Bonny Wolf, NPR commentator and author of the book "Talking With My Mouth Full"
@ National Harbor
Q:What's your favorite food TV show or host?
A:"I like 'Top Chef.' They're serious about food, and have personality."
TUESDAY: Though we just had a memoir about William F. Buckley penned by his son, author Richard Brookhiser apparently thought the market was ripe for another remembrance of the famed conservative. "Right Time, Right Place" tells the story of Brookhiser's relationship with Buckley, his hero, who later fired him from his post as editor of the National Review. No hard feelings?
» Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW; Tues., June 30, 7 p.m., free; 202-364-1919, Politics-prose.com. (Van Ness)
Photo from The Washington Post
DESPITE ITS FOCUS on regional and national cultures, the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival has a truly global scope. This year, the 10-week event highlights Wales, African-American oral traditions and Latin-American music styles, which may seem like disparate programs but have all disseminated new ideas and customs around the world.
Examining African-American oral tradition through storytelling and theater, "Giving Voice" was developed with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which will open in 2015.
Complementing these programs is "Las Américas," which festival production manager Stephen Kidd says will "look at the variety of musical traditions that exist within Latin American countries and at the relationships among them and the differences between those cultural traditions."
Continue Reading "Harmony In Three Voices: Folklife Festival" »
THE TIME HAS COME. After more than two years and over 2,500 posts, Free Ride is slowing to a halt.
The crew from readexpress.com will continue on, though, as our site transitions to a new name — expressnightout.com — and a new focus: covering local life and entertainment.
We've got a brand new listings section, powered by the staffs of Express and The Washington Post, and we've revamped our Metro Links map with a breezier interface and a data refresh from our colleagues at washingtonpost.com.
And we haven't given up blogging by a long shot. Our Top Stops blog, written by Karmah Elmusa and Fiona Zublin, will serve up the day's most interesting events for your planning enjoyment; Christopher Porter has videos, free downloads and other musical miscellany at our Sound Bets blog; and you can catch up with the latest from Express advice columnist Dr. Andrea Bonior and sports columnist Matt Swenson at their little portals on the Web.
And that's only the beginning.
For this blog, however, today brings an ending. Thanks to all of you who read and commented over the years — please take the new site for a test drive and let us know what you think of it.
Photo by Getty Images
WHO WOULD SLEEP OUTSIDE all night just to be among the first to buy the newest iPhone? These people.
Video by Jacqueline Refo/washingtonpost.com
Photo of visitors lining up to the south of the Capitol in April by Greg Barber/Express
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, the Capitol Visitor Center — the shrine to all things congressional that was once laughably expected to be ready for the presidential inauguration in January 2005 — now has a debut date: Dec. 2.
Really.
The 580,000-square-foot project took eight years and more than $600,000 to complete, The Post's Ben Pershing reports.
Says a press statement from Sharon Gang of the Architect of the Capitol's office:
As the largest expansion of the U.S. Capitol, the Visitor Center will provide numerous amenities to visitors. It features two large orientation movie theatres and an Exhibition Hall that will include rarely-seen documents and artifacts from the National Archives and the Library of Congress that relate specifically to the duties and responsibilities of Congress. The Visitor Center is located on the east side of the Capitol and was constructed underground so as not to detract from the appearance of the Capitol or its grounds. The planting of nearly 100 new trees, the restoration of historic fountains, lanterns, and seat walls, and the addition of several water features across the East Front Plaza will serve to revitalize the historic landscape designed in 1874 by Frederick Law Olmsted.
AFTER AN afternoon of art gazing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, cross the street for dinner on Proof's outdoor patio.
Chef Haidar Karoum has devised several new dishes for warm-weather dining, including blue prawns with white bean-fennel salad and limoncello vinaigrette. The limoncello is painstakingly made by house sommelier and mixology sorcerer Sebastian Zutant. He also offers a rotating "Rosé of the Day," as well as new cocktails: the Coquette blossoms with Tanquery Rangpur, Elderflower, grapefruit bitters and Zutant's house-made rosé syrup; and the Chupa Cabra, made with Machu Pisco, yuzu sour, crème de violet and fresh lime juice, is almost too pretty to drink. But you'll manage.
» Proof, 775 G St. NW; 202-737-7663.(Gallery Place-Chinatown)
Written by Express contributor Christopher Correa
WANT TO GET a taste of the world this summer? If jet-setting is out of the picture, spend your staycation touring the restaurants featured in the Smithsonian Resident Associates culinary tour of Adams Morgan. Ghana Cafe, Napoleon, Jyoti and Churreria Madrid are the eateries on the menu, featuring, respectively, cuisines of Ghana, France, India and Spain.
Specially prepared samples and cultural anecdotes highlight the menus. Anthony S. Pitch — author and publisher of Washington guidebooks, maps and history books — leads the tours.
» Tour meets in Adams Morgan at the SW corner of Columbia Road & 18th Street NW in front of the SunTrust Bank (Woodley Park-Adams Morgan)
Written by Express contributor Christopher Correa
HOT POCKETS! On the 31st, Bangkok Joe's Dumpling Bar and Cafe is offering a free cooking class. Chef Aulie Banyarataphan will demonstrate how to make wontons filled with seasonal and locally grown herbs. He will prepare cheesy fried wontons with fresh mango and herb sauce, and shrimp "oneton" soup with Thai herbs. Take the kids to give them a learning experience and to expand their wee palates. Banyarataphan's own children love the savory little envelopes. Show up early, though — the slots fill up quickly.
» 3000 K St. NW; 202-333-4422. (Farragut North/Farragut West)
Written by Express contributor Christopher Correa
Photo by Len Spoden/FTWP
SPIKE MENDELSOHN is a man with many hats.
The Culinary Institute of America alum informed his palate by spending extensive periods in kitchens of France and Vietnam before returning to New York as part of the team that reopened the world-famous Le Cirque in 2006. He just finished a stint as the chef de cuisine at Mai House, an estimable Vietnamese restaurant in Tribeca.
Now, he and his business partners — his parents, his sister and his best friend (and sous chef) Mike Colletti — have formed Sunnyside Group LLC, a Capitol Hill-based restaurant group that launched its first Washington eatery, Good Stuff.
Oh, and he was also a strong presence as a contestant on Bravo's epicurean game show, "Top Chef." He didn't take the grand prize, but he did win a following, and now he's cooking with gas.
"This is only the first of many concepts we want to perfect," Mendelsohn says. "We have the ambition to open a series of restaurants, from a trattoria to a small plates menu to a bistro. As for pressure, we've experienced it with every restaurant we've opened. But we've conquered before. We were the team that reopened Le Cirque; [New York Times food critic] Frank Bruni gave us two stars, which is fantastic, especially from him."
ALWAYS LOVABLE TAI SHAN, who is very much no longer the size of a stick of butter, turned three today. So washingtonpost.com videographer Anna Uhls traveled to the National Zoo to watch the requisite fawning.
He was presented with a fruitcicle cake. He ate some of it. Some of it broke apart. He ran. Exciting stuff.
The stars of this video? The Tai Shan uber-fans.
Marvel at the 12-year-old who knew the exact time of Tai Shan's birth — 3:41 a.m. Puzzle over the grown woman who spent four hours being poked by a small, ink-covered needle so that she could forever honor Butterstick with a tattoo on her shoulder.
It's two minutes and 51 seconds of time well spent.
Addison Road