OpenTable just announced the participants for one of my favorite semiannual events – DC’s Restaurant Week. Some of the city’s finest restaurants offer fixed price, three course meals for lunch and dinner.
DC Restaurant Week:
$20.08 3-Course Lunches
$35.08 3-Course Dinners
Book your reservations today on OpenTable.com as most of the time slots at the more expensive fill fast.
Anybody who has picked up today’s Washington City Paper has probably seen the ballot for “Best of D.C.: Celebrating the Classics 2008”. They are getting in the game with The Washington Post and The Washingtonian, asking readers to vote on what places, things, and cute bartenders make life in DC special and fun.
This has inspired me to finally launch a new series here that I have been mulling for some time.
Here is how this will work: I will take on the challenge of finding the “best in DC” – one thing at a time. Be it cupcakes, shoe stores, or dj nights, I will solicit recommendations of competitors, do some research, and then go try out those which claim to vie for title of “best”.
In other words – one girl’s highly subjective search to sift through mediocrity and mass-name-recognition (is Potbelly really the best sandwich place in town as it is consistently voted – or just the only one that a majority of the voters have been to?) to bring you what I think are the best bets around.
For this to work, I will need a lot of input from you. I want you to send me on missions that you want to read about. In the comments below, I would love to see suggestions of things you want me to review for you! I also need your suggestions of where to go. Do you think you know about the best beer selection in town? Let me know! Hopefully, other people will have different ideas, and I will try to put them all to the test.
One stipulation: I am not finding out the best fetish club. If you want to know, you will have to wait for the City Paper’s results. (Also, I reserve the right not to be sent on any missions I consider immoral or generally icky. You know.)
Also, we are going to need to think of a name. I thought about calling it “The Decider”, but that seems pretty dated at this point…
photo by erin m on flickr
No, this isn’t really the next John Carpenter film with Snake Plissken taking aim at the White House and Congress (although, I wished it was). But it’s about mid-season for all the D.C. natives to head out of town just to catch a breather from the madness that is life in the Capitol Region.
While typically, some of these “escapes” are not traditionally vacations in the usual sense (usually only a few days), there are plenty of places both near and far to get away from it all, even if it is only for a short bit. Some folks head internally, staying at home, or spending entire days at the movie theater. Others head out past the potential “blast zone“, to places like Shenandoah, Ocean City, and even Philly (which has King Tut right now, BTW). Others will head further afield…
Tom and Tiff head to Pittsburgh, but have been heard to hit the Eastern Shore. Carl’s on leave of mind to head to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, while Doug slips off to the local mountains of the Shenandoah. Paulo has yet to have a real honeymoon, and feels a strong pull to Harpers Ferry and the John Brown Wax Museum. Jenn loves Cape May in New Jersey, even though another city such as Philly or New York could also top the bill for rapid exit from our fair city. I’m heading to Beantown (to visit the Samuel Adams Brewery as well) and Cape Cod. Even Stacey escapes… at home in Vienna… Virginia, not Austria… just by having moved there. And we all know, DC is good enough for Wayan!
Jenn did bring up a good observation about coming back from these “breathers” from DC; How do you feel about the city when you return? Better or worse than when you ‘escaped’? Have you noticed anything interesting upon your return that you may have not observed or felt being here 24/7?
I found this on a construction site on 23rd Street next to the Department of State…and you wonder why you get incorrect prescriptions?!
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As we enter our first spring like week of the year I am starting a series of profiles of area bike trails. I begin with my personal favorite, the Washington & Old Dominion Regional Park trail. In 2005 I rode the length of the trail from west to east in one afternoon.
An early example of the “rail-to-trail” phenomenon, W&OD was simply known as the “bike trail” to me and my friends when I was growing up. Now forty-five miles long, the flat, straight trail starts in Arlington, near Shirlington, and extends all the way past Leesburg to Purcellville. In actuality, the trail is part of W&OD Regional Park, which is the old railroad and current Virginia Power right-of-way (hence the high tension power lines), giving it dimensions of about 45 miles by 100 feet. Those 100 feet provide a buffer of nature through the most populated region of the commonwealth. Much of the Arlington portion traverses Four Mile Run Park while it parallels the windier Four Mile Run trail. Think of W&OD as I-95 to Four Mile’s US 1 and you get the idea of how the two trails exist together.
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Yesterday, Tom let us know that the Cherry Blossoms will peak around April 4. Today, The Post tells us that there will be bicycle parking for the second consecutive year. Mayor Adrian Fenty (and likely Wayan) is very excited about this news.
The other big news is that some Yoko Ono art will be part of the festival. The art “is called “Wish Trees” and will enable festival-goers to attach written wishes to the empty branches of the trees.” Not only that, she’ll come to town at some point during the festival. Oh Yoko!
DC Metro-ites, sing, rejoice and be, um, plastered on Valentines Day. The venerable DC beer institution (and Guinness World Record holder), The Brickskeller, is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary in 2007, and has scheduled a year full of great beer events.
Culminating next week is the annual “Craft Brewed Strong Ale” tasting, on February 14th and 15th at RFD (Regional Food & Drink – also managed by the Alexander family). This is quick on the heels of last month’s “Lovefest” with Russian River (CA) and Allagash (ME) breweries at the Brickskeller’s upstairs tap-room. Call 202-289-2030 for tickets, they do sell out fast, as this is one of the annual highlights of the “beer tastings“. Support craft brewing and regional brewers such as Capitol City, Sweetwater Tavern, The D.C. Chophouse and others by trying something out of the ordinary with your sweetheart.
Also on “tap” this year for “The Brick” is a series of lectures and tastings about the Philosophy on Tap series in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution entitled – “What Is the Nature of the Mind?”. Also, “The Beer Hunter”, Michael Jackson is set to return for a fundraiser for Parkinson’s Disease (which he, himself, just revealed he has been battling) later this spring. If you think a Budweiser, Miller or Coors is all there is to beer (really, they are NOT beer), I highly recommend trying something out of the ordinary with your sweetheart this Valentines Day. (and at the very least, with a batch of strong ales [> 9% abv], you can forget about the evening’s events if they go south!)
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Yesterday, while lamenting the loss of District movie theaters Post columnist and blogger Marc Fisher mentioned rumors of the Uptown Theatre closing. Corporate consolidation (Loews Cineplex and AMC merged) seems to be the possible catalyst.
Obviously, Uptown closing would be a HUGE loss for moviegoers in the area and the District itself. No other venue says “blockbuster” like Uptown; seeing a movie there is an event in itself. Hopefully, the rumors are based on fears of moviegoers and not on actual plans. If there is something to the rumors I hope prospective councilmember Mary M. Cheh and other elected officials come out support the Uptown remaining open, it is too important to let corporate beancounters kill it without a fight.
On the Web
Cinema Treasures (source of rumors, scroll down)
Well, some things do. I guess a better way of putting it is that a photograph can make you see something from a different angle, in a different light, or make you think of something in a different way. I’m not sure Kenneth Snelson, the artist who created this “Needle Tower” in 1968 would agree with that statement, however most photographers would. It’s one thing to view the world through the amazing human eye, but photography allows you to focus on only part of your subject, remove color to accent the structure or contrast, and remove things from the field of view that may be distracting.
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Good morning ice cream lovers, Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s is here! From noon to eight you can get a free ice cream cone from any Ben & Jerry’s location. Find the nearest location: DC | VA | MD
