Hey DC Bloggers, want a free ticket to Serenity?

Okay, now that you’ve started to salivate, please be sure to wipe your mouth.

From Instapundit Glenn Reynolds:

MOVIE SEEKS BLOG REVIEWERS: The PR folks for the forthcoming Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, etc.) science fiction movie Serenity are inviting bloggers to advance screenings. (List of cities here via an Excel document that didn’t quite format right, but it’s legible). It’s free, and all they ask is that you blog something, good or bad, about it.

If you’re interested, email ‘em at rsvp@gracehillmedia.com and they’ll put you on the list. I’ll be going to a screening in Knoxville.

There is indeed a DC screening, and while I’ll be out of town, there’s no reason you shouldn’t go. Get on it, peeps!

Professional Development Trip to Paris for your chef: $3,500
Luncheon for the wife and garden club: $5,000
Trip to Nigeria: $22,345
Drivers’ Costs: $54,000
Bar Bill: $100,000

Spending over half a million of the university’s money on yourself? Priceless.

Yup, the President of American University is currently in some awfully hot water over his spending habits, which include pan-seared foie gras, and some nice cashmere and some antiques. Yeah, if I was an alumni of American, I’d be pretty steamed right about now…

Tonight was a good bar-crawl. I’m entertaining/interviewing a candidate for a prime Geekcorps Mali Program Manager position and took him out for a night on the town and social testing. I don

- Why are there still people who yell “O!” during the National Anthem? Not only are you at the wrong stadium, you have terrible manners.

- Three pieces of string does not qualify as underwear. That’s not panties, it’s twine. Also, I don’t want to look at your ass crack all night, so wear a longer shirt.

- It was terribly ambitious of the Nats to send out invoices for playoff tickets to season ticket holders and demand that we pay them by Monday to reserve our seats. Awfully ambitious, seeing as how the Nats are at least 5 games out of even Wild Card contention.

So, my fella and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on monday by stuffing ourselves with food. What better way to say, “I wanna look at your mug for the next 100 years” than to pack it full like a chipmunk, I say. We decided to try 2941, a new little NoVA ditty brought to you by Jonathan Krinn. He’s done all kindsa cool stuff, which you can read ALL about in his bio.

Anyhoo, being a couple who A) LOVE food without limits, and B) rarely traverse past the boundaries of our fair D of C, we decided to hire a driver/car (cause we are fancy, but DUIs are not) and trek god-knows-how-many miles to Fairfachurchexandrialand to check it out. Yeah, that’s right – I’m from Maryland – what of it?!

First and foremost, 2941 is an incredibly beautiful and utterly unlikely space. It’s nestled off of Fairview Road in the (fake) woods by the (fake) Fairview Lake – dudes, there’s not even a HINT of underbrush in that bad boy. Seriously. Gotta love “natural” landscaping… Also there’s a lovely (fake) pond with HUGE, man-eating-looking koi and a waterfall and everything. In all seriousness, for a COMPLETELY man-made environment, it is very pretty and serene. Some day they might even import some bugs and woodland critters, if the neighborhood committee approves. I’m KIDDING… jeepers…

The restaurant itself is GORGEOUS. Vast high ceilings, tones of orange and brown throughout, a wall o’ windows – and simple clean lines that meet industrial flourishes. In a word, this place ooooozes swanky. There are some ridiculously cool glass sculptures hanging from the ceiling that seriously make you appreciate modern shipping techniques. The staff was wonderful, professional and unobtrusive – and they laugh politely at your jokes, even if you’re drunk off your ass. Yay! They were even willing (without question, might I add) to deal with our silly food requirements – but I’ll get to that.

Anyway, that brings me to the food. The menu is HUGE. Lots of choices, with a French-American flair. You can eat a la carte (with 1 app, 2 courses and dessert) for about $85 per person without wine. BUT, you can do a GI-NORMOUS tasting menu of around 7 courses (with 2 desserts to boot) for $75 per person – bonus! My fella and I always prefer the tasting menu whenever possible – what better way to get a sampling of absolutely everything?! They do a lite version (vegetarian) and a meaty version. We did one of each, but substituted the beef, chicken and game on the meaty one with fishes.

The following is a rundown of what we had (including wine parings) for each course. Overall, I thought the food was good, albeit a bit salty – that said, I could live with a salt lick strapped around my neck, so it didn’t bother me much. We are total restaurant junkies, so we’ve had some pretty amazing meals in our travels. Although I have to say this did not necessarily hit our top 10 (#1 of all time being the tasting menu at the French Laundry in Napa), in terms of overall atmosphere and aesthetic as well as pricing (both for food and wine – they had a nice, interesting list with a very reasonable markup overall) it was most certainly a good place to spend a special occasion. For the Falls Church area, this is a gem – reminds me of going to L’Auberge Chez Francois in Great Falls, Normandy Farms in Potomac, or the Inn at Glenn Echo on the DC/MD border. You can only tell there’s civilization around these restaurants until you turn into the driveway – after that moment, however, it’s pure charm.

So yeah, here’s what we each ate, course by course (and we traded plates 1/2 way through each, so I can vouch for any and all). Please keep in mind that I wrote out most of these descriptions in an “altered state” shall we say, so they might be a little off (and the wines are abbreviated cause my husband is a sommelier, and can tell me what we drank in a little Corsican restaurant in 1995, so I don’t need to know this stuff, k?):

Amuse: crostini topped with goat cheese/apple foam; 2nd crostini topped with olive tapenade

Pre-dinner whistle-wetter: watermelon soup with gelee and balsamic reduction
wine: Rugey Ramos Pinto

1A) Butternut squash soup topped with carmelized carrot
1B) Simple mixed greens with rustic vinaigrette
wine: Savinnieres

2A) Chilled artichoke soup topped with creme freche
2B) Tuna tartare with crab salad and caviar
wine: Condrieu

3A) Hamachi with ginger braised fennel
wine: Sake
3B) Acorn squash puree with curried carrots
wine: ’03 Kabinett Mosel

4A) Goat-cheese-stuffed pepper with creamed corn
4B) Scallop with beet burre blanc and [some creamy thing - forgive me...]
wine: Ruilly

5A) Clam Risotto
5B) Mushroom Risotto
wine: Manzanilla La Guitana

6A) Lobster Nicoise w/ sardines
wine: 2000 Muga
6B) Crisped tofu with balsamic vinegar and lentils
wine: ’03 Chateauneuf du Pape

7A) Miso Vegetables
7B) Halibut with crab raviol & fennel puree
wine: ’03 torbreck

dessert:
- berry cotton candy
- plum tarts with black pepper ice cream
- chocolate torte
- little chocolate bites

OH, and because they don’t use preservatives in their bread, they give you their end-of-night loaves as a parting gift. Needless to say, we absolutely rolled out of there. Ugh – in a good way. So yeah, check it out – you will like.

You know, some political emails are just so funny that you have to let them speak for themselves. I just got this gem from the Fenty Campaign:

From: alec@fenty06.com
Subject: FENTY CAMPAIGN SURPASSES 2,000 YARD SIGNS
To: alec@fenty06.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) announced today that his
mayoral campaign has delivered over 2,000 yard signs to residents in
all eight wards throughout the city.

Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Instead of talking about Fenty’s stance on local issues, we’re going to talk about his lawn signs. Right. Gotcha. Should I expect further hard hitting emails about Fenty’s jaunty cap collection? The number of bumperstickers on area cars? Number of buttons distributed at metro stations?

Or, are we going to talk issues like the homeless problem in DC. Unemployment. Attracting business to the area. Using public funds to build a sports stadium. Taxation. Representation. These are things you issue press releases for.

Not how many goddamn ugly-ass lawn signs you stick up across town. C’mon Adrian, I expect better from you.

I hadn’t been to the Luna Grill and Diner in ages, but last night after re-joining the National Capital YMCA we needed something close by and relatively uncomplicated for dinner.

Not to mention the minute I remembered the place I began to obsess about their sweet potato fries. There’s something about the sweet potato that makes me think of autumn leaves and cool breezes. Maybe its role at Thanksgiving dinners has something to do with it.

Ummmm… deliciously roasted sweet potato steak-cut fries with a hint of caramel…

Luna Grill was just as quirky as ever, with its offbeat murals and rustic wooden tables. It’s a charming spot with basic good food – “slow food served fast” as their motto says. However, I could’ve done without sitting on my neighbor’s lap, as it were. The tables for two are ridiculously close together, so close you can hear all the slurping and chewing, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the guy next to us had joined our conversation. It also made for some interesting aerobatics on the part of our waiter as he attempted to refill our glasses.

But those fries were heavenly!
Now I just need to find some sweet potato pie, perfect for autumn.

When I was out for Happy Hour on Friday, my friend Ben was telling me a tale of woe of how he was nearly arrested when he and a friend had taken a dog out to a local park and let it off the leash to run around. I was astounded to hear that there were few, if any, dog parks in the District, and that police, having solved all other crimes, had resorted to harassing dog owners in a park.

Today, however, is a good day for dog owners in the District, as the City Council voted to allow dog parks on city- and federally-owned park land. No word yet as to where some candidates would be, where would you put a dog park in DC?

Thanks to Christian and Nikolas for reminding us that there’s more to life than the anti-war/anti-capitalism/anti-you-name-it-we-hates-it rallies this weekend.

If you’re looking for something to do locally, there’s going to be a Green Festival (a joint project of Co-op America and Global Exchange) at the DC Convention Center with tickets at $15 a day and a metric tonne of exhibitors from DC Yoga to Marantha Nut Butters to the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. Sure, the smell of patchouli may be overwhelming from time to time, but it beats getting gassed by the cops when some anarchists try to break into Citibank.

Of course, if you’re more literary minded, the National Book Festival, put on by the Library of Congress, will be taking over the National Mall for the weekend. This year’s authors will include Buzz Aldrin, David Baldacci, Neil Gaiman, Giada de Laurentiis, R.L. Stine and a whole bushel of other authors across many genres.

Arlington resident Michael Walsh has been named one of this year’s 25 MacArthur Foundation “geniuses.” Walsh, who’s 62, is a technical consultant and vehicle emissions specialist who works to reduct the effect of internal combustion engines in order to improve the environment. A Google search shows that he also previously won the Dr. Arie Haagen Smit Clean Air Award from the California Air Resources Board. Walsh gets $500,000 over the next five years. Good for him!