Category Archives: The Features

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

Talkin' Transit, The Features, WMATA
By

Talkin Transit: Parking Power

Photo courtesy of Cowtools
DC Transit System Map, courtesy of Cowtools

So another Inauguration Day hype has been deflated. Metro announced that they’ll be opening up thousands of parking spaces for cars at all Metrorail stations (save one) for Inauguration Day festivities. The prophesied “parkapocalypse” has been debunked.

So what happened?

When setting up initial plans for January 20th, WMATA set aside roughly sixty thousand parking spaces for charter buses. Estimates had over 1,100 of the big behemoths coming into the area, so naturally, where does one park so many buses? Metrorail stations, that’s where.

However, WMATA has only received THIRTY FIVE requests – that’s less than half of one percent of the inflated estimate – and is no longer taking requests. As a result, Metro opened the parking floodgates.

Continue reading →

History, Special Events, The Features
By

Scribbling: Thomas D. Schoonover

Photo courtesy of Ya-Bing
The Unwavering Night Watch, courtesy of Ya-Bing

Thomas D. Schoonover, professor emeritus in history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, will share his impressive research into the Nazi spy story of Heinz August Lüning, discussing how he separated fact from fiction from this story that inspired Graham Greene’s 1958 book, Our Man in Havana. He took a moment to answer some questions about his research and the book; you can meet and discuss Shoonover’s work at noon tomorrow at the International Spy Museum. The event is free and open to the public.

At the beginning of World War II, Heinz August Lüning, posing as a Jewish refugee, was sent to Cuba to spy for the Third Reich. Lüning’s assignment was to collect information about the United States and its allies and report back to the Abwehr, the German military intelligence agency. His Caribbean post was an important vantage point for observing shipping patterns and ship deployments, but things went badly wrong for the bumbling Lüning who was ultimately captured and executed for espionage.

Continue reading →

Adventures, Night Life, The Features
By

Spy At Night

Photo courtesy of M.V. Jantzen
I Spy a Museum, courtesy of M.V. Jantzen

Beginning this Friday, Jan 9th, you can taste the life of a spy for an evening. No, really! Intrigue, deception, daring escapes, delicious drinks and five-star treats – it’s all yours for a night at the International Spy Museum.

It’s a weekly special operations event for adults only. License to Kill card not required.

Every Friday and Saturday night starting at 6 p.m., enjoy a visit to the museum’s interactive experience, Operation Spy. After the hour-long mission, toast your success (or drink away your failure) and your team from the Zola Kitchen bar menu.

Continue reading →

We Love Food
By

We Love Food: Recession Specials

Beck DC Appetizers, by christaki

Beck DC Appetizers, by christaki

Your 401(k) is shrinking, you’re hearing rumors of cutbacks at work, and your house is losing value by the day. You know what you need to take your mind off it?  A nice meal out.  

Restaurants all over the area are offering fixed-price menus designed to entice you through their doors, even while you’re cutting back spending on everything else.  Open Table’s Appetite Stimulus Plan is over, but there are still plenty of specials to be found all over DC.
Continue reading →

Sports Fix
By

Sports Fix: Capitals Soar, Wizards on Floor

Celebrate.png

Ovechkin Celebrates by clydeorama

Capitals
Record: 26-11-3
Last Two Weeks: 6-0
Place: First in the Southeast

The Caps roared through the holidays, racking up a six-game win streak and handily beating down the Rangers on Saturday in a defensive slugfest. The 2-1 victory saw the return of Alexander Semin as well as Semin’s first (slap)fight of his NHL career. With the injury bug now behind them, the Caps are in prime position to pull away from the ‘Canes (10 points behind) and cement their playoff position for April.

Ovechkin and company have the best 40-game start in franchise history, another feather in Coach Boudreau’s cap. However, Ovechkin was snubbed on Saturday when the NHL All-Star teams were announced; due to Montreal fan chicanery, Ovie finished sixth in the overall voting and won’t be on the starting lineup. Boudreau’s quote on ESPN: “It’s dumb. It’s not right the best player in the game is not a starter.”

All of us here at WLDC totally agree (even Ben!). Ovie should be joining Crosby and Malkin on the top line, not on-again-off-again Kovalev, oft-injured Koivu or flash-in-the-pan Tanguay. But alas, Habs fans are rabid and were out to fix the voting, hence Ovie receiving less than 500,000 votes (compared to the 1.2 million each Habs player received). We’ll see who the real All-Star is come January 25th.

Continue reading →

Life in the Capital, Weekend Flashback
By

Weekend Flashback: 1/2 – 1/4/2009

Photo courtesy of trentroche
IMG_4071, courtesy of trentroche

Happy 2009!

Yes, I’m a few days late. I hope your celebrations weren’t too disruptive to your weekend frolicking. From what I’ve seen on Flickr, it seems that everyone was out and about in the area, despite the chilly air.

We’ll be announcing our Holiday Photo Contest winner and runner-up later this week, so stay peeled to We LoveDC! In the meantime, we’ve got museums, metro, cupcakes and Caps for this Monday’s flashback. Please visit these photographers’ flickr streams; some have some great info on their photos. Also let them know you saw their shot right here on Weekend Flashback.

On with the show! Continue reading →

People, Special Events, The Features
By

We Love Resolutions

Fortune Cookie.jpg
fortune cookie: look within by coolmel

Happy 2009, everyone! While I usually don’t get down with the Resolutions for every new year, 2008 was such a spectacular disaster in many ways, I’m glad to try to right the boat from the very beginning. Resolutions work best if you have people to help keep you honest, so we decided as a group to post some of ours here, below the cut. Got a good resolution? Post it in the comments! Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Night Life, We Love Drinks
By

We Love Drinks: Commonwealth

Commonwealth

"Commonwealth" by Jenn Larsen, on Flickr

It isn’t Commonwealth’s fault that it has the single-most worst view of any bar in the city. Entirely fronted in high glass walls, it overlooks the ghastly architectural blight of DC USA, the single-most worst looking development in the city. Billed as a “gastropub,” that British trend of sexing up the old-school pub with better food than the usual slop, it splits the gastro to one side and the pub to the other, making for a bar area that seems an afterthought. However, even with those three design strikes against it, so far I quite like Commonwealth. 

As far as the pub section goes, once you get over the view it’s quite cosy, with small tables and a long leather-bound banquette. It’s been an accommodating space for both large groups and small duets. The beer list has selections from the U.S. commonwealths of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Massachusetts in addition to United Kingdom brews. This makes for seemingly strange bedfellows for the eleven drafts, like Michelob and Bellhaven Twisted Thistle, but I suppose it does make it easier for groups of friends with disparate tastes. There are also beer flights and nightly specials, and you can get a U.S. or a U.K. pint (one dollar more). The bottled selection offers about twenty U.K. and fourteen U.S., and so far friendly servers have been knowledgeable and helpful in navigating the choices. As I’ve said before, I know nothing about beer, so this is a plus for me. To date I’ve tried Samuel Smith’s Lager, Black Sheep Yorkshire Ale, and the reliable Smithwick’s Irish Ale to good success.

If you’re looking to nosh, the pub grub is interesting as well. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, WMATA, WTF?!
By

2008 Retrospective: What You Loved This Year

Babys First Christmas, by wfyurasko

Baby's First Christmas, by wfyurasko

Thanks for a great year, everyone. This has been OUR baby’s first Christmas, and by way of celebration, I thought I’d take a look back at some of our most popular posts this year, in case you missed ’em the first time.

By far, the most popular post this year in terms of both pageviews AND comments has been Welcome to Murky. You Don’t Get It Your Way. Who could forget this tempest in a coffeepot? It had everything: An outraged customer, a small-business-owning coffee artist, downtrodden hourly employees caught between the customer and the boss’ policy, not to mention threats of arson and physical violence…  This is the kind of drama the Internets are made for, people.  Don’t forget to read through the comments for links to other accounts of the incident. Continue reading →

Featured Photo
By

Featured Photo

Fluidity by primplan

With so many awesome photos in our pool lately, it was hard to decide on just one to write about (in fact it always is).  In the end, the creative use of a two second exposure to capture the movement of this belly dancer at Marrakesh won me over.  Sometimes it’s difficult to “think outside of the bun” when you’re shooting, and other times you can be pleasantly surprised by a mistake.  While this would have been a cool shot had the dancer’s movements been frozen, she’s given a whole other dimension by the blur of her upper extremities.

Not to beat a dead horse here people, but time is running out for our Holiday Photo Contest!  Tag your photos with “WLDC holiday 2008″ and drop it into our Flickr pool by January 1st.  It’s 100% free to enter and you could be the lucky winner of some great prizes!

Weekend Flashback
By

Supersized Weekend Flashback: 12/25 – 12/28

Photo courtesy of Sam Ruaat
National Christmas Tree and Chanukah Menorah, courtesy of Sam Ruaat

Welcome back, everyone! Hope your holiday weekend was fantastic and you weren’t sick (like I was). I had a hard time selecting photos from our recent four-day extended weekend, so I’m sure you won’t mind a larger portion of Flashback today.

A quick reminder that there’s only a few days left in our Holiday Photo Contest, which ends Jan 1, 2009 – you know, after the parties and hangovers have passed but before you have to drag yourselves back to work. Please don’t miss out on this, as we’ve got some seriously cool prizes to hand out. Our panel of judges – i.e. all of us bloggers here at WLDC – will start combing through photos on Friday, so make sure you upload yours ASAP.

After the jump, a pleasantly big mix of photos from locals and visitors to our fair area over the last four days. Continue reading →

Monumental, The Features
By

Monumental: Daniel Webster

Diorama Close-up 8

The statue of Daniel Webster that stands next to the Embassy of the Philippines on Massachusetts Avenue is largely ordinary. It’s a 12-foot bronze in the classical revival style, a stern and somber great man with his cape over his shoulder. The Gaetano Trentanove bronze was presented to the United States by Mr. Stilson Hutchins, then founding publisher of the Washington Post. The Congress in 1898 would approve a $4,000 expense for the creation of a pedestal for the statue, and that’s what I found most interesting about the Webster Memorial.

Two bas-relief dioramas (okay, how many of you just flashed on the shoebox dioramas you made as kids? All of you? Rock on!) mark the east and west sides of the pedestal and are exquisite bronze representations of two seminal events in the career of Daniel Webster. Who’s Daniel Webster, you ask? It’s okay, I didn’t remember him either. He was Secretary of State for Presidents Harrison, Tyler and Fillmore, serving two separate stints at the head of Foggy Bottom, from 1841-1843 and again from 1850-1852. He was also a Senator from Massachusetts on two occasions, and a member of the House of Representatives from New Hampshire. He was a member of the Whig Party for much of his career, having followed Henry Clay and others in its creation in opposition to President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats. Continue reading →

Talkin' Transit, WMATA, WTF?!
By

Talkin’ Transit: Metro Memories

Photo courtesy of OberonInDC
PC290059.JPG, courtesy of OberonInDC

Ahhh, memories. Metro has given us some great ones over the last year; in the spirit of the holidays I thought I’d share the twelve most memorable, in no great particular semblance of order. It’s been a year of ups and downs for WMATA, so why don’t we look back and smirk, scowl, smile and shrug at some of Metro’s best – and worst – escapades of 2008, to the (heavily butchered) tune of that great holiday carol, the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Continue reading →

Downtown, The District, We Love Food
By

We Love Food: Little Fountain Cafe

little fountain cafe

I believe I’ve already shared with everyone that I’m a regular reader of the local dc foodie blog Metrocurean. Matt and I were looking for a good date spot to celebrate Christmas together before I head home for the holidays, so I turned to Metrocurean’s “date spot” recommendations. Metrocurean author Amanda suggested a bunch of places I’ve been before, but one I’d never even heard of, Little Fountain Cafe. It’s getting pretty hard to stump me when it comes to good eats in this city. Between writing for WLDC and spending lots of time researching this town, most of the time I’ve at least HEARD of a place if it’s worth anything. But this one was new. A little googling, and an online reservation later, Matt and I were booked, and I was super excited. Everything I had read about said we were in for a treat.

Little Fountain Cafe is located on 18th street, right in the bustle of Adam’s Morgan. In the english basement below Angles Bar, Little Fountain is a hidden gem.

Continue reading →

Special Events, Weekend Flashback
By

Weekend Flashback: 12/19 – 12/21

Photo courtesy of erinhime
courtesy of Erin Hime

There’s a little over ten days left in our first Holiday Photo Contest; have you submitted an entry yet? I’ve seen several great photos – but I have to say that if you want your photo to be eligible you have to follow all the rules, not just putting in the “WLDC holiday 2008” tags. We’d hate to disqualify someone’s photo simply because it didn’t follow all the guidelines. And believe me, there are some great shots so far. I know you have some as well, so why not enter?

It’s a free entry, you can submit up to five, and the prizes are top-notch. What are you waiting for?

Meanwhile, here’s a taste of what everyone did this past weekend. Are we ready for the holidays yet?

Continue reading →

Sports Fix
By

Sports Fix: Redskins, Wizards, Caps and Mark Teixeira

Santa's Helpers.jpg
Santa’s Helpers by M.V. Jantzen

Redskins
Record: 8-7
Last Two Weeks: 1-1
Place: Last in the NFC East

With just a week left in the regular season, it’s good to know that, at least, Jim Zorn’s first season will be .500 or better. With a 10-3 victory, that came down to the very last play, the Redskins sewed up a dead-even season at a bare minimum. The playoffs? Let’s not hold our breath, shall we? The losing streak in the middle of the season made that impossible, I’m afraid.

Next week, the Skins play a pretty meaningless game against the fairly meaningless 49ers. It should be a pretty good time, so long as you like seeing the sixth and seventh string guys in. Sorry, Skins fans. It’s been a tough season to endure. A win next week ties us with last season’s record. The losses to the Rams and the Cowboys at home, though, will be all we can imagine for a while.

Continue reading →

Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, The District
By

WMATA’s balancing act

Photo courtesy of nantekoto
Crowded Subway
courtesy of nantekoto

Tom seems to think it’s a new announcement; I’m not sure. However WMATA’s inauguration website does indicate that in addition to running rush hour schedules all day they’ll be charging peak rates all day.  Parking will be $4 at all locations.

It’s tough to know what the right thing is for WMATA to do. If they’re running the rush hour schedules does that immediately mean they should charge rush rates? Are they charging those rates to reflect their costs or in an effort to encourage people who can to walk? If the latter, is it right for public transport to try – even in a limited way – to discourage the public from using it?

As someone who has in the past wondered if public transport should all be completely free I’m not sure how I feel about WMATA basing price on scarcity and demand. On the other hand it’s clear there’s a limit to how many people they can accommodate, so perhaps this is the most effective – if not the most fair – way to try to limit demand.

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Food and Drink, The DC 100
By

DC Omnivore 100: #34 Sauerkraut

Photo courtesy of bucklava
Swine in Swine, courtesy of bucklava

Our continuing coverage of the 100 foods a DC omnivore must try looks at sauerkraut.

My love affair with sauerkraut probably dates back to the decade I lived in Chicago. Heaping piles of this wonderfully shredded cabbage onto my foot-long hot dogs was a guilty pleasure of my high school and college years – much to the detriment of my friends’ noses, I’m sure.

Funny thing is, at the time I always thought kraut was just a condiment. Yes, yes, sheltered food upbringing here. I could bore you with stories of the oft-boring foods I devoured growing up, but I’m sure you don’t really care.

So when I moved to Pittsburgh and got married, I truly found out the wonders of this simple sour-tasting cabbage.

Continue reading →

Tourism
By

Tourism: Mount Vernon Trail

my bike alongside the mt. vernon trail

I am the proud owner of a Suede by Giant Coasting bike (pictured above, sitting along the trail). It’s delicious. It’s Carolina blue (yay!), and has a pretty little wicker basket on the front, and a tiny bell on the handles so I don’t have to yell “on your left!” constantly. Coasting bikes have automatic bike gear shifts made by Shimano, and the coasting gears are kind of like an automatic transmission for your car. Three gears, and the bike will shift for you, according to your speed. Pretty back-to-basics, re-learning how to ride, type bike. And let’s be real, I’m not a super cyclist, I’m just a coaster (see, it works doesn’t it! Coasting bike, coaster, you get it.) and I just piddle around on my pretty blue bike and take pictures.

So obviously, living in Arlington, I was naturally drawn to the Mount Vernon Trail. With three gears, I can’t be climbing up the Custis Trail to the W&OD, so I head on down to the Mount Vernon Trail for all my off-road riding. It’s one of the things I miss the most about spring and summer, and even fall, is going on my bike down the trail.

The Mount Vernon Trail is a must-see for any DC resident or tourist. It travels through some pretty crucial DC tourism spots. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Night Life, We Love Drinks
By

We Love Drinks: The Gibson

"Etouffer un Perroquet" cocktail at The Gibson

"Etouffer un Perroquet cocktail at The Gibson" by Jenn Larsen on Flickr

On a dreary rain-soaked night in the heart of U Street, I was buzzed into The Gibson. Well, as befits a speakeasy or “secret bar,” first I was let into a ratty little foyer where my reservation and legality were confirmed with brisk efficiency by a tweedy doorman. Then he smiled broadly.

“Welcome to The Gibson,” he said, opening the inner door and ushering me into a jewel-box of a bar.

Deep blue walls, mirrored panels set off by ebony wood, red velvet banquettes, and really funky ceiling fixtures are highlights of the interior. Yet the overall effect is simple, with room for maybe no more than fifty people all together, at the long bar or side booths or tables in a back room. Reservations are highly encouraged – if there isn’t space, you can’t stand around at the bar and there won’t be a line at the door. 

As far as speakeasies go, The Gibson isn’t really that difficult to find, but it does want to maintain a degree of mystery. I’m fine with that, as it encourages a quiet, romantic (dare I say adult?) evening in the company of people who love cocktails with a passion unrivaled.

The cocktail menu at The Gibson, designed by ace mixologist Derek Brown, is neatly divided by main liquor element and features a mix of imaginative drinks and variations on the classics. Or order your usual cocktail from the bar and see how they put their own twist on it.

Continue reading →