Monthly Archives: March 2011

The Daily Feed
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Caps top Blue Jackets, suffer on the blue line

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_4634.jpg’
courtesy of ‘bridgetds’

The Caps want to start tuning up for the playoffs. After grinding out an 4-3 overtime victory against the Blue Jackets on Thursday at Verizon Center, they have 101 points, eight points more than the Lightning in the division with four to play (six for Tampa).

Washington trails the Flyers by a point for the top overall seed in the Eastern Conference and home ice through to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Presidents’ Cup is out of reach as the Canucks have it all but mathematically wrapped up. So, the Caps are more or less looking at a No. 2 seed heading into the playoffs with a possible No. 1 and it is time to fine tune the program so as to vanquish the ghosts of playoffs past.

Or so you would think.

Bob McKenzie, one of the elite reporters in all of hockey, tweeted during the Caps game on Thursday that defenseman Dennis Wideman was in the hospital with a hematoma on his leg that developed after an awkward hit from Carolina’s Tuomo Ruutu on Tuesday.

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News, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nationals drop opener to Braves 2-0

Opening Day

With weather more suited to the British Open than Opening Day, Nationals Park was still crowded with tens of thousands of fans to watch the team’s 2011 debut.  Though coffee and hot chocolate were more likely than ice cold beer (so much so that the upper deck ran out before the game’s halfway mark), that hardly deterred the nearly sellout crowd.  The Nats’ offense was just as cold as the stands, though, as they failed to do string together much of anything against the Braves’ Derek Lowe.

Lowe kept the Nationals in check, surrendering just three hits in 5 2/3 innings, striking out six and walking just two.  The Nationals had two solid chances with runners in scoring position against Lowe.  Jayson Werth (1-4) singled in the first, and went to third on a looping single from Ryan Zimmerman(1-3, BB), a dividend of the Nationals’ speed upgrade and the coaching of Bo Porter.  Lowe buckled down and retired LaRoche (1-4) and Morse (0-4) and ended that threat.

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Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Drinks
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We Love Drinks: Return to the Columbia Room

Photo courtesy of
‘Architectural Ice’
courtesy of ‘Jenn Larsen’

A lot has happened since my first visit to the Columbia Room in June of last year. Owner Derek Brown’s martini has been rightly lauded as the best in the country by GQ, for instance. I keep returning to this oasis, whether for classes or for service, because it truly is one of the most special places you can go to enjoy a perfectly crafted drink. There’s a meticulous attention to beauty, history and taste here that we are lucky to experience in DC. After reading Fedward’s round with Katie Nelson in February, I knew I had to get back even more. So last week found me at a much-anticipated girls’ night out at the cocktail spa. We weren’t disappointed.

I asked Derek Brown after my last visit if he feels much has changed since opening. “Nothing has changed dramatically from our opening. We’ve just gotten better at what we do and more popular along with it. We’re especially grateful for all the accolades -from the Washingtonian to GQ – as it’s very gratifying when you work as hard as we do to see people enjoying the fruits of your labor.”

And what exquisite fruits… that night the girls and I sat down at the bar tended by the talented Katie Nelson, with three Season Tickets garnished with mint and cucumber to start. Spring may have failed us outside in the chill, but inside was a garden of delights.  Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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This Week in Food

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Open!

Two new places opened up on H Street this week, and they’re sure to be favorites for residents and other Washingtonians. For less than $9 you can get a full plate of stir-fry at Khan’s Bar and Grill. It’s not fancy, but it works, and well at that. Just on the next block is the ramen and dumpling house, Toki Underground.  Of course, expect late hours for both.

Medium Rare also opened up this week with its minimalist menu. Pay $19.50 and you’ll get a prix-fixe menu of rustic bread, a mixed greens salad and a Sirloin Steak with fries. The Cleveland Park restaurant comes to us from Mark Bucher of BGR The Burger Joint.

Coming!

Best Bites has some great news for meat lovers out there. To be exact, “a large, USDA-certified commissary for processing locally raised meat that will be sold on-location, to venues in the parent Neighborhood Restaurant Group, and eventually to a string of Red Apron butcheries in Maryland, Virginia, and the District.” What that mouthful means is that you will soon be able to get pastrami short ribs, summer sausage, smoked jowl rillettes, wild-boar salami, and more at a brick and mortar.

Winner

Mike Isabella of the coming up Graffiato took second place in Top Chef, edged out by Richard Blais.  So yet again, a Washingtonian makes it so far and doesn’t grab the title. That’s okay. Congraulations!

This weekend

It’s time for ARTINI 2011. You can read our drinks roundup here, here, and here. This Saturday mixologists from 12 of the city’s top venues will serve up artistic martinis inspired by works from the Corcoran Collection. If you wanted to go, but don’t have a ticket, you’re out of luck because the event is sold out. But I still can’t wait to find out who wins!

The Features, We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends: April 1-2

Photo courtesy of
‘Doubled up.’
courtesy of ‘NDwas’

Dave: Sure, the weather may not make it believable, but I for one couldn’t be more excited about spending most of my weekend down around Navy Yard and Nationals Park for Opening Weekend of the MLB season. I’ll be taking in at least two games of the Nats-Braves series at the stadium, and then I’ll sprinkle the rest of weekend with lots of out-of-town baseball and the Final Four at a place like Molly Malone’s or somewhere else up on the Hill. I’ll try to work in an Arlington brunch on Sunday, too, maybe at Woodgrill?
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Entertainment, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs

Photo: Stan Barouh

Mike Daisey wants to start an epidemic, a mind virus as he describes it.

The man behind last year’s The Last Cargo Cult and 2009’s How Theatre Failed America is back at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre with his latest monologue, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs“. The show is already in high demand with Woolly Mammoth already extending the show after a week of production. The show has local roots, Daisey developed and previewed the show at Woolly Mammoth during the summer of 2010.

However I didn’t know any of this previously.

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Eat Like Me, Food and Drink, The Features
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Eat Like Me: March’s Best Dishes

Photo courtesy of
‘00374-04Crop’
courtesy of ‘furcafe’
This month got off to a bit of a slow start food-wise. I had a few lackluster meals and a few blah-worthy chain restaurant lunches that didn’t bode well for a month of culinary excellence. I ended strong though, with trips to Bar Pilar, Urbana and my new love of my (edible H St.) life, Ethiopic. If it wasn’t for a superb crab cake at J&G, the lamb tibs at Ethiopic would take the cake as my favorite dish of the month. I also ate at a lot of old favorites, but tried to branch out. Sometimes it worked (the rice bowls at Surfside), and sometimes I didn’t (why I ever stray from the T.U.B.S. sandwich at Ted’s I’ll never know). But as always, I ate well, and I ate plenty.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Without Wall, Wizards fight hard, but lose to the Heat

Photo courtesy of
‘Wall Ascending the Sky’
courtesy of ‘Mylar Bono’

Defying the odds and most expectations, the Washington Wizards gave the star-studded Miami Heat a run for their money Wednesday night at the Verizon Center, twice cutting their deficit to one point early in the fourth quarter. But ultimately, the 94 total points scored by LeBron James (35 points), Dwyane Wade (33 points), and Chris Bosh (26 points) proved too much to overcome as the Heat (52-23) defeated the Wizards 123-107.

As heartening as the performance was by the Wizards (18-56), it’s hard not to wonder what might have happened if Washington’s star rookie point guard John Wall hadn’t gotten himself thrown out of the game with 8:48 to go in the first half and the Wizards leading 37-36.

The incident began innocuously enough, as Zydrunas Ilgauskas grabbed a loose ball at the top of the key and was defended by Wall. As Ilgauskas turned to face the basket, the Wizards rookie got right into the Lithuanian’s personal space, and Ilgauskas responded by nudging Wall twice with his right elbow. Wall took a futile swipe at the ball as Ilgauskas brought it over his head, an action which left the Miami man’s midsection exposed. As Wall turned to face up to Ilgauskas, television replays showed that the Kentucky alum pursed his lips, picked a spot, and let fly with a right cross to Ilgauskas’ ribs at the same instant that the 7-foot-3 center reached out with his left arm to shove Wall further back. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Opening Day Preview: What to see at Nats Park

Photo courtesy of
‘Willie comes in for the HR!!’
courtesy of ‘MudflapDC’

Prepare yourself, Nats fans, for the 2011 season.  No, I’m not talking about the Playoffs (hah!) or even a winning record (Let’s call that an 8% chance), but the 2011 season appears to be the start of a new era in Nats Town on a number of counts, so if you’re heading out to the ballpark, here’s a few things you can expect to see at the stadium that are new or different this year.

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The Daily Feed
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Khan’s Bar & Grill

photo
Talk about opening with no fanfare – no press release bombardment, no email blasts, no announcement after announcement on Twitter, not even a Grand Opening sign. Yet when I went to Khan’s Bar & Grill on Monday for opening day, the place was packed. What’s not to like about a restaurant that has a flame as an apostrophe in its name?

Khan’s doesn’t look brand new from the outside or from the inside, yet that’s really what makes it feel like such an H Street establishment. Walk in and you immediately see the grill, past that is the food line, to the left is the register, and after that we have seats and then the bar. Confused? You might be, but the owner and staff will be there to guide you for sure. In fact, the owner seemed very concerned about the amount of honey mustard I insisted on putting on my food, until I told him I was a condiment fanatic. Continue reading →

Downtown, Education, Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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National Geographic Live: April 2011

Hidden Alaska, ©Michael Melford; used with permission by National Geographic

April brings another full month of programs at NatGeo for their popular National Geographic Live! series. If you’re looking for something to do in the evenings, we highly suggest you check out some of their offerings this season. And to provide further incentive, we are providing two lucky readers with a pair of tickets to an event of their choice this coming month!

To enter the drawing, simply comment below using your first name and a legit email address, listing the two events from the following program list you’d like to attend. (Note that there is one event not eligible and we’ve noted it for you.) Sometime after noon on Friday (April 1) we’ll randomly select two winners to receive a pair of tickets (each) to one of their selections. You’ve got until 11 am on Friday to enter!

(For ticket information, visit online or call the box office at (800) 647-5463.)

Hidden Alaska ($18)
April 5, 7:30 pm
Michael Melford, veteran National Geographic photographer, has documented some of the world’s most pristine places. For a magazine story and new National Geographic book Hidden Alaska, he traveled to Bristol Bay, Alaska—both an important salmon breeding ground and location of enormous copper and gold deposits—where residents are being forced to choose between incompatible futures.
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The Daily Feed
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VCU is Today’s Tom Sawyer and the Sports Ticker 3/30

Photo courtesy of
‘Superhero Run’
courtesy of ‘terren in Virginia’

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve talked about some of the Virginia-based* teams that have broken the laws of probability in the men’s NCAA tournament during the past two weekends. While Richmond’s bid ended last Friday, Virginia Commonwealth has continued its impressive run of being the first team to have to play – and win – five games just to make the Final Four thanks to the additional First Four round. Forgive Rams’ fans for being just a bit excited. The NCAA tournament may take out some of the value of the regular season, but what it also does in its one-and-done model is add in a layer of chance that someone like VCU can rise up to be the unlikely semifinalist that it became this year.

I have to say, I’m blown away by the support VCU is getting even up here in the District. Interestingly, in the lull before baseball and NHL playoffs, it’s become Dan Steinberg’s most interesting beat ever since Georgetown bowed out to its regional competitor back on the 18th. The best part of this: he’s pulling up some great stories, including what has now made me a VCU fan against Butler come Saturday. Down at Richmond’s The National, not only is there a chance to join others to watch the game – but also to rock out to the premier Rush cover band in the country after all is said and done.

Rush! They’re like the Canadian Journey.

The rest of the ticker after the jump and disclaimer.

*Yes, this blog is called We Love DC. As long as New York media outlets cover teams that play in New Jersey as “New York teams,” and as long as there are a significant amounts of alums from these schools who live or grew up here – and there are – please go ahead and keep your “Why are you covering Virginia things?!?!?!11” comments.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Nats starting pitching: Yes, as bad as you think

Photo courtesy of
‘1ST_4709’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

Cherry blossoms have come to D.C. and with them the idea that it should be Spring here in the nation’s capital. Yet, the weather does not seem to agree with a patina of chill and frost still clinging to the ground every morning as we wait for the bright sun and temperatures of April to finally melt away the doldrums of winter.

Nevertheless, it is time to play baseball.

The Nationals start their regular season tomorrow with the general hope that today will be better than yesterday. That is not a hard hope for a team that has averaged 62.33 wins a year over the last three years. Nats fans have had a dismal time of it and late-season empty stadiums have been the proof that baseball in Washington is not yet a full-fledged member of the city’s pastime.

Well, here at WeLoveDC, WeLoveBaseball.

Tom Bridge, Rachel Levitin and I are all credentialed for Nats home games this year and will bring you the blow-by-blow of how the Nats fare, through the hope of spring into the eventual doldrums of another losing summer. Belief me this: it will be another dismal year.

But there is hope.

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The Daily Feed
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Pedestrians and DC: Infographic of the Day

Here’s your infographic of the day, courtesy of Hipmunk: visual street signs to work as a helpful tool for pedestrians in various cities. The call out about DC is above, and the full guide (for those of you visiting other cities) is in the post.

Fair assessment? Anything other than diagonal streets that visiting walkers in the city should know (other than walk on left, stand on right – let’s focus on sidewalks in the District)? Or is this just the easy visual joke with little impact? I, for one, may have gone with a quadrant joke.

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capitals hockey, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Hurricanes Batter Caps, 3-2


Semyon Varlamov faced a penalty shot.
courtesy of PackaPucksPics

The Caps couldn’t muster enough energy last night to play a complete hockey game, falling to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in a shootout. “I feel like at some points in the game we were just coasting a little bit instead of pushing the envelope and that’s what bit us in the end,” said rookie defenseman John Carlson, probably the best player on the ice in red last night. “We gotta be able to compete and beat any team that’s going to come hard because everyone is going to be fighting for their lives in the playoffs.” Let’s hear it for rookie leadership.

Indeed, the Hurricanes were five points out of the playoffs coming into last night’s game and will likely have to win all of their remaining games to qualify for the playoffs, so the intensity was high. And after resting some key players during a recent road trip, the Caps lineup last night looked remarkably like a playoff team. Continue reading →

We Love Music
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We Love Music: Glassjaw @ Ram’s Head Live, 3/27/11

+DSC_0309-1
All photos by Mike Kurman.

It’s been eight years since post-hardcore rockers Glassjaw have officially released any new material. During those eight years, the band members have been keeping busy with side projects – Head Automatica, Men Women & Children, and United Nations, to name a few. They’ve been working together as a band, sure, but the most they’ve said was “a release is coming soon!” [in ’07] or “our old record label sucks”.

I was beyond excited to pick up tickets to their recent tour, which I caught at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore last Sunday. The concert felt like a band shaking off the dust, getting ready for something big. It was a statement: here’s what we’ve been doing, and we’ve been waiting a long time to share it with you. The show was heavily weighted towards their “new” material – some of which has been around since 2007, but hasn’t seen a studio release until recently.

And wow, the new material is good. It still has roots in the old Glassjaw sound – sudden and unexpected dynamic shifts, spastic singing/screaming, and a fluid style that defies categorization. But this time around, it’s pretty clear that the music is just a platform to showcase Daryl’s unique vocal style. The music is sparse, leaving plenty of room for the vocals to breathe. The guitar riffs are never as memorable as the vocal melodies. The show reflected this dynamic as well – Daryl was the only musician really garnering attention. The other three guys mostly stayed in the background as Daryl paced the vast, empty stage.

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