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Samantha Hungerford • July 26, 2011

NOW OPENED!

Georgetown will see the addition of a familiar newcomer to its home goods retail scene. West Elm, a contemporary furnishings chain, has opened its new location at 3333 M St. NW. It has been more than a year after closing its original branch in the Woodward & Lothrop Building in downtown D.C.

West Elm, a subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc., has opened a “pop-up” store in Georgetown with a seven-month lease to test the success of their new location. It seems that the area’s economic climate is ripe for such an endeavor following the success of nearby stores such as BoConcept, Contemporaria and Georgetown’s newest addition, CB2.

Abigail Jacobs, a company spokeswoman, told the Washington Post that West Elm has been looking into the Georgetown area for some time now because of the high number of Internet and catalogue sales the company has made there.

At 6,500 square feet, the new store will be tiny in comparison with its former location, which was at one time West Elm’s largest branch. “Different concept, different neighborhood,” Jacobs told the Post. “If you look at Georgetown and the size of stores there, this will be a perfect fit.”

Gary Tischler •

BETTY FORD

Most of the time First Ladies don’t get the credit they deserve. They may get the first in the designation, but history tends to judge them as second to their husbands, as if they were footnotes.

Eleanor Roosevelt wasn’t a footnote. Mary Todd Lincoln wasn’t a footnote. Lady Bird Johnson wasn’t a footnote. Jacqueline Kennedy wasn’t footnote.

For sure, Betty Ford wasn’t a footnote.

Her death at 93, widow of Gerald Ford, the country’s only appointed president who died in 1996, reminds us of the idea of legacy, of her vivid personality, of her humane and human qualities. Ford, a high-ranking Republican, was picked by the embattled Richard Nixon, entangled in a Watergate scandal that would lead to his resignation, to become his vice president after Spiro Agnew left in his own scandal.

After all the Watergate turmoil, the Fords were like a breath of fresh air, real people, and solid as breakfast. Gerald Ford exuded normalcy and strength, Betty Ford seemed like a down-to-earth wife. Along with their son and daughter, they exuded a spirited confidence and a recognizable sort of family and mother who happened to now live in the White House, as opposed to a suburb, a town, a place like Alexandria where they had lived before.

Betty Ford had style, and she had substance, and she had her views and stances, and she talked about them, and she had her troubles, and she talked about those, too. She talked about her breast cancer, and later, after Ford lost the narrowest of elections to Jimmy Carter in 1976, she had a rough bout with alcohol, which she later opened about. Her honesty, her championing of treatment for alcoholism and addictions would result in the Betty Ford Center, one of the pioneering rehabilitation centers which are now so commonplace that the word rehab, sometimes linked to her name, often not, are a part of daily conversation.

She was no Jackie—although she had plenty of dazzle and style of her own as a point in fact. She had other things on her mind, since after all, she was quite a political asset to her husband who had a lengthy career in the House of Representatives going back to the 1940s. They complimented each other is what they did, and her obvious affection and enduring love for him added some allure to his persona. Ford, when he became vice president and then president, became something of an object of fun-making on the emergent Saturday Night Live where comedian Chevy Chase regularly lampooned his supposed clumsiness and his football days. He was the object of two failed and bungled assassination attempts by female would-be killers no less, one of them a former member of the Manson family.

Yet, the Fords persisted in the White House, allowed the nation to take a deep breath after the long nightmare of Watergate, and even survived Ford’s controversial pardon of Nixon. And here’s something that Betty Ford accomplished because when she talked people listened. She raised breast cancer awareness but more than that she spoke frankly, with grace and honesty about her family, about sex, about abortion and other rising issues of the time in a way that had not been heard from previous first ladies.

She did something else: the obvious bond between Ford and her husband made him larger. It made the jibes nothing more than they were – jokes which he laughed at himself – even though he might not have appreciated them that much. She had, after all, picked him, a classy, smart, elegant woman of intelligence and humor. All these qualities became her and were transferred to him and gave him grace so that in the end, after their bitter and narrow defeat, they endured as a presidential couple who shared a lasting love, and left the presidency better than the way they found it.

CY TWOMBLY

Cy Twombly, who died at the age of 82 recently, was what you could honestly call an important American artist, the kind of figure that the American art world periodically produces and certainly needs. He was also controversial in that if you entered a museum showing of his works you could get an argument started about the value and merit of his work without too much effort.

He wasn’t beyond category since people, writers, admirers and non-fans often tried to bag him into an ism: neo-expressionism, abstract expressionism, even pop-ism, if you will, and he was often compared to others: De Koonig, Pollock, etc., etc. etc. One critic who was not a fan lumped him into the dada camp. He was perhaps too much written and talked about in his times, not so much over-rated as rated over and over again to the point of distraction.

I’d say he was one of a kind, mysterious, paintings full of sharp, swirly lines, and in later days after he moved to Rome, full of words, too, scribbles that seemed to require some explanation, as if they were captions written not in this century but some other times.

To many he was a titan, to others in today’s parlance, not so much. The nice thing when it comes to Twombly was that he didn’t give a hoot what they were saying in New York. He was never a fad, but his work could be maddening and moving all at once.

A major retrospective at the National Gallery of Art a number of years ago proved to this writer to be alternatingly light and sometimes, quite often in fact, haunting. I think it’s as if the lines, the mind and Twombly’s vision turned way backward, the painter getting a whiff of thousand-year-old dust and grains of sand, dried blood, and ancient stories. I could have done without the words, and because of the haunting aspects, the lightness was sometimes unbearable.

Titan? Not for me to say. We can always look again, and then again, and that’s where we’ll find him, like a fragment from “The Iliad.”

Robert Devaney •

Before her official welcome to Washington today, President Barack Obama took German Chancellor Angela Merkel to 1789 Restaurant, where they dined alone, having salad and beef tenderloin but no dessert, at the second-floor Wickets Room, June 6.

Dan Harding, general manager of 1789 and the Tombs, said that the White House gave them short notice of the special visit, calling at 4 p.m. for a reservation. Dinners for the two leaders were prepared by sous chef Erwin Rhodas, not executive chef Daniel Giusti, who was off for the day, filming a Food Network show in New York, Harding said.

The presidential motorcade rocketed along Prospect Street just after 7 p.m., as neighbors found nearby intersections closed by the Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department. Countersniper team moved atop Georgetown University’s Walsh Building across the street from 1789 and the Tombs, and police dogs checked the sidewalks. A crowd gathered at 36th & Prospect with phones and cameras and waited for the president to depart.

Meanwhile, patrons continued to enter 1789 and the Tombs and were wanded by the Secret Service. Georgetown University students Saum Ayria and Chris Scribner, dining at the Tombs at the same time as the president, enjoyed the surprise. “What a Washington, D.C., experience — the president just upstairs.” Scribner said. As Obama and Merkel left around 9:15 p.m., Jennyfer Sellem, a lawyer from Paris interning at the French Embassy, snapped a shot of the leaders inside the limo as it raced back to the White House. “What happened yesterday evening has added to my amazing experience here,” she said.

The big state dinner for Germany is tonight at the White House. [gallery ids="99930,99931,99932,99933,99934" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

Sitting in a white bowl on the front desk of the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center, a pile of Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples were waiting to be picked up by passers-by. After listening to a lecture on complimentary and alternative medicine, the colorful fruit was an extra reminder to guests that an apple a day truly does keep the doctor away.

The latest conversation in the “Doctors Speak Out” series revolved around a growing trend in the medical industry. Three leading experts from Georgetown University discussed the integration of traditional western medicine with alternative, holistic approaches to health.

“We need to keep an open mind [to alternative medicine] and say okay, we don’t know how this works yet but we know that it’s working,” said Dr. Ladan Eshkevari, assistant professor of anesthesia at Georgetown School of Nursing and Health Studies. She noted that doctors don’t know why some traditional medicine such as Tylenol works either, yet it’s a trusted brand name.

Eshkevari, as well as her colleagues on the panel, stressed that complimentary and alternative medicine, also known as CAM, is a viable supplement to traditional practices and should be more thoroughly integrated into modern western health care. A key point reiterated during the panel was the importance of eating a nutritious, balanced diet.

“People need to consume food, not pills,” said Dr. Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, professor of oncology. Her statement was supported by Dr. Thomas G. Sherman, associate professor of pharmacology and physiology, who added that fruit lowers your blood pressure just as well as antihypertensive medication which doctors so often prescribe.

While the panel fully advocated CAMs, they also pointed out that the holistic medicine industry lacks the funding, research and regulation that traditional modern medicine frequently receives. Audience and panel members alike raised concerns that this lack of regulations could lead to the widespread use of either ineffective or harmful medicines.

Eshkevari reminded the audience of the Hollywood scandal following Jeremy Piven, the Entourage actor, who contracted mercury poisoning after consuming too much fish and unregulated supplements on a raw food diet. She continued to emphasize the fact that it is important to know exactly what is in foods and medications to ensure the safety of the public.

Sherman discussed how regulation is key in ensuring that the label matches the pill. Although some would say that the bureaucratic systems necessary for regulation might distance the holistic medicine from the consumer, he assured that it wouldn’t bog down the industry. In other words, it wouldn’t take a prescription to participate in a yoga class.

The panel also maintained that it is important for people to use holistic medicine to treat the source of the condition, not just the symptoms as traditional medicine typically does. “People who take multivitamins aren’t healthy only because they take multivitamins, but because they’re the kind of people who think to take them,” Sherman commented when discussing that holistic medications are not quick-fix pills. Supplements, healthy eating and daily activities such as yoga and meditation are long-term practices that affect the brain and the body which, in total, supports a healthy lifestyle.

The three professors agreed that young students of medicine are receiving an education that integrates CAMs and traditional medicine more than ever before. And more importantly, they are open to practicing and prescribing it to others.

“I predict that [in the future] the emphasis is going to be on the whole body. If you come in with a headache, I don’t just come up with something that treats the pain in your head, I come up with an explanation for why you’re having pain in your head and treat that,” Sherman said. “Don’t just treat the symptoms like they do now but treat the internal cause.”

Marilyn Lane, a petit woman overpowered by her dramatic glasses sat in the back of the room at the conference. While she is not a doctor, she chooses holistic medicine because of the results she sees from personal use. She turned to acupuncture to manage her chronic pain, does yoga multiple times a week, and meditates every morning and evening. She said simply with a smile and a shrug, “It works!” [gallery ids="99935,99936" nav="thumbs"]

Shannon McGovern •

A thick column of black smoke billowing from behind the Tackle Box and Hook restaurants was the only visible indication to M Street bystanders of the massive fire that broke out in the back alley today shortly after noon.

Diners enjoying lunch at Tackle Box said they did not hear an alarm sound but saw smoke coming from the kitchen, prompting everyone in the restaurant to walk out immediately. Kitchen staff also promptly evacuated when flames erupted from the back of the kitchen. The D.C. Fire Department received the emergency call reporting the fire at 12:30, and shortly after over 100 firefighters from 30 D.C. emergency response units arrived on the scene, said Sergeant Sid Polish.

No one was injured in the fire, which was mostly restricted to the outside alley, but Hook suffered significant fire damage in the rear of the restaurant and its immediate neighbors, particularly Tackle Box, maintained collateral damage from smoke and water, said Pete Piringer, a Public Information Officer for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.

“The damages [to Hook restaurant] are somewhat significant,” said Piringer. “The good thing is there were no injuries.”

M Street was closed from the Key Bridge to Wisconsin Ave while the fire department secured the buildings, and the block containing Hook and its neighboring businesses was restricted to pedestrians.

This afternoon firefighters will work on ensuring all the hotspots have been fully extinguished and collaborate with investigators to determine the cause of the fire.

Hook will most likely be closed pending repairs and ultimately a health inspection before reopening.

[Click Here](https://georgetowner.com/videos/fire-hook-restaurant/) to view live footage of the event.
[gallery ids="100219,106174,106169,106183,106164,106187,106159,106191,106195,106154,106179" nav="thumbs"]

Samantha Hungerford •

Georgetown’s historic Evermay Estate, which was listed by Jeanne Livingston of Long and Foster, was sold this week with a final listing price of $25.9 million, making it the most expensive home sale in the D.C. area since 2007. Mark McFadden of Washington Fine Properties represented the buyers in this historic sell.

On July 8, the property held a very successful estate sale, auctioning off items such as linens, glasses and books.

Evermay has been on the market since 2008, when it was originally listed for $49 million, according to Washingtonian. Although the final listing price was $25.9 million, D.C. Urban Turf reports that its final sales price was $22 million. Washington Fine Properties cannot yet say who is the buyer of the Evermay Estate.

This will mark the first time the property is owned by a new family since 1923 when Evermay was sold to F. Lammot Belin, the heir of DuPont Chemical, who passed the estate down through three generations.

The home, which is included in the National Register of Historic Places, is 12,000 square feet sitting on 3.5 acres, and contains a ballroom, gardens, tennis court, gate house, parking for 100 cars and enough dining space for 40 dinner guests.

Under its last owner, Evermay was frequently used as an event facility. Mark McFadden of Washington Fine Properties was unable to comment about whether this service will continue under new ownership.

Gary Tischler •

Every year for 45 years now, visitors to Washington and the rest of us who live here have had a chance to come down to the National Mall and let the contours of the world—its music, its food, its songs and poetry and smells and clothes and sounds—come in, along with our own memories of what’s what in our souls.

They call it the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, a summer treat and tent and dog and pony and sheep and llama and guitar and memory show that occurs every summer wrapped around the Fourth of July.

This year, it’s more about us than them—the three-section festivals features the arts, music and food of Colombia, a memory train of the history and celebration of the Peace Corps and a lively, deeply rich festival of Rhythm and Blues. It’s “Colombia: The Nature of Culture;” it’s “The Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Promoting World Peace and Friendship;” it’s “Rhythm and Blues: Tell It Like It Is.”

But look what was on the menu in 1967, a veritable smorgasbord with no visible category except crafts and performance: American basket makers, doll makers, needle workers, potters, blacksmiths, spinners and weavers, fife and drum groups, string bands, gospel singers, shouts and spirituals, Puerto Rican music, New Orleans jazz, Cajun music, cowboy songs, the King Island Eskimo dancers, the dancers of Galicia, polkas and ballads, Irish dancers and Chinese New Year’s pantomimes.

Since then, over the years, the smorgasbord has become specific, focusing on states and regions, American style from Texas to Pennsylvania, to countries and continents, to Native Americans from everywhere, to the African Diaspora, to Kentucky, to the cultures of Britain and Yugoslavia to topics like Family Farming in the Heartland, the Music of Struggle, France and North America, Russian Roots, Metro Music, the Bahamas.

On summer days, you could see a Welshman shear a sheep or cook one, hear bluegrass music from the nearby mountains, dance to Reggae or Rap, see artists from Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, here, there and everywhere, watch the work of the cultural institutions and pioneers of the world.

This time, you can watch what’s often a reunion of Peace Corps Workers, catch all things musically and foodie positive about Colombia, and listen to, watch and dance to the soul music of our souls.

Friday, I stayed for a snippet, walking by the big tent of Motor City to see the Funk Brothers rip through my past in a special way.

I saw a man who danced with his wife.

That’s a supposition. They looked alike, smiled alike, and moved alike. They were thin and looked to be together for quite a while, almost like a twinned couple. She had curly hair, a smile to kill a rainy day, she was thin and sporty looking and moved like silk, and he led her, followed her, gray hair, big just-glad-to-be-here-with-her grin on his face and they twirled and stalked the way couples do.

They were singing to the Funk Brothers and their leader, wearing a white-suit from when guys in white suits could dazzle you, named Bob Babbitt. He was saying something like “Back then, like now, people were worried, what with the economy and wars, and senseless stuff, and Marvin Gay, he was singing what he could be singing now, he was askin’….

Mother, Mother, What’s goin’ on, what’s goin’ on…”

And the couple twirled into dizzy, and a mother was dancing with her little girl, and other couples swayed and some people did the same by themselves to “What’s Goin’ On.”

And earlier they were “Dancing in the Streets” and Kim Weston, who sang with Gaye back in the day on “It Takes Two,” was singing that afternoon and it was like that, the people were singing it, dancing it, and telling it like it was and is.

And you can catch a whole lot of groups still now till Monday at the 45th Annual Folklife Festival, and there’ll be people like the Jewels, the Monitors and Fred Wesley and the New JBs and you can get funky, soulful or happy as you please. Just check the Folklife Festival website and see:

What’s goin’ on.

Georgetowner •

Check out what’s happening around town this weekend with The Georgetowner’s interactive calendar. Looking for an excuse to get out of the house, or know of an event so exciting you just have to share? You can do both at the Georgetowner.com Calendar.

Preview Party for the 2011 DC Design House
April 8th, 2011 at 06:00 AM
$125
sherry.moeller@mokimedia.com
Tel: 301-807-0910
Join the Executive Committee, countless volunteers and the designers of this year’s house benefiting Children’s National Medical Center. Designers include: Scott Brinitzer, Jeff Potter, Iantha Carley, Nancy Colbert), Barbara Franceski, Samantha Friedman, Jason Hodges, Liz Levin, Lauren Liess, Gary Lovejoy, Allie Mann/Case Design, Cindy McClure, Erin Paige Pitts, James Rill/Rill Architects, Camille Saum, Whitney Stewart, Nadia Subaran/Aidan Design, Patrick Sutton and Denise Willard.
3134 Ellicott St. NW
Washington DC 20008

Art & Live Jazz Saturday
April 9th, 2011 at 02:00 PM
free
liveanartfullife@verizon.net
Tel: 540-253-9797
Join us for live jazz, refreshments and “New Work” by jewelry artist Sara Rivera. Sara works in the old Japanese technique of Mokume-gane which is a layering of metals to achieve a wood grain effect in different metals. Sara will be in the gallery from 2 – 6 PM. Live Jazz 5 – 8 PM.
Live An Artful Life
6474 Main Street
The Plains, VA 20198
Civil War Georgetown Tours Commemorating 150 Years
April 9th, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Tel: 202-965-0400
In commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, Tudor Place introduces two new specialized tours about life in Georgetown and the Federal City during this critical test of American democracy.

Beginning in April, these tours will be offered on the second Saturday of every month.

There will be a specialized house tour at 10:30 a.m. and a separate walking tour of Georgetown at 12:30 p.m.
Tudor Place
1644 31st Street, NW
Georgetown between Q &R
Washington, DC

Thai Restaurant Week, April 11-17
April 11th, 2011 at 12:00 PM
|Discounts and special dishes
tanidas@thaiembdc.org
Tel: 202-338-1545

Celebrate the festival of Songkran – the traditional Thai New Year. Each year, as the cherry blossoms start to bloom, the D.C. Metro area celebrates Songkran with Thai Restaurant Week. Many Thai restaurants offer diners a discount or a special menu in honor of the traditional Thai New Year Festival. For the list of participating restaurants, please visit www.thaiembdc.org.
For the list of participating restaurants, please visit www.thaiembdc.org.

For more events this weekend visit the Georgetowner. calendar and click on the date your interested in!

Robert Devaney •

“First, to become president and then a Supreme Court justice,” said Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan, of her high goals at a Capitol Hill Club reception, March 29. And you believe her.

Miss America brought her campaign to the nation’s capital this week, joined by her cabinet of 16 other state title-holders from the Miss America Pageant, where Scanlan was crowned Jan. 15 in Las Vegas at the age of 17. During the Cherry Blossom Festival, her tour expanded to include fellow contestants who have formed a powerful sisterhood and made the scene from the halls of the U.S. Congress, to a Potomac River cruise and restaurants around town.

At the Miss D.C. Scholarship Organization fundraiser, hosted by Lisa and Charlie Spies in the GOP gathering place, two blocks from the Capitol building, a former Miss D.C. Sonya Gavankar of the Newseum and Miss D.C. 2011 Stephanie Williams introduced the “astounding, accomplished women,” who are easy on the eyes as well as easy to speak with. Former Misses D.C. Jen Corey and Kate Michael were also there.

Miss Oklahoma Emoly West said it was “great getting to meet more people around D.C.” Miss Arizona Kathryn Bulkley found it was “awe-inspiring” to be on the floor of the House and Senate. Miss Florida Jaclyn Raulerson loved the tour of the U.S. Capitol and walking through the Rotunda, after the women had lunched there.
But it was the now 18-year-old Miss America from Gering, Nebraska, who was the star of the show.

Homeschooled until her junior year at Scottsbluff High School, Scanlan has enrolled at Patrick Henry College, a conservative Christian school in Purcellville, Va., less than 40 miles from D.C. “I will be staying around and do internships,” she said, as she posed with and easily charmed everyone — future voters, no doubt — who wanted to say hello.

While the other 16 women were down at the Tidal Basin that afternoon, admiring the cherry blossoms and posing for pictures, the mature-for-her-age Scanlan was three blocks north at the White House Council on Women and Girls, a federal watchdog in matters of public policy, especially equal pay, family leave and child care. The presidential board relates to her Miss America Platform on eating disorders, which was prompted by one of her best friend’s bulimia. “It is also important to be encouraging women in science,” Scanlan said of the education campaign. (In October, she will be meeting the man himself, President Obama.)

Other places and events felt the Miss America magic: a gala at the Kennedy Center, the Congressional Correspondents’ Dinner and the Embassy of Croatia (her maternal grandparents are from there). At a lunch at Cafe Milano, Franco Nuschese presented her with Ann Hand’s Liberty Eagle pin, made famous by such wearers as Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright, both Secretaries of State. All well and good, but, as you know, Scanlan is aiming for the White House. And those who know her well, especially in Nebraska, fully expect her to get there. [gallery ids="99637,105239,105246,105243" nav="thumbs"]