Category Archives: The Features

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

Essential DC, Talkin' Transit, The Features
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Talkin’ Transit: Tags and Traffic

Photo courtesy of
‘W.H. Taft (LOC)’ courtesy of ‘The Library of Congress’

Did you know that vehicle registration in the District has dropped?

According to a new report being presented today, registrations dropped almost six percent between 2005 and 2008, from 258,100 to 243,200. The drop is significant in that when compared to U.S. Census data, the population in DC increased 1.7 percent.

As a comparison, Maryland and Virginia communities around the DC metro area increased between 3 and 6 percent.

What’s not known is why the drop has occurred, though there are theories.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, Sports Fix, The Features
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Eastern Quarterfinals: Caps vs Rangers

Photo courtesy of
‘Ovechkin Waits For Puck’ courtesy of ‘clydeorama’

After one of their most successful regular seasons ever, the Washington Capitals are now ready to begin what many call the “real” hockey season: the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Tonight kicks off Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, with the second seed Caps holding home ice advantage in facing the seventh seed New York Rangers. So how does it all break down, and what do we think will happen?

The Rangers are coming in with a simplified game plan: attack, attack, attack – and hope that goalie Henrik Lundqvist can stop all the pucks flung his way. It’s not the most sure-fire strategy, but it’s kept the Rangers hanging on the last half of the season and slipping them into the playoffs with a decent 11-6-1 record after March 4. Continue reading →

Sports Fix
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Fenty & Council ticket conflict is more than it appears

Photo courtesy of
‘Nate W.’
courtesy of ‘MikeWas’

Today’s Washington Post has a story on a now-annual jerk contest over box seats in National’s Stadium. In brief, the city gets tickets to all the games and, according to WaPo, one box goes to the mayor and the other to the council, via the Sports and Entertainment Commission. The Nationals have delivered the tickets to Mayor Fenty directly, however, and he’s handing them out to his liking.

However if you look at the lease agreement as I found it[pdf], however, neither scenario is how it’s supposed to unfold and there’s more going on here. Continue reading →

Foggy Bottom, Food and Drink, We Love Food
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We Love Food: Brunch @ Circle Bistro

French Toast at Circle Bistro

Okay, okay, I know, I get it. I’m on a brunch kick. I promise next We Love Food, I’ll write about another meal, I’ll branch out, but really? LOOK AT THAT PHOTO, you can’t not love brunch. Om nom nom nom. That my friends, is the french toast with whipped marscapone from Circle Bistro.

Circle Bistro is located in the Circle Hotel, right off of Washington Circle in Foggy Bottom/West End. My friend Rachel and I headed there a few Sundays ago to partake in my current favorite meal. We walked in about 15-20 minutes early for our reservation (it’s all about the OpenTable points, my friends!), and the manager-type/host was curt and rude, only agreeing to seat us if we were willing to wait for a server to free up to take care of us. He huffed all the way to our table, and was brusque handing us our menus, basically taking it out on us that we were early.

I realize that early guests can be an inconvenience if you’re short on staff. I too have been a hostess at one of the busiest restaurants in Charlotte, and dealt with more than my fair share of difficult table assignments and situations, I get it. But this was easy, we were happy to settle in for a while, brunch is the most relaxed meal possible. But honestly – don’t promise me slow service from the get go, it’s a bad start, and doesn’t make me feel like you are willing to be accommodating. Especially when we were one of four total tables. Color me unimpressed.  I sat down, hoping the food would save the situation. Continue reading →

24 in DC, The Features
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24 in DC: Episode 16 (1:00am to 2:00am)

Jack Defends Freedom

Guess what? There was actually some geography to snark about this week!

Recap time! Freckles’ Cleavage, Jack’s middle name is Exposition. Moss retreats from Fauxwater, Freckles wants to call Jack’s daughter, and the President caves to Jonas’ demands.

And we’re off: Hey look, Tony has figured out what the deal is with the missiles.

So Jonas is on his way to the White House, while Jack reminds the President that we don’t NEGOTIATE with terrorists, we TORTURE them. For America. After getting a tacit go-ahead from President Woman President, Tony rigs the RP-7 rocket fuel to blow… with the three charges of C4 he just HAPPENS to have with him for JUST SUCH AN OCCASION. (I mean, who doesn’t, right? It’s a girl’s best friend.) Continue reading →

We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Antebellum

antebellum
Jessica Frances Dukes as Edna and Jenna Sokolowski,shot by Stan Barouh

I pondered letting this one pass without comment; one of the virtues of writing for a blog rather than a Paper of Record is that I’m not obligated to weigh in. In the end, though, I decided I’d weigh in, however briefly. In no small part because I’m so struck by the difference in reaction between Missy Frederick over at DCist and Peter Marks of the Washington Post. Continue reading →

The Features, Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 4/10 – 4/12/2009

Photo courtesy of
‘The Cruel Bird of Spring that No One Knows’ courtesy of ‘andertho’

Welcome back to the work week; hope you didn’t stuff yourselves too full of chocolaty, sugary goodness over the holiday (or non-holiday, if you’re inclined).

The Cherry Blossom Festival is now in the past, having closed out with a ‘bang’ (that’d be the usual festival-ending fireworks); maybe now we’ll get a little peace before our ‘second wave’ of tourists hit in mid-May. Time to get out and about to enjoy our mid-Atlantic springtime – provided we can get out of these chilly mornings!

A quick look at the weekend as captured by you. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Sports Fix: Opening Day!

Photo courtesy of
‘Slapshot Flies the Flag’
courtesy of ‘clydeorama’

Capitals
Record: 50-24-8
Last Two Weeks: 5-2
Place: Won the Southeast, Finished 2nd in the Eastern Conference

The Playoffs have returned to the Verizon Center’s Ice, and the Caps will be hosting the NY Rangers for the first round of the Stanley Cup. Thanks to the Caps’ 2nd place finish, they’ll have home-ice advantage down to the Conference finals, and perhaps then, depending on if first-seed Boston is still playing. Tickets go on sale shortly after the schedule’s set, with games probably starting as early as Saturday this week.

The Caps finished the year against the Rangers at 3-1, losing the one game in a Shoot-out. The Rangers are 3-3 in their last two weeks of the season, with losses to Carolina and Boston.

Wizards
Record: 19-61
Last Two Weeks: 2-5
Place: Last. Still. Always.

Two games remain for the Wizards. Two chances to get a win and beat out the 2000-2001 season’s awful record of 19-63. But, they’re facing #2 Boston, followed by Toronto. It’s a bit tough to see the guys going 21-61, but perhaps 20-62? Either way, an atrocious season for the Wizards, largely due to the absence of Agent 0, or perhaps a coaching deficit. Any way you look at this season, it’s fractally bad. Here’s hoping with a decent draft pick, and some off-season practice, they might be a halfway decent team come the Fall. That’s about all you can hope for, I’m afraid.

Continue reading →

Essential DC, Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, Night Life, The Features
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Happy Hour Food: Fried Deliciousness

Photo courtesy of
‘Fried Pickle Chips’
courtesy of ‘SauceSupreme’

IT’S FRIDAY! Aaaaaaayyy! And you know what Friday says to me? It says HAPPY HOUR! This week has had some gorgeous weather in it and I think I’ve got a full-out case of some serious spring fever. It’s time we get out there, DC, put on your game face and start practicing for summertime. I’ve planned and been invited to more happy hours in the past couple of weeks than I had been all winter long!

One of the first things I consider at my happy hours is the availability of food. Cheap food, preferably, but also delicious food. And food that goes with beer. You know what food goes best with beer? Fried food!! So click on through for a sampling of my favorite fried happy hour food and where to find it.  Continue reading →

Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, The Features, Tourism
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Tourism: National Zoo

Pandamania!

Pandamania! by flickr user needlessspaces

The National Zoo was the second major DC tourism spot that I hit after I moved here. The first was the Washington Monument. Our Zoo is great – it’s my second favorite zoo I’ve ever been to (second only to the zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. No I’m not joking, that zoo is phenomenal.) so when my parents came into town to visit, we decided to make the journey.

It sort of feels wrong, you know? Just walking right in without paying. Put aside the guilt and it’s actually a fabulous feeling. It allows people to come back and back again, and it seems like there are people who truly take advantage. As we were walking in a runner in full workout garb jogged past – what a great run! Aside from dodging all the bumbling people and strollers, you’d have incredibly entertaining scenery and quite a steep hill workout. Envious.

As you enter the zoo you’re faced with starting your zoo tour by heading down towards the pandas on the the Asia walk, or going down the entire hill and doing everything on the way back up. I don’t have an opinion either way. But I do recommend that you print out a map before you go – available on the zoo web site, you can save yourself money by printing it out on your own. Otherwise they charge for a take-with-you map. Fair, I think, since entry is free. So off you go to meet and greet all the animals. Continue reading →

The District, The Features, Where We Live
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Where We Live: Brookland

Photo courtesy of
‘snowy, icy, icky’
courtesy of ‘wageslaves’

Welcome to the first installment of a new feature on We Love DC! Every two weeks, we’ll introduce you to a different neighborhood in the city. This week: Brookland! Located in Northeast, Brookland is full of small-town charm with the amenities of being in the middle of a big city.  It’s walkable, full of history, and rich in community character.

History: The neighborhood gets its name from the 1840 Brooks Mansion, home of Colonel Jehiel Brooks (a veteran of the War of 1812).  In the 1870s, the B&O Railroad opened Brooks Station adjacent to the Brooks Estate, which provided commuter rail service to Downtown DC and Silver Spring.  In 1888, the city’s first electric streetcar line opened, and the area grew quickly.  Brookland developed as a streetcar suburb, and in 1889 the Catholic University of America opened on a 70-acre tract of land near the station.   In the mid twentieth century, religious groups were encouraged to buy property in the area to support the university, and thus the area became known as “Little Rome” with a high concentration of Catholic institutions. Continue reading →

24 in DC, Fun & Games, Technology, The Features, WTF?!
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Amateur Spies (Like Us)

Photo courtesy of Don Whiteside
WLDC Stealth, courtesy of Don Whiteside

Unless this is your first time here you’re well aware that we’ve become a little obsessive over Jack Bauer’s tour through our city. We’ve got 15 17 hours worth of 24 recaps under our belt and fully intend to laugh (in order to fight off the tears) through the remaining 9 7 hours of Hollywood’s molestation of our geography. (Yes, Tiff, I suck at math.) So really, about the last thing we needed was to be further encouraged.

Enter the International Spy Museum.

The folks over at the museum’s retail store sent us some toys to play with, after having been entertained by our 24 recaps. So early in March, three items arrived in plain brown boxes by an unmarked panel truck. In the middle of the night.

After some email haggling, jovial threats and bickering, the WLDC staff managed to split up the loot gifts and proceeded to play with them: a micro-cam recorder, a ninja sword umbrella and night vision goggles. And now, we’re going to tell you all about it.

Continue reading →

Alexandria, We Love Drinks
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We Love Drinks: The Majestic

IMG00014

Earlier this winter WLDC Author Jasmine, along with another friend and I, headed out for a ladies night in Old Town. We made our way down King Street, and wound up at The Majestic where we snagged a seat at the bar and sipped some very classy cocktails.

The cocktail menu boasts, “Our cocktails are made with fresh ingredients and take a bit more time than most. Thank you for your patience. We promise they are worth the wait!” Having a front row seat to the two mixologists behind the bar, the menu isn’t joking. They bartenders pick fresh mint out of a large bundle and hand crush it carefully for the Mint Julep. Decorative twists are done one at a time, fresh for each cocktail. I was smitten, each drink is incredibly labor intensive, and the longer we sat there, the more impressed I became. Continue reading →

DC Victory Gardens
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DC Victory Gardens: Assembling Your Implements of Home Preservation

Photo courtesy of
‘Filling jars’
courtesy of ‘FamilyNature’

So, you’ve got your garden under way. Or maybe you’re anxiously awaiting the beginning of your CSA. You’ve  armed yourself with a good cookbook or two so you’ll have some basic recipes for that eggplant you inevitably end up with. You wander through your nearest farmer’s market every week, wistfully looking for the first hothouse tomatoes of the season.  And then there’s the inevitable result: the moment the Westmoreland Berry Farm strawberries look any good, you buy 8 quarts, get them home, and realize that even if you could fit them all in there, they only keep in the fridge for 3 days, and that there’s no way you can possibly eat that many in that time.  Not that this has ever happened to me. I’ve certainly never walked out of a farmer’s market wondering how I managed to buy $90 of fruit and had to hold a sangria party to consume it all… *ahem*

When you can’t foist any more zucchini on your neighbors and coworkers, when you’re tired of pesto, and when you’re embarrassed at the number of peaches you allowed to go bad in your dining room while you were looking for the right cobbler recipe, you realize: You’ve got to find a way to preserve this stuff. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Music, Special Events, The District, We Love Arts, WMATA
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We Love Arts: Cherry Blast

I think we can all agree that one of the reasons “we love DC” is the arrival of spring each year when our city is transformed from a bleak, gray land of zombies into a cheery land of fresh-faced partiers.  The harsh winter weather is behind us, the cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom, girls swap their jeans for skirts, and it’s time to start planning how you’ll enjoy every waking minute before the sweltering heat invades our city.

What better way to celebrate the disappearance of winter than checking out the National Cherry Blossom Festival?  While it officially started on March 28th, it runs until April 12th and is packed full of fun things to do, ranging from blossom tours to photo safaris to wicked awesome Japanese-themed art fashion anime parties.  Say what?  That’s right, on Friday the Pink Line Project kicks into gear again to throw a party that is sure to be the highlight of this year’s festival.  Enter stage left: Cherry Blast.

Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Meet Madame Lardofly by LaTur

Every year around this time, camera shutters from around the world open and close, capturing thousands and thousands of photos of our beloved cherry blossoms.  You see shots of the blossoms singled out against the brilliant blue sky, shots that show dense clusters of pink, blossomy goodness, shots of the hords of tourists that make their annual pilgrimage to the Tidal Basin, and even shots of clowns scaring the tourists away.  But how often do you see a pig with a mohawk, dressed in a pink cherry blossom dress and wearing pink tinted goggles?  For me the answer is simply, “Never.”

Fellow Flickrite, LaTur captured this unique photo of Madame Lardofly over the weekend, winning my pick as best National Cherry Blossom Festival photo.  I’ve lived in DC for about five years now, and while many area photographers never seem to get tired of taking cherry blossom photos, it has lost its luster with me.  That’s why it takes an unusual shot like this one to get my attention, even if I do end up feeling sorry for the pig.  I guess life could be worse.  After all, she could be sitting next to some eggs and home fries at the Florida Avenue Grill.

24 in DC, The Features
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24 in DC: Episode 15 (12:00 to 1:00a)

jack

Recap: So, who thinks Jack is good and who thinks he’s bad this hour?

12:00

Moss and Alameida whisper sweet nothings to each other while harassing Freckles for satellite imagery. Janis thinks “the subnet is crashing,” which are likely words strung together by people who’ve heard about networks on shows like this one. Surprise! They’re surrounded! Did you really need a satellite to tell you that? Continue reading →

Adventures, Food and Drink, Fun & Games, Night Life, The DC 100
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DC Omnivore 100: #78 Snails

Photo courtesy of
‘Brasserie Beck’
courtesy of ‘webjedi’
Originally, this Omnivore update was for another topic, which was “Beer above 8%” (and will show up soon), but after taking a look at the menu at Brasserie Beck, the Belgian-styled gastropub downtown, I figured I’d better shift focus.

So you ask, “snails?”, what is the most joked about cuisine when you’re trying to gross-out friends doing as a willing entry here rather than on a dare. I have to honestly admit, if it weren’t for my wife, there would be a lot of things, cuisine-wise, I’d never have tried, and snails (not to be confused with their brethren, “escargot”) would not have been the highest on my list. But, figuring this is a top notch establishment, and an unlimited supply of good beer to wash everything down, I said “what the heck!”. For goodness sake, the meal and establishment share most of name (Gastropod vs. Gastropub).

Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Opening Day!

Row of Seats

I wait for this day, every year. Baseball sleeps deep in me each winter, and its return is one I celebrate like a friend who’s come home after a long sojourn. Today marks Opening Day, and I’ll spare you long speeches (but, if you want one, you can read mine) about the game, or its teams. The O’s and Nats both start their seasons today. The Nats play on the road at 4:10pm, today, against the Marlins in Florida, and The Orioles play their home opener (weather permitting…) against the Yankees at Camden at 4:05pm.

Welcome back, Baseball, glad you’re here.