chocolate
January 7th, 2010
Last weekend when Ty and Val were visiting, we checked out the chocolate and coffee shop ACKC on 14th Street. We’d walked by there many a time, but never poked our heads in. As it turns out, it’s a cute little place owned by Rob Kingsbury (the chocolatier) and Eric Nelson (the artist). When you walk in, you are bombarded with bright colors from the artwork on the walls and tons of tiny little morsels to make you drool. The photo above is a closeup of one of the many custom tabletops painted by Eric, which are pretty much awesome.
a well worn quaker.
November 27th, 2009
quaker - blue, originally uploaded by m hoek.
Street Vendors
January 12th, 2009
Inauguration Day is 8 days away — these street vendors are going to be busy in a week!
la di da
September 19th, 2008
Just a guy with an eye patch, singing and dancing for the masses….
“Watch for Specials” on M St, NE
May 13th, 2008
I love old signs that are still around, especially funny ones. This applies to anything with “-est” statements. “Coldest beer in town!” or Danny’s Sub Shop “Greatest Hamburger in the World.” Completely unverified statements do make really great slogans. Makes you wonder, hmmm, do they really have the coldest refrigerator?
my new grocery store
May 5th, 2008
The new Harris Teeter grocery store at 17th and Kalorama just might become my new place to shop for groceries. While I didn’t really see what made the H.T. any better than Giant, as all the hype claims, I did see this sign in the store on my way out. And it’s more than Giant can boast. And so maybe this means nothing, but it also means there is a possibility of seeing Chris Cooley shopping for bread and eggs, and this is where the potential lies. go skins go.
empanar : to wrap or coat in bread
April 24th, 2008
Julia’s Empanadas is not a DC foodie secret — I think everyone has been there at least once, whether it was stumbling in after a night at the bars, or just for a quick cheap lunch.
Read the reviews and it’s hard to find a bad word about the place. There’s a whole display case of freshly-made empanadas to choose from. Little balls of dough holding all sorts of deliciousness - Matt likes the Chilean Beef ones, and the veggie ones are scrumptious too. And then there is a whole dessert empanada sector that I haven’t even tried approaching - yet.
Funny story. Or maybe you had to be there, I can’t tell. Friend of ours walked in there with us somewhat late one night, he looked at the (already sealed-up) empanada pouches and ordered one, but “hold the onions.” The guy behind the counter, who had a tattoo on his forehead, shook his head. It’s not a made-to-order place. You get what you get. And you will love it!
Also pictured on the left, The Angry Inch, a notoriously obnoxious and overcrowded bar with a smelly upstairs and usually bad DJ.
Knockoffs and Old Ladies
April 10th, 2008
Ahhhhh behold the street cart full of crap for sale : knockoff Gucci handbags, cheap plastic sunglasses, and any three white DC tee-shirts for only $10 bucks. These old ladies cannot escape the allure of a good bargain!
In my opinion, the only things worth buying from the street vendor stands are hot dogs and Gatorades.
bookended
February 27th, 2008
We were blessed with some idle time on this blistery February night and decided to visit, appropriately, Idle Time Books in Adams Morgan. Located at the north end of the strip, this is a pleasant break from the typical 18th St. bar scene. It’s a great place to check out if you don’t have a specific book in mind or are just looking to spend a bit of time. Coming here with a certain book in mind, particularly a new release, would probably be an exercise in futility. None the less, there is something very enjoyable about aimlessly perusing around a musty used bookstore searching for that “diamond in the rough”.
Idle Time Books is 3 stories tall and seemed to be in fairly good order as far as subject matter of the books. The lower floor is primarily fiction, art/architecture, children’s books, and vintage notecards. Moving up to the second floor (which is really more of a landing on the stairs) is a large section of biographies. Idle Time’s upper story is home to the non-fiction books that covered topics like: the Official Rules of Leisure Sports, Russian history in the mid 1700’s, Freudian psychology, Alaskan Tours, Models of the Contemporary City, and pretty much everything in between.
A good way to spend a few hours on a slow evening.
pop the bubbly
February 25th, 2008
The Design Within Reach in Adams Morgan hosted the showing of the “champagne chairs” tonight with complementary bubbly and fine chocolate from Biagio. The Champagne Chair Contest is an annual event to make the best miniature chair using only the foil, label, cage and cork from no more than two Champagne bottles. Displayed in little 4″ Plexiglas cubes, the champagne chairs exhibited some pretty impressive craftsmanship. The DWR Staff winning pick (shown above) is made of what looks to be a ground cork/glue combo that has been meticulously and painstakingly sculpted into an elegant little chair.. The other chairs had a much more straight forward approach to using the cork. The popular-vote pick was this fun little chair.
Interesting/random little event with (miniature) furniture, bubbly, and chocolate. Doesn’t get much better.
