PIZZA, BULGOGI, GUMBO AND edamame on the streets of D.C.? It seems the capital is finally nearing the tipping point for great street food. Though hot dogs and chips are still the street-cart staple, a few entrepreneurs are venturing into new culinary territory. And just because the weather's turning cooler is no reason to stay inside — these food options will coax anyone out of the office and onto the sidewalk.
THE LUNCH BUNCH
Delle & Campbell's Halal Luncheonette, On the Fly, and D.C. Central Kitchen's Capital Cart rule the lunch hour with shawarma, Teaism-inspired curries, and po'boys. The carts are a D.C. Business Improvement District experiment aimed at improving vending downtown. Scott Pomeroy of the D.C. BID cautions that the experiment hasn't been a total home run. "It'll take a little bit of time to build up," he says, but "vendors are seeing repeat visitors."
Since Delle & Campbell's has been cooking up halal food since '07 (in a different location), and On the Fly's green carts have graced D.C.'s streets for just as long, Capital Cart's the new kid on the block. Run by D.C. Central Kitchen training program graduates, the cart's takes on gumbo and healthy sandwiches are tasty and easy on the wallet.
Continue Reading "D.C. Good to Go: Area Street Carts Serve Variety" »
WHAT AN AGE we live in. Perhaps more than ever, political leaders control commerce, commerce enables art, art defines the times — and none of the above seems to be getting along with the others in the dialogue.
As far as movements (and all that that word implies) go, these modern times are hazy: We're past the post and we seem to have less power as individuals than we used to. Exercising our voices more often than not turns out to be discordant, disconnected noise rather than a clarion call to arms. And the properties of contemporary art are less defined and pigeonholed by their vagary. (Impressionism, for example, conjures its time, place and Zeitgeists immediately.)
Sometimes, artistic movements are born out of their political movements. And a recognizable trend — maybe also a collective inspiration — is the current political scene. Goya painted "The Third of May 1808" in response to the horrors of war. Billie Holiday sang "Strange Fruit," a peaceful polemic about racism. In Washington, in 2008, the art scene is bustling, busy, breaking new ground.
Continue Reading "Ringing the Changes: 'Regime Change' at Irvine Contemporary" »
NEW WORK FROM three acclaimed artists tackle politics and religion in Irvine Contemporary's gutsy mid-October show. Street artist Shepard Fairey presents political paintings and collage, including a subversive rendering of the $1 bill.
Al Farrow's gun-and-human-bone sculptures of religious shrines comment on the militarism in religion, and Paul D. Miller's (also known as DJ Spooky) satirical multimedia project includes postcards and a video on Antarctica's suppressed political history.
» Irvine Contemporary, 1412 14th St. NW; Oct. 18-Nov. 29; 202-332-8767. (McPherson Square)
BACK IN COLLEGE, there were two important go-to spots: places that sell beer all night and places that sell hangover-curing foods all day.
But now, you've discovered there's almost nowhere downtown that serves breakfast after 10 a.m. — or stores that sell beer past 10 p.m. Luckily, a few spots do cater to the breakfast-for-lunch crowd — hungover or not.
The Art Gallery Grille delivers with a greasy egg option post-noon. Four omelets stand out in a crowd of salads, sandwiches and Mediterranean dishes. The three-egg omelets almost cover the entire plate, although there's room for the fries (!) and whole-wheat toast. The California version is especially delicious, filled with Swiss cheese, avocado, spinach and mushrooms.
After years of customers begging to order breakfast food for lunch, owner Fuad Abiaad finally agreed just a year ago — and this is the Grille's 36th year in operation. "It's not that there is a different profit margin," explains Abiaad on why more breakfast items aren't available all day; it's simply that "we need all the grill space for lunch."
AN AFGHAN BOY in a blue tracksuit leans against a bare wall and stares directly into the camera. His expression is intense but unreadable: Is he angry or afraid, defiant or resigned? The trickle of blood from his forehead down the bridge of his nose could mean anything.
Peter van Agtmael, an American photographer embedded with troops in Afghanistan, snapped the picture during a night raid against insurgents, but even he can't discern the boy's emotion. "The shooting made him pretty crazy, and he jumped up at the soldiers. They didn't shoot him, and he's lucky about that, but they did knock him in the face with a rifle butt," he recalls.
This unsettling ambiguity haunts van Agtmael's images of military endeavors in Africa, Afghanistan and America, which combine a documentary objectivity with fine-art elements. His photographs are often beautifully lit and gracefully framed, despite their brutal subject matter.
A series of van Agtmael's photographs from Afghanistan night raids, including the one described above, will be on display at the Randall Scott Gallery as part of the ongoing Eight Photographers exhibition.
Continue Reading "War's Untold Stories: The Photography of Peter van Agtmael" »
SO I THINK I just witnessed someone getting waterboarded. In front of the White House.
But I'm not quite sure.
Let me set the scene: My travels today took me up to the home of Express' parent paper, The Washington Post, located at 15th and L streets NW. It's just up the street from McPherson Square, which today is a staging ground for demonstrators protesting the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.
When I arrived for my meeting at The Post at 11:30 a.m., there was a line of demonstrators carrying signs heading down I Street NW, followed by a cadre of police cars and motorcycles. When I left the meeting a few hours later, the protesters were filing up 15th Street NW, past the Post building. Curious, I made my way down to the square to see what was going on.
Once there, I encountered typical protest fare. Guy on loudspeaker making impassioned speech. People with signs milling about. A tent covered in peace symbols. Large papier machet heads made to look like President Bush — and one of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that I watched a woman try on to amuse a friend, who was snapping pictures with a camera phone. The square was more crowded than it is on a normal day by far (and ringed by television trucks, which is very unusual), but it wasn't exactly packed.
While I was there, I heard this exchange:
» PROTESTER GAL #1: Where're you going next?
» PROTESTER GAL #2: To the White House, I guess.
» PROTESTER GAL #1: What's going on there?
» PROTESTER GAL #2: Oh, the waterboarding.
My ears perked up. So off to the White House I went.
Continue Reading "Day of Protest: Waterboarding Near the White House" »
IT'S A SIGN OF THE TIMES. As global food prices continue the rise and U.S. consumers worry about inflation, the price of one reliably low-cost snack has increased locally.
According to signs posted at local chain Julia's Empanadas, as of Monday, the price of the meat- and vegetable-filled pastries jumped by 23 cents, the first such increase in three years. So get ready to dig out some extra change for a saltenas empanada with chicken, potato, green peas, hard-boiled egg, green olives and onion, or a Chilean-style beef empanada with raisins, hard-boiled egg, onion and olives.
Perhaps such a price bump was inevitable as the nation frets about the state of the economy. As MSNBC reported late last month, the price of cheap eats — from pizza to bagels to even the famous "Recession Special" at Gray's Papaya in New York City — has been increasing.
And now, too, the simple empanada. Still, the stuffed pastry remains one of the cheapest options out there.
» 2452 18th St NW, 202-328-6232 (Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan)
» 1221 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-861-8828 (Dupont Circle)
» 1000 Vermont Ave, NW, 202-789-1878 (McPherson Square)
Photo by Michael Grass for Express
"OUR DOWNTOWN LOOKS NOTHING like it looked a decade ago. The office crowd is no longer just heading back to the suburbs at the end of the day."
— Neil Albert, D.C.'s deputy mayor for planning and economic development, on the rise of K Street's nightlife culture.» "K Street's Second Shift" [WaPo]New, exclusive clubs have gravitated to the office buildings of the McPherson Square area, injecting new life into an otherwise quiet section of downtown after sunset, as The Post's Elissa Silverman reported on Sunday.
Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post
KIDS who know the difference between gnocchi and gnudi will enjoy the children's tasting menu at Cafe 15 in the Sofitel Lafayette Square this New Year's Eve, where they'll be taken through the rounds, from the amuse bouche to a pastry chef gourmandise.
Savory courses include butternut squash soup, smoked trout Caesar salad and three-cheese tortellini. Dinner is $50 per child.
» Cafe 15, 806 15th St. NW; 202-730-8700. (McPherson Square)
METROBUS' CROWDED 30-SERIES BUS LINE, which currently is comprised of the 30, 32, 34, 35 and 36 routes, is poised to get some new numbers: 31, 37 and 39. Those would be local and express routes designed to alleviate congestion and quicken the ride along one of Metrobus' most crowded and delay-plagued corridors. The plan came out of a series of public hearings held in recent months on the future of the bus line.
The proposed changes, which could go into effect by summer, are subject to public hearings, modifications and approval by Metro's board in the coming months, according to a timetable laid out in recent public presentations.
Here's what may be in store:
Continue Reading "Express Buses Eyed for Metro's Crowded 30 Line" »
Addison Road