Category Archives: The Features

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

Entertainment, Sports Fix, The Features
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On Ted Leonsis, Wizards Bloggers, and Why I Haven’t Written About The Team Recently

Photo courtesy of Keith Allison
Ted Leonsis
courtesy of Keith Allison

It’s weird when my friends and co-workers walk up to me eager to talk about basketball and the Washington Wizards, because two years ago I didn’t really pay much attention to the team.

Now my interest in basketball has risen faster than Jeremy Lin’s jersey sales.

In a city where the Hockey, Football, and Baseball teams reign supreme, the Washington Professional Basketball Team has been an afterthought among the locals. Now in their fourth straight year of sub .400 play, the only memorable item that pops in most minds is the never ending argument that the team should change their name back to the Bullets. When WeLoveDC’s fearless leader gave me the assignment to provide coverage of the team for WLDC, I took it on as an opportunity to learn about the game and a team that doesn’t get as much attention in the D.C. Sports Scene. The beat was also another hat to wear among many. Besides holding down a 9-5 to pay the bills, I also cover theatre for the site as well.

Blogging isn’t as glamorous  you would think. Unless it is a full-time gig, it is often a job of passion.

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The Features
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Why I Love DC


Vietnam Memorial Cloudy Sunrise courtesy of A B Pan

It is pretty dificult to put in words the various things that make me absolutely Love DC, and really an image of this picturesque place speaks volumes for itself. As cheesy as it may sound, this city and I have had quite the love affair. At first I was hesitant, restrained, even judgmental (being a third culture kid will do that to you). But it took very little time to start falling for it. And when I fell for it, I fell hard.

I was lucky enough to go to Georgetown, where a break from studying took us down historic cobblestone streets, past movie-set ready houses, to a buzzing M street with a range of bars, restaurants and shops to choose where to go broke from. But that was still the infancy of my relationship with DC, and we did have some great first dates. It was once I started exploring life outside my student bubble and into the real world that I truly began to appreciate the range of love this city had to give, and gave it back in return. As I have said before, Georgetown brought me here, but the city kept me here.  


Photo courtesy of ekelly80
fountain in fall courtesy of ekelly80

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The Features
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She Loves DC: Lindsay Largent

14th & Pennsylvania

Last week, amid having my car broken into, and the dreariest weather of the winter, I got a letter from a reader that lifted my spirits immensely. As a result, we wanted to introduce you to the light of our winter. Lindsay Largent, born in the District, and living in North Canton, Ohio, sent us this piece on her love of the city of her birth. We’re pleased to reprint it with her photos.

Sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste: the five basic senses that we all learned about in first grade. We use our senses everyday without even knowing it. It has turned into an ability of ours that we can sometimes take for granted. Have you ever just stopped and stared at the world around you, inhaled the air you breathe every second of every day, listened to the voices of your neighbors, felt the rain drops hitting your face, or thought about the taste of that bagel you get from the bagel shop on the corner of ninth and E street before you go to work every morning? If you live in the District of Columbia, I envy you. You have the chance to stimulate these senses in the most beautiful city in the world every day. Yeah, there are hundreds of historical sights to see, entertainment all around to listen to, and an endless count of good restaurants to critique, but what about the simple things? The little details are the aspects of Washington D.C. that I fell in love with from the moment I set foot in the city.

What to see: M Street at night. Almost everyone has been in the heart of a city at night, but Georgetown isn’t like any city. It has a sweeter, warmer, and calmer glow to it. I walk down that street at night and my eyes are drawn to so many things: the people in front of me, the cars parked bumper-to-bumper on the street, the vintage street lights, the light coming out of the windows and doors of the shops and restaurants, or the endlessness of M Street. And it’s impossible to rush down these sidewalks. There’s so much to take in while walking along with thousands of other people. No matter how many times I find myself on M Street, I make sure that I never miss a thing.

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We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends: Feb 17-19

Photo courtesy of Paige Weaver
6.8.10
courtesy of Paige Weaver

Marissa: I look forward to three day weekends like a person on a low-carb diet looks forward to ravioli night. So much to do and see and make the most of! Saturday I’ve got plans to check out the 5th Annual Rooting DC Urban Gardening forum, since friends and I have been talking on how to best grow tomatoes and cucumbers in their backyard this summer. Hearing some good buzz about Mintwood, I’m going to try to head over there for dinner one night. Come Sunday, if the weather’s nice, I aiming to re-conquer the Billy Goat Trail.

Photo courtesy of lonny.gomes
Harper’s Ferry Bumble Bee
courtesy of lonny.gomes

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Alexandria, Food and Drink, The Features
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A Look at the New Menu and New Chef at Evening Star Cafe

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Shrimp & Grits at Evening Star Cafe
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

Anytime a long-standing restaurant with an already stellar reputation “revamps,” I have to hold my breath a little and scrunch my face waiting to see what the outcome is. That’s not to say I don’t trust the judgment of the fine folks over at Neighborhood Restaurant Group, because I do. But there are so many variables that go into renovating a space and renovating a menu. The result at the new and improved Evening Star Cafe? Fantastic.

For starters the newly decorated digs are eclectic, funky and inviting. The warm yellow, textured wallpaper make this neighborhood gem feel cozy, while remaining completely cool. And I’ve already mentioned the mason jar light fixture in the back bar at the Majestic Lounge that I’ve fallen in love with. If you’ve been to other NRG restaurants, you’ll feel right at home in the new Evening Star Cafe.

Under the direction of executive chef Jim Jeffords, the Del Ray restaurant has definitely augmented its southern feel with dishes such as boiled peanuts, shrimp and grits and of course, a buttermilk fried chicken. I’d describe Jeffords’ menu as elegant southern with a twist–the portions are southern-sized, but the presentation is beautiful and nothing falls into the stereotype of southern food being oppressively heavy and over-fried. The menu is organized so there are a few snacks (think kind of like bar bites), small plates (appetizers), entrees and then there are sides available to share if you’re really craving more grits or sunchoke mash.

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Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Daily Feed, We Love Music
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Hot Ticket: Zola Jesus @ U Street Music Hall, 2/16/2012

photo courtesy of Zola Jesus

Goth/synthpop princess Zola Jesus will be performing her enchanting, dark tunes Thursday night at U Street Music Hall. She has toured with Fever Ray and The XX, and collaborated with M83, LA Vampires and Burial Hex, among others.  Check out her video for “Vessel,” off of her 2011 album Conatus, out on Sacred Bones Records.

Zola Jesus

U Street Music Hall

7pm/$15/All Ages

Adventures, Downtown, Special Events, The Features, The Hill, We Love Arts
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Come for the Murder, Stay for the Masquerade

This Sunday, Labyrinth Games is bring some Louisiana charm liberally mixed with a masquerade, murder, and mystery to the DC area. Kathleen Donahue, the store’s owner, is throwing the doors open to area residents and inviting everyone to join in the fun of a good old-fashioned murder mystery party. The event is this Sunday at The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital in Southeast from 5 to 8 pm. Just make sure you have a ticket to get in!

“This will be a mix & mingle event with all attendees receiving minor character roles and clues to share with other attendees,” said Donahue. “It will be like live-action Clue! Festival carnival garb (and Mardi Gras masks) are encouraged but not required.” Several area actors will play the roles of the major characters for the evening; just because they’re major doesn’t mean they’re not exempt from being a suspect, either. Continue reading →

Arlington, Entertainment, Interviews, Music, Night Life, People, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Justin Trawick

Justin Trawick is a local singer-songwriter, band frontman, and musical entrepreneur.  In addition to his exhaustive solo performance schedule he has created a series called The 9, that packages nine singer-songwriters into one show, joining their forces to create a theatrical and diverse night of entertainment. We Love DC’s Alexia Kauffman sat down with Justin to talk about his endeavors.

Alexia Kauffman: So first can you tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, and what is on your plate right now?

Justin Trawick: I’m a musician in the area. I’ve been doing music full-time for about four years. I live in Arlington, and I play most of my shows in the Washington, DC area, and then I go out of town, a lot of east coast shows up and down from Boston down to Georgia. And I play in a lot of cities around the country via airplane- I go to Austin and L.A. a lot. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Blood Wedding

Deidra LaWan Starnes in Constellation Theatre Company's production of Blood Wedding. Photo credit: Scott Suchman

Somewhere it must be written in a Surrealist manifesto that Death steals every scene. In Constellation Theatre Company‘s production of Blood Wedding, he stalks them too. A shadowy figure swathed in a black tulle hat, his manifestation gradually gains power until at last, veil cast off, he’s revealed as the primal force behind love, lust and revenge.

Through both his poetry and plays, Federico García Lorca explored the tragic beauty of deep primitive myths – only to become one himself after his murder in 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War. Three years earlier he’d written Blood Wedding, a play whose themes go beyond folk superstition to uncover the dark pagan nature within us all.

Constellation is normally very much at home in the realm of Surrealist drama and epic theater, however, this production can’t seem to find a cohesive vocal or physical style for Lorca’s poetic dance of death. The result is a lot of discordant emotive vocality that threatens to overwhelm the action and the poetry, even while director Shirley Serotsky presents us with some eerily beautiful tableaux by a talented ensemble.

The story itself is a simple one: a mother has misgivings about her son’s intended wife. Add in a spurned lover, repressed passion and a blood feud, and mother turns out to be terribly right. She always is, isn’t she?

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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, Penn Quarter, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Fabio Trabocchi of Fiola (Part 2)

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Tuscan Tomato Soup & Buffalo Mozzarella Toast at Fiola
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

Put down the Kraft singles. Step away from the cheese whiz or whatever else you’re holding in your hand. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is about to be taken to a whole new level. Fiola style. And in this frigid weather as of late, this hearty soup and sandwich will keep you warm and your belly full.

For Fabio Trabocchi, the chef and mastermind behind Fiola, he says “there’s a lot to learn from what a kid likes,” and occasionally uses it as inspiration in the kitchen. In this dish, Trabocchi takes a childhood classic and makes a grownup version that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

Click through for the full recipe and here for more pictures.

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Adventures, Downtown, Entertainment, Interviews, Special Events, We Love Arts
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Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner: Scaling the World

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner; Photo courtesy National Geographic

Tonight, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner takes the stage at the National Geographic Museum. A prolific mountaineer, Ms. Kaltenbrunner is best known for being the first woman to summit all 14 8,000 meter peaks without supplemental oxygen or porters. She was nominated as one of NatGeo’s Adventurers of the Year for 2012.

She’ll be talking tonight about her daring climb of K2 in August 2011. Ms. Kaltenbrunner took a moment to answer a few questions for WeLoveDC before tonight’s event. Continue reading →

Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, Penn Quarter, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Fabio Trabocchi of Fiola (Part 1)

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Chef Fabio Trabocchi of Fiola
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

Ask Fabio Trabocchi what the biggest challenge for him is and you’ll get an interesting answer. “There are no challenges,” he says, and promptly laughs as if to correct himself. Normally, I’d be surprised by such an answer, but when you think about what the chef of Fiola has achieved–a James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Mid-Atlantic in 2006, Chef of the Year from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington in 2005, Food & Wine’s Best New Chef in 2002, oh and not to mention working at a 3 star Michelin restaurant by 16 years old–you might think this super-chef has indeed transcended any challenges. Trabocchi clarifies: “It depends on how you look at a challenge. That’s what makes it fun. It’s challenging to run out of challenges. Every challenge is very exciting.”

The chef explained that while some other people might look at work in terms of hours, he chooses not to and frankly, says he doesn’t have time to. “I do this because I really like it,” he says. “I’m involved in the food, the financial side–in every part of the restaurant. I like all the aspects of [the restaurant industry].” As he moves around the kitchen and talks to me in our interview, it’s clear that Trabocchi operates with a certain degree of intensity and razor-sharp focus. Every move is done with purpose. He explains how his work as a chef differs from most: “Other professions can go back and fix their work. A cook puts food on the plate and gets that one chance.”

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Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 2/10-2/12

Photo courtesy of vpickering
Cupid’s Undie Run 2012
courtesy of vpickering

Well, that weekend was cold. At least slightly warmer temperatures are expected for the week. Though we do have to deal with tomorrow…or as I like to think of it, the one day out of the year I can be a complete anti-social jerk, and no one can call me on it. Whether you have a lovey-dovey date planned, or will be wearing black instead of red as a sign of protest, we still need to get through Monday. Or Budget Release Day, as those in the capital city’s largest industry are calling it. See, this week is just full of events. Let me close with a blessing: may all your budgets be large, and the cuts superficial! Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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Theatre Spotlight: Really Really


Photo: Scott Suchman

Over on their website, this is how Signature Theatre describes their upcoming World Premiere of Really Really by Paul Downs Colaizzo:

“At an elite university, when the party of the year results in the regret of a lifetime, one person will stop at nothing to salvage a future that is suddenly slipping away.”

Many people have interpreted this description as a play loosely based on the Duke Lacrosse scandal, a description cast and crew members were quick to distance themselves away from. Colaizzo described the show as, “a play about a girl who wants a house.”

Even though there are some similarities: college elites, a big party, an accusation and scandal; after talking with several members of the cast the show has strong themes about how the Millennial generation is struggling to find what they want in today’s changing world.

In other words it’s right up my alley.

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Entertainment, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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LeBron and Wade Go Lob City in Victory Over Wizards

LeBron didn’t put up superstar numbers last night, but showed Washington, DC why he’s one of the NBA’s best.

Late in the second quarter Chris Bosh rebounded a missed shot from Nick Young and passed it to James. Racing down the court James passed it to Dwayne Wade who lobbed it up to James for an amazing slam dunk. It’s the kind of play the demonstrates the synergy that can happen when Miami’s Big Three are running on all cylinders.

“I think we’re probably 90 percent on the alley-oops this year,” James said after the game explaining that he’s not too concerned about showing a little pizzazz during the game. Miami Coach Erik Spoelstra commented after the game that he’d like to see the duo not get too fancy.

“We want to be efficient, and that’s the most important thing.”

However it didn’t take all three to be on top of their game as the Miami Heat beat the Washington Wizards 106-94. James only put up 18 points in what looked like a game he coasted through. Instead the production was left to Bosh (24 pts) and Wade who scored 26 points for the night- 18 of them coming in the first half where Wade put on an amazing second quarter show.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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Theatre Spotlight: Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers


(Photo courtesy No Rules Theatre Company)

The entertainment we are consuming has taken a turn towards the dark side. The likes of Adam West’s Batman and Christopher Reeve’s Superman are long gone, replaced with darker retellings of our classic stories and heroes. Christopher Nolan re-imagined Batman with his Dark Knight trilogy and even Disney, the biggest name behind the glitter and glam of the 90’s, tapped Tim Burton when it decided to make Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time have taken our childhood fairy tales and turned them into chilling dramas.

That being said, it’s only fitting that No Rules Theatre Company‘s production of Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers would be grittier than anything that Cathy Rigby would do.

By the way, I can’t believe she’s still playing the role at 58.

This week the production opened at the H Street Playhouse, I talked with cast members Adam Downs, Nathan Mendez, and John Evans Reese (who plays Pan) about Michael Lluberes’ adaptation of the classic J. M. Barrie tale.

The phrase “darker adaption” was thrown around a lot during our conversation but Downs adds, “you can call it darker but you can also say the stakes are more real.”

There are no songs, no sugar coating, no spectacle with Pan. Instead the show works out to be an essential reaction to the “Disney-fication” of our youth. A leap away from happily ever after and more towards something more authentic and real, as described by Reese.

“We’re really hungry for the truth,” Reese explains, “so what is true about Peter Pan? He steals children, takes them back, thins then out when they start growing up…there’s so much death in this story that’s been glittered.”

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Food and Drink, The Features
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Where to Eat For Valentine’s Day

Photo courtesy of kimberlyfaye
(049/365)
courtesy of kimberlyfaye

I am not the biggest fan of those forced celebrations that are genius ploys by Hallmark to make bank on pre-written love notes. Anytime the local grocery store and CVS look like cupid just vomited everywhere with so much red and heart shaped sugar it makes my eyes hurt. I promise there’s a romantic in me somewhere. But, whether we love or hate it, people get very into this Hallmark Holiday, so here are a few spots for making or breaking that big date, celebrating the single life, and just general breaking the routine.
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Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Darkness @ 930 Club, 2/8/2012

photo by Nicole Geldart

Tight pants, long hair, moustaches, falsetto and acrobatics abounded onstage Wednesday night at the 930 club. Freddie Mercury would have felt right at home. British glam-rock extravaganza The Darkness blended sex-appeal, silliness and virtuosity into a delicious pop explosion at their sold-out show. They were joined by outrageous openers Foxy Shazam.

Cincinnati rockers Foxy Shazam took to the stage with theatricality, lead singer Eric Nally swooping on draped in a black-sequined cape. (When he removed his cape to reveal his tight black pants and cropped leather jacket, combined with his Prince Valiant haircut he somehow looked to me like what Sonny Bono might have looked like as a member of The Ramones.)  Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Features
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Lamb Ragu for the American Lamb Pro-Am

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Rigatoni with lamb ragu
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

Author’s note: This post is for the D.C. American Lamb Pro-Am competition. The task: come up with a lamb recipe for the competition for readers like you to vote on here. If I make it to the top 4 contestants, I get paired with a DC chef, go on to rep We Love DC and cook a lamb dish for 200 people!

Any time I cook for a big group of friends or take a stab at concocting my own recipe, I try to remember this tiny little truth: stick to what you know. Of course, I take that with a grain of salt, but the principle remains the same. Hosting a dinner party for eight, especially if you’re aiming to impress a certain member of the crowd, means that it’s probably not the right time to try your hand at that chocolate souffle recipe you’ve never made or even tasted. I’m all for taking risks in the kitchen. But there are times and places when it’s better to do so.
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