The Daily Feed

They Keep Rolling, Sabor’a is D.C.’s Newest Food Truck

Photo Courtesy of Sabor'a

In a bit of withdrawal these days from lack of food trucks? Unless you’re hitting the Curbside Cookoff, then you probably never want to see a food truck again. But for those of you left wanting, there is news of a new truck coming to town. From the husband-and-wife team of Christine Sarapu (she a practicing lawyer) and Jorge Pimentel (he a chef formerly of Mark & Orlandos, Masa 14 and Commonwealth) comes Sabor’a Street, specializing in Latin flavors reinvented for the road.

Expect Latin-inspired street food including Chef Pimentel’s interpretation of staples such as tacos and arepas. He plans to source his ingredients from farmers markets and his own garden.

The truck is passing through the last hurdles before going mobile, but expect them to hit the streets in early November.

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts

We Love Arts: Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven

(l to r): Patricia Penn, Sue Jin Song and Youngsun Cho in Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven by Young Jean Lee at The Studio 2ndStage. Directed by Natsu Onoda Power. Photo credit: Carol Pratt

“My work is about struggling to achieve something in the face of failure and incompetence and not-knowing. The discomfort and awkwardness involved in watching this struggle reflects the truth of my experience.”

— Young Jean Lee, playwright

It would be easy to write about Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven as a play about racist stereotypes, the culpability of bigotry that we all share regardless of personal race. Certainly there is a great deal of that theme on display at The Studio 2ndStage’s production, playing now through October 24. But essentially, to me this is a play about failure – the failure to understand one another, to communicate, to believe, to love oneself. It’s a powerful piece with a core of deep self-hatred and the awful humor that comes from knowing one’s weakness, and giving in to it. 

Raw emotion like that is not easy to watch, so the pre-set tricks the audience into false sense of tranquility. Shepherded behind the seats through an incense-filled temple walkway, glowing with candles and red paper lanterns, you might think you’re in for a lovely spa evening.

Then three women in beautiful traditional Korean costumes reveal a video of playwright Young Jean Lee, her tear-streaked face puffy from repeated hard slaps, her eyes wounded and staring at you, her audience – her tormenters and conspirators.

You probably wouldn’t expect to laugh after that opening. But you do. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Icelandair Routes Coming to IAD

Photo courtesy of
‘Icelandair 757-200 TF-FIU’
courtesy of ‘BriYYZ’

The national airline of the most charming country in the world, Iceland, made an announcement today that it will resume routes from our area this spring. There will be four flights a week to Reykjavik from May 17, 2011 through the summer until September 13. Icelandair previously flew from BWI, but discontinued that service in 2007. The airline is offering a discounted introductory rate for IAD passengers with round-trips at $429. Excuse me while I spend the rest of the workday planning my dreamy fantasy holiday to Iceland…

The Daily Feed

Mad Men Finale Dinner at Bourbon Steak

Photo courtesy of
‘TV’
courtesy of ‘ricky.montalvo’
Tired of squealing alone in your apartment every time Joan and Roger engage in flirty verbal sparring? Well join your fellow Mad Men fans at Bourbon Steak for a special dinner in honor of the finale on October 17th.

At 8pm there will be a cocktail reception with canapes and classic 50’s cocktails ($8). Following the reception, there will be a three-course dinner featuring 60’s classics such as beef stroganoff and green bean casserole. After dinner, you’ll be able to view the finale while munching on their famous truffle popcorn. Tickets to the dinner are $60 per person, which includes hors d’oeuvres, dinner, tax and gratuity. Only a few seats remain, so contact Bourbon Steak at 202-944-2026 or email here to secure your spot.

In addition to the delicious food, there will be Mad Men prizes for the best-dressed in 50’s and 60’s garb. I’m probably more of a Peggy, but I like to think of myself as a Joan, but definitely not a Betty.

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music

We Love Music: The xx / Warpaint / Zola Jesus @ 9:30 Club 10/5/10

I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news. Which do you want to hear first? I suppose I will begin with the good news because there is much less of it to share than there is bad news to break. But first some simple facts to set the scene.

The xx played the 9:30 Club on Tuesday night. It was their fourth(?) concert in DC of 2010. This time they were fresh off a prestigious Mercury Prize win (British album of the year) for their debut album and performing as headliners to a sold out 9:30 Club. Midwestern, indie-Goth revivalist Zola Jesus and L.A. art-rockers Warpaint were the opening acts. Zola Jesus played first.

Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Things That Never Change: People Want Their Bullets Back

Photo courtesy of
‘It’s been awhile’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

Yesterday, we had a little tongue in cheek fun with quips that you would never hear anyone utter in DC. It wasn’t that long of a list, but for some reason, the Wizards became a punching bag. Among all of the comments on Twitter and in the post, commenter WFY I think hit the heart of one interesting sentiment in this sarcastic reply:

“Wizards is the best team name in the whole NBA, I hear it and think, Washington!”

Continue reading

The Daily Feed, WTF?!

AU Student gets probation for faking diplomatic license & decal

Photo courtesy of

courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Nicholas Marino did something brave, but deeply, deeply stupid.  He paid a Georgia novelty company to make him fake State Department license plates, and he faked a license decal for his drivers’ license.  This didn’t go over too well during a recent traffic stop, and the cops hauled him off to face charges for his actions.  He admitted his crime, and the 24-year-old will spend 6 months on probation and do 240 hours of community service.

No word on what’s he doing driving around with a suspended DC drivers’ license, though.

The Daily Feed

OktoBEERfest This Weekend

Photo courtesy of
‘Bier und dirndls’
courtesy of ‘cizauskas’
The weather is going to be unseasonably wonderful this weekend, so get yourself out of your DVR haze (though, watch Jersey Shore first) and head outside. Specifically, head to the Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s annual OktoBEERfest block party outside of Rustico in Alexandria. On Saturday from 12pm-6pm, sample plenty of delicious dishes from NRG restaurants like Evening Star Cafe, Tallula, Vermillion, Birch & Barley, ChurchKey, Columbia Firehouse, EatBar and Buzz Bakery. On the menu you can expect bratwurst, sauerkraut, and hand-made pretzels, but make sure to leave room in your belly for the almost thirty different brews on draught.

Besides the food and drink, there will be live music and family-friendly activities in the Buzz parking lot such as a moon bounce (I hope I’m under the height restriction!), face painting, and pumpkin and cookie decorating. If you are less family-oriented and more brewski-oriented, there will be bike cabs running from the Braddock Road Metro Station right to the festival.

The Features, Where We Live

Where We Live: Cheverly

Cheverly - The Cheverly Sign - 11-11-07

Welcome to the last regularly-scheduled Where We Live.  We’ve had a great run over the past year and a half, profiling dozens of neighborhoods in the District, Maryland, and Virginia.  But all good things must come to an end (especially when we’re running out of neighborhoods to profile!).  So while Where We Live won’t disappear, and you can still expect more neighborhood profiles on occasion in the future, this will be the last regularly-scheduled one you’ll see for a little while.

And we’re wrapping things up with the lovely suburb of Cheverly.  Cheverly, known as “the hidden jewel of Prince George’s County”, is an idyllic little town right outside of the District.  It sounds too good to be true– tree lined streets, a small-town atmosphere, and beautiful, affordable housing close to a Metro station.  As it turns out, it’s all true.  So let Where We Live fill you in on one of the Washington region’s best kept secrets: Cheverly.

Continue reading

The Daily Feed

It Gets Better

Washingtonians want you to know: it gets better. A few weeks ago, journalist Dan Savage launched the “It Gets Better” campaign, created in the wake of the recent spate of LGBT teen suicides. The campaign features videos made by celebrities and ordinary individuals, who share their painful pasts and encourage LGBT youth not to lose hope during middle and high school. Washingtonians have taken up the call to arms, and are reaching out to bullied teens with messages of their own.

Continue reading

Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Night Life, Special Events, The District

Preview: VelocityDC Dance Festival

Alright, so when Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings roll around, maybe going to a dance performance isn’t the first activity that pops into our heads. However, this weekend with the 2nd annual VelocityDC Dance Festival at the Shakespeare Theater, it should be.

The premise of the festival is simple: showcase the amazing, often unknown, talents within the local DC dance community and make the performance accessible to everyone in DC by pricing tickets at an affordable price ($18). Peter DiMuro of Dance/MetroDC and festival organizer credits Fall for Dance as the inspiration for the festival and hopes that “by showing several companies at once, we show the local area community how great the Dance scene in DC is and hopefully get them out to other performances.”

VelocityDC isn’t your typical, Kennedy Center dance performance with two acts, an intermission and a gray haired, crushed velvet clad, dozing off audience. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

I Bless the Rains: Region Drought Concerns Quelled By Recent Storms

Photo courtesy of
‘Umbrella vs. fire truck’
courtesy of ‘theqspeaks’

The smart folks over at the Capital Weather Gang have been reminding us through the week that the recent rains have been much needed. On the year, it’s been abnormally dry (hard to believe, given the thunder shows and thunder snows of the last nine or so months). Thanks to to the ridiculous amounts of rain over the last 10 days – well clear of five inches of precipitation – things have gotten a little bit closer to where they should be in terms of the annual rainfall.

Check the image after the jump to see just how much better things look in a rainy week’s time (embedded in the original CWG post and from the U.S. Drought Monitor): Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Construction to Cause Rosslyn Traffic Changes Starting this Weekend

Photo courtesy of
‘Rosslyn sunset’
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’

If you travel through Rosslyn, via the station, one of the many busses that come through or may be even use it as a pick-up point outside the city, be prepared for a few traffic changes that will begin this weekend:

Starting Saturday, North Moore Street will become a one-way street heading south toward Wilson Boulevard. As a result, taxi stands and bus stops will be relocated to other parts of North Moore Street. Also, passenger pickup and drop-off will be prohibited on North Moore Street — it will only be allowed on the Fort Myer Drive side of the station.

The modified traffic pattern is to account for construction on the new Metro entrance and is likely to take a few years.

We Love Weekends

We Love Weekends, October 9-10

Photo courtesy of
‘Rabbit in a hat’
courtesy of ‘martha_jean’

Dave: While Friday night is dedicated to a brief happy hour out in Columbia Heights with a few others of the media world at Meridian Pint, I’m probably most excited for another weekend gig down at The Rookery with my band, The Greensides. In addition to the normal level of acoustic rocking you can expect, we’re also really please to have an outstanding opener: comedian Christian Hunt. And if you’ve never seen the Capital City Showcase host perform, this is as much a treat as anything. Once all of that winds down, Sunday is about recovery, but at least it’ll be during a field trip for tacos in Virginia to recognize the birthday of one of WLDC’s own, the great Tom Bridge.

John: This Friday, come check out my band Juniper Lane, headline IOTA Club and Cafe in Arlington. We’ll be playing with No Second Troy and it’ll be a fun night of rock and roll. We’ll be playing almost all of the material from our new record. Saturday I’m going out to Bull Run Farm to do a cider pressing as part of my Community Supported Agriculture program. Then I’ll be finishing up some raised beds and doing the fall clean up and winterizing and hanging out with my lady. Ahh fall! Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Rally to Restore Sanity Location Announced

Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart announced that the location for the Rally to Restore Sanity will be between 3rd and 7th Streets NW, so across the street from the Capitol Reflecting Pool, essentially.

Stewart also asked viewers to donate to the Trust for the National Mall because it’s “the people’s space,” which we wholeheartedly support, and he made one other suggestion about how to respect the Mall, but I’ll let you watch the video for that. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

A little holiday irony

James Luna, from the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian website

Native American performance artist James Luna will be outside Union Station on Monday – Columbus Day – taking pictures with passers-by in an art project called “Take a Picture with a real Indian.” Past press releases about the presentation indicate that Luna interacts with the audience, asking them to choose what cardboard cutout portrays the “real” Indian. He’ll be near the statue of Christopher Columbus with his presentation for about 90 minutes starting at 4:15p.

I’m a little disappointed they’re shooting outside; I’d have been amused to see two of our local institutions butt heads as the notoriously openness-averse Smithsonian knocks heads with the photo-phobic Union Station management.

Alexandria, Entertainment, Interviews, People, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts

Dance Preview: Bellydance Superstars

The Bellydance Superstars in Bombay Bellywood. Photo courtesy of Bellydance Superstars.

The Bellydance Superstars will be at The Birchmere this month for two shows – October 27 and 28 – with a new production called Bombay Bellywood. I last saw BDSS perform at the Lisner in March 2009, and it was an infectiously fun performance that had the audience shimmying in their seats. For those of us studying dance, it’s always fascinating to watch and learn from professional touring companies. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve come up with this time around, in a production that’s mixing Bollywood and Bhangra into the usual line-up of Egyptian Cabaret and Tribal Fusion styles.

One of the highlights for me last year was the whirling veil work of Petite Jamilla, and I was thrilled to get a chance to talk with her about the new production and what DC area audiences can expect later this month.

“We are really leaving our hearts on the stage,” she said. Continue reading

Food and Drink, News, The Daily Feed

Track the Curbside Cookoff Voting!

Curbside Cookoff!

Today starts the Curbside Cookoff, a fiesta of food trucks down at the site of the old Convention Center at 11th & H Street NW, which means two things:

1) Our Food Truck Tracker is taking today & tomorrow off, because all of the trucks are in one place at the Cookoff

2) Voting!

There’s going to be SMS voting for your favorite food truck starting today after the cookoff gets going.  Check out the Live Vote Tallies thanks to DCRA, who’s cohosting the event.  Look for live dispatches from Katie and Ashley on our new Live Events Twitter Account, @welovedclive.

capitals hockey, The Daily Feed

Varlamov on Injured Reserve

Photo courtesy of
‘DSC_4847’
courtesy of ‘photopete’

Just to update a note we had in yesterday’s preview – the Capitals have placed goalie Semyon Varlamov on injured reserve for an undisclosed injury. Speculation is that he’s being hindered by a nagging groin pull, but nothing has been confirmed. Varlamov can be recalled from IR at any time and is expected to travel with the team to Atlanta for the season opener tomorrow.

The move, coincidentally, drops the Capitals’ roster to the league-mandated 23 man limit. Rookie Michal Neuvirth is expected to start tomorrow and will most likely dress for Saturday’s home opener against New Jersey. Recently signed Dany Sabourin will be Neuvirth’s backup.

Varlamov hasn’t played since the Sept 22 preseason game, though he did participate in skating practice yesterday.

The Daily Feed

Underheard in DC

Photo courtesy of
‘Cheverly – Rabbit – 7-31-08’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

A clever McSweeneys article this morning about underheard phrases in New York got the We Love DC Authors thinking: What are some quips that you just don’t hear enough in DC?

I proudly present, our attempts at #UnderheardInDC:

“You know, Chinatown really captures the spirit and history of a cultural neighborhood like any other city.”

“My cabbie tonight was so awesome! He spoke perfect English and I didn’t have to give him directions!”

“Getting tickets to tonight’s Wizards game was so hard.”

“All the parking meters are reasonably priced and in working order the majority of the time!”

“The HHS building fits so perfectly with the architectural character of downtown DC!”

“Waiting in line to get into a club is so worth it!” Continue reading