The DC 100

DC Omni 100: #12 Pho

Photo courtesy of
‘Pho’
courtesy of ‘adie reed’

It’s time for another edition of the DC Omnivore 100, where we explore the top one hundred foods every good omnivore should try at least once in their lives.

One night when my friends and I were sitting in Pho 75 in Arlington (on Wilson Blvd. in the same shopping center as Ray’s Hellburger), we pondered why so many pho restaurants have numbers in their names. We imagined a syndicate (we called it La Pho-sa Nostra) full of Vietnamese men in fancy suits, tasting each entrepreneur’s humbly-presented, steaming bowl of pho, and giving it a rating. “This pho is very tasty. You can be… Pho 75!”

Of course, the truth is nowhere near as entertaining. The number is usually either a lucky number (8s and repetition are considered especially auspicious), or a number significant to the owner: his or year birth year, the year the family left Vietnam, etc.

Pho itself originated in the late 19th/early 20th century in Vietnam. There are some regional variations, but the basic idea is a very clear, anise-scented broth with onions, rice noodles, and thin cuts of meat. It’s served with a variety of additions and condiments- at Pho 75, considered by many to be the best pho in the DC area, your pho comes Southern Vietnam-style, with a plate of bean sprouts, limes, chili peppers, and basil to stir in, as well as hoisin and Sriracha. It’s commonly eaten at all times of the day, including breakfast, but being a fan of my Western food traditions, I tend to prefer it at lunch or dinner.

If you’ve never had it, there are a few things you need to know:   Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Apple store to open in Georgetown Friday

Photo courtesy of
‘2010:75’
courtesy of ‘::FiZ::’

You may recall last year’s debate between Apple and Georgetown about whose vision for the Apple storefront would win out. Now that they’ve kissed and made up and Apple has gotten to build their store, it will open this Friday. So now you can go fondle an iPad from the convenience (?) of Georgetown, instead of schlepping aaaaallll the way into Virginia on the Metro to Pentagon City or Clarendon. Just, you know, remember to bring your hand sanitizer.

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music

We Love Music: This Will Destroy You @ DC9 6/10/10

This Will Destroy You
courtesy of Girlie Action.

The Texan, post-rock quartet This Will Destroy You played DC9 last Thursday. As I type this review several days later, I am still reeling from their titanic performance. I am tempted to free-style gush about it here, but instead I will break the evening down into pieces to help my brain sort out the chaos that is left in the wake of their visit to the nation’s Capital. In other words, rather than shout “Godzilla!” and start jabbering in incomprehensible language as I try to describe This Will Destroy You laying waste to everything in their path; I will try to provide you with a semi-coherent write-up of Thursday night’s show.

Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Two bicycles stolen from Mayor Fenty’s home

Photo courtesy of
‘well-dressed mayor’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Earlier this month thieves stole two mountain bikes from the Crestwood home of Mayor Adrian Fenty, according to Bill Myers at the Washington Examiner. From police reports obtained by the Examiner, the bicycles were stolen from the Mayor’s garage, while his security detail was on duty. Fenty was not home at the time, but his wife Michelle was. The bikes are valued at around $300 each, so they are not the top of the line of Fenty’s bike collection.

Detectives are investigating, and according to Police Chief Cathy Lanier, one officer may face disciplinary charges for neglect. The entire incident, which took place on June 3, was captured on security cameras. From the MPD crime reports, it appears as though the incident was written up as a theft from the “alley” in the 4700 block of 17th St NW.   Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Storen and Strasburg: Can They Both Be The Stopper?

storen-in-motion By Ian Koski, Nationals Daily News.
Drew Storen in-motion, Photo By Ian Koski/Nationals Daily News

The much hyped Stephen Strasburg road debut resulted in a 9-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians, snapping the midwesterner’s four-game win streak. Indians’ manager and ex-Nats manager Manny Acta said his team couldn’t get anything going offensively in yesterday’s day. That’s not 100% true.

Cleveland scored 33 runs during their four-game win streak, two wins against the Nationals. Acta’s Indians got a taste of Strasburg when he struggles. Strasburg walked five batters while striking out eight, but those five walks were crucial moments of the game. Those walks were the only real chance besides Travis Hafner’s solo shot over the right-field wall off a 100-mph fastball from Strasburg’s right hand to score.

All Indians runners were stranded. Strasburg got out of a couple jams, but not before coming out after 5 1/3 innings with Washington up 6-1 over Cleveland.

Strasburg left the game with the bases loaded and one out. Enter Drew Storen. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Dave Thomas Circle Traffic Pattern In Effect

The new d.ish blog from DDOT brings us this morning’s video that explains the traffic pattern at the intersection of New York and Florida Avenues in Northeast DC near the ATF HQ and our friends at Pound Coffee. The traffic pattern has been changed to better increase flow through the area, which is a pretty bad hotspot, between the construction and the directional changes.

The plan, dubbed Dave Thomas Circle by our friends at Greater Greater Washington, circulates traffic around the island at First, Florida and New York, which houses a Wendy’s. If this is part of your commute each day, give it a look.

The Daily Feed

Gregg Deal’s Popmatic

Image via Gregg Deal’s Popmatic, 2010.

I love graphic design and can’t wait to stop by Sukio Design Co. to check out Gregg Deal of Modern Bird Studios‘ first solo art showcase.

In Popmatic, Deal focuses on the humor and escapism that pop culture offers to a society overwhelmed by the “current economy and consumer culture” through his graphic prints and paintings.

The weekend can’t get here soon enough so I can go and check this out!

Popmatic will run from June 12th to June 30th at Sukio Design Co. located at 1338 U. Street NW (3rd Floor).

For more information call 202-596-9090.

The Daily Feed

Congratulations to DCist’s New Editor, Aaron Morrissey

Photo courtesy of
‘(158/365)’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

Yesterday marked the end of an era in the DC Blog Scene, as DCist’s editrix for the last three years, Sommer Mathis, finished her stint to work for the new Albritton TBD.com, and today marks the beginning of the new, as Aaron Morrissey takes her place. I just want to take a second to thank Sommer for her many contributions to DC’s blogging scene, and to welcome Aaron to the helm of DCist.  I’ve had the pleasure of sitting side by side with Aaron for a number of D.C. United matches, and Tuesday’s Nationals game, and I’ve enjoyed talking with him, and I look forward to DCist under his watch.  Congrats, Aaron, and Congrats, Sommer, it’s been a pleasure blogging with/near you both.

The Daily Feed

DPW Truck Touch This Weekend

Photo courtesy of
‘snow melter’
courtesy of ‘ann gav’

The DC DPW has a ton of awesome equipment, like this mobile snowmelter that became part of the everyday lexicon of the average DC resident during the blizzard this winter. This Saturday from 9 to 2, they’re having a “truck touch” where you can come check out 20 different vehicles that might capture your imagination, over in parking lots 6 and 7 at RFK Stadium. You can climb into the various sweet rides that DCDPW has to offer, how sweet is that?

The Daily Feed

Get Your Most Beautiful Nominations Submitted

Photo courtesy of
‘2010:149’
courtesy of ‘::FiZ::’

If Capitol Hill was in fact a high school, it is definitely hitting all the marks for the end of the school year. Since the prom has already happened, that must mean it’s almost yearbook season, and the DC version of that would certainly have to be The Hill‘s 50 Most Beautiful People list. Vanity and politics meet at a fantastic intersection in this annual feature from the congressional publication, and now is the time to make sure your favorite Hill-ype gets included. As Fishbowl DC notes, nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 version of the list through June 30th.

In honor of the open nomination, The Hill is sharing redacted versions of a very of the entertaining entries. My favorite of the first group:

Besides being his lucky girlfriend and No. 1 fan, I’m nominating [NAME] because he is a specimen of all that is man. I have to fight girls/my friends/his interns/my mom off of him. It’s disgusting and awesome. He is not only the most interesting and hilarious person you’d ever meet but also an unrivaled storyteller and will surely keep you more entertained with an interview than I can in this short nomination …

I’m not always a betting man, but I would gamble that a certain junior senator from up north gets included…especially if the SNL writers get a vote.

Alexandria, Business and Money, People, The Features, We Love Drinks

We Love Drinks: The Birth of a Brewery

Photo courtesy of
‘Port City Pale Ale’
courtesy of ‘rabid_c’

I obviously think the world of DC, but there’s one thing I’ve always thought the metro area lacked: a brewery.  There are a myriad of beer nerd restaurants, places like ChurchKey, Brasserie Beck and Birreria Paradiso, that quench the appetites of a pretty decent sized population of aficionados. Small, well respected breweries make it a point to export to the DC area because the market is so ripe for well crafted beers.  It seems like the perfect place to open a brewery.  More over, it seems like the sort of place a local would start brewing on his own, generate a following and eventually establish a successful brewery.  Thankfully, Port City Brewing Co. is making this a reality.

Continue reading

The Daily Feed

AU Basketball Player Selected by Pittsburgh Pirates in MLB Draft

AU_Lumpkins
Photo by Rachel Levitin

American University rising junior and basketball player Stephen Lumpkins achieved an athletic feat that no other Division I college basketball player in the city has this year – he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 42nd round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on Wednesday.

Lumpkins, who is known for playing forward with the American Eagles, played baseball throughout high school and is on a collegiate summer league team at the moment.

Although he entered the Eagle lineup his freshman year, Lumpkins’ love for baseball did not falter. The 6’8” California native started recruiting basketball teammates to “play catch” with him last summer while at home.

“I’d like to pursue a career in professional baseball,” he told American’s Kogod News.

Lumpkins has until mid-August to make his final decision about whether or not he will return to AU and continue to play Division I basketball or join the Pirates farm system.

The Features

Digital Capital Week Starts Tonight!

dcwheader.jpg

One of DC’s amazing hidden strengths is its limitless capacity for technological innovation. So many amazing firms that craft the technology we see and use every day, both online and off, have homes here in the District, and it’s high time that we celebrated that. Frank Gruber’s Shinyheart Ventures, and Peter Corbett’s iStrategyLabs have teamed up for ten days of creative technology events here in Washington DC, and the kickoff is tonight. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

O Street Market Project Back on its Feet

Photo courtesy of
‘Red Shell’
courtesy of ‘M.V. Jantzen’

The Adolf Cluss façade of the O Street Market (aka Northern Market, as in Eastern Market) at O and 7th Streets NW in Shaw has remained a shell for several years after the roof collapsed in the 2003 blizzard. The city was able to save the façade of the market, though, and developers have been promising to turn it into something more with time. The project had stalled several times, but news came from DC Metrocentric this morning: construction at the site will begin in September, with preservation of the old structure continuing before the closing of the Giant Food in January. It will take two years or so for the Giant to reopen, and in 2014, a new hotel and new block of retail will open on the same site.

I love that they chose to keep the historic shell of the Northern Market and can’t wait to see what this looks like when they’re done.

The Daily Feed

MetroPerforms! Auditions Coming Soon

Photo courtesy of
‘Street Saxophonist’
courtesy of ‘Bogotron’

Calling all singers, dancers, musicians, poets, and any creative-minded folks in the greater DC-area! Metro’s Art in Transit program and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities are holding open auditions at Metro headquarters Saturday, June 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the MetroPerforms! series.

Artists selected to perform based on the June 19 auditions will be placed at Metro station entrances from June through September.

Those interested in auditioning can bring their artistic a-game to 600 Fifth Street NW when Metro will select the lucky few who will perform at 10 stations throughout the District through the fall.

The Daily Feed

More Meals for Your Money

Photo courtesy of
‘Buddha Bar 15’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

For those of us on a budget, it’s always great to find a deal on dinner, or any other meal for that matter.  That being said, I have a few spots that I think you’ll thank me later for…

Buddha Bar. Did you know you can enjoy lunch Buddha Bar-style for under 20 bucks?  That’s right!  Seven days a week this newly-opened restaurant offers bento boxes for $19.  The boxes include miso soup, edamame, Buddha Bar, chicken salad, Vietnamese spring rolls, red curry shrimp with steamed rice, and your choice of mango soup or chocolate & sesame bars for dessert.  Works for me!

Potenza. If you’re looking for something different, Potenza has you covered.  On Thursdays and Fridays, between 11:20 am and 5 pm, you can grab a snack for just $5!  If you drop by Potenza’s patio at 15th and H Street NW, you can have your choice of three house-made sausages.  Grilled and served with peppers and onions, you just decide between Italian sweet, spicy, or fennel, and enjoy.  If you’re looking for a little bit more, they also have a three-course menu you might enjoy on your lunch break.  You can choose between items like salad, sandwiches, and even a take-away cookie bag.  Check out the full menu here.

CommonWealth Gastropub & Hank’s Oyster Bar. Last but not least, Jamie Leeds has a special treat for you and the kids with Family Nights at DC’s CommonWealth Gastropub and Hank’s Oyster Bar in Alexandria.  On Tuesdays and Saturdays between 5 and 7 pm at Commonwealth (and Tuesdays at Hank’s Oyster Bar), kids 10 and under can eat free when you chow down on one of the “grown-up” meals.  Whether it’s the Mac n’ Cheese at Hank’s or the Fish n’ Chips at CommonWealth, the kiddies will definitely eat great.  For the parents, you might like something like the BBQ’d Oysters or Lemon Thyme Roast Chicken with mashed potatoes.