CREATIVE COSTUME? CHECK. Fake cobwebs and bowls of candy? Check and check. Halloween cocktails for your big bash? You might need some help with that. Area restaurants and bars are offering Halloween and fall cocktails, and some local mixologists have advice on how to make cool Halloween drinks at home.
TenPenh has the most elaborate Halloween cocktails, as Brennan Adams has three special drinks — the Jack O'Lantern (a persimmon cocktail served in a pumpkin filled with dry ice), Candy Corn (it doesn't taste like the ubiquitous treat but is made with sake and orange, and layered to look like the waxy little bites) and Candy Apple (spiced apple cider with a stick of cotton candy). The $10 cocktails are available through Saturday.
"When you go towards fall, with heavier foods come brown liquors, like scotch, bourbon and dark rums," Adams said, adding that herbs and spices are popular for fall beverages. "I take a cooking approach to cocktails and go for balance. ... I also use blood oranges, which go well with brown liquors."
Continue Reading "Drinks Chilled, Or Chilling?: Halloween-Inspired Cocktails" »
THEY'RE HEEEEE-ERE. THE National Cherry Blossom Festival has begun, and so has the tourist season. Everyone from Buddhist monks to Midwestern vacationers has come to look at the pretty flowers, and all you want to do is be alone.
They're standing on your escalators (on the left, of course), they're taking your table at Capitol Lounge and they're clogging up your streets. Want to get away? Here are a few places the herds won't think to visit, where you can sit in a corner and snarl at anyone who comes near.
Your best bet is to go somewhere that isn't Metro accessible, but since you probably don't have a car either, that isn't really an option. Instead, stick to Metro stops the tourists won't be familiar with, like Columbia Heights.
Continue Reading "Flee From The Flowers: Spots Away From The Crowd" »
FOR SO MANY D.C. dwellers, Cleveland Park represents the perfect middle ground. It's got a slightly calmer vibe than, say, the Adams Morgan/U Street area, without the suburban doldrums of Tenleytown. It's no wonder the neighborhood is home to the something-for-everyone Cleveland Park Bar and Grill.
This sports bar-cum-restaurant has called the bustling strip of Connecticut Ave. between Macomb and Ordway streets home since 2005. Its food is more reasonable than most things in the area and it's bar stools have backs — what more could a weary traveler ask for?
Nothing — but there's so much more to share! Aside from the long wooden bar and tall tables that are perfect for viewing giant flat screens, there's a cozy restaurant area in the back with a view of the pizza oven. And in the warmer months, the CPB&G rooftop patio is an ideal spot for some good old brew-induced lethargy.
Continue Reading "For Everyone: Cleveland Park Bar and Grill" »
NOBODY'S JUDGING YOU. Maybe you just didn't want to travel. Maybe you can't stand your extended family. Maybe your demonic boss is making you work the day after Thanksgiving.
For whatever reason, you're stuck in D.C. by yourself on Thanksgiving, but roasting a turkey for one is out of the question. They don't even make turkeys that small. You'd have to roast a quail or a sparrow or something. But tradition is important, even if you can't be with your family on Thanksgiving.
Never fear. D.C.'s restaurants, perhaps taking advantage of the massive number of people here who are married to their jobs, are serving up Thanksgiving meals at all price points. Here are a few of your options — but make reservations, or you could be waiting till December for your food.
Continue Reading "Not Home for the Holidays: Thanksgiving in D.C." »
AS HALLOWEEN LURKS around the corner, it's hard to imagine anything more frightening than droves of preteens in Hannah Montana costumes showing up at your doorstep. Yet Matt Markoff who runs his own haunted forest where "numerous people have literally wet themselves" knows differently. "We have an easy refund policy for people that just can't work the nerve up to go into the woods," he said. But that's not all, these D.C. area ghoulish happenings will give you something to shriek about.
Into the Woods
True terrorists come in the form of ghosts and goblins and there will be plenty at Markoff's Haunted Forest in Dickerson, Md. You're sure to get spooked as you travel their trails at dusk and ride their haunted buses and hayrides. Tap your inner Batman as you zip line down in their rope course and leap from a telephone pole to a trapeze in the Death Jump Challenge. This year, you'll also be able to bust ghosts with paintballs in their new Ghost Hunt and take a wild ride on their new giant swing.
» Markoff's Haunted Forest, 19120 Martinsburg Rd., Dickerson, MD 20842; Oct.23- Nov.1, dusk to 10:30; $25, $20 for children under four feet; 301-216-1248.
Continue Reading "Ghoulish Happenings: D.C. Halloween Scene" »
WHETHER YOU GREET George W. Bush's departure from office with joy, sadness or ambivalence, it's hard to deny that he's had an impact on our fair city, so it's only fitting that we find a way to say goodbye. And, hey, if you're trying to find a way to ask out that cute girl who volunteers for Obama, you could do worse than proposing a satirical farewell to Prez 43. Here's how you can do it.
Start out at the Cactus Cantina, a classic spot for D.C. Mexican food (yes, it exists here, sort of) and reportedly one of the president's favorite restaurants. Sure, there are myriad barbecue joints you could try as well, but they aren't very clean and you might end up with some terrible infection, like trichinosis or a War in Iraq or something.
Of course, the centerpiece of the evening will be seeing "W." at the AMC Loews Uptown. Try to catch the 7:55 show — dinner will have to be a little early since the theater is a ways away from the Cantina, but it'll leave you time later to grab dessert and discuss the cinematic antics of Oliver Stone and the ethical implications of judging history before the story is over.
SOMETHING HAPPENS TO PEOPLE in our society who laugh for no good reason, warns Dega Schembri. "They get taken to the funny farm," she jokes, doubling over with a hearty chortle.
That doesn't sound like such a terrible destination to the co-owner of Cleveland Park's City Fitness (3525 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-537-0539, Cityfitnessgym.com). In fact, Schembri hopes to guide her students there through Yogatalaugh, a series of workshops focused on laughter yoga.
Each half-hour class is filled with a series of games that require a slightly different kind of chuckle. She has the group hold hands in a circle and creep forward, laughing more uproariously with each step toward the center. They channel their inner monkeys by shrieking as they cup their hands into their armpits. And everyone pretends to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by switching back and forth between a goody-two-shoes guffaw and an evil cackle. "Now it's time for tree pose," Shembri says. "Just kidding!"
MANY AMERICANS STRUGGLE with the question of giving back — how can we juggle helping with our high-paced jobs? Oh, and with all the leisure activities we enjoy? Share Our Strength, an organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger, has found a way to marry the two.
The Great American Dine Out is a nationwide campaign that recruits restaurants — both chain and independent — to contribute a portion of their profits to Share Our Strength from Sept. 21-28. Several D.C. favorites have jumped on the charity wagon. That's where your appetite and wallet come in.
If you've been meaning to try Rasika, now is the time. It's tough to go wrong, but seafood appetizers, the savory chaats and any of the lamb entrees (the roganjosh, particularly) are all a sure thing.
Continue Reading "Eat Well to Help Those Who Can't: The Great American Dine Out" »
THE IRISH are famous for their alcohol and their music, so combining the two seems like a solid idea. An Irish Seisiun (click here for a more poetic description) is a traditional Irish jam session open to musicians of any creed, age or experience level. It's all about community and a good time, and Cleveland Park's own Nanny O'Brien's holds them every Monday night.
Someone took a rather dark video of a Nanny's Seisiun and posted it on YouTube. The visuals might be lacking but the sound is cheery and impressive. Show up to play or just to listen, and either way, have a pint of everyone's favorite frothy stout.
» Nanny O'Brien's, 3319 Connecticut Ave. NW; every Monday, 9 p.m., free; 202-686-9189. (Cleveland Park)
Photo courtesy of Richard Lipski
LOVE A GOOD April Fools Day prank? Then feast your eyes on the story of the loof lirpa, an "animal" that "escaped" from the "National Zoo" yesterday.
Reports The Post's Allison Klein:
A careless zookeeper had been distracted while the animal's enclosure was unlocked, and the 350-pound lirpa, which has "gazelle-like horns," hurtled off, according to community activist Bill Adler's posting on the Cleveland Park electronic message board.Not surprisingly, some people fell for it, Klein reports — especially after neighbors forwarded on the missive via e-mail and text message. Although anybody who spelled "loof lirpa" backwards cracked the pranksters' ingenious code.D.C. Police Cmdr. Andy Solberg quickly weighed in, alerting residents that a department helicopter was on the case. In his e-mail to the 6,200 people on the neighborhood e-mail list, Solberg added: "If we are not successful in assisting the Zoo with finding the lirpa today, I have the utmost confidence we will probably get him tomorrow."
Gotta love it when the police get involved in a prank. Wonder if Solberg's afraid of being labeled The Boy Who Cried "Loof"?
» "Day of the Loof Lirpa" [WaPo]
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