Category Archives: The Features

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

capitals hockey, Sports Fix
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Caps Top Rangers in Game 2

Photo courtesy of
Marcus Johannson digs in for a faceoff against Brandon Dubinsky of the Rangers.
courtesy of ‘bridgetds’

Is playoff hockey awesome, or what?

The Capitals went toe-to-toe with the New York Rangers in an intense physical game, scored two quick goals in the second period, then locked down the defense to hang on for the 2-0 victory and a 2-0 lead in the series. Michal Neuvirth made 22 saves to earn his first NHL post-season shutout in front of a lively and appreciative crowd last night at the Verizon Center.

The Rangers showed more fire and hustle in the first period, outshooting the Caps 13-7, outhitting by a margin of 18-11, and generally dominating puck possession. The bodies were flying, and more then one player took the short trip down the corridor to the locker room for repair, only to be back on the bench for the next shift. Continue reading →

Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Mallory Staley of 1789 (Part 2)

 Photo courtesy of
‘Rhubarb Shortcake Trifle at 1789’
courtesy of ‘bonappetitfoodie’

One of the things Mallory and I both geeked out over when we spoke was the fact that the arrival of Spring means a ton of fresh fruit to cook with. Right now, rhubarb is coming into season and her recipe for rhubarb shortcake trifles is fantastic.

For a long time I had no idea what a trifle was–an easy to assemble dessert that has layers of fruit, cake and custard. It’s a dessert you can either dress up or dress it down, depending on the occassion and how fancy you want to get. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that you have to prepare three separate parts to make the whole dessert. Serve this up in a clear glass bowl and let all your friends marvel over your impressive handiwork.

See the recipe after the jump.
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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Mallory Staley of 1789 (Part 1)

Photo courtesy of
‘Mallory Staley of 1789’
courtesy of ‘bonappetitfoodie’

A lot of people like to say they’ve been cooking since they were a wee one who could barely see over the countertops. But unlike Mallory Staley, few people can say they were promoted to executive pastry chef at a restaurant when they were just 15 years old.

Growing up, she worked at a bed and breakfast in Maryland where the pastry chef was also in charge of the cold plating station for salads. When that pastry chef left, Mallory found herself in charge of desserts after only working there for four months. “I always knew I wanted to cook and as soon as I knew I wanted to cook professionally, I never looked back,” she said.

Before returning to the DMV area and starting at 1789, Staley earned her certificate at The French Culinary Institute in New York and most recently worked as the pastry chef at the renowned Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel. She felt maxed out in New York, she said. That’s when she saw the job ad at 1789 for a new pastry chef, following the departure of the restaurant’s long-time pastry chef, Travis Olson.

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We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Color Purple

From left to right: Dayna Jarae Dantzler (Celie) and Traci Allen (Nettie).  Photo by Scott Suchman.

The touring production of The Color Purple that has come to the National Theater is a mixed affair, making it a good match for the uneven musical itself. Talented performers and superb choreography make war with poor direction and merely okay songs. After two acts the performers have won the battle, but it’s a somewhat phyric Pyrrhic victory. The whole thing is visually appealing and a pleasant listen – with a few caveats – but you’ll be hard-pressed to remember any of the songs the next day.

Which isn’t to say you’ll forget you’ve been to a show. The Color Purple is a big and grand show in the modern Broadway style. Shows like this or The Lion King choose spectacle over narrative. There’s nothing wrong with that – David Lynch has made a film career out of it. If you’re walking in thinking you’re going to get the nuance and character development that you would from Alice Walker’s novel or even the film, however, you’re headed for disappointment.

What does work well here is the performers. Everyone from Dayna Dantzler as Celie down to the ensemble members portraying nameless townspeople, all move well and sing beautifully. When they’ve been set in motion with a plan – like, for example, the opening church sequence or in Harpo’s juke joint – they’re poetry in motion and a delight to watch. But when the dancing stops and we move from choreographer Donald Byrd’s purview into director Gary Griffin’s blocking all the subtlety evaporates.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats shut-out by Lee, drop series to Philly in 4-0 loss

Photo courtesy of
‘2ND’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

Cliff Lee, much like Roy Halladay on Wednesday, was a force of nature that the Nationals just couldn’t contend with. Lee racked up 12 strikeouts in a complete game shutout of the Nationals to close out the opening series against the Phillies in front of 24,875 mostly Philadelphia fans on a perfect April evening.  The Nationals had two strong chances against Lee, but managed to make a hash of both of them.  Sadly, this was their night to waste a great start by Jordan Zimmermann, who was perfect through five, and went 7+ and allowed just 1 earned run, striking out 4 and walking none.

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Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Drinks
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We Love Drinks: Nahem Simon

Nahem Simon

We Love Drinks continues our series where we look behind the bar, profiling the many people – from mixologists to bartenders, sommeliers to publicans – who make your drinks experience happen.

I swing open the hefty, wide birch door on a cool, clear Sunday evening in March, ascend the metal staircase, and enter into a narrow but deep room, filled with lively chatter and the aromas of sweet and sour beer and freshly-cleaned tap lines. I take a seat at the bar and am immediately approached by one of the bartenders. He reaches out to shake my hand.

“Good evening, Bill! Great to see you. How’s everything going, buddy?”

That’s Nahem Simon, and this is ChurchKey, the acclaimed beer bar brother to its downstairs sister Birch & Barley in Logan Circle. Much has been written on this relatively recent addition to the DC nightlife scene, and if you’re a beer geek you’ve surely heard of Greg Engert, the famed beer director of the two restaurants. But, you may not have heard of Nahem, who on almost any given day can be found pouring one of their 50 taps, hand-pumping a cask ale, or wiping down the bar in a move he calls “the Zamboni.”

Nahem plays Greg’s right-hand man; while Greg researches beers, hosts tastings, and appears in the media as the face of ChurchKey, Nahem’s running the show behind the bar. The two have been close friends for several years and their collective enthusiasm toward craft beer has helped permanently transform DC’s beer scene.

I settle in at the bar as Nahem pours me a glass. He introduces me to some fellow patrons: another ChurchKey bartender off-duty, relaxing with his girlfriend and enjoying a hockey game on the flat screens over the taps, and a general manager of a local restaurant who has stopped in after a busy weekend. Soon, Nahem finds a moment to step out from behind the bar, and we take a seat in the secluded lounge area near the back of the room to talk. Continue reading →

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends, April 16-17

Photo courtesy of
‘102/365’
courtesy of ‘ekelly80’

Patrick Palafox: I am pretty excited about this weekend. I’m planning on checking out the Cool Dudes Hanging Out show happening over at theVelvet Lounge this Friday. I have been listening to Mike Lawrence’s podcast Nerd of Mouth and already know that he will make me laugh. Then on Saturday I shall consume Cake with my ears at the 9:30 Club. The last time I saw Cake was at a music festival in Austin and I was super far away. I thought that I would never have a chance to see them again, but now I do.

Marissa: Friday night one of my good guy friends is in town, so I’m hoping a bunch of us will “bro” it out at Meridian Pint for the release of DC Brau, the city’s first production beer in more than 50 years. Saturday night I’ll be listening to five local bands at GWU, when my old community service sorority throws their 5th Annual Battle of the Bands. The proceeds from the raffle ticket sales and admission all go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Should be a great concert for a great cause! Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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The State of Arts Education

Paul Ruther (Phillips Collection), Gail Murdock (DCAHEC Board member) and Michael Bobbitt (Adventure Theatre) at the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative gala. Photo by the author.

Last week, the Huffington Post ran an opinion piece by Michael Kaiser—President of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts— lamenting Millennials’ low “culture IQ.” “We now have an entire generation of young people who have had virtually no exposure to the arts,” Kaiser declared, citing anecdotal examples of young colleagues clueless of Caruso’s tenor or Giuseppe Verdi’s place in history. He warned that unless we bolster arts education (and make the arts more affordable to young people), arts organizations will flounder in a few years’ time as their donors, board members, volunteers and patrons age without anyone to replace them.

Unsurprisingly (and as noted on Friday by our arts editor Jenn Larsen), Kaiser has since faced a hailstorm of online criticism, with dozens of self-proclaimed art-loving Millennials labeling him “ageist,” “elitist,” and even delusional. In a frequently-linked post, blogger Liz Maestri accuses Kaiser of “[making] the ridiculous assumption that all young people are stupid, drooling rabble, when in fact young people are more culturally savvy than ever.” Challenging Mr. Kaiser’s “self-defined ‘high art,’” she concludes that “major arts organizations need to go away. They are their own worst enemy.”

In some ways, I agree with her. “Stuffy art”—to steal one of the HuffPo commenters’ jargon—is not the only form of art out there. I cringed when, strolling through Eastern Market a few months ago, my friend pointed out “bad art” at a local artist’s stand. In my mind, there is no bad art, just as there is no “high art.”

But that very mindset is something I learned. Unlike Ms. Maestri (or half of the HuffPo commenters, it seems), my dad is not a musician, nor are my brothers; I never had season tickets to “the BSO” and I haven’t worked for an orchestra. During my junior year in Paris, I sped through the Rodin Museum and dreaded Picasso exhibits. Where is the art in grotesque shapes? I asked myself.

Two years later, I see it now. In fact, I see art everywhere: in the Dupont Circle fountain sculptures, the Gothic architecture of neighborhood churches, and the countless murals speckled across the city. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Good Sasha: Caps prove they can take the Rangers in Game 1

Photo courtesy of
‘Alex and Alex’
courtesy of ‘jakarachuonyo’

Quit holding your breath.

That is what playoff hockey does to NHL fans. Without realizing it, they are sitting on the edge of their seats, swearing at the refs, yelling at the ice, screaming at their TVs.

Then, overtime comes and it is so intense that it seems like they have completely lost their senses.

The Caps did not lose their senses on Wednesday night, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Rangers. They could have, it would have been very easy to say ‘Henrik Lundqvist is a freaking monster, we are completely snake bitten, it is all happening over again.’

Washington held strong and were rewarded, taking the game 2-1 for a one game to none series lead as Alexander Semin scored for the first time in 15 playoff contests, racing a rocket from the slot to the back of the net in overtime.

“I think we were a little flappable,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We weren’t getting anywhere and it wasn’t until that last 10 minutes where we said on the bench ‘OK, let’s start sending the defensemen, taking more chances and going after it.’”

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Comedy in DC
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Comedy in DC: Mike Lawrence

mike lawrence

I somehow managed to remain coherent enough after my day job to have a conversation with Mike Lawrence. He is coming down to DC this Friday to be the headliner for Cool Dudes Hanging Out at the Velvet Lounge starting at 7:00 and ending at 10:00. Mike, 28, is originally from Florida near Ft. Lauderdale and has been living in New York for the past four years.

His first experience with comedy was watching his mother perform when he was growing up.  They both make people laugh, but from different parts of the heart. I asked him what makes his comedy different and he said that she is the light and he is the dark. “I’m a lot sadder and angrier and she’s a lot happier.” His first time expressing himself through the mike was with poetry, but he transitioned to comedy, because all he cared about when he read his poems were the parts when people laughed. “I think my goal is to do this on a bigger level. I like what I do I want to do it more. My heart is really into live performing. Stand-up is great. It’s you getting paid to be yourself, which is awesome. I’m a nerdy kind of uncomfortable guy with anger issues and I get to be that for money. That’s awesome.” Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Walworth Farce

Ted van Griethuysen and Aubrey Deeker in The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh. Directed by Matt Torney. Photo credit: Carol Pratt.

In a dingy public housing apartment three men act out a daily routine, a twisted attempt at farce that’s rife with repeated humiliation and competition. It’s a “routine to keep the family safe,” the patriarch justifies, and it takes a bit for the audience to catch on that what they are seeing is the desperate attempt of an immigrant family to hold on to their past – as the fleeting smell of their mother’s roast chicken fades from their jackets.

Irish playwright Enda Walsh is one of my favorites (seeing Disco Pigs is still among my top theatrical experiences in DC), and the brilliant opening of New Ireland: The Enda Walsh Festival at Studio Theatre – Penelope – definitely raised my hopes for the next two productions. The Walworth Farce is next up, and though its first act has the tension build of a horror movie, it slowly winds down when it should crank up in the second act. Perhaps that was only the energy level of the matinee I saw, and there’s still time to get it sharper with the run already extended.

The play is perhaps a metaphor for the Irish immigrant condition, with the family patriarch Dinny (Ted van Griethuysen) keeping his boys locked up from the outside world of South London. Keeping them safe means keeping their memories of the home they left behind intact, down to the very smell, their Cork accents untouched. The play’s language is full of the deep nostalgia for things you can barely recall. But the memories the father instills in his sons are false, a story told repeatedly to hide the truth – that their diaspora was a necessity out of guilt and fear. Just to kick up that metaphor even more, the guilt is fratricide, which the boys are doomed to repeat.

It’s truly freaky how the first act unfolds, like an Irish Monty Python doing a sick reading of Flowers in the Attic. The three men toss about wigs and prank glasses and 1970’s clothes all too seriously. Then the father notices a mistake, breaks character, and the horror movie begins in earnest.  Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Features, The Hill, We Love Food
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We Love Food: Seventh Hill Pizza

Photo courtesy of
‘Seventh Hill Pizza’
courtesy of ‘kspidel’

Last summer, in a fit of humidity-induced insanity, my friends and I decided to taste test non-delivery pizzas around town. There were seven pies, and in an attempt to branch out a little, I picked up one from Seventh Hill. I figured this Eastern Market spot (which no one had heard of before) would finish somewhere in the middle of the pack with perennial favorite 2 Amy’s coming out on top. In a Cinderella story that ESPN would surely have composed a specific theme song for, Seventh Hill came out of nowhere and clinched the win.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Caps vs. Rangers: What will it take to escape the first round?

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_4766.jpg’
courtesy of ‘bridgetds’

If there are two days during the regular season when Caps were at their lowest, they were probably December 12th and February 25th. Those two days the Capitals, having dealt with recent struggles, were not just shut out by the New York Rangers …

They were buried.

New York beat Washington 7-0 in December and 6-0 in February while taking the season series from the Caps 3-1-0 (or 1-2-1 from the Washington perspective). The Rangers outscored Washington 17-6 and basically pestered the eventual top team in the Eastern Conference through four games.

Perhaps this is not the playoff matchup the Caps were hoping for. Continue reading →

Featured Photo, The Features
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Featured Photo

Paver Style Headstone
Paver Style Headstone by Karon

A few years ago, I was talking with my friend Brooke about cemeteries. I had strong opinions that they were places of rest to be undisturbed, and she remembers growing up and playing in them. I love what Karon did with this image, capturing the lonesome nature of the place, with respect for the departed, and the honors we pay to them.

Sports Fix, The Features
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What will it take for the Caps to win the Cup?

Photo courtesy of
‘2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs Logo’
courtesy of ‘jpowers65’

Are you ready to rock?

The 2010-11 Washington Capitals regular season was just a long exercise in patience. It was never supposed to be a definitive statement of what the Caps are or where the franchise stands in the pantheon of almost-great NHL hockey teams.

If anything, it was an exercise in patience, humility, endurance, creative problem solving and transformation. The Caps were like a caterpillar that turned into a butterfly.

Washington started off the season a high-octane offense-first juggernaut – flying, big scoring, finesse and fragile. This was the version of the Caps that the fans had come to know and love and be continually frustrated by in the playoffs. Up until the last weekend of November, the MVP of the Caps was probably Alexander Semin. If you even thought of Semin as the MVP of this team now, they would laugh you out of the Green Turtle. Then there were the larval stages, December through most of March, where the Caps suffered through the changes of playing a different style of hockey, relying less on scoring (and scoring a lot less), integrating new players from outside the organization and folding in the prospects to the already young base of Alexander Ovechkin, Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green.

The Caps learned to play good defense. Not just the defensemen, but the entire team has gotten better on the back check, they are still aggressive on the forecheck if a bit tempered, and have the ability to trap and keep shots coming from the wings as opposed to the slot. It has not been a perfect transition – the inner offensive juggernaut wants to be free – but it has been effective enough where Washington was able to rally out of its doldrums, find some of it old offense and emerge the butterfly as the Eastern Conference top seed heading into the playoffs. The spinning wheels of waiting for the second season, the real season, are finished.

Now it is time to fly.

What do the Caps need to do to succeed in the chase for Lord Stanley’s Cup? Here are five items that will be important for Washington to get over its frustration and make a run deep into spring.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Wire @ Black Cat, 4/7/11

IMG_9707
all photos by author.

Wire played at the Black Cat on Thursday night for an adoring crowd of older fans and hardcore music geeks. They are touring on their excellent new album, “Red Barked Tree”. The new album was featured heavily on Thursday night, but Wire also offered up a sampler of the many phases they have gone through in their 30+ years career. The show was an interesting blend of energy levels and quality as the many sounds of Wire don’t always fit neatly next to one another. This was my first time seeing Wire in concert; while I walked away satisfied by the show, it was not the knock-out performance I was expecting.

If Wire will be remembered for one thing, it will be that they always did things on their own terms. One of the most important bands in the punk to post-punk transition, Wire harnessed the energy of ’77 UK punk to fuel their strange creations. Along with peer-bands like Magazine and Joy Division, they helped herald in a new era of unconventional sounds. Never satisfied being pigeonholed by the critics as “this type of band” or “that type of band”, Wire shifted gears many times over the years. From punk to post-punk to pop to industrial and so on, Wire were and still are always in a state of flux. While this is the thing that makes Wire such a satisfying and exciting band to listen to at home, I’m afraid it held their live show back a little bit on Thursday.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Do Away Fans Really Jam Nationals Park?

Photo courtesy of
‘First pitch’
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’

When it comes to talking about the crowds at Nationals Park, there is at least one Greek Choral reminder from the masses that the majority of fans who make their way through the gates are usually rooting for the other team. This isn’t even a new phenomenon for the Mid-Atlantic, as the central location of Washington and Baltimore amidst its other East Coast counterparts seems to draw the visitors in packs. One of the bigger culprits (assumed culprits, I should say, since the research is to come), are the Phillies, who in addition to being just 122 miles up I95 from Nationals Park have been among the National League elite now for about the last five or six years.

Within a week of a Nationals fan yelling at Braves supporters with “This Ain’t Atlanta,” the Phillies come to town to start the first of three series that they will play down by the Navy Yard. What better time to hyperanalyze attendance numbers and look around to see what we can gather about the Nationals and their opponents’ ability to draw crowds?

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The Features
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No Shutdown, but the District gets used

Photo courtesy of
‘Junk’
courtesy of ‘Dottie Mae’

I watched on Twitter as word of the deal first began to come in.  Several of us, on a short vacation in Chicago, had tracked the negotiations on the Internet as the day wore on, hoping that a deal could be done to keep 800,000 federal workers, and the entirety of the government of DC, in their jobs and postpone a government shutdown that would have radically affected day to day life in the District of Columbia.

The deal, from the perspective of many in the 50 states, appears to be one that many can stomach, wherein policy riders that are socially divisive were set aside in favor of $39B+ in cuts in federal spending.  The deal also contains riders that strip the District of Columbia of the right to determine their own local policies based on the desires of her residents.  Two riders attached to the bill have direct affect on local policies, but were not approved by any body of residents and voters, and were enacted over the significant objections of the elected delegate to the House.

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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Nate Garyantes of Ardeo + Bardeo (Part 2)

Photo courtesy of
‘Scallops small plate at Ardeo + Bardeo’
courtesy of ‘bonappetitfoodie’

There are often times when you go into a restaurant, eat a dish and say to yourself, “I wish I could have that at home.” The scallop schnitzel at Ardeo + Bardeo is one small platter that isn’t all that hard to make. If you’re short on time, or don’t feel like making the entire dish, you can still make the breaded scallops in this recipe and serve it over a simple salad with the cider vinaigrette dressing.

The dish is served with micro-red cabbage at the restaurant, but for the home cook you can use watercress or regular red cabbage. If you use red cabbage, be sure to let it sit in the cider vinaigrette for a little longer so the flavor takes hold. Also, when pound the sea scallop flat, go gently at first to make sure you don’t end up with mashed scallops. Bay scallops can be found at some grocery stores and fish markets, such as Blacksalt Fish Market, according to Garyantes. Again, if you can’t find bay scallops or can’t figure out how to clean them just stick with making the breaded scallops portion of this recipe. They’re delicious!

After the jump you’ll find chef Nate Garyantes’ recipe for scallop schnitzel.
Continue reading →