Flying to Columbia Heights just got easier

Thank you, Metro, for finally doing something to help us! Beginning New Years Eve, the Washington Metro Yellow Line will continue up the track to Ft. Totten, the end of the line the other train on the same track, the Green Line. This is great news! This means I can now hop on the Metro and go all the way to the airport without transferring. Eventually they'll even extend the Metro to Dulles (the Purple Line is supposed to happen by 2010, right?). Woo hoo! Thank you Jim Graham.

Proof, beware

I admit, I was thrilled to read about Proof, the wine bar coming in March. Thanks to Gallery Place Living for keeping us in the know. But I was more excited to hear a little rumor that a small wine bar is coming soon to Logan Circle. I wish I could tell you more, but it really is little more than a rumor at this point. A friend of the folks opening it promise it will be here soon.

Can anyone think of where? Stoney's has moved into the space recently vacated by P St. Bistro. Are there open spaces I'm blanking on?

Ask and you shall receive

What was that I was reading about there being no great Spanish restaurants in DC? Along comes news (thank you Metrocurean) that the folks behind Sonoma and Mendocino Grill are opening a Spanish gastropub (whatever that is) on 14th Street, not too far from home (mine, and perhaps yours). That is very exciting stuff. If Sonoma's meats are any indication of the quality of meat they will have at La Pata Negra, my mouth is watering.

Eating our way to San Fran

As if I was not excited enough about our trip to Maui in January, now I am getting just as pumped about the first two days of the trip - in San Francisco. The most exciting place I've found yet (and I've just started!) is Swan Oyster Depot.

I've been to SF a few times now, and the last most exciting place was Burrito Juan or something equally generic-sounding. I'm not kidding; this was the best burrito I've had yet (and I'm on a mission to try them all).

But the Swan Oyster Depot (no web site, of course) looks incomparable. How amazing, by the way, is Flickr? I'm so excited to try it... and of course will share when I get back. But I have six weeks left to drool...

Anyone have favorite restaurants in SF or Maui? Please leave a comment.

Seratonin bars in Chicago

See, and here I thought I had nothing to say. I just read about a new concept - the chocolate lounge. Thanks to Graphic Design USA for pointing it out, albeit in November 2005, and thanks to the ever-informative JOTW for passing it on.

First of all, of course this place is called Ethel's. Two of my great-grandmas were named Ethel. I don't think there is a more loving, Jewish-grandma-ish name out there.

And I love that they're open all over Chicago (there's a warm place in my heart for Chicago) because you really need to warm up there, and I hear the seratonin in chocolate helps with that. But most of all, since I rarely get to Chicago anymore, I really love that the only one outside of Chicago is in Las Vegas.

Oh, and lastly I love that someone is trying to take the Starbucks concept to a new food. Let's see if it works.

Returning

I'm thinking it's time to return to The Long Way Here. I'm not sure anyone is reading anymore, although I do get a monthly "statement" from my counter, and just about one person a month finds him or herself here. Who knows how... Even after almost a year, I'm not sure what to write. Maybe I'm not cut out for this blog thing. You have to have a lot to say. What do I have to say right now?

Requests? Dedications?

Taking Things Apart

Check out DCist's McGyver stunt on WMATA's SmartTrip card. Although maybe this is more Alton Brown (taking things apart) than McGyver (putting things together).

Shadowboxing

Check out a great article in the NYT about a 32-year old former graffiti artist who's now tracing shadows all around Brooklyn and Park Slope. One of those things that makes you think: man, why didn't I think of that? Of course, for me the answer is: because I can't draw to save my life.

DC to Join Non-Smoker Cities?

The DC city council votes today on whether to ban smoking as of Jan. 2007. A majority of councilmembers support the ban, and it is expected to pass. Maybe some of you can find the bill here. I can't. I did, however, get stuck on the "Luther Vandross Recognition Resolution of 2005."

New Restaurants In And Around DC

You can read about these elsewhere... or you can just read about them here.

• Rasika - Indian, near Chinatown. Apparently opening next week, Dec. 12. Chef Vikram Sundaram has come to DC from London's award-winning Bombay Brasserie, according to The List.
  
• Fogo de Chao - Finally, DC gets a churrascuria. For those of you still confused, that is Brazilian for lots of meat, delivered to your table on an "all you can eat" basis. It's a chain but looks promising. Coming THIS WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7!
• Zengo - recently opened. Billed as "modern Mexican" food, it seems frighteningly more like Mexican meets Asian.
• Open City - see post below for details on this new Woodley Park hangout by the owners of Tryst and the Diner
• Jin - yet another odd mix of Caribbean-Hawaiian. It's located on 14th Street, next to Busboys and Poets. Looks a bit Euro-trash for the neighborhood, but you can't judge a bar by its windows.

And sad to say, closings: Rumor (per the Washington Post) is both Blackie's and Lulu's Club Mardi Gras were recently sold. A new condo building is coming soon to the triangle of land across from Lulu's, and speculation was that the proprietors would try to get rid of the Bourbon Street-style club, but this doesn't quite seem like the right time, does it?

Tab Returns!

Coca Cola is planning to bring back Tab as an energy drink for women. I can't speak for everyone, but I think that is a fab idea. Or a totally radical idea. Pick your decade for a superlative.

Yay, Rent is Here!

Rent the movie is released. 'Nuf said.

When You Go Out...

You might as well go out in style. Take a look at these art coffins by Life Art, a company in Australia.

Morbid? I'm not sure. After all, if you're going to celebrate life, why not do it in death?

Thanks, Seth, for the heads up.

"I Enjoy Being A Girl"

Choosing the Right College by John Zmirak is a new college guide that will help weed out the right people from my alma mater:

I'd be very careful sending anyone to Wesleyan University in Connecticut because they're getting rid of single-sex dorm rooms. You won't even be able to guarantee that your daughter is living with another woman.

Check it out here. If you have any respect for what this guy has to say, please take his advice and stay away from Wes.

Going Blogstream

Something old: journalism
Something new: blogs
Something borrowed: David Corn
Something green:

[Open Source Media] will link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section. Bloggers will be paid undisclosed sums based on traffic they generate.

- A.P.

Busboys and Poets Too

One coffee shop/diner/brick oven pizza place in DC isn't enough. If 14th and V is too far to travel, lucky for you, another is opening on Calvert Street, just east of Connecticut. OnTap explains the new Open City, located in Woodley Park.

The latest venture by Constantine Stavropoulos (Tryst, The Diner) is called Open City, and it is situated on a piece of prime real estate by the corners of Connecticut and Calvert in Woodley Park/Adams Morgan. The coffeehouse/diner/bar aims to, like Stavropoulos' successful Tryst, become the "third place" for area residents. "You have this third place that you go to," Stavropoulos explains. "There's your office, your home, and the other place." This particular third place—also Stavropoulos' third spot in the city—will offer WiFi and feature a gourmet coffee bar, a full-service (cocktail) bar with beer on tap and some 12-or-so wines by-the-glass, and plenty of seats in the dining area to order upscale-ish diner food like Italian-style pizzas, eggs all day, sandwiches and salads.

Incidentally, that corner of Connecticut was nowhere near Adams Morgan until Metro decided to name the stop Woodley Park/Adams Morgan. One mile away, over a bridge, does not constitute one contiguous neighborhood. But I digress... Unclear exactly when this new place will open, but stay tuned.

Oohs and Aahs

Thank you, DCist, for alerting us to the installation of MenuPix. If any of you DCers are as obsessed as I am with New York's MenuPages, you're in luck. What you get: some basic info (including the restaurant's website) and a PDF of the menu. Of course, the only Logan Circle/U Street restaurants online right now are takeout Chinese joints, but who's complaining? And we can always add our own.

Talk of Impeachment...

I love it when church signs say what we all are thinking.

Can you say hypocrisy?

Lucky this administration isn't getting indicted for sex. Only the Dems can be castigated for their sexual deviance. But the GOP is much better at it. First of all, their sex-pots don't look like Monica Lewinsky. And second of all, their prose sounds like this:

"He could feel her heart beneath his hands. He moved his hands slowly lower still and she arched her back to help him and her lower leg came against his. "

It only gets better from there. Read all about Scooter Libby's erotic fiction in this week's New Yorker.

The Smelly City

I don't think anyone's complaining that New York City streets smell good - in fact, who'd have thunk it? And yet, that's the case. Friends on the Upper West side thought it was unique to their apartment building until they saw the NYT.

Never fear, the Office of Emergency Management is on the case. In the meantime, use this as an opportunity to quell your sweet tooth.