Tip Your Glass to Locally-Sourced

One of the most popular culinary trends in recent years has been the localization of food. Restaurants now import ingredients from as small a radius as possible—in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint—and they gladly boast their sources right on their menus.

Washington, D.C. is quite aligned with this trend, with many of the top restaurants in the area using only locally-sourced items. The numerous farms located in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania makes this easy. But one part of the menu often escapes this theme.

When restaurateurs draft their alcohol menu, the options for picking local-brewed beer are slim. At least that was the case up until the past two years. Since then, this area has seen an explosion of breweries, producing kegs, bottles and cans that compete on the national scene.

There’s Starr Hill Brewery in Charlottesville, Virginia; DC Brau Brewing Company in Northeast, and in a residential neighborhood where you’d almost never expect to find it, Port City Brewing Company in Alexandria, VA.

Port City Brewing is best known for its darkest beer, Port City Porter, which is served in hundreds of restaurants across the District, Maryland and Virginia.

Like DC Brau, Port City Brewing traces it lineage to older brewers in the area, ones that disappeared in the 20^th century, but are now being revived by artisanal brewers.

Port City Brewing’s grandfather and inspiration was an Alexandria brewer, the Robert Portner Brewing Company, that opened the year after the Civil War ended. At its zeitgeist, the brewery was one of the largest in the South. But when Prohibition came about, it closed its doors.

Almost a century later, in January 2011, the doors reopened when Port City Brewing revived the tradition. In the past year, the company has been churning out beers that are as popular locally as any national brand.

If you’d like to witness the brewing process first hand, Port City Brewing offers tours that are a fun trip for any alcohol enthusiast.

The brewery is located right off Duke Street, at 3950 Wheeler Avenue, in the Western part of Alexandria and is situated in a residential neighborhood. Heading there, you pass townhouses and front lawns before reaching a low-slung brick building that looks nothing like a traditional brewery, but rather a data center.

Appearances are deceiving, especially in this case, because once you step inside, you see the sleek, modern, industrial design. Tours of the brewery are offered only on Saturdays, three times a day, at 12:30, 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. and they are inexpensive for what you get. A $7 ticket earns you a half-hour tour of the entire brewing process from steeping: hops to bottling finished product. After that, you are taken to the tasting room, where you can sample everything you’ve watched the company craft.

Among the choices are Port City’s Monumental IPA, Essential Pale Ale, Optimal Wit and the aforementioned Port City Porter. When you are finished tasting everything the brewery has to offer, you’ll receive a complimentary Port City pint glass.

The brewery also sells inexpensive growlers. You can buy a reusable glass jug for $4, which holds four pints, and can be filled for just $11.

If you can’t make it to the tour on a Saturday, the tasting room is also open from Wednesday to Sunday, from 5-8 p.m. on the weekdays and 12-5 p.m. on the weekends.

Or if you live further from Alexandria and can’t visit in person, simply keep your eyes open, because Port City’s Beers can be found just about anywhere in the area.

And then you can tip your glass a to locally-sourced beer.

- David

Ring in 2012 with a Local New Year’s Eve

Many people insist the best way to spend New Year’s Eve is to go to Times Square in New York City. But why leave Washington, D.C. when there’s plenty to do here!

In the greater Washington, D.C. area, there are many unique ways—different from what you may be used to—to ring in 2012.

One of the most all-encompassing celebrations, with plenty of entertaining events for adults and kids, is First Night Alexandria, which occurs all throughout Old Town Alexandria and includes scavenger hunts, live music and a ball drop at midnight.

The party begins at 1:00 p.m. on December 31^st with the third annual Fun Hunt, a search throughout Old Town that all attendees are eligible to participate in. Clues take you around the area and lead to answers on quiz sheets everyone is given. The hunt runs until 4:45 p.m., but only takes around an hour-and-a-half to complete, so scavengers can maintain a leisurely pace.

Anyone that completes the hunt correctly is eligible for the prize drawings, with first prize taking home an overnight stay at the Lorien Hotel & Spa in Old Town, free personal training sessions, gift certificates galore from many of the shops in Old Town and passes for a cruise on the Potomac. Second and third place also receive bounties, with overnight stays at other Alexandria hotels as part of the prize packages.

After the Fun Hunt, the party really gets started. All across the city, restaurants and bars will host live bands. One of the most popular acts performing is Curtis Blues, an interactive one-man blues band. He will be playing half-hour shows every other half-hour at Bittersweet, on King Street, from 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.  For kids, at Nickells & Scheffler, on Duke Street, 16-year-old sensation Keira Moran will play half-hour shows as well.

At midnight, after all the events are over, participants at First Night Alexandria gather on the lawn of the George Washington Masonic Memorial for a ball drop, which includes over 6,000 inflatable balls, and a dance party that lasts until 12:30 a.m.

Tickets for First Night Alexandria cost $20 per person and allow admission to all events.

If you’re looking for another way to share New Year’s with your family, but can’t expect your children to make it all the way to midnight, then Maryland Science Center, in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is the place to go. From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the Center hosts its annual Midnight Noon celebration, where, when the clock strikes 12:00 p.m. on December 31, the Science Center’s ball drops and kids celebrate with noisemakers and balloons.

The entire Maryland Science Center is open during the exhibit, which means that alongside celebrating the New Year, kids can visit the great exhibits. Among the most popular are “Dinosaur Mysteries,” which includes full scale models of many dinosaurs and “Newton’s Alley,” where hands-on physics exhibits are geared toward kids.

Admission to Midnight Noon is free with paid admission to the Science Center  - $15 for adults and $12 for kids under 13.

For a more adult celebration of New Year’s Eve, Glen Echo Park, in Maryland, has just the event. The New Year’s Eve Swing Dance, held at the park, is a throwback to celebrations from America’s Big Band Era. The event begins at 8:00 p.m. with lessons for beginners, so when the Tom Cunningham Orchestra takes the stage at 9:00 p.m., everyone will be ready to roll and have a swinging New Year’s. Tickets for the dance are $25 per person.

So this New Years, instead of the typical party and midnight ball drop, head out of the house and try something totally different.

- David

Hanukkah Holiday Happenings

This past Wednesday marked the beginning of one of Judaism’s biggest holidays. Hanukkah is an eight day-long event, celebrating the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE. The holiday typically occurs anytime from late November to late December, and this year it comes at the far end of the spectrum, running until December 28^th.

Around Washington, D.C., there are numerous ways to enjoy, with events in Maryland, Virginia and the District.

The biggest, literally, is the National Hanukkah Menorah, which sits right outside the White House Grounds. The Menorah symbolizes the miracle that happened in the 2nd century BCE. The story tells that when many Jews were trapped in their temple due to a revolt, they worried that they only had enough candle oil to last one night.  The oil, however, managed to last eight full days, enough time for the people inside the temple to prepare new oil.

The lighting ceremony of the main candle of the National Hanukkah Menorah, which stays lit throughout the celebration, took place on the Mall on Wednesday. But each night for the rest of the holiday, a lighting ceremony will take place for each new candle.

While it’s a symbolic way to celebrate, the National Menorah is far from the only way to enjoy this holiday season. There are plenty of activities for adults and children alike.

One of the largest celebrations is a gala aimed at the younger crowd. For 25 straight years, the Society of Young Jewish Professionals, and more recently JDate, have paired up to present the MatzoBall.

Geared toward singles under the age of 50, the MatzoBall is a nationwide event that gives young Jewish people the opportunity to mingle and network. This year, galas are being thrown in New York City, Miami, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. In our own town, the MatzoBall is on Saturday, December 24^th. It runs from 8:00 p.m. all the way until 3:00 a.m. and tickets cost $30.

For a more relaxing celebration, on December 25^th, revelers can head to Old Town, Alexandria, for the Hanukkah Festival of Old Town, hosted by the Chabad Lubavitch of Alexandria-Arlington. Chabad Lubavitch is Hebrew for Brotherly Love, and their Northern Virginia branch throws a free celebration worthy of that moniker. At the Crowne Plaza Hotel, on North Fairfax Street, the group will light a six-foot tall menorah, hold free raffles, host live bands and cook hot potato latkes.

Across the river, in downtown Bethesda, the Chabad Lubavitch of Bethesda-Chevy Chase will be holding a kid-friendly celebration, Thursday, December 22^nd, at Bethesda Row. Chanukah in Candyland is free to attend, and has numerous activities for kids of all ages. The perks of Chanukah in Candyland are a magic show, free souvenir dreidels, cotton candy and popcorn and a sight that is sure to wow just about every child: a menorah, which will be lit at the end of the festivities, made entirely out of jelly beans. That’s right, a jelly bean menorah.

It’s a fun way, among the many other options, to celebrate the enjoyable holiday that is Hanukkah.

-David

Holiday Light Tours Brighten Up Your December

Literally. Lights. In the last month of the calendar year, cities, towns and counties brighten up, giving visitors and residents alike the chance to see their locales like never before.

Throughout the Metro area, places are stringing together awe-inspiring displays of lights, fantastic works of art in their own right. Almost every town has a light tour that’s worth seeing, but some of the most popular in the area are absolutely deserving of a visit.

One of the biggest shows is also the most popular. ZooLights runs from now until January 1^st, every day of the week. Hosted by the National Zoo up in Woodley Park, the event starts at 5:00 p.m., when dusk settles in and runs until 9:00 at night. The event is an elaborate showcase for the zoo, with an array of events for everyone. There are the intricate lights, which are shaped into realistic animal figures, but there’s also a synthetic ice rink, where kids can rent ice skates and glide on a surface that, while it feels like ice, is actually a polyurethane mat. Also during ZooLights, several of the animal houses are open, so if you need to warm up, or just want to chat with an orangutan, you can pop in. Admission to Zoolights is $9 for Friends of the National Zoo, and $12 for non-members.

About 30 miles west of the Zoo, in Centreville Virginia, is the Bull Run Festival of Lights, one of the most intense light displays you’ll find around Washington. Running from now until January 8^th, the Bull Run Festival of Lights incorporates nearly 40,000 lights into its presentation. Visitors drive a 2.5 mile loop and the cruise is set to music (visitors tune to a station on their way in). While driving through the park, tourists see lit up animated penguins, snowmen, deer and toy soldiers. Admission for the festival is $15 per car on weekdays, with the show running from 5:30- 9:30 p.m. On weekends, the price is upped a bit, costing $20 per car, although the loop stays open a half hour later, until 10 p.m. Also at Bull Run, from the 15^th until January 1^st, is a carnival featuring rides and games for kids and adults alike.

Across state lines, Maryland features two great festivals this December. First is the Winter Lights’ Festival in Seneca State Park in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The light tour has been open since the beginning of December and runs through the New Year. The ride is a mile longer than the Bull Run and cost less, just $12 on weekdays and $15 on weekends. The hours are a bit shorter, open from 6-9 p.m. on Sunday-Thursday and 6-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. On the car trip, riders will see nearly 70 animated displays, with the drive separated into different sections like Teddy Bear Land, Penguin Cove, and the North Pole.

The biggest display of the year goes to the Gaylord National Harbor, and their month long festival, ICE!, which runs until January 8. It’s the most expensive of the bunch, with tickets ranging from $25-35, but it’s without a doubt the most put together. Ticket buyers can experience an entire carved ice village, hosted inside a massive refrigerated tent. The display is so intricate, it takes a month of work in advance, and so immense, it uses nearly two million pounds of ice.

This year’s theme for ICE! is the Dreamworks movie Madagascar, and popular characters from the animated film will be on hand to tell the story of how Santa Claus inadvertently crashed on the island of Madgascar and how the animals of the tropical oasis must figure out a way to save Christmas.

It’s perfect fun for the family, as is every event here, wonderful ways to make December sparkle.

-David

“Unbuilt Washington” Shows What Might Have Been

Washington, D.C. is a city known for unfulfilled promise. From tax reform to budget cuts to entitlement spending, this town often seems like a place where nothing ever gets done.

Who would have ever thought that’s a good thing?

Because of its national prominence, considered the epicenter of power in the world, Washington, D.C. is prime real estate for developers wanting to build government buildings, science centers, monuments and tourist attractions. But this city has some of the most strident design regulations in the country. Everyone knows that buildings can’t be over a certain height, and at the same time, must match Washington’s already in place aesthetic. Which is why an exhibit that just hit Washington, D.C. is utterly entralling.

At the National Building Museum, on 4^th and F Street NW, the exhibit “Unbuilt Washington” is one of the most fascinating and unique trips one can take to a museum this year, documenting hundreds of rejected designs and scrapped plans for buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C. in the past 200 years.

Although you might not have made a trip to the the Building Museum yet, you’ve probably noticed it. The long, red brick building, which encompasses an entire city block, was built in 1887 using an astounding 15 million bricks. At over 100 years old, it’s one of the oldest structures in this city. The interior is awe-inspiring, with a large, open space that contains, at 75 feet, some of the tallest Corinthian columns in the world.

In the 1980s, the building, which housed the former government Pension Bureau, was converted to a museum that showcases the world we’ve built, through bricks, mortar, concrete and steel.

And Unbuilt Washington is one of the building museums most ambitious exhibits yet, encompassing plans from when this city was first founded right up until present day.

It’s just $8 to attend, and the exhibit provides an unbiased look of what this city may have become, be it good or bad, grandiose or timid, awesome or awful. And it’s unbelievable to to see just how radically different Washington may have looked like if certain people got their way.

For starters, the Memorial Bridge wouldn’t be nearly as subdued as it now. Originally designed as a tribute to Ulysses S. Grant, the bridge would have looked like something more akin to the Tower of London, with tall, looming Gothic spires presiding over the main entrance to the city.

And just past it, the Lincoln Memorial wouldn’t be the tribute to classic Greek architecture that we are all familiar with. No, it was originally designed to be similar to the ziggurats of ancient Babylonian culture, a staircase-style pyramid leading up to the sky.

Continuing east, the National Mall could have taken a radically different form as well. For starters, the most familiar monument in Washington wasn’t always going to be an obelisk. It could have been a temple, or a pyramid, or left unfinished after production was halted during the Civil War, with a statue of George Washington places on top. And the mall itself might not even exist if proposed plans for a highway to ease traffic came to fruition. It’s also possible the White House wouldn’t be where it is now, if plans passed to move it to the top of Meridian Hill Park up near U Street. Imagine that.

But Unbuilt Washington is not just limited to monuments around the mall. No, visitors can see plans for a Renaissance-style church that was originally favored over the Gothic design of the current National Cathedral. The exhibit also covers the modern, including Frank Gehry’s rejected, sweeping titanium façade for the Corcoran Museum of Art, and a glass-encased environmental center out on Benning Road at the eastern edge of the city.

The exhibit is a fascinating way to see what might have been, only improved because it’s hosted at one of the prettiest building’s that this city did break ground on and see all the way to the finish.

- David

American Eats Tavern Serves a (Literal) Slice of Americana

Everyone agrees that Washington, D.C. is one of the most diverse cities in the country. The nature of this town brings together representatives from all 50 states, creating an atmosphere that integrates everyone from Oregon to Georgia.

But anywhere in this country, D.C. included, it would be difficult to find a restaurant that incorporates nearly every single facet and distinctive style of American cooking. From deep-fried Southern traditions to fresh-caught fish fries in the Northeast, almost no place runs the entire gamut of American cuisine.

And certainly, if there was such a restaurant, it wouldn’t be connected with a national museum showcasing an exhibit on the history of food in America.

Or, at least, that was the case before Jose Andres opened American Eats Tavern. Andres is one of Washington, D.C.’s most famous chefs, credited with bringing a culinary revolution to the nation’s capital. This summer, Andres closed one of his most successful restaurants, Café Atlantico, on 8^th Street NW between D and E, in Penn Quarter, to turn it into something unique, fresh and new.

What emerged is something unlike any restaurant in the area. Andres partnered with the National Archives and the restaurant coexists with an exhibit at the nearby museum documenting the government’s effect on the American diet.

But first up, the restaurant.

Andres completely revamped Café Atlantico, with fresh paint, pictures and decorations, transforming it from a hip Latin joint into an ode to Americana. Bright white walls are adorned with sculpted bronze stars and giant pictures from eras in American times, ranging from the Great Depression to the Civil Rights movement.

The menu is designed to be enjoyed in four courses, and each is an homage to the United States. It begins with a selection of oysters, which have been a culinary favorite throughout U.S. history, from pickled oysters popular at taverns in pre-revolutionary times to grilled oysters, which were consumed decadently during the early days of Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange.

Every item on the menu, from the first course to the entrées, comes with a brief history of the dish, describing where and why it was invented, making the entire meal a learning experience.

Appetizers run the gamut from the familiar to the far out. There are buffalo wings, done in the style of the bar that invented them—Anchor Bar & Grill in Buffalo— as well as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that can come topped with foie gras.

After a course of popular American soups and salads—shecrab soup, Cobb salad—comes an optional course of ketchup, or catsup. In American history, catsups were unique and varied, playing to local ingredients and seasons, very unlike the ubiquitous Heinz that dominates the national market today. Almost all the catsups come from  mid-1800s recipes  and include unexpected ingredients like gooseberries, oysters and mushrooms.

Lastly, an entrée course covers popular and delicious American dishes like braised short ribs, lobster rolls and chicken pot pie. After a long and full meal, your trip to American Eats doesn’t have to end. Digest by walking the two short blocks down 8^th Street to the National Archives.

There, you’ll encounter What’s Cooking Uncle Sam: The Government’s Effect on the American Diet, which runs until January 3, 2012. Exhibits there cover four main ways the government influences what you put in your body. The four sections are Farm, Factories, Kitchen and Table and feature photographs and documents to illustrate how the federal government has shaped what people put in the stomach throughout the course of American history. It’s a fascinating and thought-provoking collection, and only adds to the enjoyment of American Eats Tavern, making this collaboration one of the few places in the world where you can eat and learn in equal servings.

- David