Category Archives: The District

Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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WARL’s Pasta for Pets

Photo courtesy of
‘Cats Eating Pasta’
courtesy of ‘Lee Coursey’

Spaghetti Dinner? Yum! Bingo? Well, Bingo! Raising money for in need kittens and puppies? Snorgle-rific! Combining them all? Epic interspecies snorgling and noming, which is exactly what the Washington Animal Rescue League has planned for its annual Pasta for Pets event to be held Saturday, March 19 from 6:00 – 8:30pm at Eastern Market’s North Hall.

The night features delicious pasta from local restaurants, an assortment of homemade desserts and, most importantly, fundraising for WARL’s Project Rescue, which provides support for local families and individuals who are finding it difficult to provide for their pets in this challenging economic climate. Continue reading →

Business and Money, Essential DC, Food and Drink, News, The District, The Features
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Sprinkles Cupcakes Comes To DC

There is a new edition to the saturated DC cupcake scene and it comes to M Street in Georgetown in the form of a pink and brown row house. Sprinkles Cupcakes, started in 2002 by Candace Nelson and her husband Charles, opened  in 2002 in Beverly Hills, is the Magnolia Bakery of the West Coast and has been featured on Oprah, Entourage and The Today Show.

With the proximity of so many other cupcake options (Baked & Wired, Georgetown Cupcake, Scoops, etc.,) offering high quality cupcakes and all priced relatively equally at $2.50 – $4 per cupcake, the principal question is: what makes Sprinkles’ sugary treats different? Continue reading →

News, The District, The Features
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Campaign Update: 54 Days Until Election Day

Photo courtesy of
‘Candidates for DC Council At-Large Seat’
courtesy of ‘luisgomezphotos’

There are 54 days until election day in the At-Large special election to fill Kwame Brown’s empty At-Large seat, but that’s not the only deadline left.  This past week, the public had the opportunity to inspect the signatures gathered by each candidate and decide if they were valid, or if they deserved a challenge.  The deadline for challenges was Monday at the close of business, and several petitions were challenged.

Lawrence Guyot, nominally of the Lopez campaign, challenged signatures gathered by the Mara campaign.  Bandele McQueen, nominally of the Biddle campaign, challenged signatures gathered by the Mara, Weaver and Patterson campaigns.  The moves are high risk (could alienate voters), but also high reward (could disqualify strong competition), and won’t be ruled upon until the 15th.  It’s been revealed in the last day or so that some of the signatures that have come under scrutiny are themselves interesting. DCist has a fairly fun list which includes Bryan Weaver’s own wife, ANC Commissioner Bob Summersgill, Mayors Fenty and Williams.  In total, 6,516 signatures have been challenged.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District
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An Evening with Fred Armisen @ The Black Cat

The show was sold out.  A packed mainstage concert room  full of hipsters, preppies, middle age couples and the like mixed it up, awaiting Fred Armisen of SNL and more recently, Portlandia, fame to take the stage. Taking place at the Black Cat, and heavily promoted by Brightest Young Things, the show was simply described as “An Evening With Fred Armisen,” and the event details were simply two YouTube clips of Armisen’s sketch work.

Given the billing and the performer, the audience was primed for a comedic show that would likely (and I say likely, because given the vagueness of the event’s details, we were all unsure of the performance’s format) include stand up comedy, skits, impersonations and, with Armisen’s background, some form of comedic musical accompaniment.

Unfortunately, when Armisen took the stage, the vast majority — if not the entirety — of his show was uninspired, lacked creativity and did not live up to his billing.   Continue reading →

Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Tornado Alert Issued For Arlington County

Photo courtesy of
‘206/365: Stormfront’
courtesy of ‘Amber Wilkie Photography’

Effective immediately The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for Arlington County lasting until 4:00 pm this afternoon. It’s reported that severe storms have formed west of Arlington and the atmospheric conditions are favorable for tornadic development.

The NWS advises resident to be prepared as tornadoes can form from severe thunderstorms with little or no advanced warning. Know your safe room in your home, at school, and at work.  If driving and a tornado is spotted, leave your car immediately and move to shelter or a low lying area. Do not use highway overpasses as shelters.

Business and Money, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, The District
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Homemade Pizza Co. Comes to Georgetown

Although the Homemade Pizza Co. has five other locations in the DC area, I’ll readily admit to never hearing of them or even noticing that I’ve walked by one. That was until they opened their latest shop in my neighborhood and a held three day long celebration featuring free pizza, salad and the owners grilling (yes, grilling) up their za and chatting the locals.

Unlike most pizza joints, Homemade Pizza Co. doesn’t serve you hot out of the oven pizza. Instead they sell bake-at-home pizzas made to order. Yes, that’s right, you’ll be ordering (either in the shop or order your pizza online for delivery or pick up) uncooked pizzas that you then have to (gasp!) cook yourself. The horror!

However, these unbaked pizzas are above and beyond the Whole Foods or Safeway premade pizzas. These pizzas are custom made on-the-spot with the dough is rolled out specifically to meet your needs. They use the freshest, highest quality all-natural ingredients like specialty meats, terrific cheeses, and local produce because we all know that our farmers have greatest fresh-from-the-farm products. Once home, the cooking is simple and every pizza is labelled with the uber simple 5 step instructions, where total cooking time takes about 10-15 minutes.

Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, News, The District, The Features
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DC Farm To School Network

Photo courtesy of
‘i fear school lunch’
courtesy of ‘amarino17’

Although I’m not THAT far out of high school, my memories of cafeteria lunches are fairly limited, which leads me to believe that the food served was…well…unmemorable. That is, it wasn’t good enough to be noteworthy and it wasn’t bad enough to be permanently seared into my mind. I have foggy images of square pizza, sloppy joes, grilled cheese, lasagna, and a salad bar which in the 1990s (and I’m dating myself) was a groundbreaking, yet sadly disappointing and unappetizing, addition.

Given my, and I’m supposing most people’s, middling school lunch experience, I was extremely inspired when I learned about the DC Farm to School Network, a coalition of advocates working to connect Washington, DC schools to local farmers to get more healthy, local foods into school cafeterias. With the ultimate goal to improve child health, reconnect students with where food comes from, provide health, food, and environmental education opportunities and support the local food economy. Continue reading →

Adventures, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Fun & Games, History, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Eater Names Fojol Bros To Top 20 Food Truck List

Photo courtesy of
‘Fojol Bros. of Merlindia’
courtesy of ‘Dave Kleinschmidt’

Ahhhh…Fojol Brothers. You make lunch in DC so strange, wonderful and delicious. You are well worthy of your newly bestowed spot on Eater’s “List of Top Twenty Food Trucks in America.” Represent DC baby! Represent!

If you have yet to experience the cuisine and showmanship of this food truck, you are clearly living an unfulfilled DC life. Staffed by mustachioed, Sgt. Pepper costumed order takers and cooks, this clown car-esque truck roams DC streets serving up Indian fare (both veggie and non-veggie) to the office bound, weary masses.

Congratulations Fojol Brothers. We salute you!

Adventures, News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Buses Operating On Snow Emergency Routes

Photo courtesy of
‘Metro in the snow’
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’

After last night show dumping, Metrobuses began the Thursday morning commute operating on snow emergency routes. What that means to us Metrobus commuters is that your bus will likely be operating on a revised or even limited route, because side streets have not been plowed enough for complete bus route service. You’re best bet is to hoof it to one of the snow emergency routes, where you may find your regular bus or another bus that can take you to further transportation options.

WMATA plans to return to normal routes as roads are plowed and conditions improve to the point that it is safe to travel.

Metro constantly updates local news media of Metro service changes. Information is also available at www.metroopensdoors.com on the left side of the home page or by calling Metro at 202-637-7000.

Entertainment, Life in the Capital, Music, Special Events, The District, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Dismemberment Plan @ Black Cat, 1/21/11

photo courtesy of Drew McDermott via Flickr



If you interviewed for a job at the Twitter corporate headquarters some time in 2008, you were likely asked to name your “theme song” – the song that should play in the background as you walked on screen or into a room. The question was not just one of taste or tip-of-the-tongue recall, though it was those, but they also wanted to know how you wanted to project yourself and make people feel when you arrived. I had been in San Francisco for two weeks when I was asked the question a few beers in at a drafty Western Addition bar.

About ten seconds of consideration and I responded. “Dismemberment Plan. Face of the Earth.”
Continue reading →

News, The District, The Features
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All About Voting Centers

Photo courtesy of
‘VOTE’
courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

The news came out about a week ago, that DC was considering moving to voting centers for the special election in April.  Since then, there’s been a lot to say on both sides of the issue, and some excellent points made by both sides about what it would mean to cut the budget for elections in the city.

Some have said that cutting back on voting is cutting back on government legitimacy.  If this new plan to move to voting centers dramatically alters the turnout of an election, or if the placement of the polls is such that prevents people from attending, I might agree with that contention.  Instead, it seems to be a way to increase turnout while also lowering costs.

Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Night Life, The Daily Feed, The District
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Town & Country Goes to the Farm


‘Town and Country’
courtesy of ‘Don Feduardo’

You might have seen this already. Tonight’s last call will truly be the last for (insert-cliché-here) bar Town & Country at the Mayflower, closing to make room for a relocated Thomas Pink store in what appears to be a complete renovation of the hotel’s ground floor.

The Social Chair and I stopped by last night to have a round and toast the bar’s history, but this was actually my first visit there. I’ll miss it in theory (I love the room) but the cocktails she and I had were underwhelming at best. Have you been? Are you going tonight? Any favorite memories?

And if you need a replacement old-school, wood-paneled room for your drinks, don’t fret! There’s still Blue Bar, the Occidental, Round Robin, Off The Record …

Dupont Circle, The District, The Features
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Phillips Collection celebrates 90th Birthday this weekend

Photo courtesy of
‘Phillips Collection Music Room’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

The Phillips Collection in Dupont Circle, when it opened in 1921, became the country’s first museum to focus on modern art, beating New York’s MOMA by 8 years.  Founded by the scion of steel baron Duncan Clinch Philips, the museum has been a central hub of the modern art world for 90 years now.  This weekend, the museum is hosting a Free Weekend for all to enjoy as part of a kickoff celebration of their ninetieth year.

Continue reading →

Crime & Punishment, The Daily Feed, The District, WTF?!
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Heavyweight DC lawyer vs. the DC judicial system

Photo courtesy of
‘Nacho #19’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Via Legal Times comes this story about a DC lawyer who was arrested for “disorderly conduct” (after insulting a police officer), was asked to pay $35 at the station and forfeit the right to a hearing or be taken to the District’s central cellblock. He did so in order to avoid being taken, as they say, downtown, but is now suing the DC government, and the specific officers personally, on the basis that the “post and forfeit” procedure is neither bail nor fine and is therefore unconstitutional. The suit demands $1.2 million in damages for the lawyer and an additional $700,000 for his wife.

According to the most recently-available statistics, about 95 percent of pending lawsuits end in a pre-trial settlement. This means that just one in 20 personal injury cases is resolved in a court of law by a judge or jury.  If you re in a tough spot, consider Connecticut Bailbonds Group services.

You might be rolling your eyes at this point at the idea of a lawyer kicking up that kind of a fuss over a $35 fee; this is the town that brought us the Infamous Pants Lawsuit, after all. But when I read the LT item, the lawyer’s name, Hamilton P. Fox III, sounded familiar, so I did what any self-respecting web writer would do: I Googled.

Hamilton Fox was an assistant prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. He was an investigator on the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in the 1983 Congressional page scandal. He was a defense attorney on appeal for Jonathan Pollard, the naval intelligence employee convicted of spying for Israel. My point is: this guy actually DOES have better things to do than sue the District over $35. And this IS the risk one takes as a police officer in the District: that the guy you arrest under broad discretionary authority that may or may not stand up to judicial scrutiny might actually have the legal chops to call you on it. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, The Daily Feed, The District
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At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown considering At-Large run

Photo courtesy of
‘dc election day’
courtesy of ‘Paige Weaver’

Yes, you read that correctly.

D.C. Councilmember Michael A. Brown (I-at Large) is considering running for D.C. Council in the upcoming special election to fill Kwame Brown’s soon-to-be-vacant at-large seat. Brown, who was elected to the Council as an independent in 2008 has been itching to switch his party affiliation back to the Democratic party. Everyone in the world knows that Brown is actually a Democrat, and his father, the late Ron Brown worked for the Clinton Administration and served as chair of the DNC. Brown shed the (D) from his name two years ago to run for one of the two seats reserved for minority parties.

So what does this mean for the special election? If Michael A. Brown entered the race, he’d have a pretty strong advantage out of the gate. He’s got pretty strong name recognition across the city and has the advantage of incumbency. However, that ignores the fact that this entire maneuver is completely ridiculous, self-serving and most of all, absurd. If Brown were to win and “switch” seats, that would result in yet another special election, this time reserved for minority parties. That would also cost the city at least another $500,000. Money the city does not have. Continue reading →

Crime & Punishment, News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Cause of death released in DC9 case

Photo courtesy of
‘St Elisabeth’s Hospital – Surgical reports’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

This afternoon the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner released the cause of death of Ali Mohammed. Mohammed died outside of the DC9 nightclub on October 15 after an altercation. The report classifies the death as a homicide, and lists the cause of death as “Excited Delirium Associated With Arrhythmogenic Cardiac Anomalies, Alcohol Intoxication and Physical Exertion With Restraint.”

A quick bit of research indicates that “excited delirium” is a medical condition often associated with drug use that causes aggressive behavior and violence, as well as unexpected physical strength and hyperthermia. Excited delirium often leads to death by hyperthermia, with body temperatures reaching 105 degrees. While excited delirium is associated with drug use, there has been no information released regarding any toxicology reports, other than the “alcohol intoxication” listed in the cause of death.

The Mohammed family released a statement earlier this afternoon, noting that the death was ruled a homicide and stated “[t]his report also reminds us that Ali suffered a cruel and senseless death.”

The homicide ruling does not immediately imply that murder charges will be filed in the case. From the Medical Examiner report, it’s difficult to determine who, if anyone, could face charges. The murder charges initially filed against DC9 employees were since dropped.

It appears as though Mohammed’s death might not have occurred had the altercation at DC9 been avoided, but there has been no indication that the death was the result of a beating, as initially stated by Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier.

Food and Drink, People, The District
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He Loves DC: Spike Mendelsohn

Courtesy of Taylor PR

The world first met Spike Mendelsohn as a brash young contestant on “Top Chef: Season Four.” Two years later, he’s become one of Washington’s culinary darlings, making his mark on Capitol Hill with his two restaurants, Good Stuff Eatery and We, the Pizza. Now, he’s back on “Top Chef: All-Stars” (you can catch him on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on Bravo), has plans to expand Good Stuff, and travels around the country for special events and appearances. In between jet-setting and toque-wearing, We Love DC caught up with Spike to discuss family, junk food and the latest restaurant rumble between Washington and New York.

Continue reading →

Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District, The Great Outdoors
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Christmas Lights Car and Bike Parade

Photo courtesy of
‘Hoggie’s Entry’
courtesy of ‘GollyGforce – on a new quest’

This Saturday, Brightest Young Things hosts a holiday lights bike and car parade where participants  decorate their vehicle with bulbs, wreaths, tinsel, antlers, etc. and parade around town from 7-9:30pm.

The parade route starts at Jack’s Boathouse at the Georgetown waterfront at 7pm, heads to Politics and Prose for a celebrity reading of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and then moves over to Chevy Chase’s Comet Ping Pong. The free event is co-sponsored by Flying Dog Brewery.

My biggest question was how do you convert wall plug in lights to run on your bike or car. Thankfully, a Google search easily answered my question.


Business and Money, Life in the Capital, News, The District
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Grand Opening: CitySports Georgetown

IMAG0172

If your morning commute takes you along the Georgetown section of M Street, then on Tuesday morning you likely saw a long line of cold, sports enthusiasts waiting to get the first peak (and swag gift bags and prizes) at the City Sports flagship store located at 3338 M Street, NW.

The two story, 1000+ sq. ft. space is the 18th location for the City Sports group and offers shoppers not only fashionable and functional merchandise, but the opportunity to explore, learn and experience the various DC-based athletic activities and groups.

Given the current weather—SNOWOMG! Definitely hit up this City Sports and get a pair iof men’s running shoes, as it has all the outdoor, thermal underwear, winter boots, snow pants, puffy jackets, fuzzy sweaters, wool hats, Everest climbing gloves, you’ll ever need. Oh so, practical and oh so stylish!

Continue reading →

Adventures, Business and Money, Downtown, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, People, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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Freeze Your Nuts Off With Capital Bikeshare

Photo courtesy of
‘Ready, set, go?’
courtesy of ‘fromcaliw/love’

In an effort to keep ridership up during the frigid winter months, Capital Bikeshare is holding a two-month long biking competition starting January 1, 2011. The crux of the competition is to crown the area’s Winter Weather Warrior (aka: the participating member who makes the most trips by February 28,) and then handsomely rewarded he/she with the below prizes:

  • A free, three year extension of their membership
  • Two free annual memberships to give out to friends or family
  • A $100 gift card to Hudson Trail
  • A $25 gift card to Starbucks

In addition to the Winter Weather Warrior, Capital Bikeshare will award the  Long Haul Rider (member taking the most trips on Capital Bikeshare over 3 miles) and the Most Saddle Time (member with the most time spent on Capital Bikeshare) awards in both January and February.

To sign up for the contest you 1) have to be bloody nuts, it’s cold out there, 2) have to be a Capital Bikeshare member and 3) have to sign up to participate.