By Ben H. Rome
©George Fok; used with permission by National Geographic
We’re in the process of giving away two pairs of tickets to an April program at National Geographic. (Deadline is noon tomorrow!) There’s some great stuff going on, so even if you don’t win, try to go out and enjoy something new!
By Tricia Barba
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courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’
Open!
Two new places opened up on H Street this week, and they’re sure to be favorites for residents and other Washingtonians. For less than $9 you can get a full plate of stir-fry at Khan’s Bar and Grill. It’s not fancy, but it works, and well at that. Just on the next block is the ramen and dumpling house, Toki Underground. Of course, expect late hours for both.
Medium Rare also opened up this week with its minimalist menu. Pay $19.50 and you’ll get a prix-fixe menu of rustic bread, a mixed greens salad and a Sirloin Steak with fries. The Cleveland Park restaurant comes to us from Mark Bucher of BGR The Burger Joint.
Coming!
Best Bites has some great news for meat lovers out there. To be exact, “a large, USDA-certified commissary for processing locally raised meat that will be sold on-location, to venues in the parent Neighborhood Restaurant Group, and eventually to a string of Red Apron butcheries in Maryland, Virginia, and the District.” What that mouthful means is that you will soon be able to get pastrami short ribs, summer sausage, smoked jowl rillettes, wild-boar salami, and more at a brick and mortar.
Winner
Mike Isabella of the coming up Graffiato took second place in Top Chef, edged out by Richard Blais. So yet again, a Washingtonian makes it so far and doesn’t grab the title. That’s okay. Congraulations!
This weekend
It’s time for ARTINI 2011. You can read our drinks roundup here, here, and here. This Saturday mixologists from 12 of the city’s top venues will serve up artistic martinis inspired by works from the Corcoran Collection. If you wanted to go, but don’t have a ticket, you’re out of luck because the event is sold out. But I still can’t wait to find out who wins!
‘TaKorean’
courtesy of ‘Joe in DC’
It’s time to eat! Go out there and grab some food truck grub! If you don’t make it to one for lunch though, today is the first Food Truck Thursday over at Chinatown Coffee Company. It starts at 6:30 and Takorean will be there.
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‘Wall Ascending the Sky’
courtesy of ‘Mylar Bono’
Defying the odds and most expectations, the Washington Wizards gave the star-studded Miami Heat a run for their money Wednesday night at the Verizon Center, twice cutting their deficit to one point early in the fourth quarter. But ultimately, the 94 total points scored by LeBron James (35 points), Dwyane Wade (33 points), and Chris Bosh (26 points) proved too much to overcome as the Heat (52-23) defeated the Wizards 123-107.
As heartening as the performance was by the Wizards (18-56), it’s hard not to wonder what might have happened if Washington’s star rookie point guard John Wall hadn’t gotten himself thrown out of the game with 8:48 to go in the first half and the Wizards leading 37-36.
The incident began innocuously enough, as Zydrunas Ilgauskas grabbed a loose ball at the top of the key and was defended by Wall. As Ilgauskas turned to face the basket, the Wizards rookie got right into the Lithuanian’s personal space, and Ilgauskas responded by nudging Wall twice with his right elbow. Wall took a futile swipe at the ball as Ilgauskas brought it over his head, an action which left the Miami man’s midsection exposed. As Wall turned to face up to Ilgauskas, television replays showed that the Kentucky alum pursed his lips, picked a spot, and let fly with a right cross to Ilgauskas’ ribs at the same instant that the 7-foot-3 center reached out with his left arm to shove Wall further back. Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
‘Willie comes in for the HR!!’
courtesy of ‘MudflapDC’
Prepare yourself, Nats fans, for the 2011 season. No, I’m not talking about the Playoffs (hah!) or even a winning record (Let’s call that an 8% chance), but the 2011 season appears to be the start of a new era in Nats Town on a number of counts, so if you’re heading out to the ballpark, here’s a few things you can expect to see at the stadium that are new or different this year.
By Tricia Barba
Talk about opening with no fanfare – no press release bombardment, no email blasts, no announcement after announcement on Twitter, not even a Grand Opening sign. Yet when I went to Khan’s Bar & Grill on Monday for opening day, the place was packed. What’s not to like about a restaurant that has a flame as an apostrophe in its name?
Khan’s doesn’t look brand new from the outside or from the inside, yet that’s really what makes it feel like such an H Street establishment. Walk in and you immediately see the grill, past that is the food line, to the left is the register, and after that we have seats and then the bar. Confused? You might be, but the owner and staff will be there to guide you for sure. In fact, the owner seemed very concerned about the amount of honey mustard I insisted on putting on my food, until I told him I was a condiment fanatic. Continue reading
By Dave Levy
‘Superhero Run’
courtesy of ‘terren in Virginia’
It’s been a few weeks since we’ve talked about some of the Virginia-based* teams that have broken the laws of probability in the men’s NCAA tournament during the past two weekends. While Richmond’s bid ended last Friday, Virginia Commonwealth has continued its impressive run of being the first team to have to play – and win – five games just to make the Final Four thanks to the additional First Four round. Forgive Rams’ fans for being just a bit excited. The NCAA tournament may take out some of the value of the regular season, but what it also does in its one-and-done model is add in a layer of chance that someone like VCU can rise up to be the unlikely semifinalist that it became this year.
I have to say, I’m blown away by the support VCU is getting even up here in the District. Interestingly, in the lull before baseball and NHL playoffs, it’s become Dan Steinberg’s most interesting beat ever since Georgetown bowed out to its regional competitor back on the 18th. The best part of this: he’s pulling up some great stories, including what has now made me a VCU fan against Butler come Saturday. Down at Richmond’s The National, not only is there a chance to join others to watch the game – but also to rock out to the premier Rush cover band in the country after all is said and done.
Rush! They’re like the Canadian Journey.
The rest of the ticker after the jump and disclaimer.
*Yes, this blog is called We Love DC. As long as New York media outlets cover teams that play in New Jersey as “New York teams,” and as long as there are a significant amounts of alums from these schools who live or grew up here – and there are – please go ahead and keep your “Why are you covering Virginia things?!?!?!11” comments.
By Dave Levy
Here’s your infographic of the day, courtesy of Hipmunk: visual street signs to work as a helpful tool for pedestrians in various cities. The call out about DC is above, and the full guide (for those of you visiting other cities) is in the post.
Fair assessment? Anything other than diagonal streets that visiting walkers in the city should know (other than walk on left, stand on right – let’s focus on sidewalks in the District)? Or is this just the easy visual joke with little impact? I, for one, may have gone with a quadrant joke.
By Addison H
‘Churchkey #2’
courtesy of ‘Hans Bruesch’
DC is a political town, always has been, always will be. And now, even our beer is political, with the release of Schlafly Beer’s House in Session Ale. Unlike our politicians, however, this beer was the result of a word not usually in many of their vocabularies: cooperation.
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By Will Packard
Semyon Varlamov faced a penalty shot.
courtesy of PackaPucksPics
The Caps couldn’t muster enough energy last night to play a complete hockey game, falling to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in a shootout. “I feel like at some points in the game we were just coasting a little bit instead of pushing the envelope and that’s what bit us in the end,” said rookie defenseman John Carlson, probably the best player on the ice in red last night. “We gotta be able to compete and beat any team that’s going to come hard because everyone is going to be fighting for their lives in the playoffs.” Let’s hear it for rookie leadership.
Indeed, the Hurricanes were five points out of the playoffs coming into last night’s game and will likely have to win all of their remaining games to qualify for the playoffs, so the intensity was high. And after resting some key players during a recent road trip, the Caps lineup last night looked remarkably like a playoff team. Continue reading
‘El Floridano’
courtesy of ‘Amber Wilkie Photography’
Happy hump day! You’ve made it to the middle of the week. Why not get lunch from a food truck?
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By Tom Bridge
Visiting Seattle this past weekend, I found myself jealous of the Emerald City, and not just for their fine food and coffee options, or for the warm weather and gentle rain. No, what I found most amazing about Seattle was the wealth of transit options I had in the palm of my hand through Google Maps on my iPhone.
If you’ve ever tried to use the transit mode in DC, you know that it holds nothing but certain disappointment, and you find yourself trying to find directions another way. You muddle through the wmata.com website, you try to remember which bus route runs where, and which ones are named after streetcar routes, and if you’re like me, you can’t keep it all straight.
WMATA has committed to bringing Metrobus and Metrorail routes to Google Transit, but have missed deadline after deadline, first saying January of 2011, and then saying “any day now“. The project has foundered for reasons that WMATA isn’t discussing publicly. I do recognize that processing five rail lines, and 300 bus lines is a chunk of work, but after my weekend of wandering Seattle, and spending a chunk of money on fares, it’s awful hard to go back.
By Rebecca
Last week, Mayor Gray and DDOT kicked off Potholepalooza 2011, our city’s intensified efforts to fill those tire-busting, shock killing road hazards. In an effort to let our powers combine, DDOT is asking DC residents to tell them about neighborhood potholes that need fixing. You can target these car nightmares and curse inducing potholes by phoning in (311), going online, tweeting or emailing DDOT.
According to VDOT’s Pothole Hunter Phil Itwick, these little f*ckers are caused by water that gets into the pavement and expands and contracts with the changing temperatures. Mr. Itwick gives a fantastic, and entertaining, explanation on how potholes are fixed on both a temporary and permanent basis. Definitely worth the watch.
By Don
‘Lincoln’
courtesy of ‘yostinator’
Last week we had more air traffic controller news out of the DC area than we’ve had since 1981. If you were still under your rock, the issue was an unresponsive tower where the lone employee had fallen asleep. The TBD article does a good job of doing a matter-of-fact reporting of how such a thing is handled with no apparent drama – one landing pilot didn’t even intend to report it. But you can’t be blamed for wondering – is that just overly-neutral reporting or is this really sort of a “meh” incident?
I’m a big fan of Patrick Smith’s Ask the Pilot column over at Salon and he weighed in on this issue yesterday. So, was it dangerous? “sort of, maybe, it depends, probably not.”
The TBD article opens with what seems like a kind of scandalous line. “Two airliners landed at Reagan National Airport without clearance from the airport tower because they were unable to raise anyone there.” But Smith says this went down just as it should and in the safest possible way.
If a plane is on a published approach procedure toward a particular runway, nine times in 10 the safest course of action is to continue that approach and land on that runway.
The whole piece is quick and worth a read. It jibes with my limited knowledge as a relative of a lightweight craft pilot and I share his largest takeaway from the matter: “Open to debate is the wisdom of having but a single tower controller on hand at any point, even during off-peak hours when things are relatively quiet, but that’s a topic for another time.”
Here’s hoping he investigates that topic in the future.
‘SCHOOL BUS’
courtesy of ‘afagen’
There are some truly innovative projects going on in the food world to expand access to healthy and local produce. One right in DC is Arcadia’s Mobile Market Project, an initiative to turn a school bus into a traveling farmer’s market that will run on biofuel (a.k.a. old cooking oil) and stop in “food deserts” across the city.
The first fundraiser event for the project is this Thursday, March 31 from 5 to 8 PM at Lounge 2o1 near Union Station. The happy hour will have cocktails with local spirits, as well as some tiny bites made with local, sustainable beef from White House Meats. You’ll be able to make a secure pledge to the Mobile Market Project right on the spot and Lounge 201 will donate a portion of the night’s proceeds to the project.
The project is trying to raise $15,000 by Earth Day on April 22nd. Unfortunately, if the project doesn’t meet its goal it will be stalled and you won’t be charged for your donation. When the Mobile Market launches, it will make regular stops in Wards 5, 7 and 8 and sell fresh, affordable produce. To increase accessibility, the market will accept many forms of payment, including SNAP, WIC and FMNP vouchers. Additionally, the bus will make special visits to different schools and community centers to bring chefs, farmers and other community leaders in to talk about making healthy food choices.
So far the project has raised more than $7,000 and has 23 days to go. If you can’t make it to the happy hour at Lounge 201, you can make an online pledge here.
By Tom Bridge
Photo courtesy of Carl Weaver
HVAC equipment on top of the Franklin Tower Buildings at 14th and I St NW caught fire this morning, producing large amounts of black smoke this morning around 10:30. Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer says that they have gotten the fire knocked down and under control this morning, but the building had to be evacuated as a precaution.
‘DC Empanadas!’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’
Don’t settle for microwaved leftovers. Get yourself to a food truck for lunch today.
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‘cherry blossoms + Washington Monument’
courtesy of ‘martha_jean’
Unless you’ve got tons of free time and an expansive stomach and wallet, there’s just no way to take advantage of every cherry blossom-inspired dish at restaurants around town. So instead, you can sample some of the “Cherry Picks” this week and next at various Capital One Bank locations.
From 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM on designated dates, different restaurants will give out complimentary morsels. If you happen to be a Capital One Bank customer, then you get the added bonus of getting a free coffee or dessert when you dine at and pay with your Capital One debit or credit card at participating restaurants.
Below is the schedule for the free Cherry Picks:
Tuesday, March 29; 11:30am – 1:30pm
Capital One Branch: 1100 17th Street, NW
Featuring Litestars
Wednesday, March 30; 11:30am – 1:30pm
Capital One Branch: 336 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Featuring Zest Bistro
Wednesday, March 30; 11:30am – 1:30pm
Capital One Branch: 1800 M Street, NW
Featuring Mie N Yu
Thursday, March 31; 11:30 – 1:30pm
Capital One Branch: 2400 M Street, NW
Featuring RIS
Tuesday, April 5; 11:30am – 1:30pm
Capital One Branch: 901 New York Ave, NW
Featuring Againn
Wednesday, April 6; 11:30am – 1:30pm
Capital One Branch: 1850 K Street, NW
Featuring Cities Restaurant & Lounge
Thursday, April 7; 11:30am – 1:30pm
Capital One Branch: 1200 F Street, NW
Featuring McCormick and Schmick’s
By Rebecca
’44th annual Smithsonian Kite Festival’
courtesy of ‘cruffo’
Last weekend’s postponed kite festival has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 10th from 10am until 4pm. Check the event’s official website for updates on the day’s activities. If you’re looking for a kite, Sullivan’s Toy Store and Art Supplies (3412 Wisconsin Avenue NW) store has plenty in stock.
By Tom Bridge
‘scoreboard fireworks’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
The weather might be reminding you more of hockey season, or football season, but baseball season starts in DC on Thursday with the Nats against the Braves (tickets still available), but before we get to that, Wednesday at Nationals Park is this year’s Fan Fest. Season ticket holders should plan on showing up at 3:30, and the rest of the public around 4pm or so. The Nationals say, subject to change, that Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Derek Norris, Chien Ming Wang and Cole Kimball are going to be there, as part of various Q&A panels and photo opportunities. Tickets are $10, and get you access to the park for the festivities.
As the Nats prepare to start their seventh season in Washington, this is a great way for fans to get up close and personal with this year’s team and staff.
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