Category Archives: The Daily Feed

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Chef News: Dan Giusti of 1789 Heads to Denmark

Photo courtesy of
‘Barely mixing the dough’
courtesy of ‘CathyLovesDC’

As Tim Carman and The Washington Post reported yesterday, executive chef Dan Giusti of 1789 is packing his bags for Denmark. The 27-year-old chef is heading to work at Noma, a two Michelin star restaurant in Copenhagen. The restaurant has been listed as “the best” restaurant in the world for two years in a row by Restaurant Magazine.

According to The Post, Dan spent two weeks staging at Noma in July when he was told that there might be an opening there for him to come join their team. One thing led to another and now the chef is moving to Denmark. Dan will be staying at 1789 through August 28th.

Dan was the first chef I met in DC when I started writing about food and was still green on the restaurant scene. I always liked chatting with him at events when he would indulge any of my snarky comments about food and I liked to see a fellow New Jerseyan be successful in DC. No doubt Dan’s passion for food is what’s taking him to Noma, though DC will miss him. Best of luck, chef!

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Strasburg looks good in rehab debut

Intensity

It was a festival atmosphere in Hagerstown on Sunday afternoon as Stephen Strasburg took the mound at Municipal Stadium, with the sold-out crowd of more than 6,000 on their feet. The phenom was slated for around 2 innings on the steamy afternoon game, and threw 1 2/3 innings and 31 pitches, giving up 3 hits and a run.

The lone run came on a fastball that Jacob Realmuto, a 20-year old from Midwest City, Oklahoma, launched well over the right-center field wall at Municipal Stadium.  It was Strasburg’s only mistake of the day, in the shortened start. He recorded four strikeouts and no walks against Greensboro.

After the game, Strasburg took questions from a limited number of reporters, but fortunately it was caught by MASN Sports, who’ve embedded it on Ben Goessling’s blog. Strasburg’s velocity was reported to be around his average for last season around 97mph, and he seemed to be comfortable mixing his two-seam and four-seam fastballs and his change up, and we saw at least one K due to his curve ball, which made an appearance or two.  It looked like he was getting some late motion on his change up, as well, which fanned two more.

It’s not yet clear where Strasburg’s next start will be, but Friday is likely to be the day. Possible places include High A Potomac who are home against Myrtle Beach, or AA Harrisburg home against Trenton.

It’s likely Strasburg will return to the Nationals by the first week of September, completing his year-long recovery from Tommy John surgery.

More photos in our Flickr Set: Two Innings in Hagerstown

The Daily Feed
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Friday Happy Hour: Pickle Back

I was at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday night for Gilt’s private Yeasayer show, which was totally great but ended really early – right around 10:15 or so. As it wrapped up, my friend and I walked the half-block over to American Ice Co. and settled in at the bar for some post-show drinking and carrying-on.

While the staff there are well-prepared to make elaborate, creative cocktails (and, indeed, bartender/manager Patrick started my friend and I off with a riff on a blood and sand that was pretty delicious), when they get slammed after a concert, it just makes sense to stick to simpler things. Things like beer, whiskey, and pickle juice.
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The Daily Feed
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Help DCPS with their Salad Bar program

Eatmoresalad

The DC Public Schools are bringing back their Salad Bar program to the high schools of the District, and they’re looking for some volunteers to help them at area high schools the first week of classes from August 29th through September 2nd. They need volunteers to help man the salad bars and help kids to understand the decisions that are getting made at lunchtime and how fresher, healthier food can make a difference.

Help ’em out? It makes a huge difference in the fight for nutrition in this city.

The Daily Feed
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Strasmas in August?

Photo courtesy of
‘Strasburg – Coming Spring 2012’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

With the Nationals 17.5 games back in the Division, and 10 back of the Wild Card, it looks like their playoff hopes are just about done, but there’s some good news on the horizon. Yesterday, Strasburg finished his Viera stint and is headed back for the Nationals’ minor league system for 30 days of rehab before returning to the big-league club. First up? According to Ben Goessling of MASN, it’s likely Sunday’s game in Hagerstown. It seems a bit like turning a velociraptor loose on a herd of baby sheep, putting the recovering ace up against low-A hitters, but that’s where rehab starts begin.

Grandstand seats are available, as of post time, for $11 apiece. Bleacher seats are $7.70. You won’t find a better deal.

The Daily Feed
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Gray and Brown face off over Municipal Bond tax

Photo courtesy of
‘Savings bond with punchcard data’
courtesy of ‘ericskiff’

Michael Neibauer of the Business Journal has a good guide to the back and forth between the council and the mayor over the municipal bond tax that the Council wished to do away with, which has come to a head in the last 24 hours.  The tax, which Councilmember Cheh had worked to delay until 2012, affects those who earn interest on out-of-state bonds, and will now be retroactive to the 1st of January this year.

The Daily Feed
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CM Yvette Alexander fined $4,000 by OCF for misuse of constituent funds

Photo courtesy of
‘_MG_4345’
courtesy of ‘dbking’

Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander was fined $4,000 by the Office of Campaign Finance, related to the findings that “Councilmember Alexander’s Constituent Services Fund (CSF) made an expenditure for campaign activities; and that her Constituent Services Program (CSP) failed to report certain expenditures on required quarterly reports, both in violation of the D.C. Campaign Finance Reform and Conflict of Interest Act. A fine of $4,000 was imposed for these violations.”

It appears that Alexander was acquitted of responsibility for the most serious charges levied against her in the complaint, but some of the more minor charges, which include using $300 from her constituent services funds to pay for robocalls for her campaign, still cost the council member’s campaign $4,000 in fines.

Alexander joins several other members of the City Council on the wrong side of scandals this year.

The Daily Feed
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PSA: Peak Northwest Cherry Season Is Here

A Bowl of Cherries

In February I posted a recipe and photographic step-by-step instructions for preserving your own cherries. In that post I noted, “supply is unpredictable and the cherry season is short.” If you’ve got the time, hie yourself to the supermarket, where Northwest sweet cherries are $1.99/lb through tonight (Safeway) or Thursday (Giant).

My local Safeway had Mason jars in stock the last time I looked, too. Target carries some attractive jars, but their supply can be unpredictable. I have also bought jars at Logan Hardware. What are you waiting for? Get preserving!

The Daily Feed
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Daniel Snyder’s Attorneys: “DC can’t make its own laws!”

Photo courtesy of
‘Dan Snyder, Free Speech Crusader’
courtesy of ‘Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com’

Oh Dan Snyder.

Just when you thought the city’s most litigious owner of a sports team had given DC enough reasons to love him. His attorneys yesterday gave us one more reason to think this man a FINE UPSTANDING INDIVIDUAL OF MORAL STRENGTH AND CHARACTER, ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY DANIEL SNYDER, KING OF THE REDSKINS:

Just as sure as ‘Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the freedom of speech,’ so, too, the D.C. Council may make no law with respect to the manner in which the D.C. Superior Court conducts its affairs.

Erik Wemple from the Post quotes at length from the Snyder documents, specifically citing the sections where Snyder’s attorneys believe that DC’s Anti-SLAPP law is of no particular consequence and perhaps a violation of the first amendment and other constitutional protections. That the Anti-SLAPP measure in other jurisdictions have stood up to some scrutiny is, of course, irrelevant.

What a guy, that Snyder. What a guy.

The Daily Feed
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I can has Dance Party?

Madonna gaga britney image

DC’s own DJ lil’e is playing the 9:30 club on Saturday night with her unique mashup dance party Lady Gaga vs Madonna vs Britney.  Her shows are full of energy, not to mention confetti cannons and awesome on-stage dancers. Tickets are $15, and the show starts at 9.

Britney Spears was just at Verizon Center this past weekend, so if you’re a lover of the live pop music act, it’s hard not to love events like this one.

Get your dancing shoes on, DC, to support one of the city’s best DJs.

Food and Drink, Night Life, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Reminder: Rickey Month Party Tonight

August Rickey on the @tabardinn patio. Yum.

You may recall from previous years that July is Rickey Month. July’s over, but tonight the DC Craft Bartenders Guild wraps things up for 2011 with its Rickey Month Party at Jack Rose.

Finalists, announced via email on Friday, are after the jump, along with a few tasting notes from our team on the ones we tried.
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The Daily Feed
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Courtland Milloy is watching you tweet

Courtland

Courtland Milloy, coiner of the phrase “myopic little twits” is now on twitter, at @courtland51, and he really just wants to “track millenials & find out if they anything in dc other than party and gentrify.” That means he’s looking for you, DC twitterers, to point him toward Gen X and Millenials who are doing things in the city.

Drop him a line and tell him we said hi?

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nationals finish strong at the Trade Deadline

Photo courtesy of
‘R.C. Beadle, A.H. Brown (LOC)’
courtesy of ‘The Library of Congress’

The trade deadline is a nebulous and crazy thing. Everyone seems to know someone who knows something about a AA prospect who heard from the trainer that he’s being traded to play at Tulsa for a guy whose name ended in A. or was it Y? Either way, sure thing.

This is the time of the baseball season where everyone can play armchair general manager, saying that the team should trade for this guy, or for that one, or for the love of God get player X off the roster, because he’s a bum. Today has been no different than the usual.

Yesterday, the Nationals made a pair of solid trades that sent Jason Marquis to the Arizona Diamondbacks for shortstop Zachery Walters, and Jerry Hairston Jr. to the Milwaukee Brewers for outfielder Erik Komatsu.  Both were to be free agents at the end of this season, and neither would have granted a compensatory pick, and coupled with the fact that Arizona is assuming $2.5M of Marquis’ salary, and we got two strong minor leaguers, I’m going to call this one an unmitigated success.

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