Drinking and Dining at District Winery

I'm a huge fan of wine tasting and the Virginia vineyard scene. What I am NOT such a huge fan of is the hour drive to get to most of our local vineyards (if you live inside the Beltway) and the hour drive home.

The newly opened District Winery makes a phenomenal tasting and dinner just a Lyft away.

D.C.'s first winery opened over Labor Day weekend at its beautiful Navy Yard location and you can bet I was one of the first through its doors. When we arrived on the Saturday before Labor Day, there was already an hour wait for tastings of its Brooklyn-made wines. Its incredible location in the heart of the Navy Yard made that effortless -- we strolled the boardwalk and then got a rosé cocktail at Whaley’s just across the plaza while we waited.

District Winery is the second winery opened by co-owners Brian Leventhal and John Stires, who opened the Brooklyn Winery in 2010 with head winemaker Conor McCormack. On the day we visited, Brian Leventhal was greeting guests, shaking hands, and sweeping up a dropped wineglass. When we stopped to compliment him on the awesomeness of the place, he invited us back to the winery, where Conor McCormack was punching down Pinot Noir. For now, D.C. guests will be enjoying the wines produced from California and Finger Lakes grapes in the Brooklyn winery. But soon, we'll be quaffing wine made right here in the District.

I'm helping. Punch down of Pinot Noir.

Tasting is a loud but low-pressure experience. The two-story glass walls -- offering views of the Anacostia, the boardwalk and the pretty plaza -- made it a little hard to hear our tasting room host talk about the wines. It fortunately did not affect the flavor. The wines, ranging from a Finger Lakes Reisling to a Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, were delicious and effortlessly drinkable in a way you can’t always guarantee in some further-away Virginia wineries where sometimes the focus seems to be more on the tourism experience than the quality of the wines. The District Winery definitely led with quality first. Two particular favorites were the Suison Valley, CA Pinot Reserve and the Malbec, also from Suison Valley, CA . The skin-contact Chardonnay was also really unique, with a glowy, honey-orange color.

We returned two weeks later to try the restaurant, Ana at District Winery, and -- I'm not kidding -- when you eat there, you will think I buried the lead. Ana offers seasonal American fare that compliments the District Winery wines  -- and it's fricking delicious. We started with the Heirloom Tomatoes and the Crab Beignets, which actually complimented each other really well, and we fought over who got to wipe up the beignets' romesco sauce with the last bit of whatever. The tomatoes were served with a goat cheese spread between triangles of sourdough; they were like fancy grilled-cheese sandwiches. My husband got the buttery Amish Chicken -- he always hates it when I out him for ordering the chicken -- but I definitely won with the Pan Roasted Atlantic Cod. The skin-crisped fish was served in a bowl with an outstanding dashi at the bottom and two chanterelle ravioli. The filling of the ravioli was sweet and creamy and a perfect compliment for the salty broth and fish. I got obnoxious with my yummy sounds.

The glass windows don't seem to create the same noise issues in the dining room -- hubby and I had no problem hearing each other and we had a fabulous view of the lit-up South Capital Street bridge and the riverwalk along the Anacostia River. Pedestrians outside stopped to take in the painted portraits of American presidents lined up on the dining room wall -- painted by a Brooklyn Winery bartender, they literally supplied 30 minutes of conversation for us and also sparked chatter with the next table -- and its fun to look at the people passing by while they look at you while you look at them...

I forgot to mention -- when we entered the dining room that night, co-owner Brian Leventhal was also there, holding the door for us and shaking the hands of entering dinner guests. One thing I've always enjoyed about Virginia wine tasting is the welcoming atmosphere. District Winery is making sure you get that same experience in the bustle of D.C.

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District Winery

Tasting Bar Hours: There is a substantial wait on the weekends. Come prepared to stroll...

• Mon to Thurs, 1pm - 9pm
• Fri to Sat, 12pm - 11pm
• Sun, 12pm - 9pm

Ana at District Winery:

• Mon to Thurs, 5pm - 10pm
• Fri to Sat, 5pm - 11pm
• Sun, 5pm - 9pm

Want to discover more fun to-dos in the Navy Yard? Check out my blog An Awesome Anacostia Riverwalk Walk.

Take a Tour of D.C.'s New Chocolate Factory

As my family and I drove up to the Harper Macaw chocolate factory off Bladensburg Road NE in D.C.'s Brookland neighborhood, my wise-cracking teen son observed, "There are no tubes full of chocolate coming out of the top. Zero out of ten."

I imagine many families with young children will take a tour of this newly opened and locally owned chocolate factory hoping to re-create a portion of the Willy Wonka experience. But the website recommends that only those 10 and over go on this $10/person tour for a reason. Rather than displaying rivers of chocolate and lickable walls, the Harper Macaw tour is all about displaying the intentions of its young owners to save one corner of the planet with cacao beans planted, harvested and transformed into chocolate the right way. 

Head chocolate maker Sarah Hartman and her husband, Colin Hartman, began producing fine chocolate in September and opened the factory to tours in December. They were drawn to D.C. because they liked the manageable size of the area, the fact that they can see the sky, the food scene, and the relative absence of local chocolate. 

They source their cacao beans exclusively from three farms in Brazil, Sarah’s home country. Brazil has lost 90 percent of its Atlantic Forest, which provides a necessary canopy for cacao beans, and has slipped from being the third largest producer of cacao beans to sixth. By supporting farmers who are producing cacao in a sustainable way and re-investing a portion of Harper Macaw profits into rainforest restoration, Sarah and Colin see an opportunity to make an impact while producing really good, distinct-tasting chocolate.

Owner Colin Hartman handing out cocoa nib samples as he stands next to the roaster.

“Without good cacao beans, you can’t make good chocolate,” Colin says at the beginning of our 20-person tour of the factory. It’s the same sentiment winemakers use about their grapes, and — like winemakers — Sarah and Colin give “single estate” status to chocolate bars sourced from individual farms in Brazil. The 77 percent Amazon Rainforest bar is from Tomé Açu and the 74 percent Atlantic Forest bar is from Vale do Juliana. The two other bars Harper Macaw is currently producing are the 67 percent Dark Blend and the 52 percent Milk Blend.

Colin leads the tour with chocolate dust on his blazer and an apology for “going into a lot of details on these tours.” No apologies are needed. The hour-long “bean to bar” tour — from seeing the bags of beans fresh off the boat from the Philadelphia harbor (Colin drives there to pick them up), to seeing the equipment used for cleaning, roasting, winnowing, refining, grinding, conching and tempering the chocolate — is a fascinating, in-depth story of how a product is made with love and care. 

The tour ends with a chocolate tasting: samples of all four chocolate laid out with crackers and seltzer to cleanse the palate and an entertaining explanation of how to enjoy the chocolate with all five senses. The little ones may not like it, but us big ones certainly did.

Take a Chocolate Factory Tour

Entrance to Harper Macaw's chocolate factory

An amazing number of treats and samples are available in the cafe

You can sample this...

Or this...

Or have as much as you want of this...

Harper Macaw is currently selling four bars

An ode to Brazil

Owner Colin Hartman starts the tour in a room where the beans are stored and cleaned

Yes, on the tour you must wear a hairnet

Colin hands out even more samples standing next to the roaster

The winnower

The conveyer belt where the chocolate cools in it molds for twenty minutes

Chocolate tasting

Tasting the chocolate

Stop by the wall at the end to pick up even more chocolate

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Harper Macaw

3160 Bladensburg Rd NE, Washington, DC 20018

Get to the tour early so you can sample Harper Macaw's amazing treats while you wait

Tours of the Harper Macaw chocolate factory occur every Saturday on the hour between 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis. People have already discovered this gem, so arrive by the :30 if you want to go on the next hour tour.

Harper Macaw's four fine chocolate bars are currently available in their shop and at a variety of locations around the D.C. area, including the Red Apron shops at Mosaic and Penn Quarter. They plan on releasing more products in May.

Halloween Fun for Adults in the DMV

Ghosts of Halloween past

Halloween seems to be dead at my house.

When once we would have been frantically checking off lists for our annual Halloween party and scouring eBay for authentic additions to our costumes and dragging our kids’ costumes through the mud – they’re always some form of zombie or monster; they always need mud – this year, nary a pumpkin has graced our front stoop. No candy has been bought. My youngest is still deciding whether he will go trick-or-treating.

I know I should let it all go gracefully, but part of me is stomping my foot. I like Halloween. I like the dark and the costumes and the witchy atmosphere that accompanies the evening. I’m not seeking the wild, hoopla Halloween parties we used to throw, and I’m not going to drag my teenagers to pumpkin patches. 

But I am hunting for way to put a little creep in the season. So I’ve put together a list of a few ways that my husband and I can have some adult Halloween fun that won’t leave us haunted with hangovers the next day:

- Carve pumpkins at my favorite coffee shop/wine bar in Arlington, Northside Social (10/27, 7pm).

- Dress up in spooky historical costumes and tour the historic burial grounds of Congressional Cemetary in D.C. during Ghosts and Goblets (10/25, 8pm-12am).

- Shop and sip Halloween-inspired cocktails during the Mosaic District’s Bootique in Merrifield (10/30, 6-9pm).

- Relive those wild and crazy days with a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the University Mall Theatre in Fairfax (every Saturday), or a live interpretation from Spotlighters Theatre in Baltimore (until Nov. 8, various times).

- Enjoy a wine and Halloween candy pairing, tarot card readings and wine hosts in costume at Fabbioli Cellars (10/26).

- Play glow-in-the-dark lawn games, check out the Naked Mole-Rat and try local food trucks at the National Zoo’s Night of the Living Zoo (10/30, 6:30pm-10pm).

- Go tree-climbing and ziplining, which is terrifying enough in the daylight, in the dark at Harpers Ferry Adventure Center’s Harpers Scary (10/24, 10/25, 11/1) and the Adventure Park at Sandy Spring's Halloween Night-Crawlers Climb (10/24-10/26).

(You’ll notice I’ve skipped all events on the actual holiday, Friday, Oct. 31. Many of us need to keep our eyes on our kids; the rest of us would rather stay out of the crush of too many people trying too hard to have fun on a Friday Halloween.)

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I'd love to see photos of your favorite Halloween costumes!

Go to my Facebook page, check out my past pics and post your own. 

Happy Halloween!

So Many Choices at Capital Fringe Festival 2014

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One of 23 venues for Capital Fringe Festival 2014

Trying to choose which performance we were going to see of the over 150 acts taking part in the Capital Fringe Festival 2014 was like trying to choose one chocolate out of the world’s biggest box.

Were we going to enjoy the nutty delight of a ballet that mixed the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" with Twitter? Or the dark chocolate-y goodness of an interactive whodunit featuring Edgar Allan Poe? Maybe we’d go for the blatant, chocolate-covered cherry of a comedy called “Giant Box of Porn”? Or take a lick of the mystery chocolate, a tour of the National Mall where the secrets of the Freemasons are revealed?

In its ninth year, the Capital Fringe Festival has every amalgam of drama, comedy, dance, solo performance, interactive theater you could hope for playing at 23 venues through July 27. The constraints of a busy summer schedule meant that we could only see one show. Which sucks. With a $17 ticket price (after a one-time purchase of a $7 Fringe button), and performance start times that stretch from early afternoon into late night, there’s no reason you couldn’t see multiple shows in one night.

What delicacy did we decide to enjoy? A dance murder-mystery called “Intrigue, a mystery on marley…” Below are others that tickled our fancy. 

For more insight into shows, check out the DC Metro Theater Arts reviews.

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In-Between Tip: Hang onto your Fringe button even if you're lame like me and can only make it to one show. It will qualify you for a bunch of discounts all year long. Many restaurants on H Street, including Granville Moore's, Sticky Rice, H Street Country Club, and Biergarten Haus, are giving discounts to button holders through July 27. 

'80s Dance Nights in the DMV

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Millennial enthusiasm for '80s alt-rock

On a recent Saturday night, my husband and I were at Black Cat in D.C., to dance to music we danced to when were dating two decades ago: the ‘80s-alternative music of The Cure and The Smiths. I was shocked at the number of Millennials crowding the place. When the first guitar strums of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” sounded, there were cries and a mad rush to the dance floor, kids dancing and jumping and shouting along to a song that came out in 1979, 35 years ago.

Why was I so amazed? Because I couldn’t have imagined dancing to music that was 35 years old when I was in my mid-20s. That would have been music of the 1960s, and would have sounded something like this (I’m not kidding; this was the No. 1 hit in 1960):

Percy Faith, "Theme from A Summer Place"

Eighties and '90s-retro dance nights are plentiful in the DMV and would seem like the perfect option for a fun night out for us In-Betweeners, a chance to embrace our past and dance like we did at prom. However, the popularity of these nights with the under-30 crowd has made me feel a little old and silly at them. And a little…annoyed, like the event has been co-opted by people who think we went around wearing neon all the time.

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Steve EP, The Cure vs. The Smiths, Black Cat

I spoke to DJ Steve EP about this phenomenon. Steve EP, known as Stephen Petix in non-DJ life, was one of the DJs for the Cure vs. Smiths Black Cat event and spins at retro-focused dance events around the area, including the very popular Eighties Mayhem nights, also at the Black Cat main stage.

Steve, who shocked me when he told me he is my age, believes that we didn’t dance to music of our parents because it was so bad. “The music sucked,” he said. “There were pockets of cool stuff – Motown and soul – but for the most part it was really lame. Popular music was terrible before rock and roll.”

The blandness of the music that preceded it is what made the birth of new wave and punk in the late-‘70s and early-‘80s so revolutionary, he said. “These people weren’t trying to be rock stars, they were breaking all the rules." Steve remembers the hardship of being a punk kid in a straight world, of being called ‘faggot’ all the time. A friend pierced her own nose because -- unlike the handy mall kiosks today -- there was no place she have it done. That angst and rebellion and even newness of that music still speaks to kids 30-plus years later.

“When I see a 12 year old wearing a Black Flag t-shirt, I think that’s awesome,” he said. “I’m not in that camp that thinks, ‘I discovered it.’” He's talking about my possesive camp.

In Between Tip: Stephen Petix's dark synth-wave group, Technophobia, is having their cassette release party Saturday, July 19 at Black Cat.

My 80s ensemble. I know. I'm pandering.

Of course, ‘80s alternative isn’t the only thing playing at retro dance nights. Steve thinks its sacrilege to mention Madonna in the same breath as the Cure and Depeche Mode and New Order, but I liked “Oh Father,” and, in retrospect, find her stuff groundbreaking, too. When she came on the scene in her bustiers and rosary beads, nobody had displayed their sexuality like she had. Except Prince.

The concept that the music of the ‘80s was groundbreaking, and that maybe the ground has been broken so thoroughly that it has yet to be supplanted, helps me understand why its been embraced by those younger than me. Helps me elbow my way in and dance along.

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Retro Dance Nights in the DMV

A list of upcoming '80s and '90s dance nights in the D.C.-metro area

(Links aren't working on iPhone 4 and higher. Squarespace says they're working on it.)

Tonight: The Legwarmers: D.C.'s Biggest '80s Retro Dance Party, The State Theatre, Falls Church, VA

Tonight: 10th Annual Pretty in Pink '80s Prom, The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD

June 28: No Scrubs: '90s Dance Party with DJs Will Eastman and Brian Billion, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC

June 28: '80s Dance Party, Tropicalia, Washington, DC

July 2 (Every 1st and 3rd Wednesday): Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Little Miss Whiskey's Golden Dollar, Washington, DC

July 25: Start Making Sense, Talking Heads Tribute w/ HMFO: a Hall and Oates Tribute, The Hamilton, Washington, DC

July 26: Purple Rain 30th Anniversary Party, Black Cat, Washington, D.C.

August 29: MJ Day 2014 - 5th Annual Michael Jackson Dance Party, 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.

Know of other fun '80s and '90s-inspired dance nights? Let me know about them in the comments below and I'll add them to this list.

I Hate the 9:30 Club

Listen to my 9:30 Club Mix Tape while readiing this blog.

I do. I hate the 9:30 Club, that mecca to live music lovers in our nation's capital, that pantheon to mournful hipsters or shimmying sorority girls or aging dads in their Bad Brains t-shirts, depending on the night. I hate that large, still-divey venue where I've seen Kings of Leon and Lykke Li and Delta Rae and Cold War Kids and Ray Lamontagne and Old 97's and Bon Iver and Neil Finn and Rhett Miller and Mumford & Sons and Django Django and Timbaland and The Afghan Whigs. 

Okay. Maybe I don't hate the 9:30 Club. Maybe I just hate those two lumbering boy-men, those big boys with scraggly beards and fuzzy hair and heavy-rimmed glasses who were trying to get around me the last time I was at the 9:30 Club. I didn't know I was blocking their way. I didn't know until I heard a, "Umm...excuse me...ma'am."

Ma'am.

In one fell swoop, I went from feeling quite lively and chipper to feeling like someone's mom. And I AM someone's mom (more on that later). But no one wants their mom at a live music show. I knew the intrusion I used to feel when I was a high schooler at the Fillmore in San Francisco or a college student at the Bottleneck in Lawrence, Kan., and saw an "ADULT" in the crowd.

"Everything else is yours," was my sentiment. "Let this be ours."

Haim at the 9:30 Club

But just because a couple of decades separate me from that girl doesn't mean my true, passionate love for music and the musicians who create it has dimmed. My love for sold-out shows has dimmed -- I boogie by the bar to avoid the chest-to-back crowds and keep my drink filled. And my enthusiasm for waiting until 11 p.m. for the main act to go on has certainly waned. But I think I've found a solution to that, too.

The kid

I go to early shows with my kid!

We took our teenager to see the three-sister band Haim at 7 p.m. on a Wednesday (the 9:30 Club is an all-ages venue), and I've got to tell you, passing the torch was cool. He stood with his dad in the middle of the crowd -- he can do that, he's over six feet -- and catching glimpses of the look on his face while those three strong women rocked out seemed like the best reason ever to get pregnant. We took him for the whole night-out experience -- the stroll down U Street, half-smokes at Ben's -- and we were still home by 10!

I guess it's appropriate that the night of the "ma'am" was also the night of my son's first 9:30 Club show, even though I was standing nowhere near him when the boys politely asked me to move my ancient ass. I'm not going to stop doing something that makes me thrive just because it's more appropriate for my son to be enjoying it. I've figured out how to mitigate the annoyances -- go to early shows, stand by the bar, hide behind my six-foot kid. So, no, I guess I don't hate the 9:30 Club.

Unfortunately for a venue that I'm sure is not trying to attract the over-40 crowd, I kind of love the place.

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Recommended 9:30 Club Shows in June for In-Betweeners

(Some shows are sold out but try StubHub for tickets. Enjoy one aspect of being old - disposable income!)

• Tonight - Old 97's (great alt-country twang band with hawt lead singer Rhett Miller)
• 6/3 - Jamie Cullum (amazing jazz pianist turned pop crooner)
• 6/6 - Lady Gaga vs. Madonna vs. ALL the Divas - a dance party with DJ lil'e
• 6/7 - Jenny Lewis (incredible singer, songwriter. And she was in Troop Beverly Hills)
• 6/8 - La Roux (sang Bulletproof, made into a song-demon song in Pitch Perfect)
• 6/14 - Who's Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson tribute Band 
• 6/27 - Throwing Muses with Special Guest Tanya Donelly (90s awesomeness)
• 6/28 - No Scrubs: 90's Dance Party with DJs Will Eastman and Brian Billion

Check out my 9:30 Club Mix Tape for In-Betweeners to hear songs from the above bands.