with my latte, which tasted stale and bitter, so I don’t think I’ll be back.
On the plus side, the people working here are really nice, but then again, I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a coffee place where this wasn’t the case. If you hire coffee lovers and give them an unlimited supply of coffee, they’re bound to be happy. The employees were of many different races, and yet all of them wore their hair in dreadlocks, so I think that gives you some kind of indication of what kind of place it is (hippies).

The food is great! I have never been disappointed with anything I have ordered here.
However, there are two things that I wish they would need to fix for me to truly recommend them. The first is their lack of drink options. Literally the only soda they have is bottles of coke zero. This is quite annoying. Not everyone wants to pay a ton of money and drink juice or vitamin water. I just want a soda! And second, I wish they would train their people better. Whenever we order anything there the counter people don’t have a clue what their own menu is and they look around in confusion. Also they never make the same sandwich the same way twice. The food is good but some consistency would be nice. Anyways nice place overall.

The Drifting Nomad remains far from my ideal hangout, and yet I really want to see it succeed!
Two reasons I’m pulling for it:
1) I think it’s cool that the developer of the building The Drifting Nomad is housed in sought out a local coffeeshop and not a Starbucks.
2) Business owner Ted May is an extremely nice guy who’s clearly making an effort to turn this business around.
I’ve already seen a number of improvements since the former Savory Metro began transitioning into The Drifting Nomad. Free Wi-Fi’s been added, although I’m afraid it didn’t work for me the one time I tried it. Plus there’s a new menu. Prices are reasonable and the sandwiches quite tasty (I especially recommend the Southwest Wrap). Also a big plus: Free coffee refills have returned.
The décor has changed. Gone are the bright yellow walls that I kind of liked. Now the walls are painted darker, warmer earth tones. However, I am happy that there’s now music playing. It makes the space more inviting.
All that said, The Drifting Nomad remains utilitarian. It’s a place to grab a quick bite, and not the kind you want to plant yourself down and stay for long. However – here’s the good part – it is still evolving, and the owner is receptive to customer feedback. He’s even sought it out on neighborhood listservs.