Connecticut Avenue

Schlotzky's becomes Acacia

2009-07-27T10:49:00.002-04:00

I stuck by Schlotzky's side when lots of sandwich shop competition arrived in the neighborhood, but, alas, it was not to be and Schlotzky's departed. Now, Acacia Bistro has opened in the Schlotzky spot and it is good. A well-stocked bar (and this area could use another bar to belly up to) combines with a menu loaded with a variety of Mediterranean-based small plates plus a few big plates. Outdoor tables are also available.

Lots of small plates to choose from. There were four of us and we had meatballs, fingerling potatoes, a prosciutto, melon, mozzarella combination, and one of us had a big plate of steak and french fries. All good, all tasty, but we barely scratched the surface of the menu so we plan on returning to try other dishes. Those of you who have lived in the neighborhood for a while may remember Liliana's Trattoria in the place now occupied by the Italian Pizza Kitchen. Well, our waitress told us the owner of Acacia is Liliana's son and Liliana now makes the desserts for Acacia.

I think Acacia is a welcome addition to the area, plus they make paninis and other sandwiches which softens the blow of losing Schlotzkys. Now the Van Ness area has a good Indian restaurant (Indian Ocean) and a good Mediterranean restaurant. Let's hope they last a long time.

ConnAve in the News

2009-01-13T15:17:00.002-05:00

A little traffic-stopping drama in Cleveland Park this morning was all started, I believe, by a badly parked SUV blocking a lane of traffic. Who woulda thought? But something about this vehicle made the police bring the bomb sniffing dogs to give the vehicle the once over. The dogs, however, decided there was more interesting smells in a van parked nearby. That was enough to bring the bomb squad and to close down Connecticut Avenue between Porter Street and Cathedral Avenue.

I was getting ready for work this morning and the guy on the radio said, "The Cleveland Park Metro is closed!" I took that to mean no trains were passing through which is not good for me as I get on the train at Van Ness and get off at Metro Center. The voice also said shuttle buses were standing by waiting to whisk me off to Dupont Circle (via the back streets I assume).

I thought I would check the train first -- mainly because there was, of course, no sight of a shuttle bus -- and it turned out the train was the best choice. When the guy on the radio said Cleveland Park was closed, he meant closed to pedestrians because they couldn't get anywhere near the station. Trains were actually whizzing through the station.

Not only was there less drama than usual on the train -- there's usually some drama on public transportation -- but the train didn't stop at Cleveland Park or Woodley Park, thereby getting me to Metro Center even faster than usual. So what started out with me cursing public transportation at home turned out to be a decent ride on a nearly empty train.

The interesting smells from the van turned out to be some kind of cleaning solution -- it seems this can confuse bomb-sniffing dogs. Everything was back to normal a couple of hours later.

The cars return to Sam's Park & Shop

2008-11-24T09:54:00.004-05:00

A couple of new places opened up in Sam's Park & Shop recently: the Potomac River Running Store a couple of weeks ago and, next door, Yogiberry on Friday, November 21, 2008. They replaced Whatsa Bagel and Fosters Coffee respectively.

When I walked into Potomac River both the guy and girl behind the counter glanced at my face and then I saw both of them look down at my ratty old sneakers. Potomac River sells all kinds of sports apparel but specialize in shoes. There’s another shoe store just down the block called Foot Solutions so I guess we might have a little competition on our hands (or feet) in the Cleveland Park region.

I tried Yogiberry on Sunday -- two days after they opened -- and it's a cool looking place. Each wall has a different decor: vertical multi-colored stripes on one wall, a wall of things jutting out in a bas-relief that look like smoothed over stones for Braille readers, squares of mirrored tile on another wall and high and wide windows on the side facing the street. The floor wasn't overlooked by the designer either, it's all pebbles. Not loose pebbles, they're stuck in place, and they're all small -- very interesting effect.

The yogurt was good as well, I had the green tea yogurt with three toppings: blueberry, mango, and mochi. I forget what the guy said mochi was but it and the mango were chewy and flavorful and, combined with the blueberries, delicious. An 8 ounce tub was $6.75, with tax it came to $7:16.

We seem to be in the yogurt era at the moment with three shops opening in the Connecticut Avenue vicinity in the past few months. Despite the competition, I hope both Yogiberry and Potomac River Running are successful. After several months of looking at three holes in Sam's Park & Shop strip mall where businesses used to be, even if you hate yogurt and don't run, empty stores are good for no one.

And it only took two years!

2008-09-09T21:01:00.005-04:00

Two years later and Van Ness East's plaza has been unveiled. Well, mostly. The lobby area is now being renovated (good timing guys!) and so the main entrance to the building is still locked -- only one door is open into the building from the plaza. But hey, after two years of negotiating underground walkways and underground traffic and the hundreds if not thousands of times trying to get locked doors to open just to get out of the building, this is exciting stuff. No vehicles on the plaza for the moment either, they will have to keep going around to the back of the building until the lobby is finished.

The plaza is on top of a two level garage and I understand that part of the reason for the re-do was to fix structural problems. There used to be a large shallow pool area in the middle of the plaza and I guess that pool water was what would hit me in the head when I was walking through the underground garage. I also heard that another objective was to "round off" the severe, squared-off edges of the roadway. I really didn't have any problems with hard-edged corners so I sure hope the structural difficulties were fixed during the last twenty four months.

New Chinese Embassy Opens

2008-07-31T11:50:00.003-04:00

The new Chinese Embassy on Van Ness Street and the corner of International Drive across from the Israeli Embassy and across Van Ness Street from UDC has finally opened after more than three years of construction. This is even longer than it's taking to rebuild the plaza in front of my building -- no wait, the plaza ain't finished yet.

The embassy is huge, and not too interesting -- at least on the outside. I haven't heard anything about the Chinese allowing the masses inside to check it out. I remember the Mormon Temple was opened to the public for a weekend before going into lockdown, maybe the Chinese will do something similar.

I wonder if this means the old embassy in Kalorama is now up for grabs? And I guess the Tibet situation protesters and Falun Gong practitioners will have to move up the road three miles.

You cannot be Sirius!

2007-09-26T20:40:00.000-04:00

What once was the Sirius coffee shop next to UDC in Van Ness is now the Starbucks coffee shop. I guess Starbucks is one of the few outfits that has no trouble paying the out-of-this-world rents around here. I know Sirius couldn't handle it, just like, according to the Washington Post, the Dupont 5 movie house couldn't handle it.

So now there's at least one Starbucks in most of the Connecticut Avenue neighborhoods: Chevy Chase, Van Ness, Cleveland Park, Woodley Park, Dupont Circle, and Farragut North all have at least one. Only Forest Hills is lacking, although there's a coffee shop in the basement of Politics & Prose. It isn't a Starbucks -- at least, not yet.

That cloud looks like an Irish bar

2007-09-17T20:08:00.000-04:00

James Hoban's, an Irish restaurant and bar opened at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 17. I just happened to be wandering by about 4:15 and, in the interests of giving good blog entries of course, I decided to go in and sample the wares. The bartender asked me, "Is this your first time here?" Funny guy.

Hoban's is where Cloud used to be at 1 Dupont Circle and it's what an Irish born patron sitting next to me at the bar called, "an upscale Irish bar." And then he said, and I swear he said it, not me, "Now there's an oxymoron for you!"

The entire staff of about 30 people showed up that afternoon to get familiar with the place so they were tripping over themselves and certainly outnumbered the dozen or so patrons in the place when I was there. I had the Shepherd's Pie which was OK though a little dry and had obviously just been nuked because I singed my fingers on the plate. When one of the many black-shirted staff members asked me for about the fifth time, "Is everything OK," I told him about the dryness and he said, "Oooh, good feedback," and brought me a little bowl of gravy. Both the attitude and the gravy helped. The Guinness was good but, at six bucks a pint, too expensive.

The place looks like a lot of money went into the refurbishment and the owner, Patrick somebody, who came over to say hello, agreed. Though he lives in Ireland, Patrick owns restaurants in Philadelphia and Virginia and now D.C. So it's a brand spanking new restaurant with lots of light -- not filled with dark wood and twenty-watt bulbs like many so-called Irish bars -- friendly staff and a decent beer selection. I'm not sure which demographic they're after: it's not a sports bar, I only saw one television and that was tuned to golf during a Sunday afternoon filled with NFL games, it's not a bar with dart boards or pool tables, it's just a big, almost-in-the-round bar with lots of dining space and carpets on the floor!

Now whoever heard of carpets in an Irish bar?

Incidentally, speaking of Cloud, I was told the last entry in their log book was, "the police are on the way!"

Another Restaurant for Cleveland Park

2007-09-04T21:03:00.000-04:00

A new tapas restaurant called Sabores (Spanish for flavors) opened last week in Cleveland Park. It's slap bang next to Dino's, and how happy can Dino be about that? In fact, the outdoor Dino crowd was close enough to the (partially) outdoor Sabores customers to hold an inter-restaurant conversation. Unless or until Sabores gets a bigger sign they could well be thought of by passers-by as an extension of Dino.

Sabores is a pretty cool place: white marble tables with black chairs, subdued fluorescent lights that are always changing colors, and private enough to ignore your neighbors if you wish. There are flowers around the adjacent parking meters and that’s not a common sight. They have hot small plates, cold small plates, and large plates. They've also got a fairly long bar if your a bar stool person.

The space occupied by Sabores is an extension to the building (3435 Connecticut Avenue) which sits out on the sidewalk of Ordway Street. The space was, most recently, the Park Bench Pub and to go from the Bench to Sabores is quite a jump. If you were into college football and you didn't care about uneven, sloping floors then the Park Bench Pub had its charm. But, sadly, the Bench passed into history and was removed from the sidewalk. Now, the much classier Sabores is here, and yes, the floor has been leveled and evened out. Just as the Park Bench was both upstairs and down, so the Uptown Tavern folks (downstairs) are also the owners of Sabores (upstairs).

One side of the restaurant (the long side) was open to the street -- a great thing on a warm evening. The staff is friendly and welcoming, the food was tasty and varied, and the Argentinean wine I had was red, dry, and interesting. I'll go back for sure because I like the variety possible with small plates and, like I said, it’s a cool place, but I still miss the Park Bench -- and Bricks of course. Don't you?

What about us?

2007-08-21T20:18:00.000-04:00

It seems that every neighborhood of a block or more has a group these days where the residents can share information, experiences, and expertise. Every neighborhood, that is, but the Van Ness area. I know, I know, there is no "Van Ness" area, I believe its official name is North Cleveland Park though I can't imagine why. Why
isn't Cleveland Park known as South Van Ness? But wait, maybe that's another blog entry.

The Van Ness area I'm speaking about is, not surprisingly, around the Van Ness Metro station. There's a lot of houses and mounds of apartments in this area and, therefore, there's a lot of institutional knowledge residing in the neighborhood that could be shared.

So I've created a group for Van Ness area residents and you can find it here. You'll need a Yahoo email address but that's something you can easily get when you're joining the group. So don't hold back, come and share your neighborhood experiences.

Join vannessdc!

The Wearing of the Red

2007-08-12T17:55:00.001-04:00

Nanny O'Brien's was bought by Bedrock Companies earlier this year and a few changes have occured since then: the smell has pretty much gone, the stage is no longer level with the center of the bar, it's been moved down to the corner, and the exterior has been spruced up: the sign is now level and the place is a shiny shade of red. All they need now is more customers, I was in on a Saturday night about 9:30 and there was less than a dozen people drinking. So get in there for some fish and chips and a pint of Guinness, they could use your help.

Dive into the Indian Ocean

2007-08-05T20:33:00.000-04:00

Don't look now but the Indian Ocean on Connecticut Avenue in the Van Ness area has opened for business! Based on the way things have gone since Reidel's left, it's anyone's guess how long it will stay this way so get in there fast if you're a fan of Indian food. I first wrote about this place back in January when it was -- briefly -- the Coat of Arms. But as of Sunday, August 5, 2007, there it is: all the "North Indian Cuisine" you can shake a stick at. I hope to get in there later this week to give it a try so I'll add my thoughts to this entry by next weekend.

OK, here's the addendum. I'm not a food reviewer by any means, but folks, this was good. I'm told that Heritage India in Dupont Circle is one of the best Indian restaurants around and Indique in Cleveland Park is right up there as well while "Dhaba" as in Delhi Dhaba means "diner" or something like that, but the Indian Ocean was delightful. The menu is restricted for the first week or two -- about five entrees -- but is going to get a lot bigger as time goes by. Presently, the menu is a good introduction to north Indian cuisine. The owner, Raj, emphasized they use a healthy style of cooking; the portions were not huge, yet filling. On an important note -- for me -- they have wine and beer. Although the menu only lists wine bottle prices, you can buy by the glass -- for about seven bucks each.

You'll have to wait for a sensible review until Sietsma or some other foodie goes there but if I had to summarize -- and I do -- I would say this is a fairly upscale place -- for Van Ness anyway -- and if you like Indian food you're probably going to like this place -- get over there and give it a try. It was worth the wait.

No more Candey for you young lady!

2007-07-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

When a business goes away there's usually a certain amount of speculation among the local populace about what will be the replacement. One type of business often wished for is a hardware store. Well, we've only had two hardware stores in recent memory on or near Connecticut Avenue -- one left a few weeks ago and the other has just announced they are also calling it quits. True-Value Hardware was on P Street at Dupont Circle and they moved out a few weeks ago. Now Candey Hardware on 18th Street also at Dupont Circle is going away. What happened? Did we stop needing hardware? Or did Home Depot take all the customers?

The usual course of events, at least in this neck of the woods, is that the lease expires, the rent is jacked up to something other worldly, and the business either closes completely or moves. That's not the case with Candey, the family owns the building -- and now they plan to sell it. According to Candey owner Gwen Lofton in an interview with the Washington Post, the store has been losing "a hundred customers a day in the past few years." I don't know how you figure that out, but, regardless, it doesn't sound good.

Maybe some of these big drug stores could incorporate some of the more commonly needed hardware items into their inventory. Maybe CVS could lose some toothbrushes and sell some nails instead. How about dumping some of the thousand different tissue brands and getting some paint in their place? Maybe get rid of a few hundred types of deodorant and put in a few power tools.

But certainly, unless you're Home Depot, it's enough to give potential hardware store owners pause about taking the risk of starting up a business in the city.

One Video Store = One Sandwich Shop + One Bank

2007-06-24T13:26:00.000-04:00

What used to be the Video Warehouse in Van Ness is going to be the home of two businesses: Potbelly, which is already here, and Wachovia which is "Coming Soon." We know it's coming soon because the writing is on the wall. Why we're getting another Wachovia when there's already one three doors down is anyone's guess. Maybe they're out to eliminate that Sandwich Shop Capital of the World" moniker that the area is deservedly proud of and change it to, "Van Ness: it's a Wachovia World."

Nanny O'Billiards?

2007-01-30T20:29:00.000-05:00

January 30 is the last night for Nanny O'Briens bar in Cleveland Park. They're being taken over by Bedrock Companies, owners of Bedrock Bars. Bedrock already own Atomic Billiards and Aroma on the same block as Nanny's so maybe one day the strip will be called Bedrock Row. They also own Buffalo Billiards in Dupont Circle and lots of other places locally and around the country.

A Nanny's bartender said that Nanny's will be closed on Wednesday and back open on Thursday so don't look for wholesale changes. All they have time for I guess is to clean up a little and try to do something about that smell that's taken over since the smoking ban. Well something more than just leaving the front door open anyway. And maybe straighten the Nanny O'Brien's sign above the entrance. The word is that the St. Patrick's Day Parade fundraiser scheduled for Saturday, February 3 will go ahead as planned.

I never much cared for the name Nanny's although it's certainly recognizable -- there's only one Nanny's. Still, when I've said "I'm going to Nanny's" or "I spent the night at Nanny's last night," it always sounded to me like I'd been spending an inordinate amount of time with my grandmother. As long as they don't go through the identity crisis that the Four Provinces/Four P's/Four Green Fields/Ireland's Four Fields did across the road.

Bedrock claims they're going to keep the Irish music -- something I can happily live without -- but I can put up with it as long as they keep the Guinness. I'm going to take a stroll down Bedrock Row this weekend and check it out.

Coat of Arms pulled out of Indian Ocean -- signs of life detected

2007-01-28T20:22:00.000-05:00

I hate to keep writing about the same place but this is an odd duck. The Coat of Arms which, after being open for about a month, became the Indian Ocean, is now back to being the Coat of Arms again. Well, that's what the sign says, I couldn't actually find anyone to talk to about it. The awning people must be making a fortune off these folks.

I wonder what February holds.

Coat of Arms sinks into the Indian Ocean

2007-01-04T19:51:00.000-05:00

In what may be one of the fastest company turnarounds in Connecticut Avenue history, the Coat of Arms restaurant in Van Ness was bought out before it even opened. The Coat of Arms owner told me that a few days before the place was due to open, someone stopped by, took a look at the decor, and, "made an offer I couldn't refuse." That was in early December. The Coat of Arms opened on December 16 and the new place, Indian Ocean, opens January 5, 2007. So we're going from British food -- and I was there on opening day and had a very tasty shepherds pie --to Indian. The sign in the window says "seafood/Northern Indian cuisine" to be precise.

At least that's the way it was this afternoon, by the time you read this it might be a Taco Bell.

A Bigger Burke

2006-12-18T18:39:00.000-05:00

There's more Edmund Burke School these days than there used to be. Located on the corner of Upton Street and Connecticut Avenue in the Van Ness area, the new addition is standing on what used to be a patch of grass. The original portion of the school is on the extreme right of the "after" photo.

Whaddya say we skip work today?

2006-11-16T08:07:00.000-05:00

Metro rail was closed this morning (November 16, 2006) between Van Ness and Farragut North causing crowds of people to wait on Connecticut Avenue for shuttle buses.

It seems there was a loss of power between Dupont Circle and Woodley Park causing a train to stop. The approximately 75 passengers had to be led back to Dupont on a catwalk that runs beside the track. If any of those 75 are bloggers, I expect they'll have a catwalk story to tell a little later today.

Metro is now trying to find out why there was a loss of power.

Buses are also bringing people north to Van Ness and dropping them off so they can continue northwards on the train.

Lucky Van Ness to be the site of all this activity at 7 in the morning!

CVS Listens

2006-10-28T18:19:00.000-04:00

I don't know if the concept of "the customer is always right" ever went away, but if it did, well, it's back. We're living in an age where the customer gets what he wants or he goes elsewhere.

The Paradox of Choice pointed out the astonishing amount of options consumers have available to them on the shelves and also in the amount of places to buy those items whether in traditional stores or on the Web. Any organization that's unresponsive to today's customer might not stay in business for long.

An example of businesses working to keep customers happy, at least locally, can be found at the CVS in Cleveland Park. The store had large, colorful panels in its windows facing out to the street. You might have seen them: mostly red pieces, about 20x24 with CVS in yellow (or white) letters. Inoffensive, impractical, eye-catching blotches of color.

The Cleveland Park denizens, however, didn't much care for them and let CVS know that the windows might be even more attractive if the panels were replaced with photos of historical Cleveland Park. Well, lo and behold, fast-forward a few weeks and suddenly there's old-time Cleveland Park right there in the windows of CVS.

The photos are accompanied by short captions that are actually drawing passers-by in to examine the pictures and read the captions.

I don't think CVS burned any bridges or lost any customers by agreeing to this request. Well done CVS!

By the way, there's an egregious error on one of the captions. Get down there and see if you can figure it out!

This just in!

2006-09-24T16:39:00.000-04:00

We're very excited to imagine that Van Ness just might become the new leader in the race for the coveted title of Sandwich Shop Capital of the World.

The opening of Potbelly in late September brings the total of sandwich emporiums to seven on a strip of Connecticut Avenue about, oh, 150 yards long. Coming south from Albemarle Street we have Quiznos, Schlotzsky's, Subway and Potbelly (across the avenue from each other), Epicurean (actually a cafeteria style restaurant plus a bar but also heavily into sandwiches so work with me here people), and, maybe to stretch it a little, there's also Burger King and KFC/Taco Bell.

If we could just get another dry cleaners to go along with the four existing ones: Zips, Parklane, Diplomat, and Embassy, in that same strip of connave we could potentially get the Dynamite Double of Sandwich Shop and Dry Cleaner Capital of the World!

Where could Van Ness go from there? Well, a decent bar wouldn't go amiss.

Run it up the pole

2006-07-31T21:37:00.000-04:00

Pole cameras have made an appearance on Connecticut Avenue. Well, I've actually only seen one (pictured) and this one is close to the Broadmoor in Cleveland Park. The camera is pointing northwards seemingly aimed directly at the middle of the avenue. The police have said that the cameras are not for catching red light runners but are there as a crime deterrent. So, if you happen to get mugged in the middle of Connecticut Avenue just north of the Broadmoor, rest assured the perp will be be captured for posterity -- at least on camera.

Rumblings From Down Under

2006-04-29T17:22:00.000-04:00

OK, this isn't strictly about ConnAve, it's about Metro. But hey, the train goes under ConnAve and that's close enough for me.

I've ridden Metro for the last month so obviously I'm now an expert. This is not an anti-Metro rant; you can find plenty of that elsewhere. You want to hear about elevators and escalators that don't work? Late trains? Single tracking? Sorry, wrong blog.

What I have is a list of the things I find particularly annoying about my fellow travelers along with some advice for them. I suppose a “Ten Worst” list would be appropriate but I don’t have ten, I have nine. No anger management necessary here!

In no particular order:

1) Don't sit on the outside of seats in an attempt to keep me off "your" seat unless you want me crawling all over you. You're not really "special" enough to deserve that seat to yourself.

2) If you are the driver that says, "All aboard! Doors are closing." when actually, they're just now opening, and then repeat it at every station, and I mean EVERY station, well, don't be surprised if I run up to the front of the train one of these days and rip out your little microphone.

3) Keep your foot off that vertical pole when you're sitting on the inward facing seat unless you want your lower leg amputated.

4) What about the people who are so enormous that they take up two seats on their own. Do we need bigger seats? Or smaller humans? We already have seats designated as being available for people with disabilities or the elderly, maybe we should have fat seats that stretch most of the way across the train so the 300 pound and up crowd have a place for themselves.

5) Face front, and keep those feet tucked in! When you sit on the outside of the seat and stick your feet -- both of them! -- out there in the aisle, don't be shocked if those naked little tootsies get stomped on.

6) Hey! People that leave newspapers on the train! Why don't you save the paper and tomorrow, give it back to the person that gave it to you?

7) To the crowd of folks who get up two stops before Metro Center and stand next to the door so they can be first in line to burst out the doors and sprint off to another platform. Have you tried getting an earlier train?

8) To Mr. Hard O'Hearing who won't be happy until he's achieved total deafness, and so listens to his music at full blast so we can all hear that annoying, repetitive, tinny, racket all over the train. Thanks a lot Mr. O'Hearing! Here's to your eventual happiness. Come to think of it, why can you only hear the bass from a passing car when the volume is up at the deafening level, but it's only treble that leaks out of an iPod?

9) Please. Let's all liberally apply deodorant and suck on breath mints before boarding a crowded train.

Giant people seen at Van Ness

2006-03-26T21:53:00.000-05:00

Seven months after closing for renovations and enlarging, the Giant at Van Ness has re-opened and so far it looks good, at least on the first weekend. The place is considerably bigger than the previous incarnation, more colorful, inviting, friendly, and with a much larger choice of products. There are still two entrances, one from Connecticut Avenue and one from the Veazey Street garage. There are 12 checkout lanes, three of which are self-checkout.

The variety of drinks alone is astonishing. And over 200 types of cheese. Enough choice to drive a maximizer insane.

I read somewhere that Giant brings in experienced employees for store openings to ensure smooth running as well as the training of permanent staff so all bets are off what the place will be like in a couple of months but for now, welcome back Giant, you're looking good.

Egg Heaven

2006-03-26T21:44:00.000-05:00

My idea of a treat in Cleveland Park on an occasional weekend morning is an omelet from Firehook Bakery.

Walk into 3411 Connecticut Avenue across from the Uptown Theater between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m on a Saturday or Sunday and right inside the door you'll find the lady waiting to take care of your omelet desires.

She has more toppings than you'll need including ham, two types of cheese, red peppers, onions, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms. You can also go for bacon and hash browns on the side. A slice of freshly baked bread tops it all off and whaddya know, it's only $5.50. With or without toppings.

The bakery is a long, skinny place with two rows of tables and, way at the back, an outdoor area with some more places to sit and enjoy the food and some quiet time. Firehook's omelet is one of those treats you might not know about if you don't live in the area but it's well worth traveling for.

Put a lid on it!

2006-01-30T22:27:00.000-05:00

One of the Cleveland Park Metro exits got a
new roof over the escalator this weekend. I don't know a lot about escalators but you've got to figure that rain and escalators don't go together too well. And that probably goes a long way towards explaining those unintelligable announcements about escalator outages. At least I think that's what they're about. Maybe after they've settled on a new "Doors Closing" voice, they can give some thought to that voice that sounds like it's telling us something important but gets lost as it reverberates throughout the stations.

The escalator outage situation is so chronic that Metro has an Electronic Elevator Notification system in place where you can be sent electronically (as long as it stays dry and remains working), messages telling you of the current escalator status. Metro calls it ELLEN although I'm not sure how you get ELLEN out of Electronic Elevator Notification.

Back in 2001, Metro held a competition for the design of a canopy which was eventually won by a Silver Spring architectural firm. What is it with Metro and competitions? First canopies, now voices. How about they have an internal competition to see how safe and reliable they can make public transportation?

Anyway, before I get off track (no pun intended), Metro has figured out this escalator/weather problem and so Dupont Circle, Woodley Park, and now one side of Cleveland Park have all sprouted these rounded canopies. Metro says that 53 outdoor entrances will have canopies eventually.

So where should we drink tonight?

2006-01-05T21:23:00.000-05:00

There's been some odd naming of bars in the Cleveland Park area just lately. The Uptown Tavern for one. In most places, this wouldn't be a problem but when people refer to "the Uptown" in the Cleveland Park area, they're talking about the theater. So why try and compete with that? It's forcing us to use two words when bars should be known by one name, preferably with a maximum of six letters. Nanny's, for example. An odd name for a bar to be sure but when someone says, "I was at Nanny's last night," or I'll meet you at Nanny's at ten," chances are they're not talking about their grandmother. Try saying, "I'll see you at the Uptown on Friday night" to somebody and suddenly you've got a totally unnecessary conversation on your hands.

There's a load of restaurants in Cleveland Park that adhere to the one word name: Ardeo, Lavandou, Palena, Dino, Indique, Alero, Yanni's, and Spices for example. Pretentious sounding for sure, but the latest batch of watering holes could learn from their fancier, yet more simply named, brethren.

The late, lamented (at least by me) Bricks was another great name that caused no confusion. But the new owners decided to rename it the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? Five words and a mighty twenty-two letters. So what's the shorthand of that? CPB&G? Try saying, "I'm off to the CPB&G" out loud. Go ahead, I'll wait.
A common response will be, "what?" Or, from the less verbose, "huh?" And once again you have to explain yourself.

Even the Four P's (as everybody called it), though technically two words I suppose, didn't violate the six letter rule. But now, weighing in at three words and fifteen letters, the Four P's has become Four Green Fields. The best I can come up with is The Fields mainly because I know of an Irish bar in San Diego called The Field and that's a fun little place.

Still, whatever happened to Joe's?

So long, Ireland's Four Provinces . . .

2006-01-04T22:54:00.000-05:00

The Four P's is no more -- at least not in Cleveland Park. But fear not you Guinness swilling, wild, wild rovers. The bar is still there, it's just changed owners and got itself a new name. It's now known as Four Green Fields and has been bought by longtime Four P's General Manager, Frank Hughes. Part of the deal was on the understanding that the business name would be changed so as not to conflict with the Falls Church version of the Four Provinces.

So what do we call them? The Four G's? The Fields? Something tells me they'll be known far and wide as the Four P's for a while yet.

It's a puzzler . . .

2005-12-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

Lots of things I don't understand: How does the overhang at the Kennedy Center possibly stay up there? Who lives in the Kennedy-Warren? Why do people drive the way they do? (OK, I figure that last one is because they must have supreme faith in their brakes or their reflexes or maybe it's the "it could never happen to me" syndrome). I don't know, but here comes another one for me to puzzle over: why do people ignore intersections when trying to cross busy roads when they could take a couple of extra minutes to walk to the appropriate crossing area and continue living?

I witnessed a woman crossing Connecticut Avenue near Van Ness Metro station today at 8:45 a.m. -- rush hour -- and she took it one lane at a time. She waddled out one lane and stopped. Then, when she saw her chance she advanced across a second lane and stopped again. Now, I don't know if you've ever counted, but there's six of those lanes to get across and to do it one at a time at 8:45 on a Tuesday morning takes a special kind of faith that I can only dream of. There was the Veazey Street traffic light about 50 yards away but no! She was headed to a restaurant and maybe she could hear those waffles calling to her but man, I wanted to say, if you want to make it to lunch you might consider going the extra 50 yards and using the traffic signal over there at Veazey.

The other day a man was hit by a vehicle while crossing Connecticut Avenue close to the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park and not at a traffic light. Now, I feel bad for the guy -- he died later but not before our opportunistic police force slapped him with a five dollar jaywalking ticket -- but you know, if you're going to live dangerously, you shouldn't be shocked when danger comes to meet you. If you're going to attempt to cross a busy thoroughfare like Connecticut Avenue between two close-by traffic lights, then, like those aforementioned drivers and waffle lady, you've got to have a special faith in your good fortune that day.

There's a traffic light at Ordway and there's a traffic light at Macomb. Now there's a move afoot to stick a crosswalk between those lights in the vicinity of the Theater. I don't know if this crosswalk would have a traffic light or not but if it does we can look forward to a complete logjam of vehicles right there in the middle of Cleveland Park. But then, I suppose, a logjam would remove any danger in crossing the road. Or maybe there won't be a traffic light installed, they'll give us flags instead like at Morrison Street up at Chevy Chase. Now there's some faith! Grab a flag and wave it as you boldly step out into traffic.

In an altercation between a vehicle and a human, the human is usually on the losing end. If we don't have the time to go to the crosswalk then it might be time to slow down a little and take stock of our priorities.

Should we lose the Cleveland Park service road?

2005-11-13T14:33:00.000-05:00

Commissioner Avi Fechter of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C (ANC3C) is proposing to get rid of the service road on the east side of Connecticut Avenue between Ordway and Macomb Streets. There's a public meeting to discuss the subject on Saturday November 19 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the second district police station at the intersection of Idaho Avenue and Newark Street.

Mr. Fechter says, "Initial DDOT analysis indicate that it is possible to close the service road, widen the sidewalk, and not lose more than 3-4 public parking spaces. Parking spaces would be diagonal, like on 18th St. in Adams Morgan and 8th St. SE (Barracks Row). Cars would back into the spaces, like they would a parallel parking space." ANC3C will meet to disuss and maybe vote on the resolution on Monday, November 23.

Not a bad idea, the east side will look more like the west side: more space for pedestrians, more outdoor cafe type seating, no more stepping off the sidewalk and being clipped by a car. I don't suppose the valet car business will suffer any, in fact, because there will be a loss of "3-4 parking spaces," it will probably be more necessary than ever. I don't know about this diagonal parking space idea though. Stopping on ConnAve in the middle of Cleveland Park to back into a space is not for the faint of heart.

Mr. Fechter is also proposing adding a crosswalk over Connecticut Avenue in the middle of that block. I'm not sure that's necessary -- a crosswalk means a traffic light doesn't it? We're not going to try that orange flag thing again are we? Aren't the crosswalks at Ordway and Macomb enough?

Avi's also got a problem with Zipcar using metered parking spaces for their vehicles. But aren't car sharing services the saving grace for those city dwellers that only need wheels occasionally? Seems to me that outfits like Zipcar and Flexcar will encourage people to get rid of their barely used cars thereby potentially opening up parking spaces.

Well I followed her to the station, a suitcase in my hand . . .

2005-10-23T20:36:00.000-04:00

The popularity of blues is cyclical. It might be "in" for five years and "out" for eight. But plugging away through the ups and downs are the musicians on the local level, doing whatever it takes to play this authentic American art form that drives them, keeps them going.

Lots of cities have a bar or two devoted to the blues, sometimes it just takes a little searching. You don't have to be a sleuth in St Louis though, there's three blues bars within a stone's throw of Busch Stadium -- now the former home of the St. Louis Cardinals. Two of them are across the street from each other: BB's Jazz Blues & Soups and Beale on Broadway. One block down the road is the Broadway Oyster Bar. The bands that play here are mostly local and a few of them travel from one to the next of these three bars during the course of a week, making a kind of blues circle. Admission is usually free, and in the warm weather the bands at the Oyster Bar and at Beale play outside. Let me tell you, it doesn't get much better than sitting outside on a warm St. Louis summer evening, drinking some of the local brews and listening to someone singing the blues. A particular treat is to hear Kim Massie. She usually plays Beale on Broadway on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and she has a voice that has to be heard. The locals claim she sounds like a cross between Aretha Franklin and Etta James, and they're not far wrong.

Also in St. Louis is Soulard, a neighborhood that's a little off the tourist path but worth catching the bus for. It's a mostly residential neighborhood with some cobblestone streets and a bar on most corners. The bars often have two bands a day, Friday to Sunday, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. In recent years the music has changed somewhat, though, to try and attract bigger and younger crowds than the blues usually draws -- that's why sometimes you'll hear music written by Jim Morrison instead of by Willie Dixon or Muddy Waters.

Not just St. Louis of course. San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Austin, Kansas City, all have a thriving -- or at least, alive -- blues scene.

And D.C? Well, lucky for us, not only do we have a gen-u-wine blues bar but it's on Connecticut Avenue across from the zoo. Not surprisingly, it's called the Zoo Bar, and the music is live Thursday, Friday, Saturday and, just lately, Sunday nights. Sometimes there's some variation but usually, Friday and Saturday nights have the same bands on the same weeks of each month -- in other words, the band that plays on the first Saturday of the month always plays on the first Saturday of the month.

Well worth catching on the first Saturday is The Big Boy Little Band featuring the incomparable guitar playing of Rusty Bogart and on the last Saturday you can see Flatfoot Sam and the Educated Fools, a staple at the Zoo Bar for many years.

Thursday is jam night at the Zoo Bar and my favorite night. The house band, led by Big Boy Little, plays from about 8:30 to 9:00 or 9:30, and then everybody else gets to join in -- in an orderly kind of way of course. This is no usual jam night crowd of musicians, these people know their instruments and their music. It's sometimes close to astonishing to experience the quality
and diversity of the music played by these folks who come into the bar Thursday after Thursday for no pay, just for the thrill of playing the music in front of warm bodies.

There aren't a lot of national blues acts left touring -- Buddy Guy and B.B. King are close to the entire list -- so we have to rely more and more on our local musicians for a dose of the blues whether in the mid-west or D.C. The Zoo Bar is an underutilized Washington, D.C. gem right under our noses. It deserves our respect if only for hanging in there during the ups and downs of blues popularity.

And just so you don't get the wrong impression, I am in no way affiliated with the Zoo Bar, they don't know about this entry or even this blog. I wrote the above statements because I'm a blues fan, pure and simple.

Cleveland Park Bar & Grill Opens For Business

2005-10-08T11:03:00.000-04:00

As I drove through Cleveland Park last night on my way home from work I noticed a new "Now Open!" sign above what used to be Bricks and someone was taking down the paper that has covered the windows for the last few weeks. In the interests of bringing the latest news to my faithful readers, I later slogged through last night's torrential storm to the CP strip to take a look. What was Bricks is now the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill. The new owners (three of them!) have made a lot of changes: new wallpaper, snazzy mirrors, juke box, bench seats, wall paneling, flat-panel televisions, re-finished bar, etc., etc.

Friday night was what they called a "soft opening" -- no advertising, just friends and families had been told, but the Strip foot traffic even for such a wet and wild night helped to fill the place. I guess a lot of locals have missed the Park Bench and Bricks. Incidentally, the word is that the Park Bench will reopen in a couple of weeks as the Uptown Tavern.

The menu is far from complete but there's still the wood burning oven for the pizza, plus there's now a "Dinner Menu" involving steaks, burgers, salmon, and some Italian stuff. OK, so I'm not a restaurant critic. The opening night free pizza was fine but the crusts were consistantly burnt -- seems like the kitchen staff needs a bit more practice with the oven. But let's not forget, it was free.

Starters include Italian cold cuts, pizza bianca, bruschettas and salads. The desserts are listed under the heading of "Sugar," so do with that what you will although I noticed it involved such things as ice cream, tarts, brownies, and more ice cream.

Lots of wines available. The usual lineup of beers on tap including Guinness but unfortunately, no Bass so there go the black-and-tans.

Anyway, it's good to see the place back in business, and all you lost souls that have been roaming the area all summer with no place to go -- the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill is here for you.

That Maryland must be some kind of place . . .

2005-09-09T16:43:00.000-04:00

Every day I throw caution to the wind and travel the racetrack known as Rock Creek Parkway (RCP) -- twice. The Parkway in rush hour is a place to behold, four lanes of traffic either taking people home or to work. Either way, the Parkway makes it obvious why we call it rush hour. It seems everyone's either late for work or eager to get home.

Rock Creek Parkway is a pretty place, lots of trees, interesting bridges, people jogging or riding bicycles all of which has to be ignored in rush hour because the lanes are so narrow and so curvy in spots that if you take your eyes off the road for a second you're drifting over into the next lane which, of course, has an unforgiving SUV in it.

Of interest to the first time traveler on the Parkway are the traffic lights which must be obeyed and the traffic lights which must be ignored. Never fear, first time RCP traveler! If you stop, pause, or even just hesitate at the traffic lights which can be ignored our fellow racetrack drivers will provide subtle hints that you are in error. A traffic light which can be ignored (in the morning) is at the intersection of the Parkway Virginia Avenue near the Watergate that leads to Route 66. The light is there, it turns red, it must be ignored. How do you know? Well, one trip down the Parkway in the morning rush and one false step at the light which must be ignored and the chances are good that you'll never make that mistake again.

There's a traffic light outside the Kennedy Center that seems to have drivers fairly evenly divided about its status. It's not at an intersection and therefore appears to be solely for pedestrians. Hah! As if we cared about pedestrians! When this light turns red some drivers look for pedestrians (to avoid them of course, not to hit them) and, seeing none, continue as though it's definitely a light that can be ignored while others come to a stop (pedestrians or not) and risk the wrath of the first group.

It's interesting to see people's reactions when they're being beeped at by an irate driver at the light that can be ignored. Often, the beepee will look helplessly around for what it could be that they're doing wrong, never understanding and, usually, never budging until the light changes. Some will studiously ignore the beeping as if it couldn't possibly be aimed at them, some will raise both hands as if to say, 'I feel your pain but what can I do?' while the rest just whip out that magical finger and wave it all around in the hope the beeper gets a good look at it.

There's an interesting spot about halfway down the RCP where, in the afternoon, the Parkway divides, two lanes to the right, two to the left. At the dividing point I'm sometimes behind drivers for whom this division is a surprise. They'll be happily speeding along (and I mean speeding) and suddenly they're faced with this decision: left? Right? Right? Left? I've seen white-knuckled hands shaking the steering while the decision making process develops.

And then, also in the afternoons, there's the daily drama at that spot where the RCP becomes Beach Drive to the right and heads off to Connecticut Avenue to the left. Invariably, there's a long line of vehicles waiting to get onto Beach Drive. Most people not in that right lane will turn towards Connecticut Avenue. But there's always the few traveling in the moving lanes that want to get as close as possible to the separation point and then . . . cut in. We find out a lot about people at this point. First, we definitely know about those cutting in, right? But then there's the crowd in the line. Some of them will allow cutting in but others, damn it, have been sitting in that line forever and you're coming in front of me over my dead body, etc, etc. I'm afraid that may be the case one day. Just lately I've seen a couple of police cars staked out at that dividing point and pulling people over. I don't know if it's because of cutting in or out-of-date stickers or what but I hope it's because of cutting in.

I avoid all that excitement by taking the Cathedral Avenue exit and all its attendant potholes. The last stretch of Cathedral Avenue before reaching the traffic light at the intersection with Connecticut Avenue becomes two lanes. The light turns green and this is our equivalent of the starting flag at the Indy 500. Engines scream, smoke billows, the light turns green and we turn right -- sometimes on two wheels -- in a crazed attempt to reach the next light at the zoo (a good 100 yards away) before it turns red. On average the first four cars -- two per lane -- make it. I assume those that make it have smooth sailing up much of the avenue because of the synching of the traffic lights. I have to assume this because I usually get to the zoo just in time for the red light but that's OK, at least this way I get to examine the tourists as they cross in front of me. Hve you ever examined the tourists? Interesting group. But that's a topic for another day. This rant is about traffic.

We are now fanned out at the zoo light, four across waiting for that next starting flag to send us on our way to Maryland. Cleveland Park (and the checkered flag for some) is in the distant haze. A couple of hazards on Connecticut Avenue are on the edges but life on the edge I'm told, may be the riskiest but it's also the most exciting. If you're in the far right lane you run the risk of finding an illegally parked vehicle and possibly the police tow truck trying to get rid of it. This, of course, means you're going to attempt to move one lane over to avoid the parked car but run the risk of hitting someone in lane two -- quite possibly me because that's where I usually hide. People have missed my car by microns at 40 miles an hour in their nightly attempt to break the land speed record for the Cathedral Avenue to Chevy Chase race.

Go in the left hand lane and there's always the thrill of finding someone blissfully unaware of the lane setup so they're coming towards you also at 40 miles an hour. This situation produces the usual cacophany of horns but with a certain extra urgency as the cars close in on each other in this late afternoon game of chicken, Connecticut Avenue style. Driving in D.C. rush hour is not for the faint hearted or anyone over 60. It's bad enough out here without drivers having heart attacks. I gotta start taking public transportation.

We're Outta Here!

2005-08-09T21:28:00.000-04:00

Lots of business movement recently: Potomac Video, Amernick Bakery, Yanyu, Bricks, Park Bench, Uno's Pizzeria, etc., and that's just Connecticut Avenue in Cleveland Park! And lets not forget McDonalds which, the way it looks, may never open again.

So what's happening here? Bad management? Wrong business for the area? Rent too high? One or more of these reasons may be responsible for the demise of these businesses. It's not news to say that rents are exorbitant in Cleveland Park. Any potential business owner has to know they've got to either have a bottomless pit of cash or take in huge amounts of business every month. Or both. If the rents aren't made reasonable and affordable we'll continue to have a turnover of businesses at best and a ghost strip at worst.

So what kind of business do we want in Cleveland Park? I've heard everything from a butcher's shop to a hardware store. Just no more Irish bars, OK?

Van Ness loses its Giant

2005-08-05T17:42:00.000-04:00

The Giant at Van Ness is due to close soon for at least four months while the place is enlarged. It's not the best or biggest grocery store around -- in fact it won't be the biggest Giant around by a long shot even after the enlargement -- but it is the only show in town for many of the grocery store type items that people need. So what will Van Nessians do in the meantime?