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Robert Devaney • June 1, 2015

Mayor Muriel Bowser will speak at the annual meeting of the Citizens Association Georgetown on Wednesday, May 27, at the Sea Catch Restaurant on 31st Street.

Along with its election of officers, CAG will present its annual awards for 2015.

The Belin Award will be presented to Barbara Downs “for her expert and dedicated work in preserving the historic character of Georgetown.”

Sachiko Kuno will be honored with the William A. Cochran Award for “exceptional efforts to protect and enhance the community’s parkland and architectural resources.”

The Charles Atherton Award will be presented to Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans for “exceptional service by a dedicated public-sector professional for outstanding work preserving and protecting historic Georgetown.”

“The Martin-Davidson Award to businesses that have contributed significantly to the community will be presented to Foley & Lardner LLP.,” according to the citizens’ group.

In addition, CAG noted: “There will be a special appreciation award presented to Georgetown University’s Lauralyn Lee and Cory Peterson for dedicated and distinguished service to the Georgetown community. Diane Colasanto will be honored with a special appreciation award for her years of sustained and significant work on CAG’s Public Safety and other neighborhood programs.”

At the meeting, CAG will also elect its officers and directors for 2015 and 2016: “The slate is Bob vom Eigen, president; Jennifer Altemus, vice president; Barbara Downs, secretary; Bob Laycock, treasurer and elected directors Karen Cruse, Hazel Denton, Hannah Isles, and John Rentzepis. Treasurer John Richardson will report on the financial condition of the organization.”

The May 27 reception and annual meeting will be hosted at the Sea Catch Restaurant, 1054 31st St. NW., which is housed in a former warehouse next to the C&O Canal as well as a punch card factory that collected date for the 1890 census. Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine Company was headquartered in the building. That company merged with others to become IBM, thus making the 31st Street building, the “birthplace of the modern computer.” A plaque on the building installed by IBM commemorates the technological milestone.

The reception begins 7 p.m.; program starts 7:30 p.m. Afterwards, a special $35-dollar dinner for CAG members is offered. (For more information, call 202-337-8855.)

Robert Devaney •

As prosecutors maintain that others may have been involved in the May 14 murders of Savvas Savopoulus, his wife, Amy Savopoulos, their son Philip, and a housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, Metropolitan Police continue to look for evidence at the Woodland Drive mansion that was set on fire after the homicides.

“Well, there had to be some connection between when Wint worked there, like, 10 years ago. So, there has to be some connection to someone that Wint knows that’s working there now that was able to give the details to know about the money and that they could get the money delivered to the house,” former prosecutor Deborah Hines told WUSA9 News.

Also, the so-called assistant who dropped off $40,000 to the Savopoulus home May 14 was somewhat inconsistent in his testimony, those close to the case told news reporters.

On May 21, U.S. marshals and officers from the Metropolitan Police Department arrested Daron Dylon Wint, 34, the prime suspect in the May 14 murders at the Savopoulus home in Woodley Park.

Wint is due in court June 23.

A massive manhunt ended on the 1000 block of Rhode Island Avenue NE. “A police helicopter joined the pursuit from above, and officers eventually got between the two vehicles in northeast Washington. Wint surrendered without a fight and showed little emotion as he, three other men and two women were taken into custody,” according to the Associated Press. One of those arrested was Wint’s brother. The scene on Rhode Island Avenue involved about 25 vehicles.

“Just got him,” announced MPD Chief Cathy Lanier around 11:30 p.m., May 21, of the person accused of multiple slayings, which Mayor Muriel Bowser, called “an act of evil.”

After tracking Wint to New York and back to D.C., the fugitive task force detected him near a Howard Johnson hotel in College Park, Md., and followed a sedan and box truck into the District. Police also found at least $10,000 in one of the vehicles and did not rule out other possible suspects in the crime.

According to the New York Post, Wint took a taxicab from Brooklyn to D.C. to escape police: “He’d been staying in his gal pal’s Canarsie apartment since Sunday — but wasn’t concerned about getting caught until he was named as a suspect Wednesday night, a law enforcement source said. Wint was ‘shocked’ by the warrant for his arrest, the source added. He called his parents in Maryland, then hopped in a livery cab, forking over hundreds of dollars to get back to D.C., the source said.”

Wint was arraigned May 22 on a charge of first-degree murder while armed.

After the dramatic arrest of the suspect, accused of a heinous crime which attracted local, national and international attention, the Savopoulos family offered a statement: “While it does not abate our pain, we hope that it begins to restore a sense of calm and security to our neighborhood and to our city. We are blessed to live in a community comprised of close circles of friends who have supported us and grieve with us. Our family, and Vera’s family, have suffered unimaginable loss, and we ask for the time and space to grieve privately.”

Because of DNA left on a crust of pizza at the crime scene and a criminal record, Wint matched the forensic evidence, and the pursuit began.

“He is wanted pursuant to a D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant charging him with Murder One while Armed,” MPD announced May 20. “He is described as a black male, approximately 5’7” in height, weighing approximately 155 pounds.”

Wint is reported to have worked as a welder for American Iron Works in Hyattsville, Md., where Savvas Savopoulus was the CEO. Wint went through Marine Corps boot camp in 2000 but left after five weeks. He is also an ex-convict.

The May 14 murder of Savvas Savopoulus, 46, and his wife, Amy Savopoulos, 47, as well as their 10-year-old son, Philip, who attended St. Alban’s School, and a housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57, has shocked friends of the family, which lived blocks away from Washington National Cathedral and the home of Vice President Joe Biden. After the attacks, the Savopoulus house — valued at $4.5 million — in the 3200 block of Woodland Drive NW was set on fire. The suspect or suspects fled the scene with $40,000 in cash, obtained from Savopoulus.

Savvas Savopoulos and his wife Amy were known around town and were involved with school and other social benefits. The couple’s two teenage daughters were at boarding school at the time of the murder and are safe.

A June 1 funeral service is planned for Savvas, Amy and Philip Savopoulos at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Massachusetts Avenue. The remains of Veralicia Figueroa will be sent to her native El Salvador after a funeral here.

Gary Tischler •

Every year, people on a special day are drawn to the long blocks of Constitution Avenue.  People come in families, or singly, or two-by-two, they come from all over the country and the world, and from the past, standing, sitting by the curbs, under the lavishness of trees offering cover from the sun, they come against the backdrop of the big monuments, the historic places not far away, the home of the president, and the president frozen as sculpture.  Not far away is Lincoln, is the World War II Memorial, is the shiny dark wall of names called the Viet Nam Memorial, is the Korean War memorial, is the FDR memorial, is the lonely World War I memorial.

It was once again National Memorial Day in Washington, and people gathered for the annual National Memorial Day Parade.

The National Memorial Day Parade is different here, of course, because of all that history, articulated in time and space every day here.   But if you close your eyes, or see only some things, and hear the music, the marching bands,  you might hear the everywhere of this occasion.  In hundreds and thousands of places all across these United States, everyone is doing some version of the same thing, big and small, elaborate and as simple as a baby carriages and tanks, batons flung high in the air, everywhere.

It is, I think, helpful to think of the parade that way, as one among the many, not so much the most important one, but the one here and now amidst all these memorials and memories, about the fallen soldiers, about the men and women who encapsulate the heart, the soul and idea of service to country.  The parade, here in history land, tells us that Americans have been sacrificing, persevering and fighting on this soil and the sod and sand of lands around the world for a long time.  This country was born as an idea, but created in the aftermath of war.

In the long Memorial Day Week, the parade is powerfully old fashioned and all at once both minuscule and grand.  After the roar of Rolling Thunder, the solemnity of speeches and the ceremonials, presidential and military at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the parade is a kind of bas relief commemorating the lives lost and the battles fought—but also the why of it all, home and hearth, guns and roses, those absent and those present  here on earth.

Perhaps the commonest of ingredients in this Memorial Day—presented on a warm Washington day, full of deft breezes—are the bands—those marching bands from all over, including here (Ballou) to assumedly distant schools chosen who saved up for the trip.

So, these musical bands—the flag-waving girls, the trombones, the bandleaders, the drummers and the furried hats, stepping high—came from where we all come from: home.  From Hampton High School, Pennsylvania,  the Ohio School for the Blind Marching Band,  the Franklin High School Band from Pennsylvania,  the Secaucus High School Band from New Jersey, the West Platte High School Band, from Missouri, the Shiner High School Band from Texas, the Bartow High School Band from Florida, the Henry Ford Marching Band from Michigan, the Pride of Morristown Marching Band from Indiana, the Deer Park High School Band from Texas, the Gateway High School Band from Pennsylvania,  the Mulberry High School Band from Florida,  the Springfield Marching Band from Massachusetts, the Cumberland Valley High School Band from Pennsylvania, the Havelock High School Band from South Carolina, the Kennedy Marching Band from Michigan the Ocoee Marching Band from Florida, the Mariposa Unified Grizzly High School Band from California,  the Childon High School Band from Pennsylvania, the Liberty Technology Magnet High School Band from Tennessee  and the Everett High School Band from Massachusetts.

Marching  bands are the core ingredients of parades, especially at Memorial Day Parades—they’re about tomorrow, tomorrow, which a young princess type was singing on the curb.  They, more than anybody, are the reasons soldiers end up sacrificing and go off to wars.

There were other things in passing—that parade of soldiers from all our wars—who knew there were so many—the pointed hats and fifes of the Revolution, the bunched up dark blue of the Union soldiers and the musicians as Confederates, who did not play Dixie, Buffalo soldiers and young boys dressed like doughboys, and the dwindling veterans of World War II, riding in classic cars, waving a wave to cheerful, heartfelt applause and the carload of men in World War II bomber jackets, jaunty caps and wave, the essence of greatest generation flyboy cool, and there was music, the Smashing Pumpkins and a country star and special guest, actor Joe Mantegna, who plays a serial killer hunter on television’s “Criminal Minds,” but who was here in honor of his uncle WWII vet Willy Novelli.

There was a Washington Nationals float, and the running presidents were there—and is it just me or is the Abe guy beginning to look more and more like Bryce Harper?

Someone who looked like General Black Jack Pershing was there, and military dignitaries of lofty rank were there, and women dressed in the bustled dresses of the Civil War, and jeeps from the big one, still seeming to smell like gasoline came by, and the riderless black horse,  and an ace from the Viet Nam War, and folks playing music of the 1940s, as it mixed in with our most hallowed songs—“God Bless America,” indeed, and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”  It was not so much martial, but our way of living, then and now, that was coming by, right before our eyes. 

You could imagine this happening everywhere across the country—small towns by a lake, in the suburbs, way out West, in the Rust Belt and the oceanside places along the Gulf and the magnolia streets of the South.  

You can imagine, as batons spin high into the air, the sun catching them bright and confident. You can imagine all the losses that went into that moment, in the here and now, the wounds that were taken, the aftermath never gone, the different way life went because of them.
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Georgetowner • May 26, 2015

Attend an Info Session to Become a Georgetown Ambassador

May 21st, 2015 at 05:00 PM | Event Website

The Georgetown BID is opening a new Georgetown Visitor Center this spring, and we need people like you to volunteer as Georgetown Ambassadors. Ambassadors will assist visitors by giving directions, answering questions, and making recommendations.

Come to one of our information sessions and chat with Georgetown BID staff and find out more about this volunteer opportunity!

Light refreshments will be served, and drink specials will be available.

Address

The Alex at the Graham Hotel; 1075 Thomas Jefferson Street NW

Culinary Garden Summer Music Series

May 22nd, 2015 at 06:00 PM | Free admission | harrimansdining@salamanderresort.com | Tel: 540.326.4070 | Event Website

One Friday each Month

Friday, May 22 – Come out for the first of our Culinary Garden Summer Series featuring Jazz Musician Marcus Johnson and FLO wines.

Friday, June 26 – Meet the Chef Jamie Leeds, learn about Stonestreet Estate Vineyards& their wines and sling back local Rappahannock oysters.

Friday, July 24 – Find the perfect
pairings between Napa Valley’s Duckhorn Vineyard wines and farm-to-table food.

Friday, August 28 – Stay tuned!

Address

Salamander Resort & Spa; 500 North Pendleton Street; Middleburg, VA 20117

Welcome to St. Tropez! A White, Blue & Pink Affair

May 23rd, 2015 at 06:30 PM | $20-$30 | info@blacknightevents.com | Tel: (202) 681-9560 | Event Website

BKE proudly presents its 5th edition of the Fashion and Art series on May 23rd

Welcome to St. Tropez! A White Pink Blue affair, Get ready to enjoy a stylish Spring evening and dive deep as we present the Fashion Music art from the French Riviera .
The event will feature a “fashion in motion installation” with an art exhibit.

Address

The Manor; 1327 Connecticut Ave

Spanish Conversation Club

May 26th, 2015 at 11:00 AM | Free | julia.strusienski@dc.gov | Tel: 202-727-0232 | Event Website

Looking to grow, revive, or begin to develop your Spanish skills?

Join the Georgetown Neighborhood Library this May for weekly casual conversation hours, led by instructor Luz Verost.

Address

Georgetown Neighborhood Library; 3260 R St. NW

Glendalough Whiskey Dinner

May 28th, 2015 at 07:00 PM | $60.00 | marycatherinecorson@rira.com | Tel: 202-571-2111 | Event Website

The Whiskey Room at Rí Rá Georgetown Presents Glendalough Distillery Dinner + Tasting.

Thursday, May 28th at 7:00pm, $60 per guest includes Poitín Cocktail Hour with Charcuterie and Irish Cheese Selection, Three Course Specialty Menu and Glendalough Whiskey Pairing.

For event information and ticket purchase, please contact marycatherinecorson@rira.com

Address

3125 M Street NW

Gary Tischler • May 21, 2015

If reading about the news in a newspaper allows for a certain amount of detachment, perspective and evaluation, watching news being made on television is an altogether different kind of experience.

Depending on where you are—at home, gathered with friends, in front of your iPad—news as it happens covered by local or cable television news broadcasters is almost as chaotic as the images you see live in the here-and-now, mixed with repeated imagery from the hour or minutes before, accompanied by reporters reporting from the scene and anchors anchored to the breaking news desk.

This is pretty much what happened as we watched events unfold in Baltimore in the afternoon and early evening hour.  This was Monday, the sorrowful day when Freddie Gray—the young African American man who died after being arrested and held in custody by police of an apparent spinal injury—was mourned, eulogized and buried.   The funeral was, according to its organizers, a solemn occasion for mourning, grieving and perhaps the beginning of healing.

Gray’s death—punctuated by marches, and demonstrations for a week, including one that ended in violence Saturday night—was another in what to many has become an unconscionable long list of African African men dying violent deaths at the hands of police. The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last August—in which no indictment was handed down—sparked a sea change nationwide, linking incidents in Cleveland, New York,  Arizona and South Carolina, among many.

All of the incidents were different in nature but were linked by reactions to them, reactions that included demonstrations, mostly peaceful, all over the country.

The circumstances in Baltimore, where so far no investigation has been completed into the circumstances of how Gray died, were reflective of the poor neighborhoods were Gray grew up, where police and residents lived in a state of long-standing tension.

What happened after the funeral was often confusing, often violent and chaotic.   It appeared from reports that police had received social media warnings that something was going to happen, and so they had gathered with their shields and helmets. After the funeral had broken up, youths from a nearby high school stormed out of the school and began running at police, pelting them with rocks, bricks and bottles.  More than a dozen policemen were injured, some suffering broken bones, two of them seriously.

After that, events developed almost as if in a kind of haze.  We watched as camera shots at Mondawmin Mall near Pennsylvania Avenue and North Avenue revealed first a trickle, almost casual group of young men broke windows and marched then ran into a CVS Pharmacy and begin looting, some pulling up in a motorcycle or car with tall trash bags. A police car was burned nearby.  Youths continued to jump on a destroyed police car.

All of this seemed to be happening in slow motion—people would rush at a store—including a check-cashing business, a liquor store, as well as the CVS, then action would slow down for moments. Neighborhood adult men in suits tried to dissuade the looters and angry demonstrators.  Then, they would head down the street to a another establishment.

For the hours after the funeral—which included an impassioned march by religious leaders going past some of the running, young men—there was no official word from the mayor’s office or the police commissioners.  Governor Larry Hogan promised to send the National Guard, but only if asked. 

Reporters from Washington, D.C., came to the scene in what was surely one of the more difficult assignments they had encountered.  On WRC, the station was fortunate enough to have on hand Tisha Thompson, a member of its investigative team who had lived and worked in Baltimore and knew the geography and streets of the developing story.

Television, especially on a live and rolling story, is at best a jumble, a kind of mash of the immediate here-and-now and flashbacks to 20 minutes ago, where images of looters , burning cars and running, yelling tended to blend together with much confusion.  Reporters appeared to have a hard time with assigning terminology and description to what they were witnessing,  calling looters “demonstrators” and vice versa,  but none resorted to the words used by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who called the looters “thugs” when she finally did speak, hours after the first events occurred.  Her initial silence was much puzzled over by the press, which parsed every official word spoken, including those of the governor, who called out the Maryland National Guard, after “the mayor finally called and made the request.”   Media took that word “finally” apart like a piñata, trashing it for meaning.

Reporters tried to show some sympathy—not for the looters so much—but the young people living under the circumstances that they did.  “This was for justice for Freddie,” yelled one of the youths.   Other observers decried the violence and looting, some remembering not only Ferguson but cities exploding in the 1960s.

One young man, interviewed by a D.C. reporter, yelled that the city had not helped the neighborhood when it needed it, that they couldn’t take it any more and that the death of Gray and the absence of information was the final straw. 

Reporters and anchor folks vacillated with the frustration that they were reporting, sometimes sharing it, and the queasy potential of danger that they were a part of.   But images also have a way of making the dramatic—fires, destroyed cars, looters running—seem a city-wide event, that we were witnessing a city-wide event when in actuality we were seeing repeated images interjected with live coverage.  Some Baltimore residents will tell you that the event itself was “overblown” in  terms of its coverage.

Nevertheless, a citywide curfew—10 p.m. to 5 a.m.—is now in effect for a week. Vandalized stores begin the tough job of clean-up and staying in business (or not). Wednesday’s Orioles games against the Chicago White Sox at Camden Yards will be closed to the public.

Watching from Washington was a nervous experience.  This was not Ferguson, to be sure, but it was Baltimore—Fells Point, the Orioles,  Joan Jett, H.L. Mencken, the Peabody, a true city of multi-ethnic urban neighborhoods, as one resident pointed out, the city of “The Wire” and Johnny Unitas which was so close to Washingtonians.  It shook,  I suspect, a certain sense of complacency here: the belief that it couldn’t happen here, when in truth, we might be one confrontation away from the same events, down the street from where many of us live.
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Gary Tischler •

When Steven Knapp became the 16th president of the George Washington University in 2007, one among many of the top priorities he set for himself was to enhance the school’s partnerships with neighboring institutions.

As he spoke at the Georgetown Media Group’s Cultural Leadership Breakfast at the George Town Club May 7, Knapp displayed voluminous knowledge about a host of subjects and laid out the criteria and the actions that have made the university a big cultural player in Washington, D.C.  He also probably laid the groundwork for future partnerships when all was done and said, which was a lot.

When you talk about enhancing partnerships with neighboring institutions you can’t get much more enhancement than that which George Washington University got during the last two years.

In 2014,  GWU joined together with the National Gallery  and the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Corcoran College of Art and Design, thus saving and preserving the Corcoran legacy and the institution.  In the arrangement, the university took over the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and which was merged into GW’s Columbian College of Arts and  Sciences.

“This part of it was a great boost for our students, and the students at the Corcoran, who will now have access to a host of programs that will help them pursue their goals and expand the opportunities for learning and producing art,” Knapp said.

During that time, GW also  merged with the Textile Museum,  a relatively small and hidden museum, which moved from its former location on S Street (it had been closed since with 2013) to its current 21st Street, a 55,000-square-feet complex shared with the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection.

“I think universities are a key part of the urban cultural landscape,” Knapp said. “This is especially true today when the state of arts education at public school is not in very good shape.  It’s our responsibility to work with the city’s institutions, create partnerships with the schools, work with other universities in our consortium, to provide cultural experience, expand opportunities to create and make art. … I think in the case of both the Corcoran and the Textile Museum, we have made ourselves and the institutions better.  We have served our students as well as the cultural communities. “

Knapp, who seems plugged into Wikipedia as he speaks, displayed his diverse interests, flavoring the history of GW as a Washington (the city and George) instituton, by seasoning  GW’s march of progress to its current status as a top university with historical, biographical and just-so-you-know-if-you-didn’t bits of information.

He came to GW by way of the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught English literature and was a specialist in Romanticism,  literary theory and the relation of literature to philosophy and religion. After that he was Provost at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Knapp’s portrait of Washington as a city with a dense, diverse and major cultural profile provided a fitting end to the inaugural season of GMG Cultural Leadership Breakfasts, which have ranged from Deborah Rutter, president  of the Kennedy Center, Jenny Bilfied of  Washington Performing Arts, Kim Sajet, Director of  the National Portrait Gallery, Martin Wollison, director of the Clarice Performing Arts Center at  the University of Maryland,  Arvind Minocha , CEO of the Wolf Trap Foundation, and Ari Roth, the embattled former director of Theater J.
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Caitlin Franz •

A suspect believed to be one of the two well-dressed, “beautiful” robbers who mugged two Georgetown students (at two locations) at gunpoint has been arrested.

The suspect, Ja’khori Ellerbe, was apprehended by the Georgetown University Police Department around 5 p.m. on May 8, according to GUPD Chief Jay Gruber.

He was reportedly in possession of a silver revolver, which was the weapon used in the robberies that took place on the Georgetown campus.

The robberies occurred on May 6, according to authorities. One robbery took place on the 3700 block of O Street, Northwest around 10 p.m., and the other on the 1000 block of 31st Street, Northwest around 11 p.m.

Ellerbe was charged with two counts of armed robbery and carrying a pistol without a license.

Authorities are still looking for a second suspect involved. The individual has been described as a black female in her 20s, tall, with a thin build and a light complexion. She was wearing a black ball cap.

Another “Sharp Dressed Bandit” was arrested in April in Arlington for committing a series of bank robberies in Dupont Circle, Old Town Alexandria and Ballston. His given name is Sunny Parekh.

Caitlin Franz •

Lieutenant Kevin McRae of the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department died on Wednesday morning, May 6, after combating a blaze at an apartment complex in Shaw. He collapsed after the fire was contained, and the cause of his death is not yet known.

The 44-year-old McRae, who lived in Waldorf, Maryland, began his career as a D.C. firefighter 25 years ago, working his way up through the ranks from cadet to lieutenant. He joined the fire department right after high school.

He was the 100th D.C. firefighter to die in the line of duty since 1856. This heroism ran in his family. McRae’s cousin, James J. McRae III, was the 99th firefighter to die in the line of duty. He died in 2007.

McRae is survived by his wife, Trell Parker-McRae, and his three children, Desmond McRae, Davon McRae and Kevon McRae. His children are ages 18, 19 and six, respectively.

McRae shared the love of his work with aspiring firefighters by teaching at the fire academy.

Flags in the District of Columbia are flying at half-mast in McRae’s honor. Engine 6 on New Jersey Avenue, where he worked, has black drapery over each of the station’s bay doors.
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Georgetowner •

Opera on Tap D.C. Metro

May 7th, 2015 at 07:00 PM | FREE | kristina@operaontap.org | Tel: 8434377251 | Event Website

Our next show is Thursday, May 7 at Vendetta. Come celebrate opera classics and new works as we toast to Opera America’s “Opera Conference 2015” being hosted that weekend in our nation’s capital! We will be joined by the vocal stylings of Opera on Tap General Managing Diva Anne Hiatt and Board Prez Diva Krista Wozniak!!! So bring a friend and grab a Prosecco on draft and some Happy Hour specials and revel with Opera on Tap DC Metro!

Address

1212 H St. NE

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea

May 9th, 2015 at 01:30 PM | $75-$95 | info@washingtonetiquette.com | Tel: 202.6707349 | Event Website](http://www.washingtonetiquette.com/)

Mothers, daughters and grandmothers alike will enjoy a full-service afternoon tea, etiquette lesson, terrace photo shoot & more!

Address

City Tavern Club; 3206 M Street, NW

Twilight Polo Opening Night in Great Meadow

May 9th, 2015 at 02:00 PM | $30 | [Event Website](http://www.greatmeadow.org/)

At this event, attendees can sip Virginia wine in Virginia horse country while watching the sunset and cheering on their favorite polo teams. Greenhill Winery will be on site with a selections of wines available for purchase. One pass admits a car-ful of family and friends.

Address

Great Meadow Polo Club, 5089 Old Tavern Rd., The Plains, Va

VinoFest DC

May 9th, 2015 at 03:00 PM | $45 | [Event Website](http://vinofest.co/)

Presented by Vinolovers, VinoFest DC is a curated wine and music festival that celebrates memorable wine experiences, flavorful music, passion for food, diverse communities, and charitable giving. This year, QuestLove will be headlining the event.

Address

Storey Park in NoMa – 1005 First St NE

Daikaya Celebrates Sumo May Season, Wrestling up Some Japanese Tradition

May 10th, 2015 at 05:00 PM | $7-$18 | info@heatherfreeman.com | Tel: 202-589-1600 | [Event Website](http://www.daikaya.com/)

In celebration of the Sumo May Season tournament, Daikaya, located at 705 6th Street, NW, will be showing these lively, full contact sport matches in the upstairs Izakaya, as well as showcasing sumo-themed offerings from Sunday, May 10th through May 24th during dinner service. Guests can eat like a true rikishi (wrestler) with Executive Chef Katsuya Fukushima’s mini Chanko-nabe, a smaller version of the traditional Japanese hot pot dish made with dashi, sake, mirin, chicken, fish, and vegetables

Address

705 6th Street NW

Mother’s Day Brunch at Rí Rá Georgetown

May 10th, 2015 at 10:00 AM | $11.95 – $25.95 | marycatherinecorson@rira.com | Tel: 202-571-2111 | [Event Website](http://rira.com/georgetown/)

Treat the most important woman in your life to the best in Irish hospitality on Mother’s Day! Sunday, May 10th, enjoy a special brunch menu & complimentary Baileys Buns. Accepting large group/family reservations from 10:00am – 4:00pm, please contact marycatherinecorson@rira.com for details.

Address

3125 M Street NW

Robert Devaney •

Neighbors and visitors alike got a chance May 9 to see some of Georgetown’s “Edens Unveiled,” as the May 6th Georgetowner described this year’s eight select spots around town that show how great or small a garden might be.

It was time again for the Georgetown Garden Tour – the 87th annual – presented by the Georgetown Garden Club, an affiliate of the Garden Club of America. Beginning at Christ Church, the gardens-curious marched along the sidewalks, east and west, stopping at 30th and N Streets to see a classic backyard that contains the northeast boundary stone of “olde George Town” or basking in the expanse of the Cafritzes’ back lawn with pool and “the Architect’s Garden.” It was perhaps the biggest star on the tour.

On the west side, Mrs. Knight was welcoming many to her intimate side garden, at once enchanting and practical with its perfectly pruned trees and plants. The next door neighbor’s garden was equally impressive with its new refinements. Three blocks away, easily entered from the alley, were the Italianate garden of Patrick McGettigan and the perfectly remade Georgetown garden of designer Gwendolyn van Paasschen, along with a three-car garage and jacuzzi, to boot.

While the gardens’ plants, layout and the home thereof were the top draw for most, the Georgetown Garden Tour also sets up the added fun and ease of neighbors and friends meeting each other along the walkways. Plants are named, conversations go on and people linger in the sun-kissed, spring day.

The book, “Gardens of Georgetown: Exploring Urban Treasures,” sold briskly before and during the day of the tour and is on sale at GeorgetownGardenClubDC.org. It is not for sale at Amazon.com, as reported in last week’s newspaper.
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