The Capitol Dish logo, used with permission.

The trend of 2010 has to be the perennial “deal” sites that have popped up in town.  You’ve got Living Social, Groupon, Cornerdish, So What’s the Deal, and others.

Enter the Washington Post, who thinks that you’ve got room for one more in your life. They’re starting tomorrow with The Capitol Dish, a weekly newsletter email that goes out each Friday. You’ll get three special deals for restaurants, each at least half off. The inaugural deals are Kaz Sushi Bistro ($15 gets you $30 in credit), PS 7’s ($15 gets you $30 in credit) and Napoleon Bistro & Lounge ($25 gets you $50 in credit). Each week there will be three new deals, and you get until Monday to decide if you’d like one (or more), and then each deal lasts for 6 months after you buy.

The email newsletter is a new direction for the Post, which, like many newspapers, is working with more and more digital content and doing more digital outreach. The Capitol Dish seeks to grab mindshare from some of the other affinity deal programs like Living Social and others, and to get readers to engage more with the Post’s existing restaurant information. In addition to the initial deals, those who purchase one of the credits will get a follow-up offer just for those who purchased that week.

The Post will be having a launch party on October 21st for subscribers of the list, so head on over to subscribe on Friday, when they open up subscriptions for the first time. I have to say, either the Kaz or PS 7’s deals sound pretty awesome to me, and the only reason I’m not sure about Napoleon is that I haven’t yet been, but that seems to be what the Post is after, according to Tim Condon, Director of New Digital Ventures at the Post: “we highlight deals from unique restaurants [that] will attract regular restaurant-goers as well as diners who might be cautious about trying a new restaurant.”

I have to say, there’s always room in my budget for another good deal, especially in this economy.

Tom Bridge

I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.