Comedy Club Gets a Makeover
• August 8, 2012

Less than a year after opening, the Riot Act Comedy Theater (801 E Street), Downtown’s only comedy club, closed last month to retool and reopen as Penn Social next week. The new social club will still serve as a comedy club in its downstairs comedy club, but will also feature live music, karaoke competitions and games. The upstairs bar will get a new look and offer a medley of activities, and a sidewalk café will add to the social motif. The Riot Act featured both local and national comedians and an open mic night, a mishmash of amateurs, veterans and giveaways.

Public Transportation Just Got a Lot Easier, Along with More Expensive
• July 12, 2012

On June 18, the Washington Metropolitan
Area Transit Authority (WMATA) rolled out
Rush+, a new service plan that adds more
trains during peak hours and provides faster
access to Downtown DC. The goal is to serve
more customers, reduce crowding, offer more
transfer-free destinations and begin preparing
for the future Dulles Corridor Metroline Project,
dubbed the Silver Line. It is expected to improve
service on the Green, Yellow, Blue and Orange
Lines Monday through Friday, from 6:30 am to
9:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. All told,
21 Metrorail stations will get more frequent
service with six additional trains every hour of
rush hour. A new map reflecting the changes
will be placed throughout the system. Fares also
increased around percent.

Catch Tennis Stars and the Washington Kastles
• July 11, 2012

The Washington Kastles bring live
tennis tournaments to Washington,
D.C. each July. Owned by entrepreneur
Mark Ein, the Washington Kastles are
the 2009 and 2011 World TeamTennis
champions and the only team in league
history to go undefeated through
the regular season and playoffs. The
Kastles’ fifth season will again be led
by 27-time Grand Slam tournament
winner Serena Williams and 21-time
Grand Slam winner Venus Williams.
The Kastles play a total of 14 matches,
seven at home and seven on the road,
with the top two finishers in each conference
moving on to the playoffs. Gates open at
5:15 p.m., matches start at 7:10 p.m. Tickets
are available through www.washingtonkastles.
com or Ticketmaster. Located at The Wharf
at 800 Water St. SW, the closest Metro stop is
Waterfront-SEU and L’Enfant Plaza.Williams
and 21-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams.
The Kastles play a total of 14 matches, seven at
home and seven on the road, with the top two
finishers in each conference moving on to the
playoffs. Gates open at 5:15 p.m., matches start
at 7:10 p.m. Tickets are available through www.
washingtonkastles.com or Ticketmaster. Located
at The Wharf at 800 Water St. SW, the closest
Metro stop is Waterfront-SEU and L’Enfant
Plaza.

Chinatown Rent Pushes Bank from 7th Street
•

The Chinatown Branch of Premier Bank
(802 7th Street), formerly Adams National Bank
and a fixture in Chinatown, will close on July
13. Citing an increase in rent and an imposed
reduction in its space by the landlord, the branch
will be consolidated into Premier’s 1501 K
Street location, where the hours of operation will
extend by an hour, to 4:00 p.m., Monday through
Thursday. The Friday closing time will remain
at 5:00 p.m.

Cool off on the Mall With Screen on the Green
•

Screen on the Green starts on July 16 and
goes through Aug. 6 on the National Mall. Films
are shown on Monday nights beginning at dusk,
around 8:30-9:00 p.m. People start to claim their
spots on the lawn as early as 5 p.m. Movies play
except in extreme weather, and there are no rain
days. This years films include “Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid,” “It Happened One
Night,” “From Here to Eternity” and “Psycho.”

An Alternative Way To Stay Cool This Season
• May 3, 2012

D.C. is fraught with pools on top of apartment buildings, D.C.-run community pools and the occasional roof deck restaurant, but no where is there a members-only pool social club.

Until now.

The Penthouse Pool Club on U St. opened last weekend with a large turnout despite less-than-stellar weather, drawing their 1,000 members to a 60-foot pool, private sun deck, resort cabanas, communal fire pits and a membership lounge offering full food and beverage service.    
 
The planning for the pool club started almost three years ago with an idea by David von Storch, president of Urban Adventures Companies, the parent company of VIDA Fitness, which has five locations throughout the city. A resident of D.C. for 25 years, he said there was a niche that hadn’t previously been filled, largely in part because ten years ago, there wasn’t the same demand there is now.

“It’s now a true urban center; it’s grown up a lot,” he said in a phone interview. He pointed to the neighborhood of Logan Circle, where he resides. “I can walk to the grocery store, to the gym, the hardware store and to 15 restaurants; that wasn’t possible ten years ago in virtually any neighborhood. People are looking to live in the city, it’s not just convenient for work, it actually fits with how they see themselves living.”

The 12,000 square foot rooftop was previously just that, a rooftop with an unattractive air conditioning system. But in the three years of planning, they modified the space for the pool, and moved the A.C. system underneath it. With plans to stay open until late October, the pool is heated by the rejection energy put out by the FIDA fitness gym. The A.C. system already takes this heat out to put in cool air, so they’re simply re-routing where it goes, which in the end, von Storch says, will be a huge cost saver and an environmentally friendly decision.

With a lounge and pool capacity of 299 and 25 staffers, members and guests will be able to see panoramic capital views. The membership roster to the Penthouse Pool Club is now filled, however Urban Adventures Companies has established a waiting list for those wishing to become future members. Membership to the pool club also includes full access to all five D.C.-area VIDA Fitness locations.

Designed by Stoneking von Storch Architects of other clubs like the Soho House in New York City and Miami, he noted that the Poolhouse Club is unique in that it’ll not only have the fitness component downstairs, but Aura Spa on the first floor, due to open later this summer.

With an exclusive and an above-18 membership, the club is sure to draw crowds as the weather gets warmer.

“The fact that you have to be 18, be a member of VIDA, creates an environment where it will be more relaxing, whereas other pools there are lots of kids jumping around. This is an alternative to that on the weekends, and not have to go out of town.” [gallery ids="100715,120504,120497" nav="thumbs"]

Celebrate New Year’s Day Again
• February 8, 2012

This is the Year of the Dragon, which will be quite evident at the Chinese Lunar New Year Parade, taking place on Sunday, January 29, from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, on H and I streets, between 6th and 8th streets in Chinatown.

The Chinese community in the Washington metropolitan area will celebrate the New Year with local residents and visitors at the annual Parade and accompanying festivities, featuring traditional Chinese dragon and lion dances, musical bands, including a local high school Marching Tribe, a cultural exhibition, and the giant firecracker—an all-time favorite that explodes at 3:45 pm.

The festivities also will include programs and activities at the Chinatown Community Cultural Center. Revelers can participate in face painting, live music and performances, and raffles from noon to 5:00 pm. The Parade attracts more than 20,000 people annually and is sponsored by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of Washington, DC.

Business Ins & Outs, May 2011
• July 26, 2011

Comer & Co., an independently-run antique and furniture store, is coming to Georgetown. The Wisconsin Avenue storefront, once held by Sixteen Fifty Nine, a modern furniture, lighting, and art store, opened after a slow two years for the former store. Owners Fred Comer and Mark Manoff jumped on the opportunity after hearing that Sixteen Fifty Nine was closing. Comer & Co. opened on Monday and showcases antiques that can be integrated into a modern home.

On June 1, Fuel Pilates on Wisconsin Avenue will relocate to 3214 O Street to a bigger and more flexible space. Open for only a year, the studio saw a hike in demand for classes in its 1,000 square foot studio. It’s new location will include 2,000 square feet of space, though there will still only be 20 people or less in each class.

Rag & Bone, a New York-based boutique, is expanding to Georgetown, replacing Mac Cosmetics. With 1,500 square feet, the store will feature the signature men’s and women’s clothing items designed by Marcus Wainwright and David Neville. The store isn’t due to open until early-fall. In the meantime, they’re giving students, philanthropists and business leaders pieces to wear from their winter 2011 collection to wear and to describe the way the clothes make them feel. The photos will be displayed at the store’s grand opening in the fall.

After five years in Canal Square Cross MacKenzie Gallery at 1054 31st St. NW is moving to 2026 R St. NW in Dupont Circle. The current show featuring a ceramic sculpture exhibition by David Hicks, runs through the end the end of the month and is the last show at the current location. The new space will be open for private receptions in July and will launch their first solo artist show to the public in September featuring Michael Fujita.

Mid-Town Cafe is now Book Hill Bistro. Located at 1639 Wisconsin Avenue, executive chef Matthew Mohler brings experience from a small Indiana farming community, where his family used only fresh ingredients for meals. The restaurant also features a beautiful patio and a full bar. With a quiet atmosphere, this new restaurant is sure to draw those looking for a casual dining experience.

Sangaree, the boutique clothing store on M Street closed at the end of April after losing their lease. Merchandise was sold at discounts beginning at 30 percent and the lights are now off in the space. No word yet what will open next in the space. [gallery ids="99683,99684" nav="thumbs"]

Moms Like Us
•

It is the quintessential question for many young women today, how to balance a career and have a family. And though child rearing years may be a few years off, it’s still in the back of our minds: Will I have to sacrifice one for the other?

Angie Goff provides an answer to that question: Yes. Yes, you can.

Goff has a five-month-old, Adora, a long-distance marriage, an active social life and, on top of it all, a career in television as entertainment and traffic anchor at WUSA-TV in Washington, DC.

Though she’s doing it all, she admits that at times she has moments when she’s not sure if she CAN do it all.

When I spoke to Angie over the phone on a Saturday afternoon, she was standing inside the Lincoln Memorial with her husband and baby, taking in the sights while she took the time to connect with the community, essential to her job as a journalist. Later that evening, she would eat dinner with her parents, go home, throw on a ball gown and rush to the Washington Hilton for the White House Correspondents dinner. She spends two to three evenings a week out at events, either shooting or growing her audience. It’s half of what she would do pre-motherhood, but she says she’s more of a homebody than a socialite.

“When I go to a party, I’m in and I’m out. Sometimes I show up in my workout clothes,” says Goff, who is sometimes in her pajamas by 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. “ I’m kind of a homebody. I want to drink coke, watch American Idol and fall asleep. I work hard during the week at social events, but on the weekend it’s off limits.”

Born and bred up in Seoul, South Korea as a self-proclaimed military brat, she had lunch with Hillary Clinton in the eighth grade because her father was invited to a luncheon. She still has the picture they took together.

She attributes her ability to move around and adapt to different places, an essential part of her early career, to her childhood experiences. “I learned to leave a place where I was comfortable and go somewhere where I was uncomfortable.”

Goff grew up on an American military base and didn’t move to Virginia until high school. “ I experienced the customs of Korea and had the ideas of service to country ingrained in me at a very early age.” Goff says the Fourth of July was always the biggest holiday on the base, something that has spilled into her career as a journalist, where she covers military issues and frequents Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Her career started as a child in Korea, when her father would turn on the only English channel each morning and night for the news. The local broadcasts were produced on the base, and in the fifth grade she befriended the daughter of the station’s anchor. After taking a tour, “I was totally captivated and I became obsessed,” Goff says. She auditioned for the Audio-Visual club at school and became part of the school broadcast each morning. She eventually persuaded her teacher to let her interview students on various topics. But she never seriously considered a career in journalism until she was rejected from the United States Military Academy at West Point. “ I thought I would be a general or some rocket scientist in the military. I was only able to follow my passion and my dream when that door closed.”

Goff, who now lives 10 minutes away from her parents in Herndon, Va., says they are proud of her career thus far.

After college, Goff worked for Mark Steines, now a friend and mentor, at Entertainment Tonight in Los Angeles. “He was the one that believed in me in the beginning,” Goff says. “The deal was that I’d go out there and he’d help me out and mentor me.”

Within two years she had her first job as a reporter in Iowa. “We had lunch before I left,” she says, “and he said, ‘the thing that sucks is that you’ve already had a taste of the dessert.’ And he was right. The fact that I got to go out to LA, and meeting Harrison Ford and John Travolta, it was a gear shift and move to Nowhere, Iowa where I worked harder than I had in my entire life.”

Goff now takes interns of her own, one of which just took a job with Mark Steines after Goff connected the two.

Goff met her husband a few years later while working in Columbia, South Carolina at WIS-TV.
“We got engaged six months prior to her moving to NOVA,” says her husband, Robert Ellis, a pediatric dentist with a growing practice. “And I must admit, at the beginning it was unusual that we lived in different states. But I can be up there for long weekends, and after doing it for a while, it’s all I know. It’s not ideal and we make it work.”

They would see each other every two to three weeks, with plenty of phone calls and Skype sessions in between. But in March of last year, things took a sharp turn. Goff found out she was pregnant.

“It made it complicated,” Ellis says. “I felt bad because I wanted to be there for everything. I wanted to make sure she was okay.” A big factor in Goff deciding to move to northern Virginia instead of DC was the proximity to her parents, which alleviated the trials of a pregnancy with a husband hundreds of miles away. And since their daughter, Adora Kate, was born last December, they all see each other every weekend.

Though they don’t have immediate plans to live in the same city, it is a long-term goal. “It’s a question that remains unanswered, because we’re in love with our careers and it makes us happy people. And it makes us happy people to be each other. We have down to a science. The formula is working.”

At the beginning of her pregnancy, Channel 9 approached Goff with the idea of a blog following her pregnancy. After a discussion with her husband that took some negotiating, Goff was signed up for an experience that ended up equally beneficial to her. The blog, DC Moms Like Me, is a community forum for Metropolitan mothers to exchange their trials, triumphs, shared experiences and advice. “I had a new community to tap into,” she says of her new following. “I got support that I wouldn’t have otherwise. And now we’re grateful to have this video diary.”

Goff now has a blog for baby Adora that follows everything from her clothing choices to attended events. In question of her privacy, Goff says: “I do put a lot out there, but there’s definitely more that I keep in. Just like any other hardworking mom out there, there are challenges and problems.”

Goff leaves her house every morning at 3 a.m., when the nanny arrives, and returns around noon. But sometimes that schedule doesn’t always work out. The day of the royal wedding, for instance, she worked her normal morning shift, but had to anchor the mid-day show as well, and didn’t get home until 3 p.m.

“It’s a tough balancing act,” says Andrea Roane, Goff’s Channel 9 co-anchor, who has two grown children of her own. “It’s hard when you have to look good, no matter what time you’re on the air. And then there are things in the community that she has to do because it helps gain an audience for the show. But like a lot of moms, she brings Adora with her. That’s what you have to do. You take your baby with you.”

Alex Naini is a cosmetic dentist and close friend of Goff’s, who she met while doing a segment on dentistry for Goff’s show. “I’m sure it’s not easy,” Naini says of Goff’s seemingly frenetic lifestyle. “But she makes it work in a positive way. She’s a mother and she’s a good mother, she’s a wife and she’s a good wife, she’s an anchor and she’s a good anchor.”

Though Naini, along with many others, calls Goff a role model, Goff doesn’t see herself that way.

“I don’t see myself as a role model. I see myself as a hard worker and hopefully a good mother who wants to find the delicate balance that so many women are forced to find.”

Nor does she consider herself a feminist: “I’m all about girl power and women succeeding in the work force, but I’m not burning my bra.”

When asked if she ever gets tired, she answered immediately, “Having a child brought me to that point. I remember sitting down and breast feeding my baby and thinking of all the things I had to do. And I realized I was letting this moment pass me by.” She says Adora has made her realize she cannot do it all.

“I had a lot of anxiety leading up to her birth, but it’s amazing how she made it black and white. Suddenly, saying ‘No’ became so easy. I don’t have to do it all. I don’t have to be a super hero.”

Visit Goff’s blog at DC.MomsLikeMe.com, her WUSA website, OhMyGoff.TV, or watch her morning broadcast on WUSA, Channel 9.

Stacy Berman: The New Face of Georgetown Long & Foster
•

Stacy Berman never saw herself working the real estate industry. She studied computer science and communications in college, two industries she followed into her career in software marketing, which eventually ended as vice president of marketing at BEICOM, a computer networking company.

September 11 happened and the software industry bubble burst. She was out of a job.

“When I made my transition, I thought it would be temporary. But I get to bring all of my marketing and management experience to real estate,” says Berman, who first worked as a realtor with Long & Foster in 2004 and nearly four months ago took the job as manager and broker of the Long & Foster Georgetown office. “It’s a lot like my marketing job. There’s strategy in selling a house; my product is the house and you have one day to make a presentation. If it’s not looking perfect, your first impression is blown. There is competitive analysis—how does the house compete price-wise against the competition—and all those are all marketing methodologies.”

Berman moved to the Washington area in 1990 and has lived in Adams Morgan, Cleveland Park and Logan Circle. With two children both under the age of six, she hopes to move to Georgetown when they go off to college because she says she loves the community.

“This is a community and a neighborhood. There aren’t many long-standing enclaves of neighborhoods anymore because Washington has gotten so big and so transient,” says Berman, who currently resides in Chevy Chase with her husband. “You could take Georgetown and put it in a small town in rural Virginia. There are a core group of people that know each other and new people feel that warmth, which is rare in a large metropolitan area.”

Berman fills the shoes of Darrell Parsons, who served in the Georgetown office for over 20 years, but she’s excited to grow the Long & Foster/Christies International brand in Georgetown.

“People are proud of their homes no matter where you live in the world, but even more so in Georgetown. I walk down the street and see the pride people take in their homes.”