Category Archives: The Features

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

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends: July 30&31

Photo courtesy of
‘Rita’s’
courtesy of ‘ep_jhu’

Tom: While the mercury is once again heading for the triple digits, I’ll be helping a client move their offices into Dupont this weekend, just a stone’s through from the delicious Shake Shack. Perhaps after the long day, you’ll catch me heading for Rita’s Water Ice on Rhode Island Avenue.  Sunday, I’ll head for my usual breakfast haunt before hitting the Ballpark for the last of the Nationals/Mets series. Sunday night will see me out in my neighborhood stoopin’ it with some bourbon cherry lemonade, and the warm Sunday evening.

Jenn: For the second weekend in a row I’ll be escaping town. But if I were here, I’d check out as many of the Rickey contestants as possible. Earlier this month, the Rickey was officially named DC’s native cocktail at a proclamation reading and then a plaque dedication at its creation site (now the JW Marriott). Never heard of the Rickey? Here’s your history lesson. The DC Craft Bartenders Guild is also putting on its annual Rickey Contest, ending with a showdown on Monday, August 1 at the Jack Rose. For some reason the contest’s been very under the radar this year, but luckily the always intrepid Fritz Hahn has the scoop. Judging last year was a fantastic experience for me, and as it’s a great way to sample the creativity of our local bartender talent I encourage you to check out the list – it’s not too late!

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Arlington, Food and Drink, People, Special Events, The Features
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Mondavi Salutes Local Hero

Photo courtesy of
‘Alison Kindler’
courtesy of ‘Jenn Larsen’

Interest in gardening is on the rise, from my neighbors growing tomatoes in patio containers to community gardens bursting with multiple produce plots. Increasingly there’s a practical need to provide access to affordable food through growing your own. Early this week I attended an intimate event honoring a local community gardening hero. It was by far one of the more inspiring evenings I’ve spent in a while, whose honoree proves that persistence to a simple idea and dedication to helping others can result in good for all.

For the past three years, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi has supported Giving Through Growing, a partnership program with the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA). This year they’ve awarded $40,000 to four community gardening ‘Heroes’ who made the grade in a nationwide contest, and Arlington’s Alison Kindler of the Fort Barnard Community Garden is one. Top Chef alum Candice Kumai is the GTG ambassador, and she was also on hand to salute Kindler’s efforts to enrich our community through growing fresh food for urban families. Fort Barnard has been in operation since 1975 – they even have their own bee hives! The garden works closely with the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), which helps provide groceries to families in need. Some 8% of Arlingtonians live below the poverty line and the percentage is increasing – AFAC distributes to over 1,200 families each week. Fort Barnard dedicates one of their garden plots exclusively to AFAC.

Kindler started gardening at Fort Barnard some twenty years ago, with a plot as a Father’s Day present for her husband. “Here, honey, you can go play in the dirt,” she quipped, but her main motivation at the time was really to grow organic produce and be able to put “healthy, safe food on the table.” Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Nats Come Up Just Short Against Marlins

Photo courtesy of
‘Nats Park’
courtesy of ‘oddlittlebird.’

At least on Wednesday night, the Washington Nationals had the decency to make it interesting. Before losing 7-5 to the Florida Marlins and dropping further into the basement of the National League East, Washington managed to piece together four hits and a walk to score four runs in the bottom of the ninth. The last of those hits — a two-run single by Michael Morse — scored two runs and brought Laynce Nix, who had already hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 3-1 Florida at the time. Nix came within a foot of tying the game, lifting a Leo Nunez change-up very high in the air and very far into left field. But the ball had been hit a little too close to the end of Nix’s bat, the ball settled into Mike Stanton’s glove instead of in the Nationals bullpen, and Washington had officially lost eight of their last eleven games dating back to the All-Star Break.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Nats Fall To Fish As Zimmermann Can’t Right The Ship

Photo courtesy of
‘not too happy’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

The Washington Nationals are last in the National League East for the first time since June 14. They descended to this low point after losing 11-2 to the Florida Marlins Tuesday night in front of 24,650 on a relatively pleasant night (in meteorological terms, anyway) at Nationals Park. The loss is the seventh the Nats have suffered in their ten games since the All-Star break and this particular performance should choke out whatever life was left in any hope that Washington could make a surprise run up the National League Wild Card standings. It is true that the Nationals only have the sixth-worst record in the National League and are still only four games under .500 (49-53 after Tuesday night), but if their recent run of form is any guide, the relatively fertile period of mid-June has turned out to be a mirage and the club is regressing dangerously.

The tone for the evening was set by starter Jordan Zimmermann, who gave up a triple to the second batter of the game, Omar Infante. The Florida second baseman went on to score on an RBI groundout by Greg Dobbs, the first of five runs that Dobbs would drive in over the course of the evening. Zimmermann has been very, very good throughout this season for the Nationals, but he was off tonight, particularly in the first five innings. He was leaving far too many of his pitches up in the strike zone, and the Marlins treated his offerings with the contempt they deserved, banging out seven hits in the first five innings, with four going for extra bases. Even more disconcerting were the two hit batsmen on Zimmermann’s record, as many as he’d hit all season entering Tuesday night. Arguably the biggest moment in the game came with two out in the third inning, when Zimmermann hit Hanley Ramirez with an 0-1 fastball with the score already 2-0 in Florida’s favor after Zimmermann had coaxed a 4-6-3 double play out of Dobbs, with Emilio Bonifacio crossing the plate in the process. Two pitches to Logan Morrison later, the Nationals were behind 4-0 and Morrison was circling the bases after depositing his 16th home run of the season into the Nationals bullpen.

In fairness to Zimmermann, he has now pitched 126.2 innings this season, by far the most in his major league career, and with his much-noted 160-inning limit fast-approaching, it would not be in the least surprising to either see more outings like this one or to see him handled much more gently and with a much shorter leash.

The Nationals offense, true to usual form, was about as exciting to watch as molasses. Continue reading →

Adams Morgan, Food and Drink, The Features
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Tryst $365 Giveaway from Scoutmob

Adams Morgan sure has it good with Tryst. I’m always in envy of my friends who live in close proximity to this classic coffeehouse – as they lounge around, using it as their office so often they get sandwiches named after them. It’s hard to believe Tryst’s been in operation since 1998, one of the pioneers of the cafe/bar/lounge hybrids that have become so deservedly popular. When you can hang around pounding down well-poured Counter Culture coffee morning til afternoon and then switch over to happy hour and sip well-crafted cocktails, all the while randomly meeting up with friends and catching up spontaneously, that’s a true “third place.” I love it.

Tryst’s beverage director, David Fritzler, not only knows his coffee but can mix up a daring Blue Blazer, as we learned in a Drinks profile last year. He’s also started up Tiki Tuesdays with ten new cocktails and a fiery Volcano Bowl (wait, trend alert! Tiki must be in, as Tryst is following in the footsteps of The Passenger’s popular Tiki Tuesdays. It’s only a matter of time before we’re all Tiki bar-hopping in hulu skirts!). Plus as it’s Rickey Month here in DC, you can try his version of DC’s official cocktail – the Summer Lovin’ Rickey.

Just as in love with Tryst is Scoutmob, newly launched in DC last week offering deals that are exclusively from locally-owned restaurants and boutique shops. As we’re all about local here at We Love DC, we’re happy to partner with Scoutmob as they showcase what’s unique about our city. Today they’re offering a 50% off discount to Tryst, which would certainly help a cappuccino obsession like mine. It’s free, like all Scoutmob’s deals. But in addition they’ve got a special giveaway for our readers – a $365 Tryst giftcard! You’ve got a week to enter for a chance to win, just by joining the mob and signing up for their email alerts. Seriously, $365 of Counter Culture coffee drinks, housemade sodas, craft cocktails, not to mention all-day brunch and the Ben sandwich and… ok, I’m heading over now. Meet you there.

Sports Fix
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Homestand Preview: Late July – Early August

Welcome to the dog days of summer in Nats Town. The Nationals start a nine-game homestand tonight; they’ll play three series against NL East foes, and they’ll need to come out 6-3 if they want any shot at making a run at the Wild Card. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening, but there’s a good solid chance at 5-4, if they play their cards right. Here’s the full preview of the homestand that brings us fish, the Braves, the first start of the season for one Washington pitcher, and a Jayson Werth Bobblehead doll.

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Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Little guy
‘Little Guy’ by Allee574

It’s been a while since I’ve just stopped and said, “Wow!” to a photograph, but this gem broke that trend. Allee574‘s capture at the Kennilworth Aquatic Garden this past weekend brings together two completely different worlds – the micro and the macro. Macro photography often lacks scale, but in bringing a human hand into the composition, she provides us a frame of reference omnipresent in all of our lives. The stunning, intricate details on the frog’s back are paired with the simple details of an everyday surface we take for granted – our fingerprints. Through a strong composition she brings you into the world of a tiny being confronting a giant. The finger and hand serve to guide one’s eye across the screen, like an arrow pointing directly to the subject. The narrow perch on which it sits, in this case a finger, serves to place emphasis on the frog, as does the blurred, green background. I’m left to wonder if the frog soon sprung back to nature, or felt content to be admired by a larger world.

The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Oklahoma! at Arena Stage

Ensemble of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Photo by Suzanne Bluestar Boy.

Arena Stage’s 2010 production of Oklahoma! has been revived for another run. Don reviewed the original production in November of last year. Here’s Rachel’s take on the current remount.

Modern America is riddled with stress. This stress is self-inflicted. 40-hour work weeks, a 24-hour news cycle, social media overload – these are all characteristics that personify our society. America wasn’t always the go-go-go place that it is now. There was a simpler time when people couldn’t be bothered by a phone call in the middle of the night or a flashing red light on a mobile device telling them that they’ve got e-mail to check and tweets to read.

Oklahoma! is a reminder of those days gone by. Continue reading →

The Features
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Blaming the Capital instead of the Capitol

Photo courtesy of
‘Capitol in selenium’
courtesy of ‘Joe in DC’

One of the things you learn early on in DC is the difference between the Capitol and the Capital.

One’s the building, with all the trappings of government: politicians, lobbyists, fundraisers, campaigners, PACs, Super PACs, Super de Duper PACs, officials, administrators, agencies, etc.

One is the city, with all the trappings of urbanity: monuments, federal buildings, sure, but also neighborhood bars, victorian homes, housing projects, small businesses, grocery stores, and hundreds of thousands of people.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Kastles win another WTT Championship

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington Kastles vs New York Sportimes | Bobby Reynolds’
courtesy of ‘Paul Frederiksen’

If you’ve never heard of the Washington Kastles, or World TeamTennis, we’ll forgive you. The unique format for a tennis match is certainly no Wimbledon or US Open, but it is nothing short of fantastic. And, as of late last night, the Kastles are DC’s winningest franchise over the last three years.

The Kastles took the league title last night and completed a 16-0 undefeated season, dispatching the St. Louis Aces in Overtime, 23-19.  The undefeated season was the first in the league’s history, dating back to the 1970s.  The King Trophy will rest in Washington for the second season in the last three. The Kastles do have a way to go before they reach Sacramento’s strong record of five titles in six years, but if they can continue their winning ways, they may well be the best sports team in DC, and they’ve certainly won more championships than any team in the last decade.

Congratulations, Coach Jenson, Mark Ein, and all the Kastles players!

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Cibo Matto @ Rock & Roll Hotel, 7/19/11


photos by Santiago Gamboa.

New York based duo Cibo Matto  brought girl-powered grooves to a full house at the Rock & Roll Hotel last Tuesday night. After a ten year hiatus Japanese ex-pats Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori reunited earlier this year to play a benefit show alongside Yoko Ono, Sonic Youth and Mike Patton for the victims of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Soon after they announced their US reunion tour, “Yeah Basically Cibo Matto”, as well as plans for a new album.

Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori came onstage to a room full of cheering fans and looked happy to be there. They started their set off with the dreamy/funky/jazzy “Beef Jerky,” from their debut album “Viva La Woman”. The duo had the audience jumping and shouting along right away to the quirky chorus “Who cares? I don’t care! A horse’s ass is better than yours!” The mood of fun and funk was set and remained throughout the show.

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Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe 2011: hookups

I’m reviewing seven plays over the course of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene. Get your Fringe button and join me!

hookups is about as naked as it can get at Fringe. A quintet of engaging actors make use of an air mattress and the barest essentials to create a series of vignettes covering every imaginable hookup through history and literature, all with a wry wink and a twist. It’s both cute and crass, like that girl dancing on the pool table you just can’t help but smile at even though you think she’s a drunken idiot. She is, but so are you, so get it on.

Starting off with the classic creeping-out-at-dawn hookup, writer Alexandra Petri’s scenes all have an undercurrent of dissatisfaction – there’s always one partner who either needs or wants to get disentangled quickly and painlessly. Even the Virgin Mary isn’t too thrilled with her situation, in one of the more subversive and very funny scenes led by director Laura Hirschberg.

The couplings get more bizarre as the play progresses, from the Frog Prince to an Arthurian menage a trois, even jumping into the Lincoln: Gay or Straight? debate. But it’s the pandas that steal the show, of course, in a hysterical scene detailing their woeful attempts to get the mechanics of sex right while being cheered on by obnoxious onlookers. Continue reading →

Music, Night Life, The Daily Feed, We Love Music, We Love Weekends
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Hot Ticket: Hayes Carll @ Rock & Roll Hotel, 7/23/2011

Texas native Hayes Carll brings his special blend of folk-tinged, quirky, alt-country/rock to the Rock & Roll Hotel this Saturday night. Carll’s laid-back southern drawl pairs well with quick-witted lyrics and an upbeat country sound. His songs range from banjo-pickin’ twangy ballads like “Bottle in My Hand” to the quick-fire lyrical rocking assault of “KMAG YOYO“, which sounds like an updated version of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues“. 

He is on US tour now in support of his fourth studio album, “KMAG YOYO” which was released by Lost Highway Records in February of this year. 

Hayes Carll
w/Scott Miller
@Rock & Roll Hotel
7/23 – 7pm
$16

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Soundgarden @ Patriot Center, Fairfax 7/12/11 & Festival Pier (Philadelphia) 7/13/11


photos by Santiago Gamboa.

Last week, in the midst of their US summer tour, Seattle-sound vanguards Soundgarden proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they still rock…hard. The band reunited last year after a 13-year hiatus and I was super-bummed to miss their first show back together at Lollapalooza in Chicago. But I waited, patiently, hanging on any of the few and far-between missives they sent to their fanclub members for news of a tour. Finally they announced their US summer 2011 tour, along with plans for recording a new album.

First of all, to lay some foundation down, I will disclose that I am a huge Soundgarden fan. I have been a devout follower since I heard their song “Somewhere” (from their 1991 album ‘Badmotorfinger’) on a mix-tape my friend gave me in 7th grade. I was lucky enough to see them three times before they broke up in 1997. Time has only made me appreciate their music more.

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Adams Morgan, The Features, We Love Arts
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A True Adams Morgan Original

All photos by the author.

From a lofty brick throne, a voluptuous redhead rules over Adams Morgan, watching and goading all manner of revelry like a contemporary Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. Her territory spans the 18th Street strip; her image an iconic symbol of throbbing crowds, vodka cranberries, and Jumbo Slice pizza.

But just two blocks away from her Madam’s Organ palace stands evidence of a rich heritage that long precedes her reign. Near the corner of 18th and Adams Mill (and now overlooking a Zipcar parking lot), a community has danced, sung, painted and played in the faces of danger and greed for over thirty years, their history preserved in a three-story mural titled “A People without Murals is a Demuralized People.”

Originally painted in 1977 by Chilean brothers and artists “Caco” (Carlos) and Renato Salazar (the first of whom studied at the Corcoran and founded the now-defunct Centro de Arte organization), the work is touted as one of the oldest and largest of DC’s few remaining Latino murals, the last beacon of a wider Latino artistic movement in the city, according to Quique Aviles.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: POP!

Tom Story in Pop! by Maggie-Kate Coleman and Anna K. Jacobs. Directed by Keith Alan Baker, with Hunter Styles and Jennifer Harris. The Studio 2ndStage. Photo: Scott Suchman

What to expect from a musical about Andy Warhol, the late 20th century pop art genius who smashed convention and provided a nest for self-proclaimed misfits to help him create wild non-conformist art? His shooting by self-proclaimed revolutionary feminist Valerie Solanas seems like it would make excellent fodder – after all, when Warhol Superstar Viva heard the first shot fired from over the phone, she “thinks it is somebody cracking a whip left over from the Velvet Underground days.”

Possibly the best way to enjoy POP! is to get bombed on your poison of choice, doll up in some outrageous outfits, and loll on the front row cushions like denizens of Warhol’s famous Factory. Everything is a little too clean in this staging at The Studio 2nd Stage, and it needs some chaos. Perhaps it’s up to the audience to provide it, because the book and lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman get too lost in its construct of a “murder mystery” party. Though there are key moments that speak to Warhol’s power over his Superstars, his feeding off their craving for attention and love while maintaining his voyeurism, this musical could’ve used a hell of a lot more anarchy.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of talent on display. The cast’s singing is spectacular, so strong they blow out their mikes occasionally. They’re effectively competing for your sympathy just as the real Warhol Superstars might have done had you wondered into their lair. It’s especially fitting that in a musical about a man who preferred to put others in the spotlight, it’s Candy Darling (Matthew Delorenzo) who reigns supreme here in a striking performance of glitter and pathos. As the emcee of the evening, guiding us through the “mystery” of who shot Warhol on June 3, 1968, Delorenzo is simply incandescent.

But Anna K. Jacobs’ score struck me as all wrong – don’t expect any nods to Warhol cohorts Nico or Lou Reed. Velvet Underground this isn’t. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe 2011: Patrick and Me

Part of our continuing coverage of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene.

Avenue Q asked the question, “What Do You Do With A B.A. In English?”

Historian Anthony Cohen asks the audience a similar question, “What do you do with a history degree?” In his one-man Fringe show Patrick and Me he attempts to answer the question. Lost and unsure of what he should do after college, Cohen went on a cross-country journey to not only uncover a hidden part of history, but to perhaps uncover his own identity  in the process.

Unfortunately we are left as lost as he is in this “monologue.” Cohen doesn’t have the drama and the passion of a Mike Daisey, in the end Cohen is an academic and his one-man show feels like an hour plus long lecture- complete with power point slides.

Continue reading →

Monumental, The Daily Feed
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Is the District of Columbia World War I Memorial in jeopardy?

Photo courtesy of
‘World War I Memorial BW’
courtesy of ‘christaki’

There is a monument on the mall that is dedicated not to a nation’s cause, nor to a great leader, nor to a private citizen.  It is dedicated to the 499 men who gave their lives in support of their country in the Great War, from 1917 to 1918, in the European theater.  The Noyes family helped spur legislation in 1924 to authorize this monument, and it was paid for through fundraising efforts amongst businesses and prominent families in the District, to the tune of $200,000 1924 dollars ($2.5M in 2011 dollars).

The District of Columbia War Memorial, recently refurbished with a grant from the stimulus program, is in jeopardy of being scooped up by the Congress and transformed into a national memorial that may strip the local character away from the District’s fallen from the memorial altogether.

Continue reading →