Posts Tagged ‘Washington DC’
Don’t Limit Your St. Patrick’s Celebration to Just One Day
This past Saturday, one of the biggest St. Patrick’s Day events in the area occurred. The city of Alexandria held its annual parade, complete with bagpipes, floats and enough Irish joy for every attendee. But if you missed the parade, don’t worry, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t for another two weeks, on Saturday, March 17th and there are a number of other local ways to celebrate.
The next big event, the National St. Patrick’s Day Parade, will be held this weekend. On Sunday, March 11th, Constitution Avenue will be shut down, in the heart of the city, in a tribute to the Irish holiday. The parade kicks off at 7th Street and runs for ten blocks down to 17th.
This event, which runs from 12-3 p.m., includes the best parts of every parade, with floats and marching bands and since this is in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, plenty of bagpipers. The theme for this year’s parade has a culinary twist: “Feed the Soul – Nourish the Palate.” And they’ve chosen the perfect Grand Marshal to honor that theme, Cathal Armstrong, owner of Restaurant Eve.
The best place to catch the entire spectacle is in the grandstands, from 15th to 16th Street on Constitution. Tickets to the grandstand cost $15 each. Of course, like most parades, you can also view the action for free anywhere else along Constitution Avenue.
While parades are enjoyable, it wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without some Irish spirits, which is what a good deal of us have come to associate the holiday with. And in this city, there are plenty of places to do that.
One spot that is embracing the holiday is the relatively new Logan Tavern on P Street in Logan Circle. Their St. Patrick’s Day celebration will be 13 hours long, from 11 a.m. all the way to midnight. The day will kick off with a traditional Irish breakfast, and partiers who manage to stay with entire day will be rewarded with an Irish-themed dinner at night, including a beer-based stew. Of course, there’s nothing saying you have to stay all 13 hours to enjoy the cuisine. Just pop in whenever you would like to sample the food as well as new spins on old Irish cocktails.
An even newer bar that’s sure to be packed with people is Irish Whiskey Public House, which just swung open its doors last month. The three-story spot, at the corner of M Street and 19th, will be pouring Smithwicks, Guinness and Jameson all day for anyone that would like to partake. But get there early. It’s expected to be one of the most crowded bars in the city.
Now, if drinking from sun up to sun down doesn’t sound appealing, there are other ways to participate in the holiday. For example, what if you’d like to get some exercise first before beginning your revelry?
Then the Four Courts Four Miler is the perfect event. Kicking off at the popular Courthouse Irish Bar, the race will take you through the hills of Rosslyn, beginning and ending at the front door of the bar. It’s $40 to register. For that entry fee, runners are rewarded at the restaurant afterward with food and drinks.
Once the evening of the 17th ends, the holiday celebrations usually are over. However, in D.C., that’s not the case, as one of the biggest St. Patrick’s Day events doesn’t take place until the following Saturday. Shamrockfest, which in this area has become synonymous with the green holiday, is on Marsh 24th this year. The event is as big as ever, with famous bands such as Gavin DeGraw, Dropkick Murphys and Carbon Leaf taking over the parking lot of RFK Stadium in Southeast D.C. for the entire Saturday. Purchase tickets in advance to get the best price. They’re selling for just $24.99 now, and the price almost always go up as the event nears.
And then relish in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day for longer than almost anyone, even the Irish.
- David
The Perfect Date Night in Cleveland Park
The idea of dinner and a movie as a date is almost obsolete. With everyone in a rush, few have time to sit down for four hours of wining, dining and film watching. The notion of it is of a more quaint time, like a scene from a 1950s movie.
But that trend doesn’t need to go the way of poodle skirts and sock hops, because one neighborhood in Washington, D.C. has the perfect places, atmosphere and vibe to revive “date night.”
Cleveland Park, in Northwest Washington, D.C., is a thriving area, with restaurants, bars and retail that keep the place buzzing at all hours. And it’s just the spot to head to if you want a classic evening of dinner and a movie.
While there are many places to eat in Cleveland Park, if you’re looking for the traditional restaurant that would be perfect for a date, look no further than Medium Rare. One of the newest restaurants to hit the area, Medium Rare is a unique take on the classic French bistro.
The restaurant sits on the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Ordway Street, right in the heart of Cleveland Park. Though there’s a large sign affixed to the building announcing its presence, the atmosphere inside is subdued. In fact, stepping inside takes you away from the hustle and bustle of Washington, D.C., instead giving the calming sense of a bistro tucked away in a little neighborhood in Paris. Blonde wood floors pair nicely with exposed brick, while the low-slung ceiling, with exposed beams, creates an intimate atmosphere.
Once seated, even the stress of ordering is removed. Medium Rare has just one entrée on its menu, the classic French dish: steak frites. A waiter will come by and take your drink orders—and there’s an excellently priced wine list—and ask you how you’d like your steak done.
Then comes baskets of perfect rustic French bread, with a crackling exterior and chewy, doughy inside. The bread course is followed by a salad with a house vinaigrette. After that, it’s the restaurant’s namesake: steak. Each plate comes with five ounces of sirloin, crisp French fries and the restaurant’s signature steak sauce, a mushroom cream blend.
After you finish comes the best part. Another whole serving of steak and fries. Yes, the restaurant always gives seconds. It’s technically just part of the entrée that they cook later, to serve the steak hot and fries fresh again, but it’s fun to look at as an additional serving.
While that may be the best part of the evening, you’ll also enjoy getting the bill, as the entire fixed price menu comes in at just $19.50 a person.
After dinner, it’s just a half block walk down the street to a movie theater that will draw you even further into 1950s nostalgia.
If the Uptown Theater, on Connecticut Avenue, seems like a relic from the past, that’s because it is. The theater is one of the oldest in the city, having shown its first movie in October of 1936. It’s got the large marquee of theaters past, with movie times still displayed on a large white board in black letters. And in the age of multiplexes, this theater is certainly a throwback, with just one screen.
But even in this modern era of iMAX, Uptown Theatre still boasts one of the largest screens in the area, at over 70 feet long and 40 feet high. That makes it a great place to take in big-budget blockbusters, with their curved screen enveloping the viewer and enhancing the experience.
The theater is currently showing the new 3D version of Star Wars: Episode I and tickets are $12.
So there’s no reason dinner and a movie have to be a thing of the past. In fact, it’s time for a dating revival. And start it in Cleveland Park.
- David
Celebrate Fat Tuesday the Cajun Way
This weekend the biggest party in America kicks off, a once local tradition that is now a nationwide event. That’s right, Saturday marks the start of Mardi Gras, and over the weekend and a few days afterward, Washington, D.C. and everyone in it will be celebrating. There will be food, festivities and fun, as well as ample events for everyone to feel like they are cruising through the Big Easy.
Mardi Gras translates in French to Fat Tuesday, and has been part of this country’s lore since the 1700s, when America, west of the Mississippi was owned by France. It was their tradition to celebrate the week between the Feast of the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, when the somber season of Lent kicked in.
The most prominent French settlement in the U.S. at the time was New Orleans, and now that city is known for the center of the Mardi Gras celebration. There, they celebrate with a week of parades and carousing.
Many of us can’t get down to Louisiana to party for a week straight, but that’s okay, because this town with be participating just as boisterously, with several celebrations that shouldn’t be missed.
If you are off work on Monday, for President’s Day, then the tastiest way to get the Cajun experience is to sign up for Pearl Dive Oyster Palace’s Crawfish Boil. Pearl Dive hasn’t been around for even a year, but it’s already this area’s most popular Cajun restaurant, an ode to the Big Easy in Logan Circle.
From 12-4:00 p.m. on February 20th, the restaurant will be boiling up batch after batch of crawfish, to go alongside suckling pig and New Orleans’s signature beer, Abita. The event costs $60 per person to attend.
If crawfish are your fancy, then Pearl Dive is by no means your only option. Across town, in Woodley Park, is another relatively new restaurant, also whipping up Louisiana specialties. Hot N Juicy Crawfish, on Connecticut Ave, serves one thing. Bags full of crawfish, boiled in Cajun spices. On Fat Tuesday, they will be throwing an event reminiscent of their hometown, a crawfish eating contest with a $200 grand prize. Anyone is welcome to register, with participants picked at random. But even if you don’t want to inhale uncomfortable amounts of crawfish, there’s still incentive to go on the holiday, as every pound of crawfish comes with a free beer.
Across the river in Arlington are two different Mardi Gras celebrations. In Courthouse, at the relatively new Bayou Bakery, Les Dames d’Escoffier (a society dedicated to advancing women in the fields of food, drink and hospitality), is holding their own Mardi Gras party. The event is on Monday night, and for just $55, participants will receive live Cajun cooking demonstrations and then the chance to eat, drink and dance the night away to the sounds of a jazz quartet.
If you are unable to attend Monday, that’s no problem, because Bayou Bakery is taking its celebration all the way to March 8th, with extended, five-and-a-half hour long happy hours every day, with specials on traditional cuisine like jambalaya, beignets and Abita beer.
The highlight of Mardi Gras is the parade, and the biggest local one is hosted on Fat Tuesday by the Clarendon Alliance. The parade jaunts down Wilson Boulevard in North Arlington, from the Courthouse Metro Station down to Clarendon. This is the 15th straight year the parade’s been held, and 2012 promises to be its biggest ever. This year’s event consists of floats, bands, horses and fire trucks cruising down the street, blasting music and noise and reminding everyone just how good a time Mardi Gras can be. The parade kicks off at 7:00 p.m. and runs all the way until 9:00.
So this year, don’t bother going to New Orleans to celebrate, instead enjoy having the Big Easy brought right to you.
- David
Experience 30 Americans at the Corcoran Before They Leave
February marked the beginning of Black History Month, a 29-day cultural celebration showcasing the impact African-American culture has had on the United States. And while events run the entire month, one of the most compelling ways to pay homage to the African American experience wraps up this week, with the last chance to see it this Sunday, February 12th.
The exhibit 30 Americans has been featured at the Corcoran Gallery of Art since October, 2011. The Corcoran is the largest—as well as the oldest—non-federally funded museum in the District, and it contains one of the best collections of art anywhere in America. The museum’s holdings include Monet’s, Picasso’s and Cassatt’s. A trip to the museum, located on 17th Street NW, can be an all-encompassing afternoon, as visitors can view European impressionists and American modern art all within the same halls.
30 Americans, one of the gallery’s rotating exhibits, features work from the most important and influential African-American artists since the 1970s. Their pieces are intended to be thought-provoking, exploring the racial strife and cultural identity issues that are still prevalent in modern American society.
The exhibit comes courtesy of the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, where it had been on display for the past two years. The exhibit contains 76 pieces, which range from 80s punk-art to cutting-edge design from the late 2000s.
The early 1980s works are some of the more visually striking pieces in any Washington, D.C. museum. Robert Colescott’s Pygmalion is a massive acrylic painting, registering over 7’ x 12’ and it comes at the viewer in bright, bold colors. It’s a 1970s remix of quaint, Caucasian suburban life blended with an urbane African-American experience, all intersecting in the middle as a white professorial figure embraces a black woman. The title derives its name from the George Bernard Shaw play about a lower-class girl attempting to pass herself off as high society and the painting shows the angst that can come from assimilating while trying to maintain an independent identity.
Created 20 years later, Kehinde Wiley’s Sleep is 25-foot opus that shows just how much change society has undergone in two decades. It features a large, sculpted man as its centerpiece, in a pure, unadulterated form. Here, the painting says, in the 21st century, the African-American community is a proud and beautiful place, perfect as is.
The still photography that’s part of the collection is also impressive, with Rashid Johnson’s life-sized prints carrying an intensity that will stay with you well after you leave the gallery.
The exhibit, large in scope, can take several hours to transverse. But if you’re already at the Corcoran, it would be a shame to miss some of the other impressive works showcased in their hallowed halls.
The early European pieces, from the 1800s to the early 1900s are on par with any other museum in the area, with famous works by Pablo Picasso, like A Glass on a Table, and one of Claude Monet’s best pieces, Willows of Vétheuil. Also, not to be missed among the famous Europeans, is the lesser known, but equally talented František Kupka, who’s work Untitled was one of the first moves to abstraction in the art world.
Admission to the Corcoran is relatively inexpensive, with tickets just $10 a person. Children under the age of 12 are free. The gallery is closed on Monday and Tuesday, but over the weekend, the last chance to see 30 Americans, the Corcoran will be open from 10 a.m to 5 p.m.
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 20th 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 31st 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
