Last Thursday, I got a sneak peek of Craft Spirit of Poe, a gothic cocktail fundraiser that challenges local mixologists to author bespoke cocktails inspired by Edgar Allen Poe stories. Proceeds from the event benefit Les Dames d'Escoffier DC's scholarship and grant programs for women in the food, beverage and hospitality industries. On Thursday, judges Chantal Tseng (Red Eye Menu), Derek Brown (Drink Co.), Kelly Magyarics (Craft Spirit Exchange) and Emily Heil (Washington Post) had the difficult task of tasting and evaluating 12 different concoctions and interpreations of Poe. The main event will take October 6th, the day before the anniversary of Poe's death, at The Loft at 600F, and ...
Just for Fun
Wine Wednesday – Washington Nationals Cabernet
Even though you can buy little individual bottles of wine at Nationals Park, I really can't say that I would ever associate baseball with wine. And yet, Major League Baseball just got into the wine business with the launch of its own line-up of baseball teams branded wine. According to Fast Company, MLB couldn't get into the beer business because of its exclusivity deal with Budweiser. But wine was fair game and so in 2014, the Giants, Yankees, Mariners, Red Sox, Rangers, Phillies, and Cubs got their own custom blends and branded bottles. Obviously, there are baseball fans who are also wine fans because the program was successful enough to be extended to 13 additional teams this year, ...
Cheer on These Three Frenchies at DC’s Citi Open Tournament
Today is the first day of the new Citi Open tennis tournament in Washington, D.C.! Formerly known as the Washington Open and, more recently, the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, the tournament still takes place at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center. It's an official ATP and WATP event like the US Open in New York, though it's not considered a Grand Slam so it doesn't typically doesn't attract top players. Nonetheless, Andy Murray and Marin Cilic have made the trip to Washington, as have 4 French players: Richard Gasquet, who recently upset Stan Wawrinka in an epic five sets battle to join Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray in the semi-finals at Wimbledon; Alizé Cornet and Kristina ...
Dîner en Blanc – New York Edition
Last night, I joined 5,000 revelers at Pier 26 in Tribeca for the fifth edition of New York's Dîner en Blanc. Being involved with the DC event, which this year will take place on August 29th and involve 2,500 guests, I can appreciate the sheer logistics of getting all of us, carrying our own tables, chairs, tableware, centerpieces and food, there! Our evening started at Washington Square Park, one of 24 meeting spots throughout the city. Well, really it started on a bus to New York... but let's not go there ;-) Following a quick glass of rosé on tap at Claudette (no it wasn't weird at all to show up there with 2 chairs, I swear...), my friend Caitlin and I met Katie, our very ...
Postcard from the Twin Cities: Peanuts Statues in Rice Park
I probably own one of the world's most traveled Snoopy. First, he made his way from China to France in my mother's suitcase. Then, I dragged him on all my trips as a kid, from Greece to Senegal... he even got to head back to China and see the great wall ;-) Many years later, as I visited Minneapolis-Saint Paul for the 2008 Republican National Convention I was stoked to be welcomed into the city by these two statues of my childhood bestie and travel buddy at the airport: These Snoopies, I learned, were part of Peanuts On Parade, a tribute to Minneapolis native Charles M. Schulz, that ran shortly after his death in 2000. 101 5-foot tall fiberglass statues of Snoopy were created, sponsored ...
Cat-Ladying at Crumbs & Whiskers
This isn't my first cat café post - cue in my previous posts on New York's Meow Parlour and Paris' Café des Chats. It's not even my first post about Crumbs and Whiskers - see post on the launch of its kickstarter campaign. But it is my first post on DC's eagerly anticipated cat café since it opened. And it's my first post since actually going there!! My friend Cecile who writes The Worldly Bites has Gentlemeow Club member status so we snagged 2 weeknight spots during opening month and went to go play with the kittiens last night. Let me take you through our experience at Crumbs and Whiskers... Cat café is actually a bit of a misnomer when it comes to Crumbs and Whiskers. Yes, ...
Hermione & the Spirit of Lafayette Back in the US
Nope, I'm not talking about a Hermione Granger, the Harry Potter character, but Hermione, the Frigate of Freedom, a ship. The replica of the ship that brought the Marquis de Lafayette to the United State some 235 years ago to carry the message from King Louis XVI that France was going to aid the colonies. In 1997, a group of people came up with the idea of reconstructing the frigate using the same building methods applied in the original. Some 17 years later, on April 18, 2015, she left Rochefort in France to set sail for Virginia and retrace a journey through American history. For the past month, L'Hermione plied across the Atlantic, retracing Lafayette's journey. She's set to arrive in ...
Discover the Wines of the Languedoc Region
Is it August yet? I'll be traveling to Montpellier, Bezier and Carcassonne in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in a few weeks and I can't wait!! The Languedoc isn't as famous when it comes to wine as say Burgundy or Champagne, but the Southwestern French region is one of the largest and oldest wine-producing area in France. Two wines that I personally love from the Languedoc are Corbière reds and rosés. The Languedoc, which spans the Mediterranean coastline from Provence to the France’s border with Spain, enjoys a warm and sunny weather, with 320 days of sunshine a year, and produces some wonderful rosés. Since today is #LanguedocDay, an occasion for wine lovers around the world ...
Happy St. Honoré to all the bakers & pastry chefs
The Catholic Church has a long tradition of assigning saints as special guardians and protectors of different trades and professions, and bakers and pastry chefs are no exception! Saint Honoré, the former Bishop of Amiens in the North of France, is revered by bakers as their patron saint, in part due to a church that was built in his honor in 1202 that became the site of the bakers' guilt. Technically, the patron saint of pastry chefs is St. Michel. But the line between boulangers (bakers) and pâtissiers (pastry chefs) is often blurred in France, with most boulangeries selling pastries in addition to bread. The St. Honoré also happens to be a delicious dessert made of cream puffs, puff ...
Pick Your Own Tulips at Burnside Farms
Tulips are a beautiful symbol of spring. In Washington, tulips typically bloom right after the cherry blossoms have come and gone, but they were a little late this year, probably because we've had such a cold spring. Over the past 2 weeks though, their vibrant colours have been on full display across the city. And just outside of the District, a quick 45 minutes drive away, a farm in Haymarket, Virginia, plays host to one of largest pick-your-own tulips festival in the United States. Nicknamed "Holland in Haymarket," the festival typically runs late April to mid-May, depending on when the flowers actually bloom. Visitors pay an entrance fee of $3.00, and then there's a cost per stem ...
