Category Archives: The Features

These are our features. They come back either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

The Features
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Bluegrass Harmony on H St.

Banjo Insanity

It’s a Thursday night on H Street NE, and just past the valet’s in front of the Atlas theatre and the queue of Georgetown-esque individuals waiting to enter the Country Club, a musical twang floats from the second floor of SOVA Espresso & Wine. Upstairs, warmth: the warm wash of bluegrass standards with their four-part harmonies, brick and deep red and brown hues, upholstered antique chairs, a bar din subdued by listening. Every other week on Thursdays, the cafe hosts Bluegrass Night, alternately dubbed Banjo Insanity. Continue reading →

Downtown, Food and Drink, History, Night Life, The Features, The Mall
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First Look: W Hotel Washington

Washington Monument from POV, W Hotel Washington

"Washington Monument from POV, W Hotel Washington" by Jenn Larsen, on Flickr

Yesterday I got a sneak peek at the W Hotel Washington, due to soft open next Wednesday. I’m so sorry I wasn’t allowed to photograph the interior for you. Because really, it’s absolutely gorgeous. I hope my words will give you a taste of what to expect on July 8.

First off, it’s impossible to tell what kind of vibe the W will actually have when its public spaces are filled with people. Will it deliver on the promise of some seriously stunning interior design and incredible libation talent? Or will it devolve into a pretentious hive? I can’t answer that now, but I do know that designer Dianna Wong’s wry elegant touches set the stage for a crazy scene.

I was happy to see the original architecture has been renovated, not gutted, melding the cool classicisim of the old hotel with the arch sensuality of the W style. Empress Josephine, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Lily Allen would all be at home in the grand Living Room, with its blacks and reds and pinstripes in a riff on the idea of “lingerie as a power suit.” The chandeliers are all lit for changing moods and clever little details abound, like the George and Martha Washington silhouettes flirting on the elevators.

My favorite part of this large room is tucked into a corner – the old registration desk with its imposing brass and marble is used as a private alcove with purple banquette seating. It’s the perfect example of how the W went about merging the historic with the new. Continue reading →

Comedy in DC
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Comedy in DC: Hot, Steamy, Humid Standup

Photo courtesy of
‘Seaton Smith’
courtesy of ‘NikolasCo’

I know you’re all coming to the We Love DC 1st Anniversary Party tonight, but once that’s over, you’ll need some other entertainment to distract you from humidity, hordes of tourists, Metro problems, dognappers, and all the other stuff that goes along with the height of summer in DC. So here’s what’s happening in comedy:

Erin Jackson is headlining the Improv Thursday and Friday this week. Jackson is a particular success story for DC Comedy, as she took the first-ever DC Improv Comedy School standup class, and went on to appear on Last Comic Standing, and now she’s returning to the Improv as a headliner.

Last week I mentioned 3 Chord Comedy at the Velvet Lounge on Friday, July 10th. I still think you should check that out, as it’s a pretty outstanding lineup for a mere $2.

On Saturday, July 11th (and several dates thereafter), SpeakeasyDC will be putting on The Sin Show as part of the Capital Fringe Festival. The performers will tell stories themed around the seven deadly sins. Speakeasy specializes in storytelling rather than standup, but this show in particular caught my eye as it features Seaton Smith, who is certainly one of the most artistically versatile comics in the area. You can hear a sample of his (still very funny) storytelling stylings in SpeakeasyDC’s StoryCast.

News, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats Make a Move: Milledge, Hanrahan Traded

Photo courtesy of
‘who wants it?’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

The Kastles aren’t the only ones making moves today, the Nationals traded outfielder Lastings Milledge and relief pitcher Joel “Gas Can” Hanrahan to Pittsburgh for outfielder Nyjer Morgan and reliever Sean Burnett.

Morgan’s got a pretty fair glove and middling power, while Burnett will be another arm for the bullpen, and hopefully an upgrade from less-than-predictable Hanrahan. It’ll probably be Wednesday before we see either Burnett or Morgan in a Nats jersey.

Entertainment, Music, The Features
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July Concert Preview

Photo courtesy of
‘088:365’
courtesy of ‘::FiZ::’

Here comes July! As you consider going to concerts in the dead of summer, I just want to impart a few words of wisdom: you can’t always count on the A/C at some of DC’s music venues. I’m thinking specifically of Rock and Roll Hotel, where it is nearly impossible to go to a show without being overwhelmed by how freaking hot and sweaty it gets. So dress accordingly, and maybe consider an outdoor nighttime concert with some breathing room to avoid getting a faceful of sweaty pit from that guy shouting “Woooo!” next to you. Continue reading →

Eat Like Me, Food and Drink, We Love Food
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Eat Like Me: June’s Best Dishes

Photo courtesy of
‘this is generally what my life looks like at 6:30 p.m. any given day’
courtesy of ‘needlessspaces’

People ask me all the time if they can have my job. NO! Mine. Well, you can have my day job, but you’d have to fight me to the death for my foodie blogging job. And it would be your death, not mine. Along the way, through press dinners, media previews, nights out with friends, and places I’m reviewing for our We Love Food feature, I run into some damn good dishes (for up-to-the minute reviews, follow me on Twitter). Forkful after forkful, I wind up eating some dishes that make me think back with ultimate fondness, and leave me longing for them. Last month I told you all about with them in a little piece I called Eat Like Me. It was so popular with you guys, and I enjoyed writing it so much, that I decided I’ll do it every month. Sort of like a what’s worth it of my food intake – a satoralist of food, if you will.

So. June. It was rainy, right? Ugh. But it was also chock full of food for me, my calendar was overwhelming. June is a busy month in the foodie world. New warm weather menus come hot off the presses, restaurants open their doors to hungry summer crowds, and my friends want to eat out more. It’s pretty glorious. So, click on through to see what made the cut.  Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo


Matthew, Cowboy. 7th and H, Chinatown, DC by Matt.Dunn

One of the things I love about photography is that there are many different genres to keep things interesting for both the photographer and the viewer.  I’ve dabbled in sports, macro, street, nature, and portrait photography and found that I enjoy something about each style.  While each genre requires honing unique skills and sometimes learning how to use specialty equipment, they all rely on a core set of fundamentals such as framing, lighting, and of course the ever so important, being in the right place at the right time.

In my opinion, the genre that separates itself from others is portrait photography due to the fact that it requires the photographer to deal with actual other living human beings, a skill that is dwindling in our society.  It’s one thing to hunt around a garden for the perfect flower, set up your tripod, and wait for a break in the breeze.  It’s another thing to sit on a sideline and fire off ten shots of a tennis player during their serve with your fast telephoto lens.  But it’s an entirely different thing to get a model, sometimes a complete stranger, to pose for you and have the resulting photograph be worth its weight in ink.

Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Capital Drafting: 2009 Draft Weekend

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_0844 Russia-USA, Whatever it Takes’ courtesy of ‘Ezio Armando’

Thought hockey was over? Think again. For many, the NHL Draft is one of the three most important days in the NHL’s season, next to the trading deadline in Feb/Mar and the July 1st Unrestricted Free Agent date. It’s on this day that the future of franchises can be seen and debated, based on what prospects are selected – and sometimes, what deals can be wheedled from competitors.

The Capitals were pretty silent on the trade front, something altogether expected. The core of the team is pretty solid and there was little speculation that GM George McPhee would deal away anyone to move up in the draft. There was practically no chance the Caps could get their skates on anyone in the Top Ten so unless an offer got dropped on their desk, nothing major was going to happen. The only trade really of note involved the Caps and Coyotes, a deal for a fifth-round pick in next year’s draft for defenseman Sami Lepisto, who only played seven games this season.

Defense is the one area the team looks to shore up. While Karl Alzner is sitting in Hershey ready to move up, the team needs to decide its future with restricted free agents Shaone Morrisonn, Jeff Schultz and Milan Jurcina. With Fedorov and Kozlov departing for Russia, some room on the cap is open and gives the team some breathing room, so expect McPhee to make a play for a more high-profile defenseman at the July 1 UFA deadline. Regardless, the Caps did draft with a more defensive mindset this year, possibly with an eye on the more high-powered multi-pronged offenses being built up in the Eastern Conference, such as Boston, New Jersey, Carolina and Pittsburgh.

The Caps had picks 24, 55, 85, 115, 145, 175 and 205 across the seven-round draft. Overall a solid collection of talent, though most of these players won’t be seen wearing a Caps jersey in the next year or so.

So let’s look over the Caps new and upcoming talent, shall we?

Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The DC 100, The Features
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DC Omnivore 100: #92, Soft Shell Crab

Soft Shell Crab, Al Crostino

"Soft Shell Crab, Al Crostino" by Jenn Larsen, on Flickr

It’s time for another edition of the DC Omnivore 100, where we explore the top one hundred foods every good omnivore should try at least once in their lives…

“Blue Crab Molting Season.” Could there be a sweeter phrase to the foodie ears of our region? Really, it’s one of the best parts of living near the Chesapeake Bay. And for those of us who can’t be bothered with the hacking and slashing to get to the meat out of the crab while in its hard shell, it’s especially sweet.

It seems every restaurant currently has a soft shell crab special on the menu, and that’s no coincedence. From roughly May through June, our local blue crabs are casting aside their old shells, like giggling girls getting beach-ready. It takes about four days for their new shells to harden, so before they become bitter and jaded (ok, I know I’m milking a bad metaphor, I just can’t resist, it’s like a disease) snap them up.

A perfect soft shell crab dish has that signature play with texture – the crisp shell giving way to succulent crabmeat with a little burst of the sea. But I know this particular texture is not initially to everyone’s liking. My gateway dish was soft shell crab roll, often called “Spider” roll. Continue reading →

The Features, Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 6/26 – 6/28/09

Photo courtesy of
‘Wild DC – Immature Bald Eagle – 6-27-09’ courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

The weekend before the ‘mass exodus’ of the Fourth holiday…and it was a gorgeous one. Eastern Market now open, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in full swing, boating and water sports on area rivers and even simple ‘backyard’ fun – our area photographers caught it all.

So before this short work week gets into full swing, sit back and reminisce a little. And get ready for the long weekend!

Continue reading →

Monumental, The Features
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Monumental: Eastern Market

IMG_4670

While Monumental is traditionally the realm of the markers and monuments and memorials left throughout the city, Council Chairman Graham said something at this morning’s re-opening of Eastern Market that stuck with me. He said that Eastern Market was DC’s own Monument, more so than any of the Washington monuments. He couldn’t be more right. Let’s take a look at our rededicated monument to city life.

Eastern Market was constructed in 1873, designed by Adolf Cluss. The District was attempting to urbanize and part of that plan was a series of local markets for produce and meat. Cluss designed Central and Eastern markets as part of the new system. As the Post would point out in the wake of the fire, Eastern Market is truly local. The architecture of the space, done in the Italian style, in old red brick, is set at odds with the Federal style of granite, marble and columns.

Continue reading →

We Love Food
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We Love Food: Firefly

Photo courtesy of Me

Firefly, courtesy of Me

Firefly‘s gotten a lot of mention around here but we’ve never done a comprehensive review. When I had to pick a place to meet an out-of-town friend who was staying off Scott Circle, Firefly seemed like a no-brainer selection. My darling wife and I met her and another dining companion on a Thursday night expecting a highly enjoyable experience.

We did not get exactly what we expected.

Continue reading →

Life in the Capital, People, The District, The Features
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Why I Love DC: Kirk

Photo courtesy of
‘Pointy Houses in a Row’
courtesy of ‘Bill Jones Jr’

“Creative people have LA and stylish people have NYC,” said a person that I met at the bar. “Nerds like you and I, we’ve got Washington. It’s our city, man.” Flippant, yes, but philosophical at the same time.  This stranger that sat down next to me on a Friday evening hit at what, to me, makes DC a great place: community. It’s part Mecca for CLA geeks, like myself, and part city of unseen potential.  Since getting to know Washington, DC, I realized that its a place that most Americans visit, but never actually see.  The true beauty of this city is known only to residents and this provides a strata of a commonality that binds them together.  Why do I love DC?  Community, plain and simple.

I’ll admit that I lived in the area for a solid 4 years before I began to discover that DC actually had a personality. Cracking the marble facade of the city takes time and effort. To most, Washington, DC is a giant, historical landmark. It holds our nation’s great monuments and provides beds for its leaders. It’s an effective, yet insular bastion of power that lacks the cultural panache of other, major cities.

Continue reading →

Music, We Love Arts
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This Week in Music: Play it Loud: The Antlers/Cotton Jones @ IOTA


DSC08369 by musicalhedonist

Love can’t buy a full room, no matter what the prophets of new media might say. Even when the gushing adoration gets issued from the fast-typing manicured fingers of a name-checking rock critic, it’s not enough to ensure that there will actually be warm-drinking bodies filling the club when the band finally walks out — at least not at Iota.

The Antlers shuffled into Iota on the last languid Thursday night, dragging the sonic fruits of an inaugural album, “Hospice,” and the slow-snowball of a slew of positive reviews and early “best in 2009” lists, stretching from Pitchfork to NPR. It’s the type of trilling whisp-heavy work, managing to build and stretch droning little pop songs into eerily depressing, slow building atmospheric foothills. The dark little missive may enchant and bewitch, but make it through the ten tracks, and a very strong chance that you probably won’t be in the state of mind known as happy.

It’s an album that plays better in the headphones than the speakers — the canvasses quaver but rarely overwhelm — but on Thursday when I sat down with front man Peter Silberman, drummer Michael Lerner and keyboard stroking effects-slathering master Darby Cicci, the trio promised that the sound would be brought.

“We try to make each song as dense and expansive as we can,” said Silberman. “I don’t always know who’s making each sound or where it’s coming from, but we try to build each song as full as we can.”

Continue reading →

The Features
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We Love Weekends: June 27-28

Photo courtesy of
‘A step back in time’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

We asked on Twitter last week if you wanted to see a weekend feature, and the response was overwhelmingly and unequivocally YES! We wanted, though, to differentiate ourselves from all the other blogs by actually telling you what we’re doing this weekend. This isn’t us combing through all the event listings looking for stuff, this is us doing what we love to do on the weekends. Think we’re missing something? Tell us what you’re up to in the comments.

Katie: I do believe that this weekend calls for the pool. I could be seen at a number of area pools, but most likely, I’ll be hanging out at the Capitol Skyline Hotel rocking out at the space-camp themed Brightest Young Things Saturday pool party. I hear there will be astronaut ice cream and a moon bounce. Jasmine and I are hoping to hold down the “hot girl” contingency at space camp, sans fanny packs and tevas plus bathing suit and fabulous sunglasses. If that’s a little much for me, I could be spotted downing dippin’ dots and going down the slide at the Upton Hill public pool in Arlington.

Ben S.: Screw DC. I’m heading to the big city with a DC-envy problem in the great old state of New York. The weekend is all about sight-seeing and touristy stuff: a show on Broadway perhaps, a visit to Ellis Island, a stroll through Central Park. But the real reason I’m heading north is to be there Monday and Tuesday for the Personal
Democracy Forum.

Tom: Friday night I’ll be singing the Bach B Minor Mass at Schlesinger Hall in Alexandria with Choralis. It’s a phenomenal piece of music, especially with full orchestra and a choir of nearly 90 voices. Saturday, after I take my tux back, I’ll be hitting the Courthouse Farmer’s Market for some produce & cheese, and then it’s off to Bluemont to Great Country Farms for pea-picking and grabbing our share of produce. Sunday, though, I think will be hitting the neighborhood pools after brunch, or perhaps a trip out for Gelato in Clarendon, and cooking with fire at the hacienda.

Continue reading →

Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA
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Steny Hoyer Asks for $3B for Metro

Photo courtesy of
‘House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Failed Conservative Policies’
courtesy of ‘Center for American Progress Action Fund’

If Metro wants to live up to their responsibilities, Councilman and Metro Chairman Jim Graham says Metro will need approximately $1 Billion to do it. Today, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has petitioned Congress for $3 Billion. I’m not sure why the figure mis-match, perhaps it’s to negotiate down from, perhaps it’s to replace every 1000-, 2000- and 3000-series cars, but there it is, clear as day.

Will WMATA get the money? I don’t know. If there was a way to make sure that it was spent properly, I’d endorse that, since I trust Metro to manage its money about as much I trust your average quasi-governmental organization to spend its money well: Not. At. All.

So, will this help? Or will Senator Coburn strike it down, yet again?

Music, The Features
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Concert: Vieux Farka Touré

Photo courtesy of
‘Vieux Farka Toure at Rock and Roll Hotel’
courtesy of ‘dcjasmine’

You may not have heard of Vieux Farka Toure, but perhaps you should. NPR knows about him. The New York Times knows about him. The dirty hippies who were standing next to me and went to Bonnaroo do, too. If you have admiration for (or skill of your own at) guitar, it’s easy to appreciate the kind of talent it takes to make his guitar sound the way he does. Vieux is from Mali (in West Africa), the son of the famous Ali Farka Touré, and he visited our own Rock and Roll Hotel Monday night. Continue reading →

Downtown, Fun & Games, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Slam Dunk Contest

Photo courtesy of
‘Slam dunk’
courtesy of ‘cruffo’

DC basketball is like a wave rising and falling.  Teams like the  ’07 Hoyas raise our hopes, while the Wizards make a yearly attempt at breaking our spirits. On Saturday, Sprite and the NBA will give locals a chance to show what DC is really about.  The Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown, an amateur dunk competition, will be held on that day at 4pm at an outdoor court between 9th and 10th streets on Pennsylvania Ave NW.  Admission is $10 and attendees will be able to vote on their favorite dunks via text messaging. Thanks to Wendy for giving us the heads up!

News, Talkin' Transit, The Features, WMATA, WTF?!
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Talkin’ Transit: Hard Questions

Photo courtesy of
‘Franconia-Springfield metro station’ courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

So Metro, now what?

That’s the question in the back of everyone’s minds here in the District after Monday’s tragic Metro accident. It’s not an easy question to ask and in the coming days, how John Catoe and WMATA answers it may well make or break the transit agency.

It will certainly redefine it, for good or ill.

One of the biggest issues I’m seeing so far is the continued lack of communication from WMATA. From the top down, Metro needs a serious reworking of how it communicates with the public, emergency personnel and with itself. Catoe’s shameful performance on WTOP yesterday morning is just one poor example; his response was a canned one, not addressing the reporter’s question but instead rambling into an answer I’d heard verbatim elsewhere. The response was so off the mark that WTOP had to interrupt him twice to try bringing him back to focus.

But more damning is the failure of Metro to let emergency responders know what the magnitude of the situation was in the first critical minutes after the collision. DCFD officials have been critical of how understated the accident was described; fortunately, rescuers realized the magnitude of the incident upon arrival and summoned additional help. But the question remains – what if the proper amount of help had arrived at the start? Would some of the victims be alive today?

Continue reading →

The Features
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Dear Bill Bryson, I Have a Bone to Pick With You

Photo courtesy of
‘The Lost Continent’
courtesy of ‘jmerelo’

Bill Bryson is kind of a jerk. This thought crossed my mind once every few chapters as I read his 1989 novel The Lost Continent. This was my first experience reading Bryson, though his name and bookjackets are so ubiquitous I figure he must have some friends at the New York Times or Barnes & Noble or something. Granting room for the possibility that Bill Bryson Narrator is as much a character as any, I found that in The Lost Continent the Bryson Narrator is in turn judgemental, cranky, elitist, disparaging, borderline racist and sadly determined to be unimpressed by most anything.  I’m also well-aware that my judgements of Bryson might be unfair, and my observations would have no place here if he had not, 100-some pages into the book, decided to make his way up through Virginia to dedicate roughly 9 pages to a stay in Washington, DC.

The Lost Continent is Bryson’s travelogue of his nearly-14,000-mile trip across and around and within America. I thought maybe for a second that this trip must have been bankrolled by a Tina Fey-esque book advance, but as The Lost Continent pre-dated such tomes as A Walk in the Woods and A Short History of Nearly Everything by more than a decade, I’m not quite sure who ponied up the dough. All I can say is I’m infinitely jealous, which you can add to other wrinkles in my credibility, not least of which being that I was still in diapers when Bryson made his journey. After two decades of living in the UK, Bryson decides to return to Des Moines, Iowa, land of his birth, and set out in search for the America of the American Dream. The America of Leave it to Beaver, where the corner druggist, while he’s out sweeping his stoop, waves to a young Jimmy Stewart-esque individual as he rides his bike down Main Street on his way to the sandlot to play ball. Suffice to say, Bryson winds up disappointed more often than not, as the America he witnesses features less tree-lined avenues and picturesque town squares, and more destitute, ramshackle homes and gaudy and tasteless absurdity. Continue reading →