Category Archives: The District

News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Ride With Style: New DC Sports Vanity Plates Are In-The-Works

Photo courtesy of
‘Preamble (203/365) (048/365) [Explored]’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

Want to drive with pride while donning your favorite team’s colors with a new vanity license plate? You could be soon thanks to council members Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) who announced their plan to create plates for the Redskins, Wizards, United, Capitals and Mystics on Tuesday.

All plates would still say “Taxation without representation”, but at least now you can add a unique touch to the front and rear of your daily ride.

Extra fees would include a one-time payment of $25 for the plate and a $20 biennial renewal.

The only question I have is: What about those Nationals? They need some love too!

Dupont Circle, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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Free Carriage Rides, Movies, Food in Golden Triangle

Photo courtesy of
‘Horse at Night’
courtesy of ‘M.V. Jantzen’

To get everyone in the holiday spirit, The Golden Triangle BID is projecting classic holiday movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “A Christmas Story” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” high above Connecticut Avenue on the wall of the Tiny Jewel Box. A different movie will play each day during the week of December 14th from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Did someone say free food??? The BID is also giving 10 lucky winners (plus three friends each) a free horse-drawn carriage ride and a $100 restaurant gift card, good at Kellari, M Street Bar & Grill, Elephant & Castle Pub and Restaurant, Famous Luigi’s, The Melting Pot, Sam & Harry’s, BLT Steak, or The Lafayette at The Hay-Adams hotel.

Register on the BID’s website to win the Golden Triangle’s cheer-filled evening by December 10 (next Thursday).

Full movie schedule: Continue reading →

The Daily Feed, The District
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Two New H Street Restaurants Apply for Liquor Licenses

Photo courtesy of
‘Day 214: Red and the Black’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

Had enough Sticky Rice and margs from the Country Club? Ready for something new? Lucky you. H Street is expanding, and introducing a new Asian restaurant and a seafood/pizza place.

The Hamilton Restaurant Group, Inc. applied for a liquor license for their new endeavor, Liberty Tree. They describe Liberty Tree to be “A seafood and brick oven pizza restaurant with recorded music. No entertainment. Occupancy Load is 57 and Summer Garden of 144 seats.” Liberty Tree will be located at 1016 H Street, N.E. The lovely Nicole over at The Hill Is Home had a chance to talk with the owners at the H street festival and she seems stoked about the seafood dishes.

Foodies LLC also applied for a Name TBD “new restaurant featuring Asian cuisine and a summer garden with 25 seats. Request an entertainment endorsement to feature live bands, DJ, and Karaoke with no designated dance floor. Occupancy load of 99.” The TBD place is located at 1110 H Street, NE, a few blocks west of the main drag of clubs and restaurants on H.

Personally? I’m still stoked for the beer garden. I’ve been dry cleaning my dirndl.

Fashionable DC, The District, The Features
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Fashionable DC: MidCity


Photo courtesy of Kelly Collis Fredrick

I recently attended two events held in what I knew as the 14th and U Streets corridor – the Dog Days of Summer in August and about a month later, Fashion’s Night Out. The vibe of these events, the display of unique items from both clothing and home décor boutiques, made these memorable shopping excursions.

Who was organizing these popular events? I traced it back to the MidCity Business Association (BA). MidCity BA represents businesses on the commercial corridors that stretch down 14th Street from Florida Avenue to Thomas Circle and along U from 9th to 17th as well as several side streets way beyond the 14th and U district. Many don’t know that MidCity is actually a historical term for this collection of neighborhoods dating decades back.

Over the past few weeks, I spent time with a few of the boutique owners, as well as Natalie Avery from the MidCity BA, to better understand the neighborhood and community (and was able to sneak in some shopping too!).  As a life long Washingtonian, it was a great experience to learn about the rich history of this neighborhood and the strong sense of community that still exists there today.

Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, The District
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Top Chef Contestant Blais Brings Burgers to Chinatown

Photo courtesy of
‘The Juicy Loosey’
courtesy of ‘akuban’

You guys, we must be getting sexier, ’cause Top Chef has been drawn to us as of late. The crush is festering, and we’ve just moved from the couch to the bedroom. Not only do we get served by Carla Hall, Spike, Bryan Voltaggio, and Mike Isabella but Richard Blais recently announced that he is bringing his Flip Burger concept to DC.

Atlanta is the home base for Flip Burger and Blais is reportedly looking around Chinatown for his third location (We’re second to Birmingham, odd, right?). For my love of Richard Blais subtle sarcastic sense of humor I’m going to politely refrain from whining about how all celebrity chefs like to bring us steak and burgers. Cause they do. Steak or burgers. Red meat. Woo! Ugh.

(Oh, whoops.)

Anywho, Blais says that Flip is all about burgers + molecular gastronomy, and who doesn’t love a little liquid nitrogen mixed with their food? I say? Bring it.

News, The Daily Feed, The District, WTF?!
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We’re Number 1!

Photo courtesy of
‘Cabbages and Condoms’
courtesy of ‘wharman’

I shouldn’t have to write this. I really shouldn’t. Folks, if you’re not grown up enough to cover your willie when you go to have sex, maybe you shouldn’t be at home with the Astroglide, okay? The CDC has released a study that shows that DC is #1 for per capita syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia infection. I’m gonna let that sink in for a second.

You’re three times as likely to get gonorrhea in DC than you are in VA or MD. That’s outrageous. That number goes up even higher for the other diseases. So really, folks, if you’re having sex and you don’t know the other person’s status (or, if you for any reason don’t trust it) then please for the love of god use a condom? This is just embarrassing.

Usual disclaimers about DC being an entirely urban “state” for demographics purposes, and I don’t believe the CDC breaks it out by metropolitan areas, where, I hope, Baltimore still has us beat.

Crime & Punishment, The District, The Features, WTF?!
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Learning About St. Elizabeth’s Hospital

Photo courtesy of


‘St Elisabeth’s Hospital – Autopsy is also a spectator sport’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

While poking around through the We Love DC Flickr pool this morning, I ran across spiggycat’s set of photos from a recent tour of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Anacostia. Since that was the second time in the space of a week someone mentioned touring St. Elizabeth’s, and since I know pretty much nothing about it, AND since my day job is into its 2nd straight day of technical issues that are preventing me from accomplishing anything, it seemed like a good time for self-education-by-Google.

St. Elizabeth’s was founded in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane, headed by Dorthea Dix, and intended to care for patients from the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia. But the Civil War soldiers in treatment there didn’t like telling people they were in a hospital for the insane, so they referred to it by the old colonial name of the land the hospital sat on, St. Elizabeth’s. It wasn’t until 1916 that Congress got with the program and renamed the hospital officially.

Continue reading →
Essential DC, Featured Photo, Life in the Capital, The District
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Feature Photo


I’d Very Much Enjoy a Cup of Tea by M.V. Jantzen

It was difficult to decide which photo to write about this week, but in the end I decided to go with one that captures an amazing event that is still fresh in my mind, the DC Tweed Ride.  I don’t think anyone expected DC’s first tweed ride to be such a phenomenal success, yielding hundreds of dandy bicyclists in every imaginable form of old timey garb.  On a perfect sunny day in DC, in a small alley at 8th & H street NE, I was transported to a time when people actually knew how to dress well and behave in a courteous manner.  In fact people were even smoking tobacco in their pipes, not the usual pipe-smoking material DC is known for!  As I rode through the city alongside the last group of cyclists, everyone was full of cheer and good spirit, smiling from ear to ear.

While there were many great tweed ride photos in our pool and elsewhere on Flickr, M.V. Jantzen’s photo really caught my eye.  I love the angle from which this shot was taken, the sophisticated and content look beaming from his subject, and the great use of fill flash to balance the exposure of the dark foreground with the bright background.

I say, old chap, is it possible to do another tweed ride again sometime soon?

Essential DC, Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Five Guys Makes Ad Age’s “America’s Hottest Brands” List

Photo courtesy of
‘Five Guys’
courtesy of ‘SWP Moblog’

Well, lookie here, Lorton-Baltimorebased chain Five Guys has made it on to Advertising Age’s “America’s Hottest Brands” List. Long heralded by DCites for its juicy, meaty burgers and specially spiced cajun fries, the Five Guys chain is exploding, opening shops along the Northeast corridor and infiltrating the Midwest.

The secret to Five Guys success, apart from their menu offerings, is good old fashioned customer service. You really can’t beat a good burger, some spicy fries and a smile.

*Rob C and Billy are correct. Five Guys is currently headquatered in Lorton, VA. The first Five Guys location, now closed, opened in 1986 at South Glebe Road and Columbia Pike in Arlington, VA.

The Daily Feed, The District
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Good News DC, Foreclosures Down!

Photo courtesy of
‘Foreclosure’
courtesy of ‘BasicGov’

Since everybody needs some kind of good news on a cold, rainy, windy, nasty, I-want-to-go-home-and-crawl-under-the-covers-with-the-dog-or-just-DRINK kinda’ day, I bring to you an article from WaPo today showing that foreclosures are going in the right direction in our area. The drop in foreclosures or take-overs this past month was nearly half the previous month in the District. The drop has also been seen in Virginia and Maryland, although not nearly as significant.

Continue reading →

Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District
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Ted Kennedy’s DC Residence Goes On The Market

Photo courtesy of
‘gone, but always remembered’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Vikki Kennedy, Ted Kennedy’s widow, has put their 7-bedroom Kalorama house on the market according to the Washington Post. The property features 5 fireplaces, 7 bathrooms, a lap pool and in-home gym personally outfitted by Arnold Schwarzennegger.

The couple moved into the Kalorama estate in 1998, and occupied the residence until Senator Kennedy’s death from brain cancer on August 25, 2009.

Adventures, Downtown, Essential DC, History, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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36th Annual Conference on Washington DC Historical Studies

Photo courtesy of
‘Lincoln’s Cottage – Magnified Capitol – 4-25-09’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

This Saturday, November 14, rub shoulders with and pick the brains of prominent DC scholars, students, history buffs and collectors at Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives.

The 36th annual conference unites all those dedicated to collecting and sharing the history of our nation’s capital and its local history.  This year’s highlights include newly uncovered findings on DC’s Underground Railroad, a photo history of the area, learnings from the restored Ford’ Theatre, and more.

Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors.  Reservations are required. Call 202-383-1840 for more information.

Foggy Bottom, Technology, The Daily Feed, The District
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You Abuse It, You Lose It

Photo courtesy of
‘In classroom #1’
courtesy of ‘poplinre’

The GW Hatchet reports that some professors have banned laptops, iPhones and Blackberries because students were using them for non-class related purposes (i.e. Facebook, AIM, email and even gaming).

Now having gone to highschool and college when laptops and smartphones were just becoming mainstream, I didn’t have that type of technological distraction. Instead, we had to rely on old fashioned doodling, note passing and daydreaming. The most technically advanced we got was playing “Drug Wars” on our TI-83 calculators in trig class. I was always so bummed when I got mugged riding the subway in Shaolin.

Point is kids have and will always find ways to distract themselves from learning about Joseph Proust’s theory on atomic theory or Emily Dickinson’s poetic themes of love, nature and death.  Unfortunately, laptops and cellphones take this distraction to a whole new level.

Yes, laptops can be uber useful for note taking, organizing and on the spot research, but their powers seem to be used more for evil than for good. Like Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker “With great power comes great responsibility” and if you’re not going to be responsible with how, when and for what you use your power, then you shouldn’t be allowed to have it in the classroom.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, The District
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FREE FOOD ALERT: BGR Burgers Tomorrow

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

FREE BURGERS TOMORROW! For anyone that has a sharpie and skin. I quote you the press release:

“On Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 11:00 a.m. to noon customers who arrive at any of BGR’s three DC area locations with ‘BGR’ written on any body part will receive a delicious gourmet burger on the house. Customers can select either The Burger or Veggie Burger, and the promotion is limited to one complimentary burger per customer. ”

The locations are: Dupont Circle: 1514 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 2003 Alexandria: 106 North Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 and Bethesda: 4827 Fairmont Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814

Essential DC, Life in the Capital, The District, We Love Arts
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FotoWeek DC 2009: What to See


FotoWeek Projections by coolmarie

Before last year there was a huge void in DC’s photography world.  Despite being the home of National Geographic, the Newseum, the Washington Post, and many award winning photographers, we were missing an event to bring everyone together, to celebrate photography.  Sure, some of the galleries in town would have a photography exhibit or two, Magnum and Pulitzer Prize winning photographers would occasionally talk about their work, and local photographers would dork out hold meetups and go on photowalks throughout the year.  What we needed though was something big and annual like other major cities have.  Something pros, amateurs, and students could all participate in.  Basically we needed a big photography party.  Hell, if our neighbors in little ol’ Charlottesville could put together an international photography festival, why couldn’t DC?  In came FotoWeek DC.

But what exactly is FotoWeek you ask?  That is a very good question.  In fact if you asked ten different people you would probably get ten different answers.  Is it a contest?  Yes.  Is it a city wide festival celebrating photography?  Yes.  Does it celebrate only photography?  No, in fact two of this year’s contest categories were called “Storytelling” and “Experimental” that included works in multimedia, video, sound and graphics.  Why does FotoWeek spell the word “photo” with an F?  Your guess is as good as mine, my friend.  Why is FotoWeek held in November rather than in a pleasant time of year, say in June?  Because you must suffer for photography.

Continue reading →

Penn Quarter, The District, The Features
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Photowalking: Chinatown/Penn Quarter

Photo courtesy of
‘Scooter’
courtesy of ‘The Digital Story’

An intrepid group of 25 photographers met last night at the Friendship Arch in Chinatown to explore the neighborhood, take photos, and talk with visiting photo guru Derrick Story. It was a cool fall evening, but the light was good, and the company better still. Dig on deeper for the best of the bunch, or browse the whole tag at Flickr.

Continue reading →

Food and Drink, News, People, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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Iron Chef Comes To The White House

Photo courtesy of
‘The White House – The Dream Home of Many Children’
courtesy of ‘adcristal’

The Food Network announced today that Mario Batali, Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse came to the White House last month (how did we miss this?) to film a special two-hour Iron Chef episode, called “Super Chef Battle”. Michelle Obama and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford gave Batali, Lagasse and Flay the challenge of using produce from the White House garden as the “secret ingredient”. In new-media fashion, Flay even tweeted about it this morning.

The special episode premieres Sunday, January 3rd at 8pm ET. Here is the full New York Times article (and a picture of Mario Batali wearing RIDICULOUS orange shenanegans on his feet).

$5 says FLOTUS wore a cardigan for the episode.

Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Night Life, People, Special Events, The District, The Features
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Georgetown Halloween 2009

Photo courtesy of
‘Halloween in Georgetown’
courtesy of ‘ep_jhu’

Ever since moving to DC in 2006, I have managed to miss out on the Georgetown Halloween scene for one reason or another, so this year I vowed to check out the madness and see what all the hubbub was about.

Our method of event transportation from Glover Park was on foot, which was a wise decision give the street closures. We arrived on the scene at around 11pm, and found the M Street inundated with costumers.  The DCPD had temporarily fenced in the sidewalks for crowd control purposes, which created a nice parade-like crowd movement along the M Street corridor.  The bars were jammed packed with waiting lines, and picture takers were everywhere. Continue reading →

Five Favorites, The District, The Features, WMATA
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Five Favorites: Metro Stations

Photo courtesy of
‘Woodley Station’
courtesy of ‘Tyrannous’

Hi, and welcome to a new feature called Five Favorites.  Our reader Jay suggested ranking favorite places in DC, and I’m going to start with five favorite Metro stations.  These are stations that are the best examples of vibrant, walkable, urban, mixed-use places in the District.  These are the Metro stations that you could emerge from at any time, and there’d always be plenty of people around.  This list is a mix of subjective factors and measurable data, so feel free to disagree and tell me which of your favorites I missed.

Number 5: Woodley Park/Adams Morgan. Ok, we all know that it’s annoying to have to walk across the bridge to get from the Metro station to the heart of Adams Morgan, but still– this Metro station is always full of people emerging from the ridiculously long escalators.  The Connecticut Avenue strip where you emerge from the Metro station is full of some great restaurants, and the 10-minute walk across the bridge to 18th Street puts you in the middle of it all.

The Adams Morgan neighborhood itself is a diverse, multi-cultural neighborhood with restaurants, bars, shops, and corner stores, and cute rowhouses and apartments mixed in.  While this stop just barely made it into the top five because of the distance to Adams Morgan itself, the vibrant, constantly-moving atmosphere of the area and the busy-ness of the Metro itself (residents and commuters in the mornings, people out on dates in the evenings, college students in the late evenings) make it one of the best mixed-use Metro stations in the city.  Walk Score: 95.  The Woodley Park Metro station has an average daily ridership of 8,000.
Continue reading →

Entertainment, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, News, People, The Daily Feed, The District
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Who Would Win In A Fight?

Photo courtesy of
‘Battle of the Beltways’
courtesy of ‘brianmka’

The Nationals’ Screech? Or the Orioles’ The Bird?

Well, in the battle over D.C. TV ratings, our neighbors to the north have won. According to the Washington Business Journal, “D.C. is the only TV market in the country where a team from another city (the O’s) gets better ratings than the hometown team.”  That’s sad.

What’s sadder still is that the two teams combined for 201 losses. :(