Some of you must have taken my advice and swung by Organic to Go in the last few months because the little joint is really taking off!  They are set to open their fourth DC area location at 1700 K St., NW and will be giving away treats to customers of the store this week.  What kinda free?  Well..

Monday, Dec. 15 - FREE Steaz beverage with any purchase

Tuesday, Dec 16 - FREE Half Sandwich with any soup purchase

Wednesday, Dec. 17 - FREE Honest Tea with any purchase

Thursday, Dec. 18 - FREE Side Salad with any sandwich or soup purchase

Friday, Dec. 19 - FREE Coffee, Espresso or Hot Tea from 6:30am-9:30am

In these tough, troubled and otherwise beleaguered economic times, I’m sure at least some DC MetBlog readers could use half a sandwich or a free cup of organic joe.

Stand-Up Comedy hit its boom in the 80’s.  Shows like SNL were bringing sketch comedy to American TVs for a good number of years, and big name acts like  Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Sam Kinison, and Billy Crystal were both touring to clubs-and thanks to HBO, had specials in constant circulation on TV.

Everyone wanted to be a comedian.  So in the 1990s (when admittedly some great comedy was still happening) there was just…too many.  Cities like DC which had several big name comedy clubs saw demand drizzle and drip-folks weren’t flocking to live shows anymore because, frankly, there was a bit too much exposure and a bit too many people to see.  Now DC has one club, the fabulous Improv which is where I learned how to do some stand up( strong language btw ) and-apart from the occasional appearance at Warner Theater for a mega act like George Carlin-is the only place to see a real headliner in town.

The strange thing is that even though there aren’t a lot of places to play there are a ton of comics in this town-a lot of them very good.  Where are they all you ask?  Well the circuit here in DC is mostly relegated to coffee houses or backrooms in bars once a week.  Open Mic-which is where a schlep like me has to go to learn how to be a good comic-is kind of hard to come by.  Here is a list of the shows available now-you’ll notice a lot of them aren’t in the beltway or even metro accessible making opportunities for a  PT comic such as myself very limited.

Most of the reason I don’t do stand-up anymore is the hassle-Even the guys who do treat you right can only put you on once-tops twice-a month if you are a green like I am:  You’re not filling in the seats with your following yet and its lame to have the same comic come up and do the same thing week in and week out.  Just a few places to play on any given night and an incredible number of comics (one promoter once told me he gets a 150 emails a day looking to get time) makes for long open mic sets (I’ve seen 17 comics do 5-10 minutes each in one night.  Yikes!) and not a lot of opportunity.  No opportunity means no growth as a comic.   No growth as a comic means less and less for you, the audience to see.  So its a problem.

All of this is by way of setting the stage for the punchline-if you will.  John Xereas is Riot Act Entertainment and I’ve always found him to be a pretty good guy.  No longer at HR-57, John has been looking for a new place to open up not just a once a week show-but a full on, 7 nights a week, comedy club. Unfortunately a big box corporation furniture company is also bidding on the place and he fears it isn’t going to go his way.

Now look-I know this is a strange post and some of you might be reading it as “feel bad for my buddy who wants to open a comedy club” but it is a bit more than that.  If you are a person who enjoys comedy, who would like to see more comedy take place or just have a competitor to the Improv in town (and I think this is a situation where competition would help both parties by the way) then I encourage you to read the letter John sent below (after the jump) and help act.  If not-hey, no worries.  I don’t know if it will do any good, but if you would like to give a try, as I am, then I invite you to do so.

Thanks and Happy Halloween everybody!

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Mmmm Salad. Thanks to the helpful young woman doing O-T-G's PR for supplying this image :)

I only come into town (DC Proper that is) a few times a week these days but I remember the frustration of having the same 5 places to eat at when I worked downtown full time. The last few months though I’ve added a few new places worth eating that you, dear Metblog reader, may or may not know about. So I thought I’d do a few posts sharing my thoughts on some good lunch places-just in case it’s helpful.

At the top of the list is Organic to Go.  Replacing the old “High Noon” locations in Washington DC, OTG (that’s what the kids call it) offers a mostly organic menu with vegetarian and vegan options. Now while I’m not usually concerned with something being organic or not-I listen to NPR, but I’m not a Whole Foods Shopper or anything- I have to say that the difference here is very noticeable. Everything looks (and is!) incredibly fresh and tastes the same.

(read more after the jump)

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image found here.

Dear Metblog readers, indulge me in a brief personal story and the use of this forum to say thank you to someone.  Hopefully you’ll just find it a heartwarming little story about how good people can be in our area.  

Dear Random Girl who eventually got off at the Naylor Rd. Station:

Thank you for finding my Iphone.  Although I’ve never met you or saw you or know anything about you-I appreciate your finding my Iphone.

See, I was heading home to drop off the comic books I had bought at SPX and to get changed to go out for the evening.  In my fervor of comic book delightedness I must have only half-heartedly put my phone into my sweatshirt hoodie pocket after checking it (like I always do) coming over the river on the yellow line bridge.  Questions of whether to go all the way to Clarendon or not coupled with handfuls of newly signed books must have distracted me as I left my train at Crystal City because it wasn’t until I got outside and reached for my phone again that I realized it was gone. 

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Do you ever wonder what scientists do when they’re not doing…. science?  Cafe Scientifique is “a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology.”  The concept started in the UK and now they are springing up all over, bringing folks from all walks of life together to debate and discuss what’s new.  Science-types and English majors are both welcome.

We have two cafes in our transit-shed, lucky us.  One in Annapolis, where Cy Jones from the World Resources Institute is going to discuss water trading tomorrow, September 30.  Like carbon trading, only wetter.  Another in Arlington on October 7, where Dr. Don Wilson from the Smithsonian Institution going to talk about Bats: Myth and Reality.  It’s at the Front Page, in Ballston.  If you’ve ever thought about putting up a bat house, this is your chance to ask all those questions. 

Could be a nice addition to the ‘hood.  If the neighbors aren’t too freaked out, that is.

Despite the sluggish economy (and the recently-announced store closings from Starbucks), I opened my Post today to discover that local coffee shops don’t seem to be affected by whatever’s ailing the corporate behemoth. Post reporter Michael Rosenwald even writes that Arlington’s Java Shack seems to be flourishing:

In fact, [Java Shack owner Dale Roberts] is more than fine. His first-quarter sales were up 23 percent. The second quarter: up 12.5 percent. His foot traffic is up. His business is energized. Not only has Roberts survived an onslaught of Starbucks shops — there are several within a couple of miles — now he feels he is doing to them what everyone thought they would do to him: beating ‘em.

I haven’t been by that particular store, but the smaller java suppliers I’ve tried seem to be doing a superb job at feeding the DC area’s coffee addiction. My new roommate is a fervent devotee of Murky Coffee’s Clarendon location, and I loved patronizing their DC store until it closed down. I’ve been known to conduct college interviews at Misha’s in Alexandria and I can’t wait for Peregrine Espresso to open at Murky’s old DC location.

600 Starbucks stores closing down or not, there are still three outposts within a couple of blocks of my office in DC. I can’t imagine it’s a losing proposition to supply our fair city’s caffeine addicts (thousands of lawyers, lobbyists, government workers and staffers can’t go without!) Any favorite local coffee shops you, our readers, would recommend?

Last Friday, me and the missus decided to dine in Old Town. We were craving Irish food; after our jaunt up in Maine a few weeks back and hitting several New England pubs we were feeling nostalgic for our Ireland walkabout back in 2005 and wanted to try getting back to that setting. Yes, yes, this is Virginia after all, but no harm in trying, right?

I’d read some reviews on O’Connell’s a while back and since it boasted itself as “a modern Irish restaurant in an ancient Irish setting” (from their website), we decided to give it a whirl.

We arrived right at 5 p.m., before the dinner crush on a typical spring weekend evening on King Street. After doing a quick check of the menu out front, we followed the pleasant and cheery hostess upstairs to the third floor. (As an aside, I love it when restaurants post their menus out front - saves me a heap of time of going in, scanning the menu and then bailing because I can’t find anything on it that waters my mouth.)

Seated in a corner along the long banister “corridor” connecting two of the older bars upstairs, the busboy was prompt in getting us water. So we dove into the menu and after some discussion, decided what to eat.

And then waited for our server. Read more

Club violence is always something that kinda gives me the willies, and this example is no exception. Going in for my morning coffee this morning my bariista comrade was looking more forlorn than usual, and related to me that he’d seen the DJ stabbed at 18th Street Lounge last night. Said what had been “a really chill evening” was interrupted by major league violence and a major police response.

While the major media outlets (in my admittedly brief perusal) seem quiet on this, a venue like 18th Street Lounge us not a place I expected to see this kind of tragedy! Damn.

Update: Will the DJ from last night checks in below, entirely unperforated, to our great relief. He does confirm that there was a stabbing at the lounge last night. Our thoughts and well-wishes go out to the actual victim for a speedy recovery, as no one deserves to get stabbed while they’re just trying to have a good time.

Last Call — Originally uploaded by Adriaan Bloem

My lovely wife and I went to Taverna Cretekou in Alexandria recently. The food was fabulous, as was the service. The highlight of our visit came after the meal, when the waiter read Elise’s fortune in her coffee grounds. Was it simply a ploy for a bigger tip? Probably, and likely it worked.

I highly recommend this restaurant. Fabulous food, great service and reasonable prices for an upscale place.

The view from the window at Windows Cafe

–How did Ledroit Park (or Bloomingdale, as some seem to call it) wind up developing? It’s compressed into a small area around 4th and T NW and is very isolated from other developments around town; I rode through there on my bike and thought I was in California for a second–and then whoosh, it was gone.

–What’s up with Ethiopian cafe owners? Seems like all the newish cafes in town are owned by Ethiopians: Cafe Sureia in Brookland, Windows Cafe on 1st and Rhode Island NW, Azi’s on 9th NW, Sidamo Coffee and Tea on H St NE, and I think I saw a new cafe on Georgia around Irving. Oh, and Columbia Heights Coffee was bought by an Ethiopian couple about a year ago. Not complaining, that’s for sure–just curious and impressed.

–What’s going on at the corner of V and 14th street, catty corner from Busboys and Poets? There’s often a big crowd there–mostly black folks, but not the glamorous hipster crowd that hangs out at B&P. I’ve seen that crowd many times but there’s no sign indicating anything interesting there.

–Does Metro have express trains now? And if so, why does the red line express skip the Bethesda station, of all places?

–Why do train operators tell passengers, while the train’s in motion, how many cars the train has (as in, “This is an 8 car train”), when it’s illegal to move between trains?

–Is owning a home really so much better than renting, when you add everything up? If the only affordable houses are so far off in the suburbs that riding metro–post-fare hike–costs up to $10/day, and driving and parking cost double that and climbing, can you really argue it’s so worth it?