11.27.2009

Beige Friday?

Currently blogging from Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, NY, America's 11th biggest and the largest in the state. The Kleinette's now having a pedicure, but I couldn't help but notice: crowds are large but manageable, maybe only a notch or so above your average Saturday crowd. Anyone else feeling the recession today?

11.25.2009

Right Next to DeNiro

Sorry for the slow posting! Live has been crazy lately, but soon we'll turn the backlog into a flood of posts!

In the meantime, quick update: we're in TriBeCa! While the Kleinette gets a manicure, I'm going to stare longlingly at the
menu at Nobu. Oh, New York...

11.15.2009

Baltimore - WE LOVE YOU - part. 1 of ???

The Kleiner and I found ourselves in Baltimore yesterday after a family type of thing in Columbia.  Each and every time we enter charm city we find ourselves a little bewitched because there is something special about it, the fact that its still changing, still pulsing, still trying after so many years of decaying economy, its history and its singular non-transient culture - all are endlessly endearing.  Upon arrival we roamed through Fells Point, which is the typical next stop after the Inner Harbor for many a tourist.  We checked out, among other stores, the Sound Garden, one of the few really cool independent record stores still around anywhere these days. Next, we drove up to Hampden to visit the fabled Atomic Books, an 'ideological' book store with loads of magazines and books on politics and arts, so we could see through the minute we were permitted inside before the extra early 7pm Saturday night closing.

 The Sound Garden

As we are big adventurers, or minor ones, however you see it, we decided to keep walking down the road to Falls Road which led to what seemed to be the center of Hampden which was adorable in ways that I just haven't found a place to be adorable in the DC area.  We passed the Wine Bar, a swank place with loads of $6-$10 glasses of wine and interesting 'small plates' at reasonable prices ($5-$7).  There was a make your own pasta joint, a kitchy 'Cafe Hon' playing on the Baltimore 'Hon' ladies, lots of vintage shops with funky finds in the window, a 'junque' shop, or shops, organic salons and the place we ultimately chose for dinner, The Golden West.  
Cool menus look like album covers.
The Golden West was a quirky, southwestern inspired cafe with loads of 'last supper' painting son the walls, funky tables and chairs, great music and a million art flyers (including one for the soon to be checked out Patterson Art Collective) laying about the crowd of young people, families, and couples.  A long bar was situated in the back of the restaurant with a long, bottle beer list and a fantastic cocktail list that ranged in price from $5-8 (is that possible in DC, no!) with drinks such as a bacon martini (ok, not for me, but maybe for you) a New Age Cowboy (cream or soy, bourbon and cinnamon), Italian Boyfriend (limoncello martini), and a rootbeer infused vodka!  The menu offered generous selection for vegetarians, vegans and carnivores alike.  The Kleiner had an un-chicken barbeque and I had an Aztec Burrito, that while spicy as hell, was delicious with roasted corn , eggplant, avocado, plantains and salsa fresco.  The menu included appetizers like buffalo tofu, cheeto pie, and a reminder to order your fresh cookies then to be baked for the end of your meal (3 for $4).

The Golden West has been around for 13 years and we can see why.  The service could be described as lackadaisical at best, but we loved the super veg friendly menu, the quirky surroundings, the affordable composed cocktails and the atmosphere of being somewhere special that cares about its food and its sense of community.  Dear Golden West, when will you add a location to Mt. Pleasant Street?

11.14.2009

Intense Police Activity at 14th and Columbia?

We were just driving west on Columbia Rd at about 10:00pm. As we reached 14th Street we found Columbia Rd blocked off going west towards 16th Street NW with at least 4 police cars.  A spotlight as usual was set up on Columbia Road.  There were other police cars posted around roads to the west of Columbia Rd.  Does anyone know what is happening in Columbia Heights tonight, November 14th?

*****update

From Prince of Petworth: http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2009/11/terrible-crime-in-columbia-heights-sat-night

And the Washington Post:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/14/AR2009111403300.html

11.13.2009

Nat Osborn @The Rookery (SOTD)

Last Thursday, the Kleinette and I were lucky enough to follow through on a recommendation to go see Nat Osborn & The Free Radicals open for the Honey Island Swamp Band at The Rookery. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay late enough to see the main act, but it was still a very worthwhile experience.



The Rookery is a cool venue, striking just the right balance between cool dive and upscale chic. The venue has two stories, the first of which is just the bar, the second of which has the small stage in an intimate room with a second bar. The bar has a $30 credit card minimum, so be sure to bring cash. The show we saw was $5/per, which seems to be the standard cover there for their shows, which is pretty good! They don't have "big names" like the Black Cat or the 9:30 Club, but they're well-located near the Foggy Bottom metro and off the Rock Creek Parkway, drinks aren't priced tooooo unreasonably (two mixed drinks put us back $16) and it's a fun, lively atmosphere.







As for Nat Osborn & the Free Radicals, they were a blast. Only Osborn and two other performers were present, which meant they had to ditch a lot of the instrumentation you hear on their album, which is more densely layered with horns and strings. Live, however, they really play up a more classically bluesy vibe, which we greatly enjoyed. Their music catchy and fun, and Osborn has a compelling stage presence, clearly enjoying performing and feeling the music strongly. The above video, the opening verse and chorus of "Yours Alone," can't really do justice to either the venue or the performance, but hopefully it gives some sense of the liveliness of the music and intimacy of the venue. The video below is the album version of "Claire." The self-titled EP has six fun tracks.







All in all, both artist and venue come recommended!
-The Kleiner

11.12.2009

St. Elmos Coffee Pub - Alexandria Part 1


The Kleiner and the Kleinette went to the Arlington Costco to get a copy of the Audacity to Win by David Plouffe signed (and to do the sample circuit...) and decided to bring their laptops and explore a hood they had not yet sampled, Del Ray in Alexandria.  A quick search for wifi/Del Ray alerted them to what seemed to be a great spot -St. Elmos Coffee Pub.

The St. Elmo's Coffee Pub is adorable and for the most part typifies the kind of coffee place that I would love to see open on Mt. Pleasant Street or somewhere in Columbia Heights.  First of all, Mt. Vernon Street, is adorable.  Filled with spas, quirky shops and art stores that encourage patrons to make art in their midst, it feels like a little artists colony.  St. Elmos Coffee Pub fits in well on the street, painted blue with white cloud sculptures with pigs flying on them adorn the big bay windows that face out onto the street.  Inside, the coffee 'pub' is spacious with couches, large tables with chairs a la Pain Quotidiene, a variety of vintage cushioned chairs and a coffee bar.  The walls are brightly colored in orange and marbled green and each one features a different artist showcasing water colors, pop-arty and photography for sale. The one strange thing was that they were playing opera on NPR which lent itself to a very quiet atmosphere.  Families, couples, friends and singles gather here to work on their computers, read novels, study and catch up.  There is community library in its own separate section of the coffee pub.  Finally - on Friday and Saturday nights - live free music!  Fantastic.

I had a gingerbread latte and the Kleiner had an iced White Chocolate Mocha that he found to be delicious and over Starbucks par.  I also liked the gingerbread latte, but, would like to try the vanilla toffee latte next time or one of the many other creative drinks on offer.  One menu offered daily drink concoction specials, while the rest of the menu was a typical coffee house menu, lattes, espressos, cappucinos, cafe au laits, teas all reasonably priced at Starbucks or just below Starbucks levels.  The bakery looked delicious, many muffin flavors, papusas (this is Northern Virginia), quiches, sandwiches.  Biscotti is present in abundance and the flavors included Pumpkin (this is November.... no menu of anything is complete without something squash infused).

St. Elmos is an adorable place to spend some time on a weekend afternoon, especially after a quick trip to Costco, however, I must give a word of warning.  They offer free wifi, but it has an extremely frustrating level of connectivity which makes it difficult to plan on coming to St. Elmo's to do any sort of web related work.  This may be a 'my computer' thing, but, I witnessed 'could not be loaded pages' all around me.  That said, I really wish someone would carbon copy this place with slightly livelier music right onto Mt. Pleasant Street - given the crowds at Heller's, I'm sure it would be packed :)

11.10.2009

Your Daily Metrofail

So the Kleiner is commuting from the Kleinette's Mt. P pad, from Columbia Heights to Pentagon City. So, of course, the Branch Ave. train breaks down at Shaw Howard. And of course the next Branch Ave. train is two cars shorter so the Kleiner can't even get on. And if course the NEXT train closes its doors while folks are still boarding and there's still room, so the Kleiner is nearly dismembered. And so the Kleiner has to wait 25min to take a Green line train ONE STOP so he can switch to the Yellow line so he can get to work, woefully late and profoundly irritable.

Metro, I love you, but you're bringing me down.

11.09.2009

Streetcars A'comin

Currently @gym, waiting for the Kleinette to wrap up her workout, but thought I'd share this latest post from Streetcars4DC:

http://streetcars4dc.org/wp-trackback.php?p=74

I can't wait to take a streetcar down to H St NE...
-the Kleiner

What's coming this week

Busy Mondays at work mean slow blogging, but here's what to expect us to blog about this week:
-Alexandria
-Food, Inc.
-The Up Series
-The Rookery
-Buca di Beppo
-For All Mankind

We're working through Season 3 of Mad Men as we speak.

11.08.2009

One Night in Arlington: Bangkok 54


The Kleiner and the Kleinette had the pleasure of a visit on Friday night from a Boston centered friend.  Undecided about where in Columbia Heights/U Street wouldn't have an insane line on Friday night and would be delicious enough to justify the trip, the group which included another friend of the Boston one decided to journey via the Rock Creek Parkway out to Arlington for a night of delicious Thai food at Bangkok 54.


Widely known in the DC area by those who love Thai food as one of the best Thai spots aside from Thai Xing / Thai Crossing(which a word of warning takes many hours and is extremey spicey, but delicious for anyone who can take the heat) Bangkok 54 was worth the trip.  The restaurant is pretty big and fully appointed with various Thai tchochkis and dim lights.  The music, which drew interest from the group was chilled out techno versions of popular 80s songs.  The menu is long and includes a large number of vegetarian friendly items delineated by vegetarian and mish-mashed amongst the noodle entrees.  There is a long cocktail list that included such gems as blue margaritas, and 'nutty favority' which mixed Rum, almond liqour, pineapple and strawberries in a blender.  Asahi's were cheap too, clocking in at $3.75 per bottle.

The group sampled fresh rice wrapped spring rolls with hoisin dipping sauce, calamari, and fried edamame sticks with sweet-spicy thai dipping sauce.  All were good, especially the edameme sticks which were a new offering to us.  Two of us got Pad Thai with chicken or tofu, which for the spice lover was delicious but not so great due to lack of heat.  The portion was enormous, no one should of finished (but we did anyway). Another got Bangkok fried rice and the Kleiner had green curry tofu which he says was delicious but heat shy me though was so so spicy.

The atmosphere is sparkly and fresh, but still homey and good for a date, an easy weeknight/week end meal, or for a special occassion (there was a party there that night).  The cocktails were good and cheap, so bring a designated driver because it is not so close to the metro.  All and all, while most Thai in DC is simply average, Bangkok 54, in the Klein/Kleinettes opinion is absolutely worth the trek due to the fantastic selection and preperation of food, great price/quality ratio and cosy/well decorated interior.  We will be back.... and we ask, can this open in Columbia Heights?  What do you think?  Should we soon compare it to Thaitanic 2?

And Just for Fun: "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head

11.05.2009

Don't Be A Coconut (SOTD)

Pursuant to the Kleinette's latest SOTD, I've rapidly become completely obsessed with Julian Casablancas' new album. Totally expecting a huge dissapointment, I found it to be a tight, fascinating eight-track beauty which sounds like the best of The Strokes' but heavy on the keyboards, while simultaneously pushing further against generic boundries than any of the previous three albums. I do hope they follow through on their plans for a new album, but this album makes me feel like it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if they didn't so long as Casablancas keeps making music. I've just fallen straight into it.

Anyway, here's a personal favorite Strokes tune of mine:


Trader Joe's Spinach Punjab Simmer Sauce and Curry Potatoes


Having bought EVERYTHING at Trader Joe's in Rockville in Sunday, the Kleinette is now prepared to make lots of different simmer sauce dinners.  Last night, I made this one and I thought I'd share the recipe in case you too would like to have an idea for a pretty easy Indian type dinner at home...

I made rice with onions, peas, tumeric, and cumin. I also made curried potatoes and Spinach Punjab simmer sauce vegetables.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Rice/2 Cups Water
1 Onion
3 small potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon Curry Powder
1 bag Trader Joe's Vegetable Hodge Podge (any back of frozen veggies will do, but the Trader Joe's ones actually taste really good).
1/4 cup Trader Joes frozen peas.
1 tsp garlic powder.
1 tbsp each Cumin/Tumeric

First Step- Potatoes-: Preheat oven to 450.  Wash and chop potatoes into 1-2 inch 'cubes'.  Melt butter in a small saucepan and mix in the curry powder.  Spread the potatos over a cookie sheet and top/toss with the curry butter mix.  Put in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Second Step: Rice- Put your usual rice pot on the stove and heat to medium hight.  Add 2-3 tbps of olive oil to heat. Chop/Dice one whole onion.  Sautee 2/4 of theonion with garlic/salt/pepper until it is translucent.  Next add cup of Rice and sautee briefly until the grains start to become translucent too.  Add 1 tbsp Cumin & Tumeric to the Rice, mix and cook just about 30 seconds longer.  Next add 2 cups of water (or whatever the correct moisture/rice combo is for your rice) and about 1/4 cup frozen peas.  Bring to a boil then turn to low heat and cook per rice directions.

Third Step: Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a wok or big skillet.  Stir fry the remaining onion and the frozen vegetables.  Add the whole jar of simmer sauce and 1/2 cup of water.  Let simmer for about 15 minutes on low heat to bring the sauce together.  The Trader Joe's recipe calls for an entire jar of water, but I find that waters down the taste too much.

Enjoy!  This should take less than one hour :)

11.04.2009

SOTD: Tourist - Julian Casablancas

Yesterday, I was driving along Constitution Avenue around 5.00pm.  The sky was a gorgeous combination of orange and blue, the chill was there and perfect, and leaves were falling.  Traffic was moving slowly and I was watching the washed out white federal buildings pass me.  I felt.. at home and like I was looking at something new at the same time....

This song, Tourist, by Julian Casablancas of the Strokes fame was playing on the radio, and it all just seemed to make such a nice fall moment.




-The Kleinette

Not Gonna Happen (SOTD)

Meant to post this yesterday, but to follow up on yesterday's review, one of the coolest covers ever:






I tried to do this with the office scanner, and my boss was not amused.

11.03.2009

Skins: The Second Series


Evertbody get in the misery pile!


Skins, a British show which airs this side of the pond on BBC America, is of what is probably my least favorite genre - the teen soap opera. So of course it was not through my own agency that I began watching it, but via the Kleinette, who was obsessing over the first series (read: season) when we first began dating. I watched mostly through osmosis, interested more in the fascinating female creature I was just then getting to know, but I picked up on the general arc of the plot and characters and a sense of the show's style.

Flash-forward to late this summer, when the Kleinette and I have fast become rapidly comfortable being rather domestic together. She begins taping and watching what we would later figure out was the third series, with a new set of characters; I watch with more interest. By the end, my curiousity is officially piqued. And a quick Googling reveals that we have, in fact, skipped the entire second series, a continuation of the first. A situation easily remedied by Netflix. And I learned that, yes, the first and third series of Skins are well-mounted, well-paced, mostly enjoyable teen fluff that frankly demolishes most of its American counterparts - but they pale when compared to the second series.


That the DVDs' menus are all set to Radiohead's "Nude" should have been a hint; setting a tone of beautiful despair, the second series of Skins is a paean to the "quiet desperation" of lower-class English life, a tone poem dedicated to those born and entrapped there, fumbling through attempts at happiness that tend only to exacerbate the pain. It's, dare-I-say, a masterpiece of misery. Beginning with a resurrection and ending with a funeral, it's built on death, literal and figurative, infused with metaphors of Christ and Moses, and wild with music and light. But it never shies away from life's hardest rule - actions have consequences - and makes sure that any fleeting, bittersweet moments of pleasure are always earned, and often at prices that seem far too high.

The Tracks Are Down - Ward 8 Anacostia Street Cars

The Kleiner and The Kleinette - both reporting from the Ward 8 Anacosta Street Car Meeting

The Kleiner and the Kleinette attended the November 2nd DDOT DC Ward 8 Street Car open house at Savoy Elementary across the river in Anacostia. It seems we overpromised - originally, our intention had been to attend as many of these street car open houses as possible, but we've quickly come to realize that they are generally the same open house with posters replaced each time to describe the actual work to be done in a given ward.  Ward 8, one of the cities most neglected areas, has few grocery stores, pharmacies, or sit-down restaurants.  There are only a couple bridges connecting the area to the bulk of Washington, DC and the main activity appears to be the Bolling Air Force Base.  It is represented in the DC City Council by Marion Barry (previously a multi-term DC Mayor).

Along with the H Street/Benning Road tracks that are being laid down, Anacostia will be the first area of the city to see the Street Cars come to life.  According to the professional in charge of the construction efforts, the first turnaround tracks have been laid near the northern segment of the Bolling Air Force Base connecting the origination point to the Anacostia Metro Station (about 1.5 miles) and they should be moving in the first part of 2011 which is much faster than previously anticipated.  We also learned from other officials that as street renovation has been taking place on H Street and Benning Road, those communities decided to lay the tracks there faster than planned, so those routes should also be moving in 2011.

We learned more certainly that the funding will be comprised of DC taxpayer dollars at the Ward 1 meeting. Ward 1 Council Member Jim Graham expressed his belief that, because D.C. is paying for it, these street car routes should primarily benefit D.C. communities, not simply provide more ways to commute into the city from the suburbs.  At this event, when we asked officials about the funding, the situation seemed more fluid and there seemed to be more possibilities of multiple funding sources.  Will this change the routes or prioritization of route construction and operation?

At each of these events, easels with markers and paper have been provided for community comments on the projects.  In Anacostia, we noticed that the community comments were different than those in Ward 1.  The comments in Ward 1 focused much more on developing the best routes and the fastest time frames.  In Ward 8, we noticed that the comments focused more on the effects on the community, would there be trauma to the community resulting from road construction, how would it affect popular bus routes, and would it cause more traffic and reduce parking/neighborhood accessibility?  There seemed to be more questions about its impacts on the community.  
 
And Now, Anacostia urges its readers to go to the Ward 8 meeting to support the street cars given some resistance from the 'community' as the author moved to the neighborhood hoping for increased accessibility.  I'm interested in exploring this tension further, the desires of those new to the community hoping for change and the others who are concerned about the intervention.  It is our opinion that increased connectivity between all neighborhoods and communities in Washington, DC will greatly benefit the residents of the city.

What do you think?

Really, Good Stuff, Eatery



Planning to attend the Ward 8 DDOT DC Street Car meeting last night, the Kleiner and the Kleinette did as many tech connected (or addicted?) DCers do when going to a neighborhood they are unfamiliar with around dinner time, researched the restauarnts.  And to our dismay, but perhaps not surprise, could not find some sort of interesting hole in the wall or not hole in the wall to check out in Anacostia.  Looking at the map however, we noticed that the Good Stuff Eatery (303 Pennsylvania Ave SE) was easily on our way for a quick stop from our Freedom Plaza commencement point.



I had sampled the toasted marshmallow milkshake before at Good Stuff Eatery, and loved it.  I had also tried the Dulce De Leche milkshake too right when the joint first opened.  Good Stuff Eastery is a hamburger, fry and milkshake order at the counter type of place.  Established by Spike Mendelsohn of Top Chef fame (or infamy...), Good Stuff Eatery is one of those new gourmety hamburger places, in the vein of the ever delicious Ray's Hell Burger (famous because of Ray's the Steaks for locals, famous for everyone because of the President's visit).  Lots of interesting, sauteed, carmelized, deglazed vegetable and cheese toppings for oozing burgers.  There is even a veggie burger.  You have some choices for your fried side, herbed fries with sea salt, rosemary and pepper, classic fries or their take on fried onions.  They have at least four types of mayonaise including Old Bay (a nod to Marylanders), Chipotle, Mango(my favorite), and herb.  Last night we shared a plate of fries and a Milky Way milkshake.... very delicious!


Overall, a good quick stop in the Eastern Market area.  I still haven't tried a burger, so I can't really make a final comparison to Rays (or final review conclusion), but, from the crowd on a Monday night, it looks like people enjoy them :)


-The Kleinette

11.02.2009

Haydees - Means Hell in Greek and Delicious in English


The Kleiner and the Kleinette very often prefer to create concoctions of random goodness at home for dinner on weeknights, but, after working forever one night and meeting at the Columbia Heights metro stop, the two were exhausted and very interested in having someone else do the cooking.  Where else to go on a random week night but Haydees?

Haydees, located at 3102 Mt. Pleasant St is a comfortable and welcoming restaurant with what Americans consider to be pretty standard Latin American food - tacos, fajitas, seafood, enchiladas, burritos, taquitos, plantains, quesadillas and nachos.  The restaurant itself is dark with lots of different pictures on the wall, always with either some kind of American or latin Pop music playing, a television with sports, and the nice feeling of dimmed lamps and little colored lights.  There is a bar with seating and a bunch of booths - upstairs and downstairs. It has a great community feel, all the different types of people that live in Mt. Pleasant can be found noshing and drinking margaritas there at any given time.  Pitchers of margarita make it a popular place for birthday parties.


Meals at Haydees start with a big bowl of fresh chips and very spicy salsa.  We have sampled the plaintains and beans (many times), veggie fajitas, veggie enchiladas, cheese taquitos, and quesadillas and find them to be homey and tasty.  Happy hour essentially goes all night with $3 imports and $4 margaritas (!). Prices are all extremely reasonable, ranging from $3 -10 (appetizers) and $8-16 main dishes.  Everything seems to have a vegetarian version which makes this a great spot for vegetarians desiring more variety than a veggie burger!

All and all, thumbs up Haydees for being a community destination with consistently yummy, homey food and a quirky decor~!
-The Kleinette

Close to Midnight (SOTD)

We have such stories to share! Specifically, about Halloween at Mt. Pleasant. In the meantime, let's remember the good times just past with the most obvious possible rememberance:







Creatures...crawling...in search of BLOOD!