News & Politics

Georgetowner •

ANC Votes for Co-Chairs’ Redistricting Plan; 8th District Added
In response to population growth, the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission’s working group to redraw ANC 2E, which represents Georgetown, Burleith and Hillandale, voted in favor of a plan advanced by working group’s co-chairs – commissioner Ron Lewis of ANC2E and his co-chairs, Jennifer Altemus of the Citizen’s Association of Georgetown and Lenore Rubino of the Burleith Citizen’s Association. The proposal adds a new single-member district (SMD) by increasing the number of Georgetown University student districts from one to two, bringing Georgetown’s ANC districts to a total of eight (each accounting for roughly more than 2,000 individuals).

The approved plan splits SMD04 into two, creating a totally new SMD08. (The student districts would account for about 2,500 individuals.) Burleith remains SMD01, and a few blocks are added north on Wisconsin Avenue to SMD05. Voting in favor of the co-chairs’ plan, commissioner Bill Starrels said, “I think it was thought-through, well laid-out and addressed the concerns and all aspects of the community.”

An opposing view, advocated by John Flanagan, a student on the ANC 16-member working group, called for three student-dominated zones, folding parts of the west side of Georgetown into the university districts. Flanagan had cited the principle of “one man, one vote,” arguing that increased student population warranted three districts. The co-chairs’ proposal answered back, in part, with a call for continued “community cohesiveness,” where traditional borders between several blocks had naturally developed.

The plan will be discussed at the next week ANC meeting with any changes requested by Sept. 7, then passed to the Ward 2 re-districting team and onto Council member Jack Evans. The re-districting changes must be voted on by the D.C. Council by the end of 2011 and will become effective November 2012.
Next ANC 2E meeting: Monday, Aug. 29, 6:30p.m. at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, 35th Street and Volta Place.

Evans’s Use of $135K of Service Funds over a Decade to Buy Sports Tickets Questioned
Taking money from a D.C. Council member’s citizen service fund to purchase tickets to local baseball, basketball, hockey or tennis games – while perfectly legal – was been called into question because of an investigation by the Washington Post.

According to the Washington Post, “D.C. Council member Jack Evans has paid $135,897 for professional sports tickets over the past decade using money from his constituent services fund, renewing calls for tighter restrictions on the accounts, which are meant to help city residents. A Washington Post review of Office of Campaign Finance records shows that Evans (D-Ward 2) has spent $437,720 since January 2002 under the program, which allows District politicians to raise money to help constituents and spend the funds largely unfettered.”

“I think it’s appropriate to support those teams and give [tickets] to constituents who otherwise may not be able to get to a game,” Evans told the Post. The newspaper added, “When the fund is examined back to 1991, when Evans was elected to the council, he notes that only 13 percent of the $1 million he has spent has gone toward sporting tickets. He said that 20-year period provided a more accurate picture of his spending.”

Under D.C. law, constituent services funds may be set up to offer “charitable, scientific, educational, medical, recreational and other services” and improve residents’ “general welfare.” Any other restrictions – save for political campaigning – are not outlined.

Nevertheless, the money can add up quickly over the years for tickets to sporting events. The Post went on further: “On March 1, for example, Evans wrote a check for $4,681 for a season ticket to the Capitals. Two days later, he paid the Wizards $7,644. His two 2011 season tickets at Nationals Park, which he said are behind first base, cost him $10,945 last fall, the records show.”
At least one council member – Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) – told the Post, “I think it’s inappropriate.” A few community leaders did not really wish to comment, and a few others wondered where their tickets were. For the kids, of course.

Georgetown Waterfront Park’s Grand Opening Set for Sept. 13
Yet another win for Georgetown. After years of fundraising, designing and construction, the transformation from old parking lots on the Potomac to an urban park, inviting the public to play along the waterfront, is complete. On Sept. 13, Georgetown Waterfront Park becomes the largest national park created in the Nation’s Capital in 35 years since Constitution Gardens was finished on the National Mall in 1976.

Thanks to the National Park Service, the Georgetown Waterfront Park Commission, architects Wallace Roberts & Todd as well as donations by MRP Realty (the owners of Washington Harbour), Pepco, the Georgetown BID, and the District of Columbia, a 10-acre park stretches out at the foot of Wisconsin Avenue on the Potomac River.

Once the land of old Georgetown’s wharves and then factories, the riverside deteriorated into parking lots and empty land. In 1985, the District of Columbia transferred the waterfront land to the National Park Service. In the late 1990s, the Georgetown Waterfront Commission made the final, long push for completion, bringing together volunteers, residents, the rowing community, local leaders and the National Park Service as it highlighted the Potomac’s signature sport: rowing.

The Georgetown Waterfront Park provides a green space for visitor recreation and contemplation, the commission is proud to point out. Cyclists, skaters, and pedestrians have their own car-free pathways with views of individual boaters, kayakers and competitive crews as well as of Roosevelt Island and Key Bridge. The park curves along 10 acres from the Washington Harbour complex at 31st Street to Key Bridge, a vital last link in 225 miles of parkland from Mount Vernon, Va., to Cumberland, Md. The park will have Wi-Fi, the commission reports, and it adds:
“The Wisconsin Avenue part of the park will greet the visitor with a low arcing fountain lined with benches, while the riverfront will have steps laddering down to the river at the site of the finish line for the regattas. A wide walkway will be continued along the river with an area with benches and a pergola for river viewing. In this section of the park, crowds can gather to watch rowing regattas or just look at the river from the sheltered pergola. The interactive fountain will add a playful aquatic feature to attract visitors to the river from Wisconsin Avenue. An arbor above the benches will invite visitors to relax by the water. The arbor will support flowering vines, filtering the sunlight over seating areas. Below the arbor, river stairs will descend to the water, forming an amphitheater where people can view activities in the park and watch the finish line of the boat races.”

Chain Bridge Weekend Closures Begin
The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced it will be closing the Chain Bridge on weekends to conduct structural repair work activities under the bridge deck. The majority of the repairs on Chain Bridge completed last spring were conducted on the bridge deck. Now through Dec. 23, weather permitting, DDOT will be conducting an additional series of repair related activities that will be concentrated under the bridge. Weekend closures will be necessary to perform this work.
During the following weekends, Chain Bridge will close starting at 8 p.m. on Friday and will reopen at 5 a.m. the following Monday: Aug. 19 to 21; Sept. 9 to 11; Sept. 16 to 18; Sept. 30 to Oct. 2; Oct. 7 to 9; Oct. 21 to 23; Oct. 28 to 30; November 18 to 20; Dec. 2 to 4; Dec. 16 to 18.

There will be no access to the bridge from either the District or Arlington. That includes cyclists and pedestrians because the sidewalk will also be closed. Through traffic on Canal Road will not be obstructed, but motorists will not be able to turn onto Chain Bridge. Motorists are advised to use alternate routes and river crossings including the American Legion, Key, Roosevelt, Memorial and 14th Street Bridges. For additional traffic advisories, visit DDOT’s Traffic Alerts page or visit goDCgo.com for more information on transportation options in the District.

Happy 90th Birthday, Ben
Best known for the Washington Post’s Watergate investigations, former Post executive editor Ben Bradlee turns 90 on Aug. 26. But don’t look around town for Bradlee and his wife Sally Quinn. They are in France – on the Ile de Ré, an island in the Atlantic off its west coast, as well regarded as Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket here. Dozens of guests at the birthday party, planned by Quinn, include family members along with friends, such as Christiane Amanpour and her husband, James Rubin, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

National Jewel Center at Old Georgetown Theater Site to Empty by Aug. 31
The classic neon “Georgetown” sign is what everyone cares about, but the stalls in the National Jewel Center are leaving the old site of the Georgetown Theater on Wisconsin Avenue at O Street. The property – owned by the Heon family, which also owns the Serendipity 3 building (Nathans) at Wisconsin and M and the Philly Cheese Steak place (Cellar Door) at 34th and M – is renewing its sales pitch, as reported in the Prince of Petworth blog. The building went on the market two years ago for almost $5 million; most figure it will go for half that amount. Here is what one real estate entry discloses: 1351 Wisconsin Ave. consists of 6,086 square feet, including street and mezzanine; the lot is 6,569 square feet. It has the famous landmark “Georgetown” sign marking the entrance of the building. The retail space can be increased by up to 3,767 square feet at the rear of the building which now has seven parking spaces and an out building. Zoned C-2-A, it is currently the largest lot in Georgetown for sale.

Foggy Bottom Whole Foods Opens Sept. 6
The Foggy Bottom Whole Foods Market holds its grand opening on Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 10 a.m. With an entrance at the corner of 22th and Eye Streets and near the Foggy Bottom Metro stop, the food company’s newest store in D.C. is part of the building complex, known as “The Avenue,” at 2200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., with offices, banks and a Sweetgreen eatery. Just east of Georgetown at Washington Circle, the store is set to serve Foggy Bottom and George Washington University, but you can go, too. Hours: Monday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Phone: 202-296-1660.

Chris Furin: ‘Making Your Memories Sweeter’
While Furin’s the place may be gone, its beautiful cakes live on with Chris Furin, “a self-taught cake designer who has perfected his skills over the past decade working at his family owned and operated gourmet bakery and cafe, Furin’s of Georgetown,” he writes. The owners’ son created Cakes by Chris Furin, he added, “In response to the growing requests from his customers seeking extraordinary quality and detail in their special event custom cakes, cupcakes and cookies at an affordable price.” Visit CakesbyChrisFurin.com for the delicious details – or call 301-775-0799.

HMX Group to Open ‘The Streets of Georgetown’
The boys are trying to catch up with the girls in terms of fashionable clothing stores. New York-based HMX Group, which features men’s brands such as Hickey Freeman, Hart Schaffner Marx and Bobby Jones, will premiere a store at 1254 Wisconsin Ave. next month, called “The Streets of Georgetown,” reports the business section of the Washington Post. The other town, outside New York City, for HMX’s new “Streets” stores is Beverly Hills. “There is definitely more pronounced interest from men’s fashion retailers for the first time that I can remember in my 25 years in business in D.C.,” retail space expert and Georgetown Business Improvement District board member John Asadoorian told the Post. HMX’s mix of clothing labels sell at different price points and the company hopes to serve a variety of men’s fashion customers.

Where to Park? They’re Back: Freshmen Arrive Aug. 27; Classes Begin Aug. 31
Will we see a parking snafu next week? Already Georgetown University students are setting up for new student orientation, and some students are moving in. Freshmen officially arrive on Saturday, Aug. 27, with other undergraduates to follow, as registration begins and then classes start on Wednesday, Aug. 31. Residents who park their cars on 35th Street and adjacent streets, near the university, should expect double the effort to find spaces. As work at Nevils dormitory continues on N Street and road construction expands along O and P Streets, entire blocks have lost their parking spaces. The streets are alive with dump trucks throughout the day. How difficult it gets to find a space remains to be seen. We will know soon enough.

Lara Mitra •

Home to Congress, Washington D.C. is the center of social movements that sweep our nation. Innovative and inspiring ideas are brought before our nation’s leaders, are debated and refined, and often transformed into legislation. Recently, the hype has been about “going green” and making changes at home and at work to lower one’s carbon footprint. It’s now fashionable to wear “organic” clothing and to find a blue recycling bin to put aluminum cans instead of throwing them away.
In 2009, the House passed a historic climate change bill that requires 20% of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020. The bill also increases electricity prices by $175 a year per household by 2020. Yet, even with congressional pressure to improve energy efficiency, why aren’t more local businesses following the trend of “going green?” The high cost of installing renewable energy systems and the significant time commitment required to explore greener resources are just two challenges that business owners face when making the switch to a greener business model.
One local businessman, John Hays, has managed to overcome such setbacks and convert his Georgetown store, The Phoenix, into an environmentally friendly business. For years, Hays has demonstrated a commitment to sustainability through recycling, selling renewable bags, and buying products with “fair trade” certification.
About a year ago, Hays wanted to make his commitment to the environment even stronger and signed up to install 30 solar panels on the roof of The Phoenix. Hays recognizes the significant cost of installing solar panels and how many might find the numbers daunting, but has managed to take advantage of numerous local and federal incentives that make the transition more affordable. “One-third of the cost of the panels is funded by the DC government,” Hays explains, “and I will also receive a 30% tax cut from the federal government.” In addition, Hays can exchange some of the energy produced by the solar panels in the form of solar Renewable Energy Credits (sRECSs) for cash from local electricity distributors such as PEPCO. With financial help from the D.C. government, the federal government, and sRECs, Hays saw little stopping him from converting to solar energy.
The solar panels are expected to generate over 7,000 kilowatts of power each year, which will amount to 60% of The Phoenix’s total power usage. After five years, the total energy produced by the panels will make up for their cost.
Hays hopes that other local businesses will follow in his footsteps and install solar panels or make other changes to promote the environment. “All the economic incentives in place make using renewable energy possible,” Hays says. “With rising energy prices, companies might be paying more for power if they don’t make the switch.” An investment in solar energy today might even be profitable in the long-term.
Next week, the installation process will be complete and the solar panels will be up and running, generating energy for The Phoenix while simultaneously helping Georgetown become a greener neighborhood. Who will be next?
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Georgetowner •

Live Jazz With Vocalist Nancy Scimone

August 20th, 2011 at 07:30 PM

No Cover

livejazzconcerts@verizon.net

Tel: 571-232-1873

Vocalist Nancy Scimone delivers spirited performances of lively and lush American jazz standards, French and Latin-influenced tunes. The Henley’s extensive wine list, classic cocktails savory treats (crispy shrimp) and desserts (pear bread pudding!) are perfect accompaniments to these sublime songs. Cozy tapestry seats, intimate lighting. No Cover. Saturdays 7:30 – 11:30 Perfect for conversation or just listening.
Near Metros, on-street parking

Address

The Henley Park Hotel

926 Massachusetts Ave. NW

Washington DC 20001

Martin Luther king Jr. Memorial Celebration Cruises

August 24th, 2011 at 12:00 PM

Tel: 866.404.8439

On August 24 and August 25, the Odyssey and the Spirit of Washington are celebrating the historic dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial with memorable civil rights-inspired cruises. Guest will enjoy music and live entertainment from the Civil Rights Era, special narration highlighting Martin Luther King Jr.’s achievements, creative plated cuisine and monumental views. For cruise details, directions or to make reservations, visit www.entertainmentcruises.com or call 866.404.8439

Address

Entertainment Cruises

6th and Water Streets,

SW Washington, D.C.

(three blocks from Metro via the Waterfront Station on the Green line)

UNLEASH AT ROOF TERRACE RESTAURANT’S DOG DAYS OF SUMMER CELEBRATION: BBQ & BREW BASH

August 25th, 2011 at 07:00 AM

$40 per person

Tel: 202- 416-8555

Roof Terrace Restaurant & Bar invites you to wash away the work week with a few beers and BBQ favorites. The sun is sizzling, the days are long – here’s an excuse to let loose. Reservations are required; business attire is not. Dog Days of Summer is part of Roof Terrace Restaurant’s monthly Wine & Cultural Celebration Series, in which patrons are invited to experience wines, beers or spirits of a particular type or region, paired with food and entertainment.

Address

Roof Terrace Restaurant

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

2700 F Street

Washington, DC

www.roofterracerestaurant.com

Gary Tischler • August 24, 2011

You’re not likely to hear The Three Stooges and Anton Chekhov mentioned in the same conversation. Yet I found myself thinking of Curly and Moe, and Laurel and Hardy, for that matter, and maybe even Lucille Ball at odd moments during the Sidney Theatre Company’s electric, very energetic, and yes, very funny, production of “Uncle Vanya” at the Kennedy Center.

Chekhov, the Russian master of the short story and theater, reportedly insisted that his plays were comedies of a kind. Director Tamas Ascher and his Sidney Theater ensemble cast certainly found a lot of rough and tumble, physical and sly comedy in “Uncle Vanya”, without diluting what is basically a comic tragedy. You laugh, you cry, you watch the twilight preceding the night.

This production—with a stellar cast headed by but not dominated by Oscar-winning movie actress Cate Blanchett, who runs the company with husband Andrew Upton, noted for his adaptation of “The Cherry Orchard”—is an electric, combustible staging, always entertaining to watch for its physicality, for its portrait of a group of people in frustrated mourning for the missed opportunities of their lives.

If there is a slight tic in this production, it’s probably the setting. Ascher has decided to put Chekhov’s 19th-century Russians-on-the-country-estate into Soviet times, a move that’s not particularly comfortable if you pay too much attention to it. These people—so enmeshed in their beat of their personal but also universal soul—wouldn’t have lasted a weekend under Stalin, the wrecker of the individual soul on a grand scale. You hear a car horn hiccupping, the sound of a motor, and some of the clothing could be modern, if threadbare, especially Yelenda’s two little clingy somethings, basic hunger-inducing outfits in white and red, ruled over by teased white-blond curls.

Basically, you know where you are: Chekhov country, which is to say the denizens and residents of a floundering estate losing their grip on the property and land, barely getting by, yearning for the past and love and success never found. In short, there’s a quasi-intellectual (a pompous professor in theis case), a hopeful young person, a frustrated middle-aged romantic, a cynic of sorts, and a glamorous, diva-like woman around whom the twilight sun of the setting and every one in it moves, plus the odd relative, hanger-on, old man who remembers back in the day.

In Chekhov’s plays—which are really about people’s inability to adjust to social and economic changes like the end of serfdom, the rise of the middle class and the struggle to keep up old habits and appearances—the emphasis shifts and moves around like a game of sad tag. The craziest, most tortured, and erratic spokesman of the frustrations of change and a sudden clarity of vision is Vanya, who for years has kept up the estate for the absentee landlord—the puffed up clueless Serebyakov, a man whom he admired only to find him an empty suit.

The professor has arrived at the shabby estate with his stunning, much younger wife Yelena (Blanchett), who manages to disturb the numbing routine of the estate. Like a witch high on speed, she wreaks havoc among the residents: Vanya realizes he’ll never have her, the good Doctor develops an almost uncontrollable lust/love for her, and even the practical Sonya finds a new BFF in the jittery diva that’s been placed in their midst. On top of that the professor has plans for the estate, which he can’t afford to hang on to.

Money, feverish promise of sex, romance and love, the impending loss of status and property, shifting relationships and a terrible longing for the past—these are all familiar Chekhov tropes. Usually, they’re played out an atmosphere of waiting, a kind of poetic languor interrupted by bursts of high drama, the revelation of secrets and even a gunshot (“The Seagull).

There’s a gunshot in “Uncle Vanya” too, but it’s one of the more splasticky moments in the play when Vanya attempts to shoot the professor because he has Yelena, because “he’s added nothing to nothing,” intellectually. Like Oliver Hardy, he misses in three tries. Richard Roxburgh as Vanya is a study in epic frustration, exasperation, he flounders like a fish, his arms and hands are prayers, they’re moving around in electric supplication.

In the midst of all this Yelena is like a moth, who recognizes that every one wants to touch her, it’s essentially all she’s got to offer. She even touches herself as if to guard against some imagined winter storm. She fends off the doctor, she puts off Vanya and doles out her affections in small bursts, so as not to excite a fever. When her husband demands a kiss, she swoops in like a mother bird feeding her chick a worm.

It’s a feverish performance, all tangled up in her thin, elongated body which is never still, its as if she were constantly eying the rooms of the estate for escape hatches.

Haley McElhinney as Sonya sports a broad Aussie accent, but somehow it doesn’t matter—her performance is so natural, so true and strong, that she could speak in another language altogether and still be understood.

In the end, people leave, people stay, as if the soul of the once-great estate had evaporated.

This “Uncle Vanya”completes the set for this writer, in the sense that I can now say I’ve seen the Chekhov plays in versions that are immensely satisfying. If Upton’s and Ascher’s version is a stylistic departure in terms of physicality, energy and the spice of comedy, it brings a freshness to Chekhov, a new, or rather additional way of experiencing the plays. The production can stand beside my particular favorites: The Studio Theater’s and Joy Zinoman’s elegiac version of “The Three Sisters”, along with Zelda Fichandler’s classic production of the same play; Zinoman again with the rarely seen “Ivanov”, which opened the Studio’s new space; the David Mamet translation of “The Cherry Orchard” at Round House Theater and last, but not least, the iconoclastic director Peter Sellars’ just-about-perfect version of “A Seagull”, which was the late Colleen Dewhurst’s shining moment as the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and featured Kevin Spacey, Kelly McGillis and Paul Winfield in an outstanding cast at the time when the Kennedy Center was attempting to create a national theater.

Lara Mitra •

Washington D.C.’s Restaurant Week provides a rare opportunity for residents and visitors to taste food from a diverse group of DC’s finest restaurants at affordable prices. Between August 15 and 21, over 200 local restaurants will serve 3-course lunches for $20.11 and 3-course dinners for $35.11. The cuisines offered this year include French, Italian, Mexican, Pan-Asia, Mediterranean and many more.

Participating Restaurants located in Georgetown

American:

1789 Restaurant features classic American dishes and was voted one of “America’s Top Tables” by readers of Gourmet magazine. Diners sit in one of six elegant dining rooms filled with historical prints and American antiques. Offers dinner only.

Chef Geoff’s, described by the lead chef as a “neighborhood restaurant,” is known for its Contemporary American dining, which includes dishes such as “Slow Roasted Beef Brisket” and “Big Shrimp and Very Gouda Grits.” Choose from indoor, outdoor or bar seating.

Juniper at the Fairmont Washington DC is a Contemporary American restaurant that uses sustainable ingredients to create traditional American dishes with a modern twist. Enjoy a range of classic comfort foods presented in creative and artistic ways.

Thunder Burger & Bar, recognized for its juicy signature burgers, is an edgy and energetic restaurant, perfect for intimate dates or large family gatherings.

Bourbon Steak, a Contemporary American restaurant located in the Four Seasons Hotel, serves award-winning butter-poached meat and elegant seafood dishes. Offers lunch only.

French:

Bistro Francais is a cozy spot that features authentic French dishes in a warm and relaxed atmosphere. Open until three am or later, Bistro Francais is the perfect place to go for a late-night snack. The restaurant offers an extensive French and American wine collection.

Bistrot Lepic & Wine Bar, a charming restaurant located in Upper Georgetown, offers French seafood and poultry dishes. The dim-lit wine bar is a favorite for intimate dates.

Cafe Bonaparte, praised as the “quintessential European café,” is an intimate French café with indoor and outdoor seating that serves award-winning fruit and Nutella crepes and French coffees.

La Chaumiere resembles a French inn, with tables surrounding a central fireplace and bottles of French wine resting on wooden beams around the restaurant. Diners enjoy award-winning French food in a comfortable, relaxed environment where all feel welcomed.

International:

Mie N Yu is a lively and exotic restaurant where dining areas are decorated to complement the diverse range of international foods. Diners can enjoy their meal in a vibrant Moroccan Bazaar or a traditional Turkish Tent. At Mie N Yu one not only eats unique and delicious foods, but also experiences the culture of another part of the world. Offers dinner only.

Italian:

Café Milano, known to attract a number of diplomats, lawmakers, and entertainers alike, offers first-class Italian food in a sophisticated and elegant dining room. Offers lunch only.

Il Canale features authentic food from Southern Italy, including gourmet thin-crust pizza, baked in ovens imported from Naples. Il Canale is rumored to be one of the top spots in D.C. where Italians prefer to get Italian food.

Paolo’s Ristorante combines classical Italian cuisine with modern Californian flavors to create their well-known pizzas and pastas. Diners can watch as the chefs prepare their meal in the open kitchen. Offers dinner only.

Ristorante Piccolo is a romantic Italian restaurant, which is often the site of intimate dates and marriage proposals. The numerous fireplaces, handcrafted art and textiles contribute to its warm and cozy atmosphere.

Mediterranean:

Neyla features a diverse variety of food from countries across the Mediterranean, including Egypt, Greece, Lebanon and Turkey. Neyla serves exotic and flavorful mezza, which is ideal for sharing, and charcoal-grilled kebabs.

Seafood:

Sea Catch, located right along the C&O Canal, is known for its fresh seafood and friendly ambiance. The Deck overlooking the canal is a great place to catch the summer breeze while cooling down with some fresh clams or mussels from the raw bar.

Sequoia, with its sprawling, three-tier outdoor terrace overlooking the Potomac River, is a first-class American restaurant, specializing in seafood. Enjoy views of the Kennedy Center and Watergate Hotel while dining here.

Spanish:

Bodega Spanish Tapas & Lounge offers an extensive variety of Spanish tapas, paellas and Sangria. Diners can taste the well-known garlic shrimp tapas, while drinking Cava, a Spanish sparkling wine. Alcoves provide the perfect place to create an intimate setting, while the long dining room tables are ideal for larger groups.

To Learn of other restuarants visit restaurantweekmetrodc.org

Robert Devaney •

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.

Georgetowner • August 17, 2011

Park after Dark, a benefit promoting the C&O Canal National Historical Park, will be held Sept. 24 on the grounds of the Great Falls Tavern. Tickets will be $150, although $115 of that price is tax deductable, and can be purchased online at ParkAfterDark.org.

Guests who come out in “Towpath Chic” attire will be treated to an awards ceremony, when the William O. Douglas Award will be given honoring the Friends of the Historic Great Falls Tavern, music performed by the 19th Street Band, chili, cornbread and Firehook Bakery, and an auction of “unique park experience packages.”

Honorary co-chairs of the event include Governor Martin O’Malley, Senator Ben Cardin and Congressman Chris Van Hollen. Hosts include: Frieda and Pierre Abushacra, Lee and David Altobello, Liz Barratt-Brown and Bos Dewy, Jody Bolz and Brad Northrup, Peter Bross, Heidi and Bill Bumpers, Denise and Michael Cetta, Andrew Chod, Laura and Bobby Foose, Hailey and Chris Hanessian, Liz and Don Harrison, Sydney and Peter McKelvy, Susan and Dan Pereles, Kirsten and Brett Quigley, Margo Reid and Greg Simon, Roy Sewell, Jeanne and Bobby Srour, Cindy and Guy Steuart, Mac Thornton and Mary Jo Veverka.
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Jeff Malet •

Radek Stepanek, of The Czech Republic, upset top seed Gael Monfils, of France, at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. Stepanek earned a check for $264,000 for his fifth career title, and at 32 became the oldest winner of the ATP Washington Classic since 35 year old Jimmy Connors in 1988. The matches were held between July 31 and August 7, 2011 at the William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park in Washington DC. You can view photos from the entire tournament by clicking on the slideshow below. (All photos by Jeff Malet). [gallery ids="100255,106794,106799,106804,106809,106814,106819,106824,106829,106834,106789,106784,106855,106851,106759,106847,106764,106843,106769,106774,106779,106839" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

Some time ago, when Woolly Mammoth Theatre first staged a production of “Clybourne Park” by Bruce Norris, it was doing something very much in the Woolly tradition. That is, a Washington premiere, a topical, ice-pick witty and emotionally pulling play by a gifted young writer which seemed to echo especially in D.C., as real as a stopped Metro escalator, even though it was set in Chicago.

Now “Clybourne Park” is back, complete with its original D.C. cast under the direction of Woolly artistic honcho Howard Shalwitz, after a successful stint in New York, and more than that, after winning a Pulitzer Prize for Norris

If you didn’t see “Clybourne” the first time around, please, please go see it—you’re in for a terrific play that encompasses ideas about how we lived yesterday, and today, in race-haunted America. Here in Washington, once known as “Chocolate City” for its long-standing African American majority population now drifting ever more towards vanilla, the themes of “Clybourne Park” resonate loudly.

Norris took his jumping point from Lorraine Hansberry’s classic 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun” and it’s set in the same house occupied by the African American family of that play.

In “Clybourne Park” we see a white couple packing up—knick knacks, boxes, dishes and the like while the black cleaning lady looks on in the early 1950s. Soon, there’s another couple in the house, headed by a weasely, high-energy and bursting with rationalizations Rotarian named Carl and his deaf and pregnant wife. Turns out that Russ and Bev, the soon-to-be-moving couple, have sold their house to a black family and that’s got the Rotarian and the local minister fit to be tied.

This is the 1950s and Russ and Bev aren’t trying to be enlightened liberals—their real estate agent is more to blame here, and besides, the couple are more focused on their own sorrows than what might happen if black people move in, and move in, it appears, they will. Carl, the minister and Russ start to bicker, to argue, and all of the latent fears of the white neighborhood start to come to the surface like muck after a rainstorm. Carl—played with sharp and sly energy by Cody Nickell—is like a sharp-edged mouser on the hunt. He keeps coming back, talking about cultural differences, real estate values, all the racial clichés of the 1950s couched in euphemisms—“Do you ski?” he asks the housekeeper’s husband, as if that made all the difference in the world.

The second part of the play skips to the present time, same place, same house, and a reverse situation which sees a prosperous, adamantly liberal white couple about to buy the house which is part of a predominantly black neighborhood now. If that’s not a Washington story, it sure could be. The white couple are played with a kind of eager hipness, full of PC values held dearly but with a back-breaking fuzziness, by Nickell and Kimberly Gilbert, who were the couple opposing the sale in the first half.

Kevin and Lena, a black couple played Jefferson A. Russell and Dawn Ursula with great depth and edge are flying the flag of neighborhood history and tradition, which is to say black history and tradition. The issues—actually one issue—are the same: race in America and why can’t we just get along and live together or at least side by side. Because, Norris suggests, we don’t know how to talk about race, not only in our own homes, but in our day to day dealings with each other

Everyone, no matter how they dress or how cool and tolerant they are in the 21st century, walks with open wounds. If euphemism and personal tragedy carry the day in the first act, not-so-well-hidden cultural historic values and resentment emerges like grenades, in the form of jokes that are more than jokes, they’re weapons of choice.

Norris – who also wrote the Woolly Mammoth staged “The Unmentionables,” a play about how Westerners are still the elephant in the china shop in modern Africa – uses comedy to open up in slashing style old wounds and lets them bleed out.

Everyone in the play doubles up on parts, but in the first act, Jennifer Mendenhall and Mitch Hebert own not only the house but the audience, both dealing with loss and change. Mendenhall especially reminds us that she is one of Washington’s finest actresses as Bev, exasperated, bleeding inside, barely holding together with habits masquerading as normal. Hebert is like a lean, tense, electric cord of a man unable to shake off the past, thoughtless about the future.

Best to watch yourself and your fellow audience members during the course of the play, you might be thinking though and looking around—which joke should you laugh out and how loudly?

What’s so good about the actors, about Norris, about the production, is that you’re never seeing anybody as less than an authentic human being. And that’s why you look around, and that’s why “Clybourne Park” stays with you. (“Clybourne Park” will run through August 14)