At long last, H St Country Club FINALLY Opens

After what has seemed like an eternity of false starts and blown deadlines, the H Street Country Club finally opens its doors today at 1335 H St. NE.

The H St. is a sort of 3-in-1 concept. Dining features tex-mex and Mexican cuisine with a menu designed by Ann Cashion, of Cashion's Eat Place, with the day-to-day cooking done by folks from Cashions and Granville Moore's... this has the potential of being some pretty good eats. Apps are mainly in the 8-12$ range, with entrees running closer to 20. There is also a seperate bar menu with food running from $5-11, and quite the selection of tequilas and cocktails - plus two 'house' beers on tap (in addition to the mundane lineup of bottles).

Then there is the entertainment - basically a Buffalo Billiards with the addition of mini golf. The mini golf course is DC themed, with a miniature Ben's Chili Bowl, and even features douchebags in suits and ties - a staple for anyone who has lived/worked on the hill.

H St (the actual neighborhood I mean), is a bit of an enigma to me. Despite more and more good places coming into the neighborhood (Sticky Rice, Granville Moore's, Pap n Petey's, RR Hotel, Argonaut), pedestrian safety continues to be a concern. I still don't recommend people, especially single females, walk the length of H St. after dark - the area from 5th - 10th St is particularly troublesome. I'm not sure why the city hasn't taken more steps to condemn some of the vacant store fronts and station more law enforcement in the area, it's been on the cusp of becoming a real destination for a year or two now, security just needs a little nudge.

Having said that, HSCC has the real potential of being a great alternative in the area, I look forward to trying it out.

So you wanna see them blow some shit up this weekend?

The annual memorial day concert on the grounds of the Capitol always draws a big crowd and significant celebrities. This is going to sound incredibly callous of me - but I've also always found it to be very depressing, not to mention packed.

Instead, I prefer to head out to Wolftrap off 66 and see the Marine Corps Band's free show, followed by fireworks. I always think music is better when its followed by people blowing shit up. Gates open at 6:30, and I'd get there early to get a good spot - fireworks will go off after the concert - probably about 9:45.

If that doesn't float your boat, head out to watch the Nats lose tomorrow night while drinking beer in the outfield bar, and then stick around for Fireworks Fridays - about 10 minutes after the game is over, they shoot off a decent show that's worth hanging around for.

Kaboom.

Summer Drinks

With this weekend being the start of Memorial Day, it's time to roll out the annual, what to drink on a hot summer day, post.

Alright I'm just going to say this up front - mojitos were so 2006-2007. Unless you are at a specific mojito-themed bar (I'm thinking of the Great American Restaurants chain where they have sugar cane just for this), don't order a mojito - bar tenders LOATHE to make them and they will remember you (in a bad way) for that for the rest of the night.

My pics for this year -

Firefly distillery out of South Carolina has released a sweet tea vodka, and damn it, it's pretty dang good. In fact, one of my bartenders (yes, I have a team) poured me a half glass under a ruse of trying the new brand of tea at Clydes in Chevy Chase - I couldn't tell there was alcohol, it just tasted like a sweet tea from a mix. In other words, this is dangerous stuff. This doesn't really need a mixer if you can hold your alcohol - just pour over ice. If necessary, try an Arnold Palmer, but with lemonade and sweet tea vodka.

It seems like folks are FINALLY catching on to the Van Gogh Espresso Vodka. What they don't know, is there is also a VG Double Espresso Vodka, and that the Three Olives brand Espresso Vodka is significantly tastier with less of an alcoholic edge to it than VG has. This has so many opportunities in winter, but where these vodkas really shine is out of the freezer. Just like the tea vodka, these don't really need mixers unless you do - just pour over ice. If you do need a mixer, add to a bit of iced coffee.

And finally, the summer drink that will make the list every year - the dark and stormy. Ginger Beer (not ale, beer) that has a lot of bite to it, a nice rum (i prefer a mix including Goslings), and several lime wedges to cut through the bitterness. Spencer at Clydes in Chevy Chase makes the best Dark and Stormies I've had yet, and you can enjoy them at the patio bar outside in back of the restaurant on nice days.

Cheers.

Traffic Nightmare Expected Tonight

District police are warning that traveling downtown tonight between 6p-11p could be a nightmare. At 7pm, game 7 of the Caps starts at the Verizon Center. Not only will there be the usual tie-ups associated with Caps games and other large VC events, but if they win I'd expect exuberant drunken fans to pour onto the surrounding streets in celebration. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but still... doesn't really lube up the commute home, ya know.

The bigger snarl is likely to be the solemn vigil at the law enforcement memorial in Judiciary Square starting at 8pm. More than 20,000 are expected, and the buses will start arriving (and stopping traffic) much earlier. If history is any guide, after the vigil, these folks will pour into the surrounding neighborhoods. I'd stay away from Irish Times and Dubliner if you don't like crowds.

Screen on the Green is no more

The outlook is grim for the future of Screen on the Green. The primary sponsor of this event- HBO - has cancelled their support of the annual summer film fest, citiing financial reasons.

I have no doubt that putting this event on cost some cash - they have to reserve the space on the mall, provide advertising materials, buy redistribution rights to the films, and I'm guessing some sort of security/clean up costs. But this was also a tremendously popular event that drew a LARGE number of hill staffers and policy makers. Seems like if anything they should have taken some budget from their government affairs office and moved it to host the event - probably bought them way more goodwill in Congress than anything else they're doing...

UPDATE: Taverna Greek will not close, just heavily restyled

It appears that previous reports that Spike Mendelsohn will close the Taverna Greek restaurant on the hill and turn it into a pizza joint are partially incorrect. Spike and his family HAVE purchased the restaurant. They are going through the process of cleaning it up and trimming the menu, ostensibly to concentrate on doing a few things right rather than a lot of things wrong. They WILL be serving pizza in the restaurant at some point in the near future.

This could go either way... the food at Taverna was never what one could call gourmet... at the same point, Spike was once reprimanded by the DC health department for storing his ground beef in the alley, so... we'll see.

Taverna Greek to Close

Word on the street is that Spike Mendelsohn, one time Top Chef contestant and current chef/owner of Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill, has purchased the 40 year old Greek Taverna, and is closing it down to re-open it as a pizzeria later this summer.

I have mixed feelings about this... for one thing, service at Taverna was unbelievably slow, making it almost impossible to sit down for lunch in the main dining room. But I always enjoyed the carryout in the basement. Taverna was also, in my opinion, rare on the hill in that you could go in on a Thursday night to the bar and quietly have a few beers and some decent food without the 'scene' pervasive to the other nearby establishments.

I think what irks me the most, is that a business that has been open for 40 years on Capitol Hill is being replaced by a man who made denegrating remarks about the community he was moving into to start his Good Stuff Eatery when it opened last year - a restaurant which by all accounts is mediocre.