Category Archives: Downtown

Downtown, Food and Drink, Penn Quarter, The Features
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First Look: New Menu at 901 Restaurant

WineRoom
All photos courtesy of Jessica Zachar

901’s motto, “Sexy. Sophisticated. Sharing.” had me a bit–how do I put it–standoffish, because sometimes you just want Simple. Straightforward. So mine. But last week, the Penn Quarter restaurant debuted their entirely new, revamped menu. One that actually matches the concept. Previously, the menu was haphazard and inspired by: all over the place. But the restaurant owners acknowledged their shortcomings and refocused the food, creating a brand new menu meant to be shared, and with a decidedly Asian flare.

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Downtown, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Kent Monkman Emerges at NMAI

Photo courtesy Kent Monkman and NMAI

In his first performance in the United States, acclaimed Canadian artist Kent Monkman (Cree) will present a new work featuring his alter ego, Miss Chief, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Monkman’s large-scale paintings, faux-antique photographs, silent films, and performance works subvert official histories of Manifest Destiny and “noble savages.”

In the lavishly staged satire “Miss Chief: Justice of the Piece,” Miss Chief—the glamorous, powerful, mythical alter ego of artist Kent Monkman—as well as a host of other performers, illuminate policies that determine Native American identity. Unlike other populations in North America, Indians are defined not solely by self-designation, but by laws (some originating from archaic notions of biological race such as blood quantum) that measure one’s heredity by percentages. Miss Chief has decided to take the ultimate political stand against these laws and create her own nation and is looking for members. But, as is common with Miss Chief, her invitation is a grand event. Continue reading →

Adventures, Downtown, Special Events, The Features, The Hill, We Love Arts
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Come for the Murder, Stay for the Masquerade

This Sunday, Labyrinth Games is bring some Louisiana charm liberally mixed with a masquerade, murder, and mystery to the DC area. Kathleen Donahue, the store’s owner, is throwing the doors open to area residents and inviting everyone to join in the fun of a good old-fashioned murder mystery party. The event is this Sunday at The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital in Southeast from 5 to 8 pm. Just make sure you have a ticket to get in!

“This will be a mix & mingle event with all attendees receiving minor character roles and clues to share with other attendees,” said Donahue. “It will be like live-action Clue! Festival carnival garb (and Mardi Gras masks) are encouraged but not required.” Several area actors will play the roles of the major characters for the evening; just because they’re major doesn’t mean they’re not exempt from being a suspect, either. Continue reading →

Adventures, Downtown, Entertainment, Interviews, Special Events, We Love Arts
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Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner: Scaling the World

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner; Photo courtesy National Geographic

Tonight, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner takes the stage at the National Geographic Museum. A prolific mountaineer, Ms. Kaltenbrunner is best known for being the first woman to summit all 14 8,000 meter peaks without supplemental oxygen or porters. She was nominated as one of NatGeo’s Adventurers of the Year for 2012.

She’ll be talking tonight about her daring climb of K2 in August 2011. Ms. Kaltenbrunner took a moment to answer a few questions for WeLoveDC before tonight’s event. Continue reading →

Downtown, Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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National Geographic Live: February 2012

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner; Photo courtesy National Geographic

As spring looms on the horizon, so does National Geographic Live’s new season. For the third year in a row, the National Geographic Museum is offering WeLoveDC readers a monthly chance to enjoy one of their premier events. We’re giving away two pairs of tickets to readers and entering is simple. Look through the great programs coming up in February and pick two you’d like to attend. Then in the comment field, simply enter your choices. (Make sure you use your first name and a valid email address!) Winners for February will be chosen at random in the afternoon on Tuesday, January 31.

All programs (unless otherwise noted) will take place in Grosvenor Auditorium at 1600 M Street, NW.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.nglive.org, via telephone at (202) 857-7700, or in person at the National Geographic ticket office between 9 am and 5 pm. Free parking is available in the National Geographic underground garage for all programs that begin after 6 pm.

Uncovering Hidden World ($20)
Tuesday, Feb. 7; 7:30 pm

As a staff photographer with National Geographic, Jodi Cobb has worked in more than 60 countries—celebrating the best of the human spirit and spotlighting some of its worst abuses.

She is best known for lifting the curtain on worlds closed to outsiders, such as Japan’s geisha, Saudi Arabian women, the grim underworld of human trafficking. Experience a retrospective of her most important work as she also shares images and stories from her most recent assignment, a story on twins for the January 2012 issue of National Geographic. Continue reading →

Downtown, Food and Drink, Foodie Roundup, The Features, The Hill
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Restaurants Here and On The Way

DSC00028
Courtesy of Tricia Barba

It seems like there’s never a shortage of restaurants opening up in DC.

To finish out 2011, Xavier Cervera plans to open his fifth Capitol Hill restaurant, Boxcar Tavern, located in the old Petite Gourmetspace on 7th St. SE right next to Tunnicliffs. The staff is currently in training mode, and it sounds like the plan is still to open by the end of the month. The Eastern Market Metro Community Association has a pic of the inside.

Places that are open 24 hours a day always excite me. Case in point: The Hamilton located in downtown DC (same block as another Clyde’s Restaurant group favorite, Old Ebbitt Grill) opened up to the public just this week. The restaurant and live music venue comes to us from Clyde’s Restaurant Group. The 37,000 square foot space has two floors, four bars and four dining rooms. Where else can you get sushi, charcuterie, and seasonal and regional American fare? For more information and a slide show check out Washingtonian’s Best Bites. Continue reading →

Downtown, The Daily Feed
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Celebrity Ornaments for the Parks on Display

Did you miss out on the lottery for tickets to this year’s National Christmas Tree lighting, held last night? Even if you did, it is not too late to take home a little piece of the celebration. All of the performers at the event have participated in creating Ornaments for the Parks.

Here at We Love DC, we love opportunities to incorporate a little bit of giving back into our holidays. The proceeds from the upcoming auction of the exclusive ornaments designed by local jewelers Tiny Jewel Box and autographed by the likes of Ellie Goulding and Carson Daly will go to benefit the National Park Federation.

Between now and December 11th, you can take a look at the special ornaments on display in the lobby “living room” of the W Hotel – and enjoy a tasty hot cocktail while you peruse.

Downtown, Entertainment, The Daily Feed
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Gaia Returns to the Corcoran on Saturday

Photo courtesy of
‘Turntables’
courtesy of ‘oparrish’

On November 19th, Gaia will make a triumphant return to the Corcoran after a sold-out party held there over the summer. This evening of music, visual and performance art – even a bit of magic – is sure to please anybody looking for an arty alternative to the usual nightclub experience.

For one night, the D.C.-based Gaia collective of DJs, musicians, artists, dancers, and more will take over the Corcoran space to create an interactive, multimedia experience which actively engages with the visual art on display in the gallery and the architecture of the building itself.
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Downtown, Penn Quarter, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Stalin’s Spies: an ISM Event

Photo courtesy of
‘The Secret’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

This Friday at 4:30 pm, the International Spy Museum, in cooperation with the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, is hosting an event on Stalin-era espionage. The free event includes the opportunity to view unique artifacts from the life of one of the Soviet Union’s most famous spies, Dmitri Bystrolyotov, as well as a chance to interact with the Museum’s historians and several panel experts.

Dmitri was the Soviet Union’s real life James Bond, earning a reputation as one of the greatest Soviet Spies of all time. He was a sailor, doctor, lawyer and artist recruited by Stalin for his dashing good looks and ease with languages to seduce secrets from willing targets during the 1920s and 30s. However, after falling out of Stalin’s favor, Dmitri was sentenced to the Gulag for 16 years.

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Downtown, History, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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NMAI: Hear the Song of the Horse Nation

Photo courtesy of
‘DSC_0006’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian opened its doors this past weekend to a new exhibition, “A Song for the Horse Nation.” The exhibition, nestled on the third floor of the museum, tells the epic tale of the how the return of the horse to the Americas changed Native culture, from lifestyle to war to art and beyond. “For some Native peoples, the horse still is an essential part of daily life,” said exhibit curator Emil Her Many Horses (Ogala Lakota). “For others, the horse will always remain an element of our identity and our history. The Horse Nation continues to inspire, and Native artists continue to celebrate the horse in our songs, our stories, and our works of art.”

To walk the exhibit’s path is to walk side by side with the conjoined path of Native and horse. Though horses were introduced to the Native Americans relatively late in North American history—the early 1700s saw the initial widespread explosion of the horse from captured Spanish mounts in the southwest—the image of Indians astride these graceful animals is one that is common to modern Americans. The “Horse Nation” quickly entwined themselves with Native communities, forever altering tribal culture and the Indian way of life.

The Smithsonian’s exhibit seeks to give us a view into that not-so-distant past. But it’s more than just a simply history lesson: subtly but surely, “A Song for the Horse Nation” reveals how interwoven both horse and man became among 38 tribal communities from the Plains and Western United States. The horse was more than a beast of burden or a tool; the animal became a part of Native culture that still resonates among the people today. Continue reading →

Downtown, Education, History, Special Events, The District, The Features, The Mall, We Love Arts
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The Song of Emil Her Many Horses

Photo courtesy of
‘DSC_0027’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

out of the earth / I sing for them
A Horse nation / I sing for them
out of the earth / I sing for them,
the animals / I sing for them.
~a song by the Teton Sioux

Emil Her Many Horses is, by first appearance, a quiet, unassuming gentleman. A museum specialist in the office of Museum Programs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), he is responsible for the facility’s latest exhibition “A Song for the Horse Nation.” A member of the Ogala Lakota nation of South Dakota, his expertise on the Northern and Southern Plains cultures is well served and seen in the exhibit that opens to the public tomorrow.

NMAI’s latest offering is a touching and brilliant display of how the horse has deeply impacted and affected Native cultures since their introduction to the Americas in the 17th century. “The exhibit tells the history of the horse; that they were here once before, migrated to Europe, and returned as the horse we know today,” explained Her Many Horses. “They changed Native culture. The horse had a major impact on hunting, warfare, travel, spirituality. These were big changes.” Changes that extend beyond the European vision of the animal.

Seen as a beast of burden, a tool, a weapon, the horse was brought and used by European explorers and colonists early in America’s “New World” history. And their introduction, according to many Natives, was probably one of the biggest positive changes brought about by the white man.

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Downtown, Special Events, The District, We Love Arts
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National Geographic Live: November 2011

Photo courtesy National Geographic

For November, the folks at the National Geographic Museum have put together some great programs before the holidays, including photographers, authors, and speakers. If you’d like to win a pair of tickets to an November program, simply list the two events you’d like to attend in comments before 2pm Friday, October 28. Make sure you use a legitimate email address and your first name. We’ll contact two winners (as determined by random.org) Friday afternoon.

If you’re interested in attending one of these events, visit NatGeo’s website or their box office (800-647-5463), located at 17th and M Street, NW. Keep in mind that parking in NatGeo’s underground lot is free for any programs beginning after 6 pm.

Lost Gold of the Dark Ages: The Mystery of the Saxon Hoard ($20)
Nov 1, 7:30 pm

In July 2009, amateur treasure hunters searching with metal detectors on a Staffordshire farm made an amazing discovery: hundreds of precious gold and silver objects from the seventh century. The trove of treasures and battlefield items remains England’s most important Anglo-Saxon archaeological find—a time capsule revealing new stories from when Germanic invaders were laying modern England’s ethnic foundations. Join us for a screening of the New National Geographic Channel film Secrets of the Lost Gold, followed by a panel discussion including Caroline Alexander, author of the new Nat Geo book and magazine article about the discovery, David Symons from the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, and Deb Klemperer from the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery.

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Downtown, Foggy Bottom
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We Love Drinks: Wine Riot Comes to DC

Wine Riot DC 8

Big wine tasting events can have a couple of types of bad reputations. There are ones that are stuffy, pretentious, and full of sweater-around-the-shoulders snobs tooling around Napa Valley in their German convertibles. There are others where cackling middle-aged book-club members seem to arrive by the Range Rover load to get sauced in the mid-day sun. We can agree that those are all terrible.
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Downtown, News, The Features
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DC, Consider Yourself Occupied

Photo courtesy of
courtesy of ‘amreese13’

Since Occupy Wall Street has already inspired an Occupy Omaha and Occupy Ljlubljana, Slovenia, it should come as no surprise that a similar protest has arrived at the nation’s capital.

On Saturday, Occupy DC began its (potentially never-ending) takeover of McPherson Square.

Members hail from the District and, up until this past weekend, met mainly on the internet. Now they’re armed with a cross-street, social media and pizza slices.

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Downtown, Special Events, We Love Arts
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National Geographic Live: October 2011

Demon Fish; photo courtesy National Geographic

The National Geographic Live series is back for the fall and we here at WeLoveDC want to share their great lineup of programming with you once again. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at NatGeo, we’ll be again offering two pairs of tickets for our readers to go and experience some great talks, lectures, and programs over at the National Geographic Museum.

For October, there’s some amazing photography programs, authors, and speakers – some of whom you’ll see interviewed here on the site in the coming weeks. If you’d like to win a pair of tickets to an October program, simply list the two events you’d like to attend in comments before noon Friday, September 30. Make sure you use a legitimate email address and your first name. We’ll contact two winners (as determined by random.org) on Friday afternoon. Note that not all programs are eligible for the drawing.

If you’re interested in attending one of these events, visit NatGeo’s website or their box office (800-647-5463), located at 17th and M Street, NW. Keep in mind that parking in NatGeo’s underground lot is free for any programs beginning after 6 pm.

Here’s October’s offerings… Continue reading →

Downtown, Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Drinks
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Drinks Special: Bibiana’s Aged Cocktails

Photo courtesy of


‘Ready to Mix’
courtesy of ‘Jenn Larsen’

You’re probably familiar with the fact that wine and whiskey are aged in barrels. But cocktails? It may seem like a trend, popping up in bars in London, Portland and New York for the past year or so, but it’s actually a much older revival – aging cocktail ingredients in oak barrels was a popular technique back at the turn of the last century. But for Bibiana‘s general manager Francesco Amodeo, it’s not a matter of trend. It’s practical.

“I was talking to my mother about their cellar at home,” he tells me, referring to the family home on the Amalfi Coast, “what to do with all the barrels?” His grandfather makes wine, and his mother was looking to get rid of the excess refuse. Francesco jumped at the chance to put them to another use. Starting with two sizes, 1 and 5 liter barrels, he’s crafted two cocktails for Bibiana that were just uncorked for the first time Tuesday evening after three months of aging.

Try out the best cocktails as if you were a professional, visit https://www.gattertopdrinks.com/ to find tips and recommendations for the preparation of the cocktails.

As they’re produced in small quantities (at least until Francesco’s grandfather finishes crafting a 250 liter barrel for him) they’ll go fast, so get over to taste them. Aging cocktails gives the liquor a beautiful toasty quality, rounding out the flavor. Let’s take a closer look at Francesco’s two drinks and the process.

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Adventures, Downtown, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District
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Planking with G-Wiz

“Planking,” the ridiculous, yet popular practice of lying face down with arms to the side in an unusual or incongruous location, taking a photo of it and posting it online has reach the upper ranks of the Washington DC sports scene. Pictured to above, you see G-Wiz, the beloved Wizards blue thingy, planking on Ted Leonsis desk. No respect, no respect. G-Wiz was also seen planking across The Nats’ Abe Lincoln, the nearby Chipotle and some WMATA turnstiles.

Sports Illustrated has a solid collection of famous athletes, namely former Wizards player Gilbert Arenas and Dwight Howard, who apparently have PLENTY of free time and nothing better to do than take pictures of themselves planking all over their expensive cars, pool tables, exercise equipment, etc. There’s also a planking example courtesy of Redskins rookie receiver Niles Paul.

Downtown, Special Events
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So You Want to See the National Fireworks on the Mall?


‘2010 – Fourth of July – I Stand with the General’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

So you want to see the National Fireworks on the Mall? But you’ve heard all this about talk about crushing crowds, insane Metro rides home, and a constant threat of rain just before the fireworks are supposed to fly. Yeah, that all happens. But I can help with alternatives and easy to handle ways of dealing with the above problems. Because, really, the fireworks on the Mall are one of the great things about living in this city and everyone should enjoy them.

I’ll go over locations, best ways of getting home, and even a short gallery of pictures. If you want info on security checkpoints to get onto the Mall, and any other info, check out the Park Service’s page on the fireworks. Continue reading →

Downtown, News, The Daily Feed
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Woman Falls To Her Death At W Hotel’s POV Bar

Horrible news this morning of a woman falling from the 10 story W Hotel POV rooftop bar last night to her death. Eyewitnesses report that the not yet identified woman had been drinking at the bar and that she climbed over the rooftop patio’s fence.

Secret Service was on hand last night and all lanes of 15th St. NW were shut down from New York Avenue south to Pennsylvania Avenue. These roads have since reopened.

Just awful news.