‘Uncommon Furnishings’ Comes to Town
• September 9, 2011

Local and international designer, artist and furniture maker, Jan Marfyak has set up shop, Uncommon Furnishings, at 35th and N Streets. “It’s got a different buzz,” says Marfyak approvingly of today’s Georgetown. He has been around D.C. for years as well as the New York and L.A. arts scene and has worked with Krupsaw’s, Antony Childs, Miller & Armey and Muleh.

Displaying decorative objects for homes – polished petrified wood, calcium slabs and mill stones, to name a few intriguing pieces – Marfyak pulls from his warehouse in Montgomery County and his world travels. His designs involve unusual textures, forms and colors with residential and commercial applications. If you are looking for unique framings or yet-to-be-authenticated petrified crocodiles from China – or not – stop by and say hello to Marfyak. Each of his art pieces tells a story, and he can tell quite a few of his own. He is well worth the trip. Uncommon Furnishings is at 1301 35th St., NW, 202.422.6695.

Pork Is King at Bourbon Steak’s ‘Pig Out’ Party
• August 24, 2011

The second annual “Pig Out” at Bourbon Steak, located at the Four Seasons Hotel, was sold out before the details were read in the newspaper.

Priced at $35 or $50 (drinks included) the more than ample pork-centric feast on Aug. 14 proved a bargain. Where else in Georgetown could you enjoy foodie delights from Bourbon Steak executive chef Adam Sobel and executive sous chef William Morris — and the main event: a 300-lb spit-roasted pig from Eco-Friendly Foods? Along with the pulled pork, there was cornbread, coleslaw and baked beans. Then, there was the hot dog cart of bratwurst, sausages and half-smokes out on the patio. And the taco stand which included chicarrones, carnitas, cabeza and barbacoa. Also, BBQ ribs, to chew on. And oysters to slurp, too. DC Brau, the D.C.-based brewing company, delivered beers and pale ales. There were punches, such as lime and squash, to drink. Desserts by Bourbon Steak’s pastry chef Brenton Balika included banana cream pie, cherry pie and freshly made ice cream. Enough for you?
Sunday afternoon offered a three-hour pork paradise at the Four Seasons. After all, Bourbon Steak is the restaurant where you can buy a pulled-pork cheedar cupcake for $7. It is not on the menu; you have to ask for it. And, yes, it is the chef’s send-up of those cupcake shops down on M Street.

What Debt or Sweat?
• August 10, 2011

Setting aside the debate on the national debt as well as summer humidity, or maybe because of it, Washington influencers and personalities attended the launch party for Gilt City (D.C. edition) at Halcyon House on Prospect Street, July 26, co-hosted by Juleanna Glover, Winston Lord and soon-to-be-married Lindsay Czarniak and Craig Melvin. With BrandLink D.C. and Design Cuisine at work, the party was complete with mint juleps and iced lime rum as well as croquet and bocce ball. Not quite like Groupon or LivingSocial, the high-end discounter offers such experiences as a special dinner at Cafe Milano or private party at W Hotel to its members, not daily coupons. It goes fully online, Aug. 1.
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Georgetown Public Library: A Treasure Resurrected
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If you had been standing at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and R Street in April 2007, staring at the Georgetown Public Library up in flames, with its roof collapsing as firefighters rushed to connect working hydrants and librarians threw damaged documents onto the sidewalk, you had a right to feel depressed. It’s a damn shame to see a library on fire. How and when would we fix this?

Well folks, we did fix it, and we made it better, thanks to all: from the construction workers and library staffers to Mayor Adrian Fenty. This renewal shines as an example of everything and everyone coming together to get the job done. If the fire were to happen today, as Councilman Jack Evans noted, the job may not have gotten done so well.

We are indeed heartened to see the elderly with walkers determined to enter the new library and read the news blogs by college students. Tired of Georgetown University’s Lauringer Library, a student blog posted: “Those who yearn for a more civilized studying experience would be well-advised to head up…to the newly reopened Georgetown Public Library.”

The library is rightfully praised for its latest technology, historic reconstruction, open reading spaces and Peabody Room with rare Georgetown papers and artifacts. We are especially delighted by the artwork in the children’s reading room. Panels with lyrics of the first sentence of “The Star-Spangled Banner” line the wall, and Francis Scott Key is shown reading The Georgetowner Newspaper. So, support the Friends of the Georgetown Library and visit with Jerry McCoy, curator of the Peabody Room to learn about your home and history. Make sure your library card is current. It is time to borrow books—print or digital—and enjoy your beautiful neighborhood library.

G’town Biz News Bite: ‘100 Persons for 100 Degrees’
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You know you have a tight group of business leaders, when at least 100 persons show up for your June 20 networking reception at a MacArthur Boulevard dentist’s office in 100-degree weather. Georgetown Business Association members and guests met at the office and patio of Georgetown Smile, greeted by the likeable and professional Avraham “A.J.” Peretz, D.D.S., and his staff. Cold water, wine and soda along with sandwich wraps and pasta salad proved perfect at the end of a hot day. Maybe even better, there was a massage therapist — Janelle Jimason of Eastern Holistic Arts — administering soothing massages in the office’s receptionist space. Georgetown Smile t-shirts were handed out as well as samples from Sonicare and Colgate. One of the raffle winners of the Philips Sonicare toothbrushes was GBA secretary Beth Webster. (Plus: a quick thank you to GBA event chair Sue Hamilton for her headline quote.) [gallery ids="100249,106726,106719,106723" nav="thumbs"]

A Happy Birthday at Press Club: Arianna and AOL
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Less than six months since the biggest merger in online news history, AOL (America Online) chief executive Tim Armstrong and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington were the headliners at a National Press Club lunch, July 15 — Huffington’s 61st birthday — to discuss the deal and the future of journalism, on-line and traditional. Since its $315 million purchase of Huffington Post in February, AOL has hired some of the biggest names in journalism while simultaneously eliminating the jobs of hundreds of full and part-time writers, editors and other employees across America. The rebuilding AOL is reshaping the entire news industry with outlets like Patch, Huffington Post and AOL specialty brands such as AOL Energy, AOL Defense and the planned AOL Government. “Self-expression is the new entertainment,” Huffington said. “People want to be part of the story of their times.” Among those at the lunch were former Sen.William Cohen and his wife Janet Langhart, Aspen Institute head Walter Isaacson, formerly of Time and CNN, media guru Tammy Haddad and publicist Jan Duplain. [gallery ids="100250,106724,106730,106728" nav="thumbs"]

46th Birthday Party: ‘Onward, Singapore’
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Singapore celebrated its 46th National Day with an Aug. 2. party, which also honored its armed forces. Ambassador Chan Heng Chee greeted dignitaries and guests at the embassy’s International Place complex with a 50th birthday cheer for President Barack Obama — after the U.S. and Singapore national anthems were played — as well as a full and spicy buffet of food and ample drinks. (The city-state island republic was founded Aug. 9, 1965.) Also addressing the crowd were Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.). Webb saluted “the energy of the people of Singapore, who have performed an economic miracle.” Stearns admired Singapore’s double-digit growth rate. [gallery ids="100260,106934,106946,106939,106943" nav="thumbs"]

Neyla Suits Up for a Stylish Book Signing
• July 27, 2011

Neyla restaurant on N Street provided an above-average sartorial scene, July 14, for a stylish book-signing party, hosted by Robert Finfer, president and CEO of Integrity Capital Partners, and Michael Yo of both E! News and the Chelsea Handler Show. The man of the hour was Glenn O’Brien, “Style Guy” columnist for Gentleman’s Quarterly, and author of “How to be a Man: A Guide to Style and Behavior for the Modern Gentleman” (Rizzoli New York).

“How to be a Man” is a trusty compendium of man-knowledge. Part how-to guide, part memoir, “How to be a Man” covers the important items in O’Brien’s signature common sense and conversational tone. Chapters include “How to Not Look Stupid” and “Hair Today (Gone Tomorrow?).” In a world where men have long since abandoned wearing ties to work, along with the majority of manners, it is nice to see a guide for the modern gentleman.

O’Brien, a Georgetown University graduate, got his start in New York covering Manhattan’s pop scene for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, later becoming its editor. He has since written for Spin and Artforum. O’Brien’s GQ column, “The Style Guy,” answers readers’ questions about everything from skinny jeans to pinkie rings.

The well-suited crowd of guys (and gals, of course) included local influencers, politicos, media types and financial advisors, who sipped cocktails from Rémy Martin as well as iced tea mixed by The Teaologist’s Jennie Ripps. They also received O’Brien’s new book which he happily signed. The style guru recalled his days as a Hoya, working for a time at Clyde’s and Safeway. He said he was delighted to have lunch that afternoon at The Tombs which looked to him pretty much as he left it back in the late 1960s – and more than delighted at his reception at Neyla. As for D.C. style? The women dress better than the men, he said. And future books? Maybe, he said, something on White House protocol . . . and “How to be a Congressman.”
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Utraque Unum?
• July 26, 2011

The Latin phrase (normally not in the form of a question) is Georgetown University’s motto—”both are one”—first found in St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, regarding Gentiles and Jews together, on coins of the Spanish Empire, and later for the Jesuit school’s unity of learning and faith. Today, this phrase cannot be uttered between the University and the historic neighborhood to describe Georgetown, as the University’s new 10-year plan has moved neighbor groups to protest anew and loudly so.

Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans finds the plan a “disappointment,” while University president John DeGioia believes the campus plan to be “modest.” A recent Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting did not echo such mild words.

The University has argued: “Georgetown’s plan includes a handful of new projects that would enhance on-campus academic and recreational spaces, including pedestrian-friendly walkways, construction that would allow buses to turn around on campus and renovations to the Medical Center. The new plan also carries over some projects not completed from the 2000 plan, including an addition to Lauinger Library, the renovation of the New South building for student space, and construction of a new athletic training facility on campus. The 2010-2020 campus plan reflects more than two years of conversations with the university community and local residents, and includes deliberate efforts to respond to concerns about enrollment, off-campus student life, safety and congestion in surrounding neighborhoods. For example, in response to community concerns, Georgetown removed its proposal to develop on-campus student housing in the 1789 block of 36th Street and decided not to request an extension of the chimney height on the heating and cooling plant.”

Citizens groups still strongly disagreed. They see the addition of more graduate students and lack of any new on-campus housing as threatening to the historic district’s quality of life.

Indeed, the Citizens Association of Georgetown—which acknowledges the immense value of the University, founded in 1789 in a Maryland village established in 1751—has started a Save Our Neighborhood Fund: “CAG has carefully reviewed the G.U. plan and believes it violates D.C. zoning regulations and would negatively impact the quality of life in Georgetown’s residential neighborhoods.”

CAG contends that the plan would increase graduate student enrollment by more than 2,100 students, thus “increasing the total student population from approximately 14,000 to more than 16,000 students, provide no additional undergraduate on-campus housing and add 1,000 parking spaces to accommodate anticipated additional traffic to campus and the hospital.”

Moreover, CAG continues: “We will testify before the Board of Zoning — the ultimate decision-maker regarding the campus plan. We need your help to prepare for this hearing, and to educate our neighbors, our community leadership, the University’s leadership and our city decision-makers about this issue.”

Georgetown student activists have been knocked out of their bubble by the neighborhood response to the plan. “It is definitely possible to understand [the neighbors’] concerns to some degree, but at times [they are] almost irrational,” said one student at an ANC meeting. And in the non-news category, let us affirm that some students have been the university’s worst ambassadors, causing late-night noise, rowdiness and vandalism.

“[The students] cannot follow basic rules of living,” ANC commissioner Tom Birch said at the same meeting. Students are left to ponder that some Georgetowners their parents’ age don’t really like them.

The previous 10-year plan wrought enormous changes within the campus: the Southwest Quadrangle (the University’s largest-ever construction), the Davis arts center and the new business school building, to name the biggest. The university is jammed against its west (Archbold-Glover Park) and south (The C&O Canal and the Potomac) with spillage, pushing north to Burleith and Foxhall and east into the west village of Georgetown. Such geography does not excuse University administrators’ past poor decisions, such as the fumbling of Mount Vernon campus. Indeed, just as the University has a presence in Qatar, and its students volunteer in Appalachia and Anacostia, the nation’s oldest Catholic institution of higher learning would do well to connect even more often and consistently to its neighbors just three blocks away.

The Georgetown ANC will vote on the campus plan at its monthly meeting, Feb. 28. “We’ve gotten the comments from the community organizations and the university. So, it’s time for us to take a position,” said chairman Ron Lewis. Expect lawsuits to follow—just like last time.

Again, Hoya paranoia spreads, and generational resentment grows. Not that anyone is really seeking a “Can’t we all get along?” moment. There need be no call for an idealistic “Utraque Unum.” Nevertheless, both of us are here, in this together, and we can say hello to each other. It is merely a separate peace that we can abide.

Taking Flight from the Strip
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LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas, Nevada, is a blessing and a bet. Once a simple railroad stop with its underground springs and “meadows,” as its name means, the city sits at the intersection of America’s great deserts and west of one of this nation’s greatest natural wonders: the Grand Canyon. During the Great Depression and the construction of the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas decided to allow and profit from gambling and other sins. And it has not looked back much since . . . until now.

Amid today’s economic downturn (Nevada has the highest state unemployment rate), I arrived a few weeks ago at Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino for the Society of Professional Journalists’ convention. Somehow, that seemed apropos for a profession facing its own awkward challenges.

It was my first business trip to Las Vegas, but I was no stranger. I first visited at the age of six during a family trip—we drove from New York City to Los Angeles in our new station wagon. My aunt and uncle, who last worked at Caesar’s Palace, had moved there in the early days. My brother would later work at the Las Vegas Hilton.

This time around I walked along Las Vegas Boulevard—the strip—for an evening with the lights, sights and crowds. I crossed the street to the Bellagio, as its elegantly choreographed water show held everyone’s attention. Next door was Caesar’s Palace, which boasts its own Serendipity3 restaurant at the sidewalk front. With the Georgetown location opening soon, it seemed time to sample a pricey, great hamburger at the bar. Vegas, mind you, is full of fancy burgers: from KGB, Kerry’s Gourmet Burgers, to the $777 burger at Paris Hotel’s Brasserie.

Early the next morning, before our business sessions, I wandered through the new City Center with its top-end stores, which looks like a Beverly Hills transplant. One local musician, walking home from his night’s gig, told me it did not belong in Las Vegas, which made me wonder what really does.

During the convention, we met with clients for steaks at Mon Ami Gabi at Paris. During breaks, I visited the Miracle Mile Shops, part of the Planet Hollywood complex. There were lots of shops, but Bettie Page, with its retro clothes and lingerie, is unique. The Sugar Factory, offering $25 lollypops, is also pretty sweet. I got to play a little roulette at the casino’s Pleasure Pit (yes, dancing girls!) and relax at the Pleasure Pool for two hours. Alas, I did not see Holly Madison’s Peep Show at PH, nor have I yet experienced Cirque du Soleil’s “The Beatles’ Love” at the Mirage.

My extra time in Vegas was saved for one, singular sensation: a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. I had saved the best for last. There are several aviation companies operating out of McCarran Airport. I chose Maverick Helicopters with its slick, new Eco-Star copters. Admittedly, I was reminded of John McCain. We arrived at the airport for our morning flight, as each pilot lined up the mostly European tourists. It is an expensive roundtrip—$400 plus—with the landing just above the Colorado River in the Western Rim of the Grand Canyon. From the hotel and back, the entire journey takes four hours. An important tour tip: reserve a mid-day flight for the best illumination of the canyon, as the canyon is overtaken by shadows if the sun is not high enough.

Our pilot went over safety requirements with his seven passengers. We strapped ourselves in, put on headsets and felt the copter gently hover in line with its team of four others above the airport tarmac. “Ready?” asked the pilot.

We popped into the sky above Las Vegas, seeing the four-mile strip with its glimmering hotels, and veered east toward the Grand Canyon. We looked down at Lake Las Vegas—hard to believe that it’s man-made—and then Lake Mead and the mighty Hoover Dam came in sight. Just downstream stands the new bypass bridge, officially The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, named for a Las Vegas Sun editor and Nevada governor, as well as Arizona’s football player turned soldier who was killed in Afghanistan. Completed 75 years after the Hoover Dam, the bridge takes traffic off the dam’s packed two-lane road and is seen as an economic and psychological advantage for the region.

The etches of Lake Mead’s waters and curves of smaller canyons still caught our gaze as the pilot flew over the extinct volcano Fortification Hill and announced where the military had an airfield for practicing aircraft carrier take-offs and landings during World War II. With desert light whizzing by, we flew near an edge and spied the new skywalk ahead.

“Here we go,” said the pilot, as he took us into Grand Canyon, turning, softly tilting and descending 3,500 feet.

We landed at a spot 300 feet above the Colorado River, part of the Hualapai Indian Nation, with picnic tables for our champagne toasts. We were by—and beside—ourselves in the stately rock of the Western Rim. The cool morning air and absolute quiet were stunning. Parts of the canyon have rocks more than one billion years old. I put a few pebbles in my pocket. You had to look up far and wide to take it all in.

All too soon, it was time to climb back into the helicopters and ascend the Grand Canyon, weaving along the light and shadows of the rock faces and up and over the wide desert, where our aircrafts stopped for re-fueling. We got out again in what felt like the actual middle of nowhere. Aloft, we approached the other end of Las Vegas, as the pilot pointed out Nellis Air Force Base and reminded us that legendary Area 51 was up north several miles. We eased above downtown and flew over the strip, landing back at McCarran. All too quick, but a trip of a lifetime.

Las Vegas also provides air and ground trips to the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon—the more famous and more breath-taking section, if you can believe it. Farther away to the east lies Grand Canyon National Park lies (I once flew over it in a helicopter, but it didn’t land).

America’s adult playground continues to struggle with lower gambling revenues, while it has so much else to offer. The cirques keep running, the singers still perform, the hotels get shinier and the restaurants more upscale. One new hotel, the Cosmopolitan, sitting between City Center and the Bellagio, opens Dec. 15.

Yet, down the road, beyond the wastelands, reclines an old friend, the mother of ancient attractions: the Grand Canyon. Its playground has been open for millions of years and still can give Vegas visitors a real rush. [gallery ids="99255,104290,104286,104264,104282,104269,104278,104274" nav="thumbs"]