MONDAY: The Passenger's usual Monday happy hour will benefit FreshFarm Markets, a non-profit that sets up local farmer's markets, tonight.
Since you haven't actually made it to a farmer's market since it got really cold, you can assuage your buy-local guilt with $5 beer, wine and punch — 10 percent of it goes to FreshFarm.
» The Passenger, 1021 7th St. NW; Mon., Feb. 8, 5 p.m.-8p.m., free; 202-393-0220. (Mt. Vernon Square)
Photo by Bonnie Benwick/The Washington Post
WEDNESDAY: Does your kid love foie gras? Bond with other baffled parents at a book signing/dinner centered on Nancy Piho's "My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus: Raising Children Who Love to Eat Everything" at Citronelle. The four-course meal includes lobster burgers, risotto and a chocolate bar.
» Citronelle, 3000 M St. NW; Wed., Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m., $95 adults, $37 children under 12; 202-625-2150.
Written by Express' Sarah Mimms
Photo by Allison Dinner/The Washington Post
SOMETIMES THERE'S NOTHING quite like a jam-packed bar with music blasting to let the fun receptors in your brain know that it's party time.
If you're in that sort of mood, and you're looking for a beer, burger or wings, Adams Mill Bar and Grill is right up your alley. Combine the noise of a packed house with televised sporting events and a DJ on weekends, and you have something approaching a Metallica concert level of noise.
"We want to get it loud in here," said manager Paul Kerins. "We want to get the crowds into it during games and at night we crank up the music."
For the most part, 18th Street is an easy place to drown out your thoughts. Just walking past places like Asylum Bar and Lounge or the Brass Monkey can be an assault on the ears.
Continue Reading "Pump Up the Volume, or Don't: Tips for Finding the Perfect Atmosphere" »
LITTLE AMISH LADIES supposedly invented Whoopie Pies (crumbly chocolate cookies sandwiched around fluffy frosting), which are experiencing a cupcake moment. The sugary carb bombs — think Oreos on steroids — were featured in the New York Times' food section last summer, and they're now sold at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
But any Pennsylvania farm chick would tell you it's more economical to make Whoopies at home. Though you could just plop blobs of cake batter on a cookie sheet, Williams-Sonoma's new Whoopie Pie Pan ($25), which looks like a flattened muffin tin, promises to produce nearly uniform-sized cakelets.
We tested the contraption with W-S' Red Velvet Whoopie Pie Mix (shown, $14). While directions on the box assumed a more loaded kitchen than many folks possess, the recipe proved easy to follow — if shocking to our daily calorie count (11 tablespoons of butter!).
After popping beet-hued batter in the oven, the muffin top-ish treats popped out easily. The included icing mix, combined with cream cheese, whirled into a filling rich enough to fuel an afternoon in the fields or cubicle. Still, we think the dessert is misnamed: Eat one Whoopie, and you won't feel like getting romantic; you'll feel like taking a nap.
IF YOUR VALENTINE is a foodie (and most likely a locavore, too), home-grown might really be where the heart is. Wooing your sweetie with gourmet delights created in the area — D.C.-roasted coffee, Virginia-born bonbons — wipes out the need for long-distance culinary romance. Besides, many of these treats taste better and seem more heartfelt than yet another box of Godiva chocolate-covered whatevers. Perhaps most surprising, "Sparkling wine made in Virginia stands up to pricier French champagne," says David Gwathmey of Grape + Bean (118 S. Royal St., Alexandria; 703-664-0214), which stocks bubbly by Charlottesville's Thibaut-Janisson. And who knows? Maybe such super-fresh goodies will help you get fresh with your latest crush.
» Thibaut-Janisson's Virginia Blanc de Chardonnay smells flowery, and tastes bubbly and crisp. Made in Charlottesville, this standout sparkler was poured at President Obama's first state dinner, so it's probably fancy enough for your private Valentine's Day gala. ($30, Grape + Bean, 118 S. Royal St., Alexandria; 703-664-0214)
» Exotic combos — dark chocolate with pink peppercorn; white chocolate with coconut and lime — belie the fact that Fleurir Chocolates bonbons are made in Reston, Va. Proceeds from sales of the Heart’s Delight box, shown, sold via the chocolatier’s site ($18), benefit the American Heart Association. You can also score the sweets by the pound at Biagio Fine Chocolates. (1904 18th St. NW; 202-328-1506)
Continue Reading "Love, Locally: Valentine's Treats from the Area" »
JOSH SHORT MANS the ovens at Buzz Bakery (901 Slaters Lane, Alexandria; 703-600-2899), but even a cupcake connoisseur such as he can handle only so much sweet stuff. "Pastry chefs sometimes tire of eating sugar all day," he admits. So, one day when he was at home watching a cooking show about healthier baked treats, he was inspired to toy around with online recipes. After some tweaking, he was chomping on his very own energy bar ($1.95, pictured above).
"I was trying to find something that's low in sugar and fat, and good for you," he says. "I wanted something to sustain you." The result is a rectangular slab of all-natural peanut butter, rolled oats, agave nectar, dark raisins, fiber-rich pepitas and dark chocolate (he uses Belcolade). If you're attempting to make similar treats at home — which Short says is simply a matter of binding the ingredients with the peanut butter, spreading in a pan and slicing — be careful the bars don't get too dry. His solution: extra chocolate. (Just think of it as more antioxidants.) The January resolution crowd couldn't get enough of the bars, and neither can Short, who grabs one for a daily snack. "It's nice to have something here to munch on that fills you up," he says. "When I eat one, I feel full and I'm not craving anything."
Written by Express contributor Amy Cavanaugh
MOVE OVER, CUPCAKES! There's a new food trend that's way hotter right now — as long as it's prepared correctly. Oatmeal, the glue-hued classic breakfast dish, is an unlikely craze, but suddenly it's everywhere. Starbucks has hawked its "Perfect Oatmeal" for a year and a half, and now McDonald's and Caribou Coffee are going with the grain, too, so all three chains are hoping Washingtonians warm up to the idea.
"We can customize it, change and adapt its taste so easily with toppings. It's like vanilla ice cream," boasts Alfredo Martel, Caribou's senior vice president of marketing. But unlike the dessert, oatmeal allows them to go after health-conscious customers looking for an easy way to start their day.
Sounds smart to Estela Schnelle (Weeklybite.com), a registered dietician and the director of clinical nutrition at D.C.'s Sibley Hospital, who is thrilled to see so many folks get bowled over. "When it comes to whole grains, you can't get much better than oatmeal for cholesterol and heart benefits," she says.
Continue Reading "A Real Super Bowl: The New Obsession With Oatmeal" »
I WILL TRY to keep the guilt to a minimum in this column, but it's going to be about happy hours that fundraise for Haiti. So if you're the kind of person who doesn't donate to relief efforts and then feels bad about it, you might want to stop reading. Or maybe a stiff drink is just what you need.
Union Pub (201 Massachusetts Ave. NE) is holding a happy hour tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Though $3 house drafts, $14 Yuengling pitchers and $4 flavored vodka cocktails are standard happy hour fare on the Hill, tonight 18 percent of proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders. They'll also be holding a raffle, from which 100 percent of the money will be given to DWB.
Continue Reading "For a Cause: Happy Hours to Fundraise for Haiti" »
WEDNESDAY: It might seem completely ridiculous to worry about Super Bowl food, but there have got to be some gourmands out there who also care about football. If you're one of them, you can take this class to learn recipes for upscale munchies like spicy citrus chicken wings.
» L'Academie de Cuisine, 5021 Wilson Lane, Bethesda; Wed., Feb. 3, 7 p.m. -10 p.m., $75 per person; 301-986-9490. (Bethesda)
Photo by Dana Smith/For The Washington Post
THURSDAY: We love the Black Cat's drink-and-a-movie nights, and tomorrow's looks fantastic: a certain bizarre, beloved black-and-white comedy about nuclear war coupled with an inventive cocktail called the Festiva Bomb, which is similar to an Irish Car Bomb but full of allure and mystery.
» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; Thu., Feb. 4, 8:30 p.m., free; 202-667-4490. (U St.-Cardozo)
Addison Road