Monthly Archives: May 2012

Downtown, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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District Taco: Now Actually In The District!

Photo courtesy of dmbosstone
District Taco (Washington, DC)
courtesy of dmbosstone

Last time I went off my beat and wrote about food truck District Taco, a lot of comments complained about the fact the taco totin’ food cart wasn’t actually located in The District. There was also a random accusation that I was a secret spokesperson for the local establishment. Sorry to say they don’t pay me, I’m just a fan.

Even though it would be wicked awesome if they did pay me to eat their tacos- that would be a great gig.

I’m happy to report that District Taco can now fully embrace their namesake. This week DT founders Osiris Hoil and Marc Wallace opened a new District Taco location near Metro Center near 13th & F St NW. The new store is the latest step of a remarkable story for Hoil, who was laid off from his construction job in 2008 and decided to start a Taco business with his best friend and neighbor Wallace.

I took some photos at a sneak peek of the restaurant last week check them out past the cut.

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Sports Fix
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Nationals drop embarrassing game to Padres, 6-1, fall from first

Photo courtesy of dmc-flux
Hot Stuff!!!
courtesy of dmc-flux

The Nationals may be finding themselves in a bit of quandary: which is worse for your luck, not doing some sort of ritual sacrifice to the baseball gods, or doing the sacrifice wrong? While yesterday’s 6-1 loss to the Padres was the sort that makes you wonder if the latter is more likely the case. A day after newly-minted National Sandy Leon was sent to the DL with a high ankle strain suffered at the plate – becoming the Nats’ second catcher to go on the DL in as many games – the Nationals looked listless and deflated in the field, making several mistakes early that cost runs on the board.

The offense was similarly moribund on Tuesday afternoon, collecting just five hits, and scoring just the one run on a long drive to the center field stands by Bryce Harper for his second home run.  The Padres’ Anthony Bass was stellar against the Nats and often used his pitch-to-contact style to work over the NL East leaders.  Ryan Zimmerman continues to battle against opposing pitching, hitting just .230 since his return, and neither Rick Ankiel nor Jesus Flores could find themselves aboard as the lineup turned over.

A footnote to the loss yesterday became the story, when beat reporters discovered that Strasburg had been suffering some discomfort due to some Hot Stuff ointment that relocated from Strasburg’s shoulder, where it was applied, to an area that was undisclosed by implied to be south of the belt.  Rob Dibble, proving there’s no pitching event he won’t insert himself in, has criticized Strasburg for assigning blame to the oleoresin capsicum instead of his pitch command. 

To date, Strasburg has requested to not discuss the incident – saying only “I’m going to keep that in the clubhouse,” and talked only about his pitching performance before the media. It’s not exactly clear how Dibble drew the erroneous conclusion, but then again, Dibble wasn’t exactly known for his rocket scientist reasoning in his short tenure in the MASN Broadcast Booth.

Perhaps we could arrange for a jar of the ointment to arrive at his radio studio for some demonstration tests.

The Daily Feed
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Boone from Trusty’s needs your help

Photo courtesy of 4²5²�productions
trusty’sBAR
courtesy of 4²5²�productions

If there’s one thing I love about DC, it’s the way that the people rally around their bars and bartenders. Last year when there was a fire at The Tune Inn that nearly claimed the business’ future, residents rallied around their people and held a benefit to help their bartenders. Tonight, Hill East does the same for Trusty’s Full Serve Bar bartender Mike Boone, who was stabbed six times trying to stop a purse snatching outside the Potomac Avenue bar on May 1st.

Boone was med-evaced, had several surgeries to save his life, and is now facing some hefty medical bills and a recovery process that will keep him off his feet for a bit. C’mon out to Trusty’s and do a good turn for a bartender who just wanted to protect his patrons.

Trusty’s Full Serve Bar
1420 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington, DC 20003
Metro: Potomac Ave (Blue/Orange)

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Checking Out Smucker Farms of Lancaster Co.

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Smucker Farms of Lancaster Co.
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

Just because you live in a major metropolitan city, doesn’t mean that you can’t bring a little countryside in every now and then. Bridging the two worlds is Smucker Farms of Lancaster Co. over on 14th street NW.

The store, founded by Lancaster-native/long-time DC resident Eric Smucker, brings in fresh produce from Southeast Pennsylvania, along with other goods from local farmers and purveyors in the DC area. You’ll find everything from fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy to herbs and spices and jars of pickled vegetables or jams. Hard-core locavores can rejoice–the store carries favorites such as Gordy’s Pickle Jar, Capital Kombucha, Souper Girl and more. Plus, Smucker Farms offers a pick-up CSA option (that’s “community supported agriculture,” if you didn’t already know) with organic produce from a co-op of Amish and Mennonite farmers in Lancaster County, Pa.

When We Love DC stopped by last week, almost all of the spaces in the CSA were full, so hurry up to get in on that. Check out the photos of the Smucker Farms of Lancaster Co. which is part many business doing Factory Farming In USA.

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The Features
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The Ladder of Escape: Miró at the National Gallery of Art

Joan Miró - The Farm, 1921-1922 - oil on canvas / National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mary Hemingway / © 2012 Successió Miró/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

Whatever your preconceived notions of Miró might be, put them on hold and head to the National Gallery of Art.

The NGA is the sole U.S. venue for Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape. A massive exhibit, it highlights the artist’s political side and undying loyalty to Catalonia throughout a lifetime of hardship under two world wars, the Spanish Civil War, and the Franco dictatorship. I had the chance to visit when it opened on Sunday.

Entering the exhibit, quaint gently slips into surreal. Surrounding The Farm – one of Miró’s most celebrated pieces – we see the painter mature from a sentimental youth into the experimental adult artist Andre Bretón called “the most ‘surrealist’ of us all.”

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Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of pablo.raw
Look Up!
courtesy of pablo.raw

This past Friday, DC was treated to a fascinating public performance called bound(less), put on by the group Project Bandaloop and sponsored by the Kennedy Center. Bound(less) is an aerial dance performed on the face of the Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Ave, and it provide a number of wonderfully unique photographs for our contributors, like Pablo’s above. The dancers suspended in mid-air, the horn player in the window, and the blue light, all give the image an other-worldly feel. It’s almost as if the photo is from a dream.

The reason I’m pointing this out is to show how blessed DC is with public art. Almost every week there’s something going on for people to see. And starting this weekend is the big public art festival of Artomatic. Eleven floors of art; some very good, some very bad, but all up to the viewer to decide. I’m going to be there Friday night; I hope to see you all there.

The Daily Feed
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Harper Homers, Desmond Dominates, H-Rod Falters, and Nats Reclaim First

Photo courtesy of MudflapDC
Burnett windup-2
courtesy of MudflapDC

The Nationals might have won 8-5 Monday night in the first of a short two game series against the Padres but it didn’t come without a price. Watching this Nats season feels like watching baseball in the ER waiting for the next player to be helped off the field. In the space of eight days the Nats have lost right fielder Jayson Werth, starting catcher Wilson Ramos, and making his major league debut back-up catcher Sand Leon.

In the top of the fourth inning with Yonder Alonso on third and Chase Headley on second Orlando Hudson would hit a single into the outfield. With Headley rounding third Leon got in the position to field the throw from Danny Espinosa. Espinosa fired it in and Leon couldn’t handle it, but for Headley it was too late. He had already made up his mind that he was running Leon over. Leon had blocked off most of the plate and didn’t give Headley much to slide for but if he had tried to slide in under Leon it is just as likely that he would have been safe. Instead he went for the takeout, and afterwards Leon laid crumbled on the ground until he was helped off the field by trainers.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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DC sixth in new BikeScore metric

Photo courtesy of specimenlife
Fuji Feather 2012
courtesy of specimenlife

The same people who put together the WalkScore for rating walkable communities have now turned their attention to the bicycle, and boy did DC do well. DC finished 6th, with an average BikeScore of 65, about 14 points back of leader Minneapolis and 5 points back of #2 Portland.

The score is a calculation based on hills, bike commuters, bike infrastructure (bike routes, bike lanes, cycle tracks, bikesharing and destinations for cyclists. DC does pretty well on the hills front, Rock Creek Park and the Palisades notwithstanding, and scores pretty high on the Destinations and Infrastructure scores.  With more cyclist commuters, DC could easily move up toward San Francisco and Portland, tied at 70.

capitals hockey, The Daily Feed
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Dale Hunter Steps Down

Photo courtesy of photopete
DSC_8793
courtesy of photopete

And it looks as if ultimate samurai coach Dale Hunter has fallen on his sword for the now-ousted Washington Capitals. According to various sources, Hunter stepped down from his stint as bench boss this morning.

GM George McPhee indicated at a brief press conference that the team will be taking its time selecting a new coach. If the Caps are smart, they’ll have someone signed on before the NHL Entry Draft on June 21. (McPhee did hint to WaPo that this was indeed a possibility.)

ProHockeyTalk has a (questionable) list of possible replacements from the NHL coach recycling bin. Of all of those listed, I would think Bob Hartley’s the best option.

Who would you like to see helm the pine bench next season?

The Daily Feed, Travel
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DCA gets expanded service from Virgin, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines

Photo courtesy of Jun Seita
Virgin America N623VA Airbus A320-214 (2006) “three if by air”
courtesy of Jun Seita

As someone with family along the left-coast, I always dread travel there a bit, mostly because it means flying out of far-flung IAD or painful-to-park BWI, instead super-convenient-and-right-on-the-metro DCA. The Department of Transportation announced today four new long-haul routes for National, with a DCA-SFO from Virgin America as the most interesting, followed by JetBlue’s new San Juan route, Alaska Airlines’ new Portland route and Southwest’s direct to Austin route. 

This adds to United’s direct route to SFO, Delta’s direct route to Salt Lake City, American’s direct route to LAX and US Airways’ direct route to San Diego.

Anything that means I can fly out of DCA instead of the burbclaves is just fine with me, thanks.

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, People, We Love Music
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Q&A with Kelley Deal

photo courtesy of the artist

We Love DC guest writer Jonathan Druy had the chance to interview Kelley Deal. Read his account of it all here!

Breeders guitarist Kelley Deal is touring with her beautiful new acoustic project R.Ring, and they’re stopping by DC9 on Tuesday night, in what may prove to be a truly talent-rich night of acoustic-based indie-folk-rock-thingies, with Mike Ganancias and Mean Season. A new release from Misra Records is on its way.

From Dayton, Ohio, R.Ring is Deal and Mike Montgomery of the band Ampline, performing acoustic, spare, melodic explorations led by Deal’s unique and sometimes distorted vocals, her voice familiar to those who remember the once-ubiquitous Breeders. If you were sentient 20 years ago, you probably owned “Last Splash”, with it’s beautiful singles “Cannonball” and “Divine Hammer”, and its surfy instrumentals, and the sweet chick-rock vocals led by twin sister and Pixie Kim, and harmonized sweetly by Kelley. You probably also loved the “Cannonball” video on early-90s MTV, an unimaginable pre-WWW/Youtube/Smartphone era when the cable network stumbled into post-Cobain indie-land, and played these things called music videos, because it was the only place you could see them, kiddies.

The lead-up to our interview lead me to revisit “Last Splash” and “Pod” and “Safari EP”, and well-up all nostalgic-like with my memories of seeing the Breeders ’92 show at the old 9:30 Club, which almost made me forget that Deal has had plenty to do since then; first with Kelley Deal 6000, then with the reformed and rejuvenated Breeders, first in ’02 then in ’08. And while I did just see a friend of mine sing “Cannonball” at karaoke, fear not, middle-aged geezers, the Breeders haven’t gone away, but the other day Kelley talked to me about her new project and about being among the current crop of veterans that are still doing it and doing it well.

She also got curious about the Ethiopian food I told her about on 9th St. You haven’t lived until you’ve explained Injera to a Breeder…

Jonathan Druy: Are there any memories or feelings about DC you have from past tours?

Kelley Deal: I do remember our ’92 show at the old 9:30 club – DC at the time was considered really hip and really happening, and I just remember being a rube from Dayton, and I didn’t know about any of this stuff and I remember thinking “wow, this is really cool!”. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: James Morrison @ 930 Club, 5/16/2012

Today we are giving away a pair of tickets to the sold-out James Morrison show at 930 Club on Wednesday, May 16th! The UK artist is on tour of the US in support of his third album, The Awakening, released in 2011 on Island Records. You can check out the video for his single “One Life” here, and follow James Morrison on twitter here.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. This show is SOLD OUT!

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 4pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email in 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 5/11-5/13

Photo courtesy of vpickering
Fire-eating
courtesy of vpickering

Ugh…another Monday. And with the weather finally staying nice, it makes going back to work all the more difficult. And, of course, right afte typing that, I check the weather report and there’s a 100% chance of rain for Monday. We just can’t win on Mondays, can we? Well, let’s be happy the weather was excellent for our time off and bad for the time we spend in the office. And fear not, only two more weeks till Memorial Day weekend.  Let’s get to these awesome pictures and then start our week! Continue reading →

capitals hockey
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Dale Hunter: Samurai Warrior


Photo courtesy of photopete
courtesy of photopete

Dale Hunter doesn’t talk much. But the Washington Capitals head coach is quietly leading his team into a Game 7 showdown in Madison Square Garden tomorrow night against the top-ranked New York Rangers.

The quiet but unflappable Hunter seems to exude confidence in his players, and they have responded in kind. Hunter has taken a team troubled by past playoff collapses and turned them into believers in his system and in themselves. The biggest difference between this post-season and the past four playoff failures is the man behind the bench.

There is only one possible explanation: Dale Hunter is actually a Samurai warrior. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Friday Happy Hour: The Getaway at The Passenger

That photo is terrible. I know. Let me explain. It was taken around 1:30am last night, when I was not planning to taste anything critically and conditions were sub-optimal for drink photography. When this arrived, though, it was so amazingly good, I had to grab my phone and snap a photo because I knew I had to share this cocktail with you.

You may notice that the rest of the table is covered in cans of Schlitz. I have no complaint with cheap beer drinking and was not really trying to be the one person ordering a complicated cocktail when everybody else is drinking out of tall boys – but I had already been drinking beer since 5:00, mostly for my job, and I wanted to be tasting something else. It was relatively slow and I asked our lovely server Adriana if I could have something with Cynar. (Regular readers of this column will not be surprised by the request, Cynar being my fall-back comfort liquor of choice.)
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Food and Drink, Homebrewing, The Features
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Homebrew DC: Dry Stout Recipe

Photo courtesy of Bernt Rostad
Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel
courtesy of Bernt Rostad

This is another in a series of articles about homebrewing in the DC area by Carl Weaver of RealHomebrew.com. Want to learn about making your own beer? Keep an eye out for Friday homebrew features.

If you are like me and are a big Guinness fan, you may have toyed with the idea of trying to craft your own black brew. If you have, then good news: stouts are easy! This homebrew recipe is exactly what you are looking for.

Stouts are mostly associated with England and Ireland and are offshoots of Porters. As Porter styles evolved, the thicker and more robust Porters began to be referred to as “Stout Porters.” Eventually, the Stout developed into its own style and gained a devoted following.

In general, Stouts are very dark to black in color and have a roasty flavor. The hop flavor and aroma are minimal, though there are a few style exceptions with a pronounced hop presence such as the Imperial or Russian Stout. Stout styles can range from dry to sweet, relatively low to high alcohol content, vary from light to heavy bodied, and may have a hint of fruity esters.

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