Food and Drink, The Features, We Green DC, We Love Food

We Love Vegan: Part 1

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courtesy of ‘erin m’

Over an especially gluttonous meal one night, filled with lamb chops and veal, we had a thought: What would life be like without all this meaty goodness? But not only without meat, what about life without this cheesy, eggy goodness? That crazy night (after maybe a few too many glasses of wine) the idea of Vegan Week was born. We, your loyal food writers here at We Love DC, decided to tried are very best to eat completely, 100% vegan for one week.

Well…one work week. Ashley ate most of her meals out of the house, for no other reason than everything she knew how to cook had bacon in it, while Katie had to make her decidedly unveg work location work for her. What follows is the sometimes humorous, sometimes surprising, sometimes depressing account of Vegan Week 2010. (For more on our decision to go vegan, check back here Thursday at 11 a.m. for the wrap-up post in this series, We Love Vegan: The Question and Answer Session.)

Dun-duh-duuuuuuuh.

A disclaimer: Through plenty of Plant Alternative research and polling our friends who know a little bit about living a meat-free lifestyle, we came to our conclusions about how to attack Vegan Week. We tried, to the best of our abilities to eat vegan, and to our knowledge we did. If we screwed something up along the way, it was on account of our own stupidity more than anything else. We are not vegans, not even vegetarians, but we tried our best. Also, just a reminder, we here at We Love DC respect all lifestyles, from the meatful to the plantful, and expect that you do too. Take your haterade elsewhere, thanks. Continue reading

Entertainment, Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Drinks

We Love Drinks: Dive Bars

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‘9946-27Crop’
courtesy of ‘furcafe’

With the amazing renaissance of our drinks culture in DC – the craft cocktail movement, the wine bar explosion, and the expanding beer consciousness all facing off against the slick corporate engines looking to make big bucks off bottle service and velvet ropes – it’s easy to overlook the plain ol’ dingy dive bar. But there’s a seedy side to the world of drinks in our fair capital city. And I love it.

What makes a dive bar? Can you really define it? Imagine you were a production designer for a crazy independent filmmaker, would you know what elements to include? Some might say DC is too Type A to have real dive bars, but the sleazy underbelly of politics proves that wrong. With so many bright-eyed babies coming here to “make it big” there’s bound to be a lot of disappointment. Not everybody’s a winner. And the dive bar thrives on losers.

Depressed yet? Good. Relish it. That’s part of the dive bar too. You’ve got to inhale that sick aroma, ripe from years of iqos dubai cigarette smoke and body odor, squint as you enter almost total darkness or excruciatingly bad fluorescent lighting, belly up to the bar and order a shot. Now look around. Let’s see what we have here.
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The Features, We Love Music

We Love Music: April Music Preview

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courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Every band’s gotta start somewhere. Last month, we took a look at local acts at local venues. The homegrown groups got some sweet, sweet lovin’ via your attendance at their shows. April, the first full month of spring, calls for a savory new way to titillate your aesthetic sense. Here are five concerts to catch at the hometown venues you’ve learned to love with up-and-coming east coast (and Canadian!) musicians, air guitar pros, and a personal favorite of mine (aka live jazz). Continue reading