Unfortunately the OPM website has been flooded with web traffic as all the Feds and their contractor support rush to determine whether or not the rumors are true… the site has basically shut down… makes you what would happen in a real snow emergency…

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington (GMCW) is hosting their first concert of the season thiis Saturday, February 24 at 8:00pm at the Church of the Epiphany (kind of near the Verizon Center). The concert is a combined concert with the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, who will begin the concert with a Gloria.  The GMCW will follow with 5 movements from Faure’s Requiem.  Then there will be three songs by the combined choruses that are much lighter and fun.

GMCW is one of the area’s most highly respected arts and community service organizations. Its mission is to “entertain through excellent musical performance, to affirm the place of Gay people in society, and to educate about the Gay experience.” It has more than 225 singing members, nearly 100 support volunteers, more than 400 subscribers, nearly 500 donors, and an annual audience of nearly 10,000. The Washington Post has called GMCW “one of the world’s best male choruses.” (March 2001)

As a non-profit organization, the organization needs ticket sales to make the concerts financially successful.  Tickets usually sell quite briskly for these concerts, but they haven’t quite sold out the Faure concert. Order your tickets today at www.GMCW.org – click on the link to the "Let All Men Sing" concert.

As I mentioned in my last post, I ventured out during Restaurant Week to two downtown restaurants we’ve never been before. The experience was hit and miss – my first review on Restaurant Kolumbia – was for the miss. Now we come to the hit.

The original plan was to return to Pinzimini for some of their delicious Italian – despite Wayan’s dislike for the bar. But as the weekend approached, the size of our little group swelled from four, to seven, to ten, and we could no longer get a table at the restaurant at a reasonable time (I can’t eat dinner at 9 PM on a Sunday). So, back to OpenTable I went, to search for a new place to dine. Of the few options available, I noticed Grillfish – and for some reason I felt like I had heard about it – but wasn’t sure why. A few clicks later and I was reading through the restaurant’s description:

"Grillfish is a casual, moderately-priced restaurant, specializing in fresh, grilled seafood and deliciously-sauced pasta. The restaurant is dominated by its “signature” oversized, floor-to-ceiling, erotic mural extending the entire wall behind the large stone bar. A definite conversation piece. The bar is ornately decorated with massive mirrors, large columns and a multitude of glowing candles. These, along with the open kitchen where flames leap from the grill, create a warmth and intimacy in a casual atmosphere."

What can I say… They had me at erotic mural…

While parking near the restaurant is a bit of a challenge (there are private garages nearby if you can’t find street parking) once we entered, I had a feeling it was going to be a great dining experience. To accommodate our group, we were seated at a long wooden table right in the middle of the restaurant. The ambience is intimate – and there really is something about the combination of colors in the erotic mural, candles at the bar and table, and the flames from the kitchen that makes you feel like you have the place all to yourself.

Between everyone at dinner, we definitely covered the entire range of options available on the menu. It would take too long to list them all, but the overwhelming consensus was that the food was delicious. I personally had the rockfish (one of the few locally caught fish on the menu) and it was grilled to perfection. Just enough char on the skin to add a bit of crispness to a delightfully moist piece. While some of the side dishes were a little less enjoyable (the sauteed spinach has way too much garlic) overall Grillfish manages to serve great food without pretense or pretension.

Grillfish DC
1200 New Hampshire Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 331-7310

Don Whiteside isn’t the only Metroblogging author who ventured out for Restaurant Week. I ventured out to two downtown restaurants, along with the better half and assorted friends, to try out two places we’ve never been before. The experience was hit and miss – my first review is for the miss.

Restaurant Kolumbia features the "Fine Modern Cuisine of Chef Jamie Stachowski, a French trained American Chef/Owner." Upon arriving, we were greeted pleasantly and taken swiftly to our table. Along the way, we passed by through the lounge/bar area, and I was very pleased with the aesthetic. Our waiter was incredibly attentive to the table, and even provided an excellent suggestion for a bottle of wine to accompany our meal.

Outside of these elements, however, Restaurant Kolumbia failed to deliver. The restaurant limited all tables to ordering from the prix fix menu – which I don’t particularly care for – but that should help to ensure at least some semblance of quality in the food. In addition, the venue is very small, so we were not competing for the chef’s attention amongst a swarm of other diners. For appetizers, the salad was pleasant, and the cold butcher’s board had a nice selection of chilled meats – though some at the table questioned whether kielbasa served cold is really that appetizing. On the upside, the butcher’s board was served with a hearty whole grain mustard.

For the main course, several of us selected the madeira glazed sweetbreads,
over slow cooked veal breast with,
puy lentils, leeks, carrots, and truffle sauce. Not too many restaurants in the area will work with sweetbreads, so I was very excited about this dish. After the first few bites, however, I found myself grasping for the nearest glass of water. The dish, overall, was incredibly salty – well beyond the limits of what is needed for appropriate seasoning. The veal was over cooked, and the sweetbreads nearly indistinguishable from the other elements of the dish. The sauce had no hint of truffle whatsoever. Presentation was also poorly executed – everything blending together and smothering each other into a mess of brown color.

The sauteed corvina, over celery root puree, with lardons of bacon and apple red wine butter was better overall – but somewhat boring given the list of ingredients. The crab cake was a bigger winner – large chunks of crab fused together with a scallop mousse – which meant no breading. It too, however, lacked a certain something to make the dish seem elevated to the classification of "fine modern cuisine."

Dessert was a wasted effort. The chocolate twin towers, which the menu labeled as some sort of "memorial," was hardly worthy of its title. It would have been more apt to say "two small pieces of dry brown cake." The pistachio Ice Cream, with caramelized pineapple, banana, and poached berries was too sweet – and began to melt well before you had even a few bites.

Overall, I was surprised at how poorly the food came out. Although the restaurant has received good reviews from the local critics – I doubt we will return in the near future.

Shame on us for not bringing it up sooner (we almost missed it!) but It’s National Delurking Week!

Our Los Angeles counterparts already got the ball rolling – as of writing this post they are up to 35 comments on their original post – and 36 on their hit followup focused on LA drivers.

C’mon DC, are your really gonna let the west coasters outdo us? And if my bi-coastal rivalry doesn’t spark the desire, remember that while we may not get paid to write these posts, the comments we get from you make it all worthwhile!

So if you’re a frequent commenter – drop us a line like the regular you are. If you’ve never commented before – today’s the day to get that “long time reader, first time commenter” feeling.

Share whatever you like, but a few things I’d like to know:

• What part of the DC metropolitan area are you representing?
• If you’re visiting us from some other locale, where might that be?
• Who or what turned you on to reading Metroblogging DC?
• What would you like to see us write more about?

Thanks in advance!

Speaking of basketball at George Mason University – this year’s homecoming promises to be different from those in recent years – and no I’m not talking about the crappy poker-themed slogan "Green ‘n Gold Never Fold" (gag).

Back in the late 90’s if you were interested in tailgating before the homecoming game (or really any basketball game for that matter) you did it with your friends in the dorms. Sometime after the new millennium, school sponsors figured out it would be really great for our spirit-starved school to start hosting a block party in the parking lot outside the Patriot Center. Ever since then, the homecoming game has been a time when students and alumni could all get together and enjoy an a tailgating experience that once seemed reserved for folks that went to the state’s other public colleges/universities.

After many years of successful homecomings, the administration has decided they want to change things up. The word on the street is Mason has adopted a policy to ban all alcohol at this year’s Homecoming tailgate UNLESS they are purchased through the on-site vendor – and apparently you must also stay inside the confines of the beer garden they provide. Leave it my alma matter to take something that was once enjoyable (remember Mason Day before there was a fence and full cavity searches?) and turn it into a
shadow of its former self.

Mason’s policy essentially eliminates the kind of traditional tailgating that you would normally find at another college. I’m not saying the University should allow underage drinking. However, there are other ways to prevent it – like the police patrols they’ve had in the past. This approach just seems like another cheap tactic by the administration to make money off of what should be an enjoyable and spirited event – not commercial.

If you are an Alumnus, please take the time to read and sign this online petition. If you know someone who is an Alumnus, please forward them the link to this petition.

Alumni, faculty, and friends are invited to join George Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Studies Dean at a tailgate party this weekend.  The tailgate party will be hosted in the Mason Hall Alumni Atrium, Saturday, from 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM.  Stay for the game, and cheer the Patriots on to victory over James Madison University.

A limited number of game tickets are available.  RSVP to chssevnt@gmu.edu or (703) 993-9399.

With a New Year upon us, the Washington Post is ready to support all your job-hunting needs with the release of it’s Mega Jobs edition of the Sunday paper. I will actually give credit to the Washington Post Jobs section for helping me in every single one of my job hunting efforts. If you are looking for a job in the greater D.C. metropolitan area – this is a great resource. The Post has even sweetened the deal for us "Internet savvy" folks by promising 25% more job listings to search through with their online database (at least until January 21).

Here are some highlights of this month’s efforts by the Post to support job hunters.

Mega Jobs in The Washington Post
Sunday, January 7

• Full-page, color and spotlight premium opportunities (limited availabilities)
• Health and Science and Tech stand-alone sections

Second Chance Mega Jobs in The Post
Sunday, January 14

Mega Career Fair
Monday, January 22

From 11 AM – 6 PM at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City. Pavilions include

• Security Cleared
• Engineering
• Technology
• Government
• Healthcare
• Professional/General
• Non-profit/Education

You can pre-register, submit your resume for the fair, and get additional information here.

Despite my complaining about the holiday season – pretty much the only time of the year where I feel like the Jewish minority that I am – the one thing I do enjoy about any impending Christmas celebration is the reminder that New Year’s Eve will soon be upon us. I don’t know why… Perhaps it’s a means to achieving the "rebirth" that is apparently inherent in Scorpio’s (or so says my better half’s crazy Zodiac book). Stars and planetary alignment aside, I will admit that I do always look forward to the sensation of tabula rasa that accompanies the first day of a new year.

Since the start of 2007, I have been trying to embrace opportunities for doing more outside of my normal winter routine of "wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV and work some more." So today, at the end of another arduous week, I was pleasantly surprised to find two movies playing back-to-back at the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse that I’d been meaning to see – but never got around to. Yeah, I know that watching movies is barely a stone’s throw from watching TV – but at least it’s outside the house, right? Plus there’s food I didn’t cook and beer served in pitchers to be had!

Figuring that there must be at least a few of my friends and coworkers feeling the same need to get out – a simple text message was sent out to the masses at 5:00 PM:

"We’re doing back-to-back movies at the Drafthouse if you are interested – 7:30 Little Miss Sunshine and 9:50 Stranger Than Fiction – come to one or both."

Despite the half-hour of self-loathing I went through as I was "that guy" saving almost an entire row of seats in the theatre – I was pleased to note during my wait that the Drafthouse seems to have cleaned itself up a bit. New to me are the Wine Tasting’s hosted Friday nights in association with the Washington Wine Academy, accompanied by a soothing, live jazz guitarist’s performance. It also seemed a lot less smoky – to the point where I thought maybe they had banned it – but the smoke from a a few cigarettes drifting about during the film dashed that hope. And while the food was still "good enough," there seemed to be a lot more options available. As always the beer was nice and cold.

I left the theatre at midnight feeling a deep sense of calm contentment. And as one of us bought the obligatory late-night Slurpee, I wondered if it was because this was the first time I ever watched two movies in a row at the Drafthouse (and bonus – got to eavesdrop on the servers during their behind the scenes clean up effort – apparently they all really hate Lisa Loeb’s Stay). Maybe it was because each movie seemed to express the importance loved ones play in our lives – the meaning they give to it – and I was surrounded by friends and holding my wife’s hand nearly the entire time. Or perhaps it was the fact I finished an entire pitcher of Yuengling by myself over the course of the evening….

Whatever the reason – it’s a feeling I think we could all stand to experience more regularly. Perhaps the path I took this evening will work for you – in which case you better hurry up and mimic because they are only playing these films back-to-back until next Wednesday. Or maybe you prefer some other kind of weekend excitement. Whatever you choose, just be sure to bring along the people you love and care about, because I guarantee it will make it that much better.

While the end of the year for many of my clients tends to be somewhat restful, for those of us in the consulting business it’s often the busiest. So what better way to kick off the New Year, and hopefully my return to more regular postings, than with some news about a new Dupont restaurant and lounge especially for the ladies.

According to the press release, "based on the notion that gay men are more profitable than gay women, the women of Washington have been long underrepresented and undervalued."

But the unveiling of the new Kitty Cat Lounge, 1527 17th Street, hopes to change all that around. The new owner of the restaurant (formerly Peppers) has joined forces with Renee Peres in an effort to bring the ladies back out on the town. With the assistance of LGBT-oriented event company, BOI Productions, they’ve created the the Kitty Cat Lounge as a place for a diverse crowd with a chic sense of style.

"At a time where the women have been all but shut out of gay nightlife in Northwest DC, Peres, BOI Productions and the new venue crew hope to create a place where men and women can co-exist and come back to 17th Street. The new Kitty Cat Lounge will help revive this legendary lesbian hangout in the heart of the Dupont. The new chef and owner are unveiling restaurant on Saturday, January 6, 2007 ‘with a new menu and a fabulous new look with renovations complete just days before the grand opening!’ In addition, each night a portion of the profits made will be donated to community non-profits such as Whitman Walker (Peres is training for the AIDS marathon in January), The Mautner Project and HRC."

The Kitty Cat Lounge. Saturday January 6, 2007. Be there.