Eat for a Dollar in Georgetown, Almost

While deal-generating websites like LivingSocial and Groupon continue to grow in popularity, so do the chances that their coupon-hungry consumers will leave feeling the company’s offers were too good to be true.

There was a bargain-happy hum around Washington Friday as LivingSocial attained the blessing of over one hundred D.C. restaurants to offer $1 lunch deals.

According to the mass email sent to its many free subscribers around the city, the ‘there’s rarely such thing as a $1 lunch’ concept was intended to not only take the edge off tax day, but to promote LivingSocial Instant, the company’s new program for patrons to access—you guessed it—instant deals.

Eighteen Georgetown eateries participated in offering the temporary dollar menu that ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. citywide. At most restaurants, $1 would buy $10 worth of food and drink, while others, like Georgetown’s Paper Moon and Taj of India, offered as much as $25 worth of menu items.

During the three-hour period the deal was active, LivingSocial’s website had a hard time keeping up with the heavy traffic--as did participating restaurants. As each $1 coupon sold out, lines spilled onto the sidewalks, leaving many customers wondering how prepared the restaurants were.

“Living social deal seems like a disaster,” tweeted michelleleeds, “Every single participating place in Georgetown has a line down the block!”

Similarly, there seemed to be a miscommunication between some eateries and the LivingSocial website as far as how many deals would be honored.

, the elegant trattoria off 31st Street in Georgetown, offered one of the more valuable vouchers of the day: $20 worth of their lunch menu for only a dollar. However, not all purchased deals were accepted during the three-hour window.

“Disappointed in $1 deal for Ristorante Piccolo in Georgetown,” tweeted donnaindc a few minutes before 1 p.m. “Rude host said they were "sold out" even if I purchased deal.”

LivingSocial said it will compensate those who purchased the $1 deal and were unable to use it.

Many business owners who participated in today’s deal either declined or were unavailable for comment about the high demand for the bargain lunch.