SINCE 1954
VOLUME 65 NUMBER 18
GEORGETOWNER.COM
JUNE 19-JULY 9, 2019
5 0 Y EA R S ON : TH E SU M M ER OF 1969
M A YO R ’S B UD G E T A F F EC T S GEOR GET OW N N E W PR OSPEC T ST . DESI GN S G EOR GET OW N B I D A T 20 H A UTE & CO OL : SU M M ER SW I M W EA R S O CIA L: KR E E G E R , HI R SH H OR N , A R B OR ET U M
IN THIS ISSUE IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS · 4, 5-6, 9 Up & Coming Events Town Topics The Village
ABOUT THE COVER
Photo illustration by Elena Hutchinson — based on NASA photo of astronaut Buzz Aldrin taken by Apollo XI Commander Neil Armstrong in July 1969 on the surface of the moon.
Downtown News
Editorials Jack Evans Report Letter to the Editor Ins & Outs
POLICE FOUNDATION PRESENTS AWARDS BY R OBERT D EVAN EY
Rusty Lindner with Patrick Burke, president of the Metropolitan Police Foundation. Photo by Robert Devaney.
1969: A Year of Triumph and Turbulence MOLLY SMITH: NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO BE MAKING THEATER
ARTS · 14
‘Whistler and Watercolor’ DC Artswatch
ANTIQUES ADDICT · 15
BY GARY TISC H L ER
Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith speaks to breakfast attendees on July 13. Photo by Jeff Malet.
Buttoned Down with Antique Buttons
IN COUNTRY · 16 - 17 Leesburg Daytrip One-Two Punch
HAUTE & COOL · 18 Destination Summer
CLASSIFIEDS · 19
COPPERFIELD ‘RESTORES’ STAR FOR NEW CITIZENS ON FLAG DAY (PHOTOS) BY JEFF M AL ET
Celebrated magician David Copperfield (center) poses with new citizen Pranesh Gautan (right) and his friend Gaurab Tiwari, both originally from Nepal. Photo by Jeff Malet.
Service Directory
FOOD & WINE · 20 Dining Guide Cocktail of the Month
BOOK CLUB · 21
Kitty Kelley Book Club
GOOD WORKS & GOOD TIMES · 22 - 23 Social Scene Events
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COPY EDITOR Richard Selden
FEATURES EDITORS Ari Post Gary Tischler
GRAPHIC DESIGN Troy Riemer Elena Hutchinson
BUSINESS · 10
COVER · 12 - 13
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Charlene Louis
FASHION & BEAUTY DIRECTOR Lauretta McCoy
EDITORIAL/OPINION · 8
More Residential, Less Retail for 3220 Prospect
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robert Devaney
CREATIVE DIRECTOR/GRAPHIC DESIGN Aidah Fontenot
DOWNTOWNER · 7
REAL ESTATE · 11
PUBLISHER Sonya Bernhardt
Photo of the Week
To submit your photos tag #thegeorgetowner on Instagram!
PHOTOGRAPHERS Philip Bermingham Jeff Malet Neshan Naltchayan Patrick G. Ryan
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT Peggy Sands CONTRIBUTORS Mary Bird Allyson Burkhardt Evan Caplan Jack Evans Donna Evers Michelle Galler Stephanie Green Amos Gelb Wally Greeves Kitty Kelley Rebekah Kelley Jody Kurash Shelia Moses Kate Oczypok Linda Roth Alison Schafer
ADVERTISING Evelyn Keyes Richard Selden Kelly Sullivan
1050 30th Street, NW Washington, DC 20007 Phone: (202) 338-4833 Fax: (202) 338-4834 www.georgetowner.com The Georgetowner is published every other Wednesday. The opinions of our writers and columnists do not necessarily reflect the editorial and corporate opinions of The Georgetowner newspaper. The Georgetowner accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. The Georgetowner reserves the right to edit, rewrite or refuse material and is not responsible for errors or omissions. Copyright 2018.
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UP & COMING JUNE 23
LGBTQ FAMILY DAY
JUNE 20
DUMBARTON AT DUSK: ‘THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS’ On the anniversary of the meeting between Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that put the nation’s capital where it is today, attendees can make their voices heard with postcard writing, do D.C.themed coloring and mingle with local politicians. Admission is free. For details, visit dumbartonhouse.org. Dumbarton House, 2715 Q St. NW.
CAPITAL ARTS COLLECTIVE ARTS MARKET At Capital Arts Collective, downtown D.C.’s pop–up arts market, visitors can shop the best finds by local creatives and enjoy a curated selection of items, from arts and crafts to jewelry and handmade wares. For details, visit itcdc.com. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
SUNSET RUN FOR REFUGEES The third annual Sunset Run for Refugees, a World Refugee Day event, will start in Foggy Bottom and culminate at the Lincoln
4 JUNE 19, 2019
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Glen Echo Park, in collaboration with Montgomery County Council member Evan Glass, will host a free family day dedicated to LGBTQ families. The event will include hands-on arts and crafts, refreshments and rides on the historic Dentzel Carousel. For details, visit glenechopark.org. 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, Maryland.
Memorial Reflecting Pool with a candlelight vigil and guest speakers. The run benefits the American Refugee Committee, CARE, the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children. For details, visit runforrefugees. net. Elliott School of International Affairs, 1957 E St. NW.
JUNE 25
SMITHSONIAN LIBRARIES ADOPT-A-BOOK
to $55. For details, visit wolftrap.org. Wolf Trap, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna, Virginia.
At the Smithsonian Libraries Adopt-a-Book Evening, visitors can peruse rare, handselected volumes dating back to the 15th century, mingle with Smithsonian librarians, curators and conservators and enjoy a light reception. For details, visit library.si.edu or freersackler.si.edu. Freer Gallery of Art, 1050 Independence Ave. SW.
JUNE 22 AND 23
JUNE 29
JUNE 21
DC SHORTS COMEDY NIGHT At this laugh-out-loud comedy night, three local comedians will perform live stand-up sets, then introduce their favorite funny short film. Beer, wine and snacks will be available for purchase. Tickets are $20. For details, visit laughs.dcshorts.com. Miracle Theatre, 535 8th St. SE.
JUNE 22
PINK FLOYD’S ‘THE WALL’ 40TH ANNIVERSARY Classic Albums Live will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s legendary and controversial 1979 concept album “The Wall” with a performance of the album in full, note for note, cut for cut, by some of the world’s best musicians. Tickets are $25
One Journey Festival coming June 29.
NATIONAL GALLERY COMMUNITY WEEKEND This free Japan-themed community weekend will feature art activities, taiko drumming, a screening of the animated film “My Neighbor Totoro,” kimono demonstrations and Japanese folktales. Visitors will receive 20 percent off purchases in select gallery cafés and 15 percent off purchases in gallery shops. For details, visit nga.gov. National Gallery of Art East Building, 150 4th St. NW.
ONE JOURNEY FESTIVAL This celebration of the talents and accomplishments of refugees and other displaced peoples will include a One Journey Unity Parade, music, dance, storytelling, art, theater, a soccer clinic, international food trucks, a global marketplace, virtual reality and technology presentations, a children’s tent, dance lessons and a Take Action area. For details, visit eventbrite. com. Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW.
TOWN TOPICS
NEWS
NEWS BYTES
If Signed, D.C.’s 2020 Budget Would Benefit Georgetown
BY BY PEGGY SAN D S, KATE O CZYPO K AND KATHERINE SCHWARTZ
KEEPING AN EYE ON 5G: JOE GIBBONS
BY PEGGY SA NDS Much in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s fiscal 2020 budget of $15.5 billion would be welcomed in Ward 2, including a few items that would benefit Georgetown specifically. The budget bill was passed twice by the Council on two separate days, May 14 and May 28 — the District’s version of a bicameral legislative system. Now it just needs to be signed off on by Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt. And that’s the problem. As of June 11, the CFO had refused to sign the entire budget. He regards as unacceptable the transfer of $49 million from one account to another that is in the budget as passed. The Council has proposed transferring this amount from a fund being built as a reserve to pay back bondholders for the construction, in 1998 and 2010, of the Washington Convention Center and hotel into an active fund to pay for the repair of dilapidated public housing. According to DeWitt, that is a breach of the bond agreement. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson has vehemently defended the transfer, setting off an impasse between him and the CFO. There is even talk of a possible D.C. government shutdown if the budget isn’t passed. As passed by the Council on May 28, the budget is supposed to go into effect on Oct. 1. About $7 billion of the total is federal grant money, used to fund Medicare and other formula-based national programs paid for by residents’ income taxes and other federal sources. Slightly more than half of the total — $8.6 billion — funds all the so-called discretionary programs at the Council’s direction. Most of the disputes among the local legislators were over subsidies for hospitals and public schools, including charter schools, that saw a $56.4-million dollar increase for fiscal 2020. Among the increases benefiting Ward 2 in the budget, according to the mayor’s office, is $74.2 million dedicated to fully
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D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeff DeWitt. Courtesy D.C. government. modernize the Francis-Stevens Education Campus on 2425 N St. NW and 2130 G St. NW. Safe at Home, a program enabling vulnerable seniors to stay in their homes as they age, was increased by $2 million. And $500,000 has been allotted for a senior dental-care program. Georgetown would be directly impacted by other budgeted programs, including $122 million to fund a K Street Transitway with a dedicated bus corridor down the middle of the street. Teams of two-to-four Metropolitan Police Department officers patrolling neighborhoods on bicycles and on foot — a new, tested approach that has been particularly visible in Georgetown over the last few months — would be expanded with $3 million. Also, $28.2 million would be used to pave and maintain deteriorating streets and sidewalks and $240 million to improve streetscapes and support urban forestry over the next six years. But Mayor Bowser’s budget has been criticized for not being full of the bold big ideas that the mayor campaigned on to win a second term, according to the Washington Post. Lacking are budget items to address affordable housing and a more equitable sharing of prosperity across the District, this in a time when the city is experiencing a booming economy.
Almost every day there is news about 5G — the fifth-generation digital cellular networks that will provide ultrafast speeds, reduce lag time to 10 milliseconds and have far greater capacity, according to Verizon, one of the carriers competing to become the local 5G contractor. Mayor Muriel Bowser has committed the city to the new technology. But the installation issues are as complex and heated as the competition for the contracts, and the 5G devices haven’t even been invented yet. Almost twice a week, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Joe Gibbons posts news about proposals for 5G installation in Georgetown’s residential and commercial districts — from small cell boxes on poles to rooftop versions that generate revenue (and for which neighbors can compete). The latest concern is about the technology’s impact on public health and safety. The Louisiana House of Representatives has requested the state’s Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Health to study the effects of evolving 5G technology. Gibbons thinks D.C. should demand a similar study. That
includes the height of the boxes installed on poles. Gibbons posted a photo of lowhanging small cell boxes on sidewalk poles that would require passersby to duck.
ABSENT DDOT ON ANC HOT SEAT
Georgetown’s June 3 advisory neighborhood commission meeting was a good example of what happens when a government agency doesn’t show up to discuss a pending issue: almost the entire meeting pivots to a review of multiple issues the neighborhood has with that agency — in this case, the District Department of Transportation. The pending issue was the ongoing repair and maintenance of Georgetown’s venerated brick sidewalks. It appears the department, when it finally gets around to repairing the historic sidewalks, has been using bricks of inferior look and quality. The concern will be taken up in person with DDOT at the next ANC meeting, said Ward 2 Community Liaison Amr Kotb, who added, “This is a priority issue in our office.” But the ANC’s focus on DDOT went way beyond the sidewalks. Of the next eight issues under new business, seven concerned
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TOWN TOPICS
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An example of 5G equipment. Courtesy Joe Gibbons.
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NEWS BYTES CONTINUED DDOT. They include a follow-up study of new K Street bike lanes, the Palisades Trolley Trail and even the removal of a mature female ginkgo tree on 27th street by DDOT’s Urban Forestry Division. The only objection, voiced tongue-in-cheek by Commissioner Gwen Lohse, was that “the female was to be replaced by a male.”
ANC’S ANNA LANDRE STAYING AT GU
Georgetown University student Anna Landre, who is disabled and uses a power chair (needing help from personal aides throughout the day), was told by her insurer, Horizon NJ Heath, that her coverage would be reduced from 16 hours of care per day to just 10. Landre, who is on Medicaid, called the decision “really unexpected,” according to news reports. She was seriously considering a move home to rely on family for help, ending what would be the last half of her college career. However, after she shared her plight with the media and lawmakers, she was offered an agreement by officials in her home state of New Jersey that would maintain her existing coverage until she graduated from Georgetown, the Washington Post reported.
MURDER-SUICIDE CUTS SHORT DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS
On the morning of June 7, Lola Gulomova and Jason Rieff, married career foreign service officers residing in American University Park, were supposed to be at a D.C. Superior Court hearing on their divorce. Just before the hearing, Rieff’s lawyer got a message from her client. She called 911 and authorities were soon met with Rieff holding a gun, reported the Washington Post. In another room, they found Gulomova dead from gunshot wounds. Rieff subsequently shot himself in the head.
candidates there are,” Patrick Kennedy told The Georgetowner at the Friends of Volta Park annual fundraiser on June 7. Kennedy is one of two nearby advisory neighborhood commissioners running for the seat. “Evans, of course, is well known and the more who run against him the better chance he has to win,” conceded Kennedy. Apparently, candidates John Fanning of Logan Circle’s ANC, Dupont resident Daniel Hernandez and Kennedy, the first to announce as a challenger, are interested in the idea of a united front — meaning they would consider aligning behind whichever candidate seems best positioned to defeat Evans. The fourth challenger is former Obama staffer Jordan Grossman. So far, no Georgetown resident has stepped up.
BIDEN GETS DONATIONS, ICE CREAM
Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s nightcap comes in a cone. The former vice president was spotted on the evening of June 10 at Georgetown’s Thomas Sweet Ice Cream at Wisconsin Avenue and P Street. Standing in line with one of his granddaughters, Biden chatted with fellow customers and employees. He was in town over the weekend attending a granddaughter’s graduation from Sidwell Friends School. Earlier that evening, Biden was the guest of honor at a Democratic Party fundraiser at the Q Street home of Elizabeth Bagley.
PRIMARY CHALLENGERS FOR EVANS: 4 AND COUNTING
As of June 17, there were four announced challengers for Jack Evans’s Ward 2 District Council seat. The primary election will take place on June 2, 2020. Evans, who lives in Georgetown, has held the position longer than anyone in the city’s history. Can he still win? “Depends on how many
Rev. Johnsie Cogman with her husband Billy on her last Sunday service as pastor of Mt. Zion Church on 29th Street. She moves on to become superintendent of the Washington East District of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. Georgetowner photo.
DOWNTOWNER
DOWNTOWN BID KEEPING BUSY THIS SUMMER
BY KATE OCZ Y P OK
REFRIGERANT LEAK CAUSES SCARE NEAR FARRAGUT
A commercial building in the 1100 block of 20th Street NW near the Farragut North Metro station recently faced a hazmat situation. After a refrigerant leak was reported, the responding authorities, concerned that the refrigerant might circulate into the building’s interior, completely evacuated the building. Luckily, there were no reported incidents, injuries or illnesses.
E-SCOOTER CATCHES FIRE NEAR FRANKLIN SQUARE
That’s not how they’re supposed to work! A Skip electric scooter caught fire a few weeks ago near the corner of 14th and I Streets, just across from the Washington Post headquarters. The fire was most likely due to a faulty battery, either from overheating or scooter abuse. Authorities are investigating to see if the e-scooter fire is something they should be concerned about going forward, the Post reported.
The DowntownDC Business Improvement District named Rachel Rose Hartman executive director of the DowntownDC Foundation last month. Hartman was previously the BID’s director of interactive marketing and communications. The foundation was rejuvenated in 2018 to support BID projects, including Franklin Park redevelopment, public art initiatives and community programming, such as the Tuesday-night Marvel movie festival running through July 9 on Freedom Plaza.
SAX STOLEN TWICE FROM MIDDLE C MUSIC
Tenleytown shop Middle C Music, 4530 Wisconsin Ave. NW, had a $4,400 alto saxophone stolen earlier this month, the store’s first break-in in 17 years. Though it was recovered within two days, a day later the valuable instrument was stolen again. Then, on June 10, Vincent Stewart, 55, was arrested on two charges of burglary. No word yet on whether or not he’s a sax player.
Designer Ashley Blazer Biden with her mother Jill Biden. Photo by Joshua Cogan for Hamilton Hotel.
NEW BIDEN-DESIGNED UNIFORMS AT HAMILTON HOTEL
The Hamilton Hotel, 1001 14th St. NW, held a grand reopening with Ashley Blazer Biden (daughter of Joe and Dr. Jill) on hand. The evening showcased the renovated hotel’s new food offerings and staff uniforms that Biden designed. The partnership is Biden’s second project through her fashion label Livelihood, a socially and ethically conscious weekend-wear line launched two years ago.
WILL RUGBY TEAM BRING NEW GLORY?
New in the District: a professional rugby team, dubbed “Old Glory DC” (not to be confused with the former Georgetown restaurant), led by Josh Brown, an Anne Arundel County paramedic and firefighter. As of press time, the team had played four games and won one, defeating the USA Rugby South Panthers on June 1. Fans can purchase team gear on the website (Women’s Utility Running Shorts: $33.19).
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EDITORIAL
OPINION
The Growing Dangers of E-Scooters Send Your Feedback, Questions or Concerns, Tips and Suggestions to editorial@georgetowner.com or call 202-338-4833
A Day for We the People Let’s think about the Fourth of July, the celebration of the birth of the soul of our nation, the signing of the Declaration of Independence — this Independence Day in particular, but also in general. Let’s think of that day like Walt Whitman might, the Body Electric, the sum of our people, the power and might that we hold in spite of everything else. It is a day for We the People, in every city or town with the imagination and resources to hold a parade, to get a man or a woman or a group to speechify and sing. Music — all kinds of music, military or maudlin, mighty or Mozartian — marks the day. People march, dress up, play fifes, wave from carriages. There will be picnics, homemade and homespun, in the Palisades, in Culpepper, in Chevy Chase, in Philadelphia, in my high school stomping grounds of South Amherst, Ohio. Dear Leader may intone in front of Lincoln, but there will be millions celebrating elsewhere and everywhere: We the People. Think, during the course of the day and the afternoon and the night of concerts and fireworks, of the men — they were, alas, all men — who made their joint
declaration, who embodied We the People as they existed at the time. Men in wigs, a beermaker, a lawyer, a plantation owner, the inventor and sage Ben Franklin, the poet of almost all freedoms Thomas Jefferson, still and all human beings who, by signing, put their lives and futures, and ours, at risk. If the tales are true, they yelled, fought bitterly at times, connived and bargained and manipulated and called each other, no doubt, ugly names. There were no saints there, but at some point in the hours and days that went on, they came together and signed a document that said, among other things: “We hold these truths to be selfevident.” Big, bold signatures, scrawls you can barely make out, all (as we say today) on the same page. They wrote that all men are created equal, about inalienable rights, of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And though they argued and fought, they came together, finally, imperfectly, but as one. Take a name away, any name, and maybe something else would have happened. In that spirit, can we do the same? We must.
The Eagle’s Ascent: Lunar module prepares to dock with Apollo XI command module in July 1969. Courtesy NASA.
What stands out in your mind about the summer of 1969? YOUR OPINION MATTERS. Post your response. Facebook.com/TheGeorgetowner 8 JUNE 19, 2019
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To the editor: In response to the growing dangers of electric scooters to Georgetown pedestrians, automobile drivers and neighborhoods, I launched the Dangerous DC E-Scooters website at dangerousdcscooters.com. The site is a resource of news and information about this increasingly popular — and dangerous — form of transportation. If you don’t think e-scooters can be dangerous to our safety, or that they are not creating problems for our communities, then read the dozens of stories I’ve posted on the “In The News” page on my site. People have been killed or injured by careless e-scooter riders. Eyesores are being created in a national park by people who abandon their scooters. Cities around the country are seeking to ban the e-scooters from their streets or sidewalks. Studies show how dangerous the scooters are, even for riders. If e-scooter riders will not do the right thing, then they and electronic scooter companies should pay for their transgressions. Penalties and incentives should be as follows.
leaves an e-scooter in an unsafe place on sidewalks or streets. • For every e-scooter that a rider leaves in an unsafe place on sidewalks or streets, the number of scooters that the company could have in the city would be reduced by 100, effective immediately.
Penalties: • Imposing a $100 fine on every rider who
— Edward Segal
Incentives: • People should be rewarded for reporting the location of hazardously abandoned e-scooters or confiscating the scooters and storing them in a safe location. • Individuals would receive $50 for every reported and verified transgression and the safe return of the e-scooter to the company. The fee would be paid by the company that owns the e-scooter. I encourage other cities across the country to adopt similar penalties and incentives. Another idea for Georgetown (and all of D.C.): Ban all e-scooters from residential streets and sidewalks. The penalties and incentives above would still apply in areas where the electric scooters were still allowed.
JACK EVANS REPORT
Celebrating Pride, Reducing Congestion BY JAC K EVAN S Happy Pride Month! On June 8, I walked in the Capital Pride Parade along with friends and family. This year, I led a group through the streets of Dupont Circle and Logan Circle, throwing beads to the crowd. We usually walk in a contingent of politicians from the District Council and the mayor’s office. This year’s parade was electric. The crowd was so welcoming and excited to celebrate inclusivity. I’m proud to celebrate Capital Pride every day, especially during Pride month. As we celebrate, there have been some very promising new transportation initiatives taking place around the ward. Traffic congestion in the District has always been an issue, but it seems that the streets are more crowded than ever. I’m excited to share several updates regarding new programs to help encourage people to take advantage of alternate modes of transportation and to keep traffic moving. Whether or not you’re a fan of the new electric scooters and bicycles, I think we can all agree that they can be placed more responsibly in public space when not in use. The District Department of Transportation will start a motorized vehicle parking pilot to test whether special parking areas will help reduce the
number of scooters and electric bicycles blocking the right of way for pedestrians and people with disabilities. As someone who regularly walks and jogs through Georgetown, I know that even one scooter blocking the sidewalk can be an obstacle. I’m looking forward to seeing this program in action and will wait to see the findings, especially when DDOT is accepting more applications for motorized vehicles. Another way the District is targeting traffic congestion is by introducing dedicated bus lanes on heavily traveled corridors. The mayor, the DDOT director, Metro’s GM and I recently launched bus lanes on H Street and I Street NW. I even painted part of the street red to show off the new lanes. This pilot program will encourage more efficient bus travel through the city. Instead of waiting in car traffic, buses will move swiftly from stop to stop and avoid blocking intersections. These initiatives are steps the city is taking — not only to solve the congestion problem, but to support Vision Zero’s goal of zero traffic injuries and deaths. I’m proud to have supported increased funding for enforcement of illegal parking and enforcement of bike lane protection in the fiscal 2020 budget. We can make our city safer and more accessible for everyone and I believe we are well on our way.
THE VILLAGE
The Georgetown BID Celebrates 20 Years
BY PEGGY SA NDS
More than 100 guests applauded the accomplishments of the Georgetown Business Improvement District at its 20th anniversary celebration, held on Tuesday, June 11, at Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place at Washington Harbour. The longest standing ovation was given to the 13 members of the Clean Team. All agreed, it seemed, that the Georgetown BID, including its Clean Team, has made a positive and visible impact on Georgetown — and that the BID had grown more professional. When the BID began in 1999, it used slogans like “clean, safe and accessible” or “clean, safe and friendly.” At the anniversary meeting, Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans recalled the exploding manhole covers of 20 years ago or so. (It should be noted that in 1999 Georgetown already had a cleanup crew, run by the Doe Fund, known as Ready, Willing & Able.) Evans gave his classic stump speech, declaring that now is the golden age of Georgetown. He also noted that Metrorail will eventually put a station in Georgetown, because the agency will need to construct a second tunnel under the Potomac River. At the meeting, the presentation — which included two videos about the BID and the town — listed its top three game changers: the C&O Canal, reconstructing and programming alleys and establishing Georgetown as an interactive public arts destination, of which the annual “Glow”
festival in December is a key part, said Georgetown BID CEO Joe Sternlieb. As for the financial report of the group, BID treasurer Greg Casten of Tony & Joe’s outlined fiscal 2018: TOTAL REVENUES — $4,028,952 TOTAL EXPENSES — $4,149,139 PROGRAM EXPENSES — $3,484,108 GENERAL BID OPERATIONS — $665,031 CHANGE IN NET ASSETS — $(120,187) NET ASSETS, BEGINNING OF YEAR — $2,774,797 NET ASSETS, END OF YEAR — $2,654,610
Lauren Boston, the BID’s communications director, presented the BID’s “brand refresh,” with the tagline: “A story in every brick.” “The logo features an anchor star, a distinct architectural element that represents Georgetown’s history, beauty, and longstanding status as a destination in DC. The logo’s rectangular shape evokes the shape of bricks, street signs, and historical markers— suggesting a sense of place and time unique to Georgetown,” according to the BID. Its website will boast a new design this summer. Also enjoyed in Georgetown, thanks to the Georgetown BID, is an increase in street furniture – mainly chairs and tables – along the waterfront and the C&O Canal towpath and in front of some stores.
COMMUNITY CALENDAR FRIDAY, JUNE 21
MONDAY, JULY 1
Summer Solstice yoga event — 4 to 7 p.m. — in partnership with Athleta. Visit GeorgetownDC.com for details.
The Georgetown-Burleith-Hillandale Advisory Neighborhood Commission will meet at 6:30 p.m. at Georgetown Visitation School, 1524 35th St. NW, second-floor Heritage Room. For details, visit anc2e.com.
OUTDOOR YOGA
THURSDAY, JUNE 27 DDOT PUBLIC MEETING
The District Department of Transportation will host a public meeting, 6 to 8 p.m., for the Pennsylvania Avenue West Streetscape Project. The purpose of this project is to improve safety and travel for pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular traffic along this iconic corridor. At this public meeting, DDOT will introduce the preferred alternative concept design refinements, share data collection and provide opportunities for participants to share existing concerns. West End Neighborhood Library, 2301 L St. NW. Visit DDOT.dc.gov
ANC 2E
WEDNESDAY, JULY 3
OLD GEORGETOWN BOARD The Old Georgetown Board– Commission of Fine Arts will meet at 9 a.m. at 401 F St. NW, Suite 312. For details, visit cfa.gov.
TUESDAY, JULY 9 OUTDOOR MOVIES
Sunset Cinema at Georgetown Waterfront Park, beginning around 8:30 p.m., “Under the Tuscan Sun.” Visit GeorgetownDC.com for details.
John Wiebenson, operations director, and Joe Sternlieb, CEO and president, of the Georgetown Business Improvement District. Georgetowner photo. Some ideas haven’t gotten off the ground, particularly the gondola. It has seen, however, as a magnet for publicity. Gateway signs for Georgetown are taking longer to process and approve, although some greenery will at last be added to the K Street ramp into Georgetown, adding some much needed softening to that concrete industriallike entrance point. Now with a new five-year plan about to be presented, the BID is quite optimistic about the future of D.C.’s oldest neighborhood. For Georgetown 2020-2028, the framework remains simple and direct: “Preserve What’s Great, Fix What’s Broken, Create What’s Missing.” Even the number of empty storefronts did not highly concern the professionals on the BID’s staff. “The empty stores that seem so ubiquitous and numerous up and down Wisconsin Avenue in particular only comprise about seven percent of the total businesses in Georgetown,” Jamie Scott, the BID’s director of planning and economic development, told The Georgetowner after the meeting. “And most of those we now have viable active plans for the future.Many have settled or are negotiating contracts, have plans before the Old Georgetown Board for improvements, are actively restructuring for new businesses about to move in. Those are the things you don’t see, but we know about the empty storefronts.” Moving into the future, the BID is asking Georgetown businesspeople and residents: if they had one improvement that could be made to Georgetown, what would it be? “One-way streets,” said Tom Birch, a former advisory neighborhood commissioner
(among other community organizations he has headed). “Especially residential streets going south and north of M Street, especially 29th Street.” There are 12 employees on the BID team, headed by Sternlieb. The Clean Team numbers 13, with Surin Edouard Jr. at the lead. On Wednesday, June 19, the Georgetown BID will face a recertification renewal hearing before the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development. “In the District of Columbia, business improvement districts must be recertified every five years after submitting a new five year work plan to the Mayor,” according to the BID. The hearing for the Georgetown BID and two others will be held at 12:30 p.m. on June 19 at the DSLBD Business Center at 441 4th St. NW, 8th Floor. GEORGETOWN BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT JOE STERNLIEB, CEO AND PRESIDENT — JSTERNLIEB@GEORGETOWNDC.COM NANCY MIYAHIRA, VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING DIRECTOR — NMIYAHIRA@ GEORGETOWNDC.COM JOHN WIEBENSON, OPERATIONS DIRECTOR — JWIEBENSON@ GEORGETOWNDC.COM MICHAEL SUMMEY, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER — MSUMMEY@ GEORGETOWNDC.COM 1000 POTOMAC ST., NW, SUITE 122 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20007 202-298-9222 INFO@GEORGETOWNDC.COM
Spiritual Guide to Georgetown SUMMER MASS SCHEDULE
Due to the church closing for restorations on June 3, our summer Mass schedule will be as follows:
WEEKEND OF JUNE 16 —
Parish Picnic (Mass inside Nolan Center at Visitation): 10:30am
WEEKENDS OF JUNE 23 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 1 —
Trinity Hall: Vigil, 7:30am, 9:30am, 11:30am, 1:15pm, 5:30pm Dahlgren Chapel: 9:30am Confessions will take place in the small parlor adjacent to the Chapel of St. Ignatius starting June 8.
Trinity Hall: Vigil, 7:30am, 11:30am, 1:15pm, 5:30pm (Please note there will be no 9:30am Mass) GMG, INC.
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BUSINESS
INS & OUTS BY RO BE RT DEVA NEY A N D STEPH A NIE GREE N
IN: AUTHOR TRAINING ACADEMY
The Author Incubator opened the Author Training Academy at 1115 30th St. NW (across the street from The Georgetowner’s office). Located in the 17,500-square-foot former Bank of Georgetown building, the Author Training Academy “serves coaches, entrepreneurs and other creatives by helping them write, publish and promote their nonfiction books.” “We are delighted to be immersed in the Georgetown community,” said Angela Lauria, founder of the Author Incubator. “Our vision is to bring more magic to the world by creating a vocational school for nonfiction authors committed to creating hope, healing and transformation.” To celebrate its debut, the school held an open house on June 11, hosting a book signing and discussion with Sheri Salata, former co-president of the Oprah Winfrey Network and author of “The Beautiful No: And Other Tales of Trial, Transcendence, and Transformation.”
IN: TENLEYTOWN WAWA
The JFK “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” mural outside the Berliner restaurant at 34th & K NW. Georgetowner photo.
COMING IN 2020: FOUNDERS BANK
Speaking of the Bank of Georgetown — acquired by United Bank in 2016 for $269 million — former executives of that hometown business announced last week that they would open Founders Bank (as in Founding Fathers) early next year. It will be a business-oriented bank headquartered in Northwest Washington. Martin McCarthy will head the inaugural team. Like Jonathan Higgins, Gerard McLoughlin and Domingo Rodriquez, McCarthy worked at the Bank of Georgetown, founded by Curtin Winsor III and Michael Fitzgerald in 2005. Vincent Burke III will be Founders’ board chair.
IN: BERLINER’S JFK MURAL
Check out the new “Ich bin ein Berliner” mural, a tribute to JFK’s 1963 speech, created by Michael Pacheco and his studio along the 34th Street wall of the Berliner. At 3401 K St. NW, the German restaurant, formally French and known as Malmaison, opened in December as part of the Popal family’s restaurant business, which includes Café Bonaparte on Wisconsin Avenue and Lapis on Columbia Road. For more on JFK, see the “We choose to go to the moon” content in this issue.
Its goose sign is already up and flying high. The Tenleytown Wawa is set to open at 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 20, behind the Tenleytown Metro and Whole Foods. The Georgetown location opened in December with much fanfare, though not to universal praise. Wawa’s first foray into Washington, D.C., was in late 2017 on 19th Street NW. This is the fourth D.C. spot for the urban-format convenience store, with a fifth arriving in Adams Morgan later this year. Along with free coffee through this Sunday, the Tenleytown location’s in-store campaign to support the USO will run through July 21.
OUT: DEPUTY MAYOR KENNER
Brian Kenner, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, will depart D.C. government next month to work at Amazon’s policy division office in Washington, D.C. Part of the Bowser administration since 2015, Kenner previously worked for Mayors Vincent Gray and Adrian Fenty. He has been involved in many recent D.C. development initiatives — and was one of the District officials dealing with Amazon during its HQ2 search, which resulted in the selection of next-door Arlington County.
D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner will be working for Amazon next month. Courtesy D.C. government.
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Author Sheri Salata with Angela Lauria, founder of the Author Incubator. Photo by Robert Devaney.
REAL ESTATE
More Residential, Less Retail for 3220 Prospect BY R OB E RT DEVA NEY The longtime parking lot at 3220 Prospect St. NW, set for redevelopment for five years, has gotten new plans which call for more residential and much less retail space. Owned by the Weaver family, which runs its hardware business next to the property, the property — sometimes named Prospect Place — is being developed with McCaffery Interests. The architect is Hickok Cole, which has offices on 31st Street. The new project calls for a six-story building with some setbacks, containing about 50 condominium units and about 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Plans for the living units include a rooftop terrace and some private patios, along with a fitness center. There will also be a parking garage in the building. Across the street is the Georgetown Court complex, owned by Robert Elliott, which includes Cafe Milano and Peacock Cafe. A new restaurant, Brasserie Liberté, is being built in the old Morton’s Steakhouse. The , corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Prospect Street boasts a Wawa, while the opposite For its part, the Georgetown-Burleithcorner, which once housed a Zara, will be redeveloped for smaller retail units by Hillandale ANC issued a resolution on the project at its June 3 meeting. In part, it read: EastBanc. “From a design perspective, ANC 2E looks Mike Weaver of W.T. Weaver & Sons, 3D RENDERING - STREET IEW - LOOKING EAST TOWARDS WISCONSIN AVE forward to V reviewing a massing and light Inc., told The Georgetowner: “The previous plan was 100-percent retail on multiple study from Wisconsin Avenue, M Street, 3220 PROSPECT ST NW SQUARE 1207/ LOT 104, Prospect 838-841, 843 & 906 and Street NW so that the ANC, floors with some underground parking. Due to the current challenges in the retail the Citizens Association of Georgetown, environment and the dramatic changes that and the Old Georgetown Board may evaluate the light and air changes due Uber and Lyft have had on the marketplace, to the height of this new building … we feel that it is best to study a fresh approach to the property. We made an initial ANC 2E asks the Old Georgetown Board presentation to the Georgetown Advisory to consider the Citizens Association of Georgetown’s recommendations regarding Neighborhood Commission and the Old Georgetown Board of a plan that would the differentiation of the design of each reduce the retail by more than 80 percent proposed retail storefront. The ANC also and add residential apartments with parking notes that the neighbors to the west have not yet been notified regarding the concept to the project. Both the ANC and the OGB have given us feedback, and we are and that the roof decks may overlook the backyards of neighbors, which would not be currently working on revisions to the plan supported by the ANC.” that we will bring back to our neighbors.” ALLEY
WISCONSIN AVE, NW
ALLEY
PROSPECT ST NW
Rendering of 3220 Prospect’s new plans. Courtesy Hickok Cole.
A-3.2
May 16, 2019
Rendering of 3220 Prospect’s new plans. Courtesy Hickok Cole. GMG, INC.
JUNE 19, 2019
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In 1994, Apollo XI Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Chris Murray, owner of Govinda Gallery, with Andy Warhol’s artwork of Aldrin on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Photo by Chester Simpson.
1969: A Y E A R OF T R IUMP H A ND T UR BUL E NCE BY GARY T IS CHL ER
FROM THE FIRST OF TIME, BEFORE THE FIRST OF TIME, BEFORE THE FIRST MEN TASTED TIME, WE THOUGHT OF YOU. YOU WERE A WONDER TO US, UNATTAINABLE, A LONGING PAST THE REACH OF LONGING, A LIGHT BEYOND OUR LIGHT, OUR LIVES— PERHAPS A MEANING TO US… NOW OUR HANDS HAVE TOUCHED YOU IN YOUR DEPTH OF NIGHT.
FROM “VOYAGE TO THE MOON” BY ARCHIBALD MACLEISH THINGS FALL APART; THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD; MERE ANARCHY IS LOOSED UPON THE WORLD, THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE IS LOOSED, AND EVERYWHERE THE CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE IS DROWNED; THE BEST LACK ALL CONVICTION, WHILE THE WORST ARE FULL OF PASSIONATE INTENSITY.
FROM “THE SECOND COMING” BY W. B. YEATS
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In 1969, one event lit the world like a noisy light: the day witnessed by just about all of mankind, when American astronaut Neil Armstrong, in the guise of a spaceman, stepped on the dusty and rocky moon, planted our flag, was man and mankind. On July 21, in a series of blunt, remarkably direct and prosaic words, the front page of the New York Times proclaimed: “MEN WALK ON MOON/Astronauts Land on Plain; Collect Rocks, Plant Flag.” The actual landing by Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was on July 20; Michael Collins remained in the orbiting command module. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” declared Armstrong, making him and his fellow space travelers on the Eagle immortal, but still mortal. The moon landing — not just American but everyone’s — was a signal and singular triumph, the apex of a year marked by turbulence of a kind not encountered before. It was a year that was significant for its proximity to the past and the future, and more specifically, to the year that preceded it. If the moon landing lit up a light in our lives, revealing itself spectacularly after that orbiting body’s lifetime of demure revelation and disappearance in our tides and daily lives, it also reminded us that we stood in the presence of its dark side. In that way, the year and our lives revealed itself to us and electrified us and crashed in
on us like Yeats’s second coming, with the ever-widening gyre of our war in Vietnam, the protests, the revolutionary, often violent gatherings in opposition to that war, opening rifts in our political and cultural society. It seemed to whiplash our lives between triumph and tragedy, with a bitter yearning for the days of normalcy buffeted by new moral, sexual and cultural norms. The landing was the climax of JFK’s better angel, overshadowing his flaws with his inspirational rhetoric of active aspiration, beginning with his admonition to: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” The insistence, the ambition and the promise to go to the moon was a decisive ambition, seemingly impossible but emotionally given and embraced. “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills,” said Kennedy in 1962 at Rice University in Houston. The speech echoed a youthful energy, a confidence that we could right wrongs and win hearts and minds everywhere we planted a flag of interest. One of those flags was in Vietnam, which by that summer of 1969 had come to be seen as an interminable struggle, deeply costly in American blood and resources.
In that context, while the moon landing was bracing like uncompromised electricity, the year itself was primarily the year where the consequences and the proximity of the previous year were emotionally, culturally and politically felt. That dramatic, violent, earthquake year of 1968 shaped 1969. That year, the Kennedy family, the country and the world lost Robert F. Kennedy, his murder preceded by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the hands of an assassin in Memphis. The country had suffered two enormous losses — of leaders who had the ability to imagine the world whole. That year, it became clear that Vietnam and all of its attendant sorrows was not just a war but a kind of state of mind. Nineteen sixty-nine was a continuation of the previous year, accompanied by what might have been. Richard Nixon — in spite of a sometimes spiteful personality and an awkward lack of grace — had made a remarkable comeback. In his inaugural speech, he perhaps surprised many with his eloquence and even prescience, stating: “We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth.” Generations passed us by that year: the last of Eisenhower’s life on earth, the last of Charles de Gaulle’s public life, the last song sung by Judy Garland. In Vietnam, it was the year of Hamburger Hill and My Lai.
An Astronaut’s Notes on Apollo BY SC OT T ALT MAN Ten years ago last month, I had just returned from my final flight as the commander of STS 125, a space shuttle mission to repair and renovate the Hubble Space Telescope. In July of that year, my crew and I came to Washington, D.C., as part of NASA’s typical postflight set of visits to Congress and NASA headquarters. Our visit coincided with the celebration of the Apollo 40th anniversary at the National Air and Space Museum, so we were included in the festivities. One of the highlights for me was actually getting to talk flying with one of my childhood heroes, Neil Armstrong, and sharing the stage with him discussing our experiences. We traded stories about serving in the same fighter squadron and talked about spaceflight. He was truly a tremendously talented and yet humble and reserved person, the perfect choice to be the first man on the moon. Looking back 50 years, I remember going outside one night in the summer of 1969, while we were living in a small town of 1,000, and looking up and realizing humans were actually on the moon. I never dreamed at the time that I would have an opportunity to fly in space or ever meet the man that first walked on the moon. I am tremendously excited for (and a little jealous of) the next generation that will take us back to the moon and set the stage for humans on Mars. In 1969, my dad was the principal of the high school and grade school in Wenona, a farming town in north-central Illinois. I remember many high school seniors being drafted and leaving for Vietnam. And it was only two weeks after the moon landing that my maternal grandparents were both killed in an auto accident. I got my first control-line model airplane for my birthday and had my first chance to control a plane in flight. I bought my first vinyl album — The Guess Who’s “Wheatfield Soul,” with “These
Eyes” as the lead song — and I remember being fascinated by the lyrics of the song “In the Year 2525” by Zager and Evans and its thoughts about the future. This is a great moment both to look back and reflect on what a tremendous accomplishment the moon landing was and to realize that we are about to follow in those footsteps again. The Orion spacecraft being readied right now for a launch next year will give us an incredibly capable spaceship to travel those vast distances, while the Space Launch System being assembled near New Orleans provides the power to travel to the moon and beyond. I am thrilled that our 50th anniversary celebrations are also setting the stage for the future. These celebrations are taking place across the country, from the Road to Apollo XI 50th Anniversary at the Reagan Library in California to an Apollo 50th Gala at Kennedy
The war ground on and discord rose with demonstrations ever more massive in size, including the ultimate uprising on Moratorium Day, Oct. 15, with half a million demonstrators across the street from the White House and folk legend Pete Seeger rallying the crowd with the new John Lennon song, “Give Peace a Chance” (as the Beatles were breaking up). Those of us old enough to remember, remember. I was a young father living in Marin County, California, writing sports stories. My neighbors — if not literally, just a loud song away — included Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and others. Washington artist Sidney Lawrence was a 21-year-old student at UC Berkeley, in some ways the epicenter of California dreaming and contrasts, where tear gas sometimes wafted in the air. On May 15, Gov. Ronald Reagan ordered 2,700 National Guard troops to quell growing protests and shut down People’s Park. “Military trucks lined the streets and U.S. soldiers wielded guns and as many as 4,000 people fought back,” according to Lawrence, who recalled going to a class on Baroque art, only to find the building surrounded by the military. It was the year of bell bottoms and Afros and long-haired hippie girls and boys. And it was the year of the Woodstock and Altamont festivals, the climax of the sunny and dark sides of a kind of uncontrolled hedonism of
sex, drugs and rock and roll. The ethereal Joni Mitchell, who was not there, caught the spirit of Woodstock: “We are stardust, we are golden.” It was there that Jimi Hendrix tortured “The StarSpangled Banner” into an electric guitar pretzel and Richie Havens opened it up by crowding more feelings into the hundredtimes-over repetition of “Freedom.” A different spirit prevailed at Altamont in the East Bay, where the Rolling Stones reigned, singing “Gimme Shelter,” as in “War, children, it’s just a shot away.” (That year, if the Beatles sang “Let It Be,” the Stones sang “Let It Bleed.”) Hell’s Angels acted as security guards, beating up a naked man, and there were four deaths: three accidental and one a stabbing. It was the year of the Manson massacre, an excess hard to remember and harder to forget, with “Helter Skelter” blood on the wall, the murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others. The Rasputin-like, California-made monster Charles Manson died in prison not so long ago. Still, I remember interviewing an old man a few years later on his 100th birthday. He was thinking back to a day in 1900 when he and others were joking about the idea of a man on the moon. He smiled at me and said, “I seen that, though, didn’t I?” Yes, you did. Yes, we did.
Space Center underneath one of the remaining Saturn V rockets. The Smithsonian has plans to put Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit on display again on July 16, launch day of Apollo 11, and hold other events that week on the National Mall. The U.S. Mint has released a series of commemorative coins celebrating the 50th anniversary, with funds from sales going to benefit the Smithsonian and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Started by the original Mercury Seven and continued by the NASA Astronaut Corps today, ASF provides 50
scholarships each year for outstanding students finishing degrees in a wide variety of STEM fields across the country. JFK’s stirring words — “We choose to go to the moon!” — put us on this path and still resonate today. I am thrilled to celebrate our past accomplishments and look forward to the next small step and giant leap. A Georgetown resident, Scott Altman is a retired U.S. Navy captain and a former NASA astronaut, a veteran of four space shuttle missions.
APOLLO 50 EVENTS Former astronaut Scott Altman.
RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY Saturday, July 13: The Official Apollo XI 50th Anniversary Gala with Buzz Aldrin, a black-tie/white-spacesuit event presented by Buzz Aldrin Ventures, will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s Air Force One Pavilion in Simi Valley, California. For details, visit roadtoapollo50th.com. SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM Tuesday, July 16: After thousands of Kickstarter donations to conserve Neil
Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit, this iconic artifact will go back on display for the first time in 13 years.
Thursday, July 18, to Saturday, July 20: The museum will mark the 50th
anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission with a three-day celebration centered on the National Mall.
Friday, July 19: At Discover the Moon Day, visitors can learn about lunar science of the past and present and walk the path the Apollo 11 astronauts did on the moon. At 8 p.m., NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green will discuss NASA’s future plans for going to the moon to stay and then traveling on to Mars. Saturday, July 20: The museum will host a Late-Night Moon Landing Celebration, commemorating the exact moment the first steps were taken on the moon with activities until 2 a.m.
1969: A Personal Recollection BY C H R IS M U R R AY My then-wife, Kim, and I were at Woodstock. I rented a cottage there for the summer with my Georgetown University pal Michael Netter and our wives. Netter went on to work with Andy Warhol that fall, and he is a big part of my introduction to Andy. I also did a Woodstock Exhibition at Govinda Gallery in July of 1994, the 25th anniversary, called “Woodstock Images 1969.” We went to the festival the first day, no problem. Swami Satchidananda blessed the event with some chanting. Then Richie Havens took the stage and it was off from there — and the rest is history. It was great. Since we had a cottage in Woodstock itself, we drove back from Ellenville, where the festival actually was, to spend the night at our place. Little did we know, we could not return the next day as the roads shut down. We had about a dozen friends from Washington crash in the field outside our cottage, so we had our own mini-Woodstock as well! I also ended up becoming friends with everyone in the band Santana, as they too had a house for the summer in Woodstock, down the road from us. I took them to the best swimming hole in the Catskills all summer, the reservoir there. The thing about Woodstock is that it was all about community. That’s why it was magic.
It had a spontaneous element to it that was tremendously exciting. With the focus on the remarkable music of those times, and the musical artists who created that music, the Woodstock festival was driven by inspiration and joy. It was all about creativity and, believe it or not, courage. They were the days of hope and dreams. Who would forget the moon landing on TV? The great thing about that for me was meeting Buzz Aldrin years later at a fundraiser in Houston for the Challenger mission, which turned out to be a tragedy. We helped establish the Space Education Center as a memorial. I met Buzz there with Brooke Shields and others. I got permission for the benefit concert to use Andy’s last print — “Moonwalk” — as the event image on invitations, media, etc. When I met Buzz, I suggested he visit Govinda Gallery if I could arrange to get him one of Andy’s “Moonwalk” prints. Buzz came to Govinda in Georgetown and it was an amazing day. Buzz and I have remained friends to this day, and it is a great source of joy to me. Chris Murray is the owner of Govinda Gallery. For more personal recollections of 1969, visit georgetowner.com. GMG, INC.
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ARTS
‘Whistler in Watercolor’ at the Freer BY ARI POS T In 1880, painter James McNeill Whistler was in middle age, broke and at the end of his professional rope. An American who moved permanently to England as a young man, he achieved early notoriety as a brash personality and an electrifying raconteur, which contrasted sharply with a sensitive, atmospheric and achingly delicate aesthetic sensibility. A series of splashes he made in artistic circles culminated in two major scandals. First, he had a public and bitter falling out with his most important patron over the Peacock Room (on permanent view at the Freer). Nearly simultaneously, he sued English art critic John Ruskin for libel over a blistering exhibition review featuring one of Whistler’s most modern, controversial and beautiful paintings, “Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket.” Then Whistler did something modestly remarkable: he reinvented himself as an artist and painted his way into posterity with watercolor. Approaching the age of 50, he began to produce a profusion of small, marketable watercolor works, which he continued to make over the next 15 years for a growing middle-class art market in England, Europe and especially America. “I have done delightful things” he confided, “and have a wonderful game to play.” “Whistler in Watercolor,” on view at the Freer Gallery of Art through Oct. 6, is the first major exploration of these works since the 1930s. Museum founder Charles Lang Freer amassed the world’s largest collection of Whistler’s watercolors, with more than 50 seascapes, nocturnes, interior views and street scenes. Due to Freer’s will,
“The Ocean Wave” (detail), 1883-84. James McNeill Whistler. Courtesy Freer. these works — along with his exceptional collection of Asian art — have never left the museum, and the fragile watercolors have rarely been displayed. Recent research conducted by museum curators, scientists and conservators now shines new light on Whistler’s materials, techniques and artistic genius, as seen in this exhibition. The Freer opened in 1923 as the Smithsonian’s first art museum and the first on the National Mall. An Italian Renaissancestyle building of granite and marble, with galleries surrounding a courtyard with more and better natural light than most of the world’s museums, it might be the most beautiful museum in Washington. However, the nature of Freer’s will somewhat freezes the museum in amber. It rarely changes, and
DCArtswatch
14TH SMITHSONIAN SECRETARY Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture — the hugely popular, three-year-old museum near the Washington Monument, strikingly designed by David Adjaye — became the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on June 16, succeeding David Skorton. The first African American secretary, Bunch is also the first former director of a Smithsonian museum to occupy the top spot since Alexander Wetmore, an ornithologist who served as the sixth secretary from 1945 to 1952. The 11-member search committee was led by Board of Regents chair David Rubenstein and vice chair Steve Case. Historian, educator and author, Bunch became director of NMAAHC in 2005, when the museum was a concept with neither collection nor site. Earlier, he held Smithsonian positions at the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of American History, where he was associate director of curatorial affairs from 1994 to 2000. In the 1980s, Bunch was a curator and program manager at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. From 2001 to 2005, he was president of the Chicago Historical Society. In a story about Bunch that appeared in The Georgetowner in October of 2017, Shelia Moses wrote: 14 JUNE 19, 2019
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temporary exhibitions are even more unusual. A small jewel of an exhibition, “Whistler in Watercolor” showcases the best of what the Freer’s American collection has to offer: gem-like works, highly atmospheric, richly textured and fundamentally contemplative. Many of the works are no larger than a postcard, and each painting feels upon discovery like a well-kept secret. Whistler’s decision to focus on watercolors did not come about incidentally. The 1878 Ruskin trial transformed him into a celebrity, but left him bankrupt. Hoping to recover financially, he accepted a threemonth commission from the Fine Art Society of London to produce a set of 12 etchings of Venice. More than a year later, Whistler returned to London with 50 etchings, 100
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“The Chicago History Museum had become a perfect fit, and Chicago was perfect for him, his wife and two daughters. He had no plans to leave when the Smithsonian asked him to return. (He admits that he said no to the Smithsonian three times, until he couldn’t refuse anymore.) He knew the call was too great, so he came back to a world stage and to an effort — creating the new museum — that would take 10 years, with many more years of work to come.”
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch with his mother, Montrose. Photo by Jeff Malet. Bunch was born and raised in and around Newark, New Jersey. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in African American and American history from American University. He has taught at several universities, including American and George Washington, and has served on the advisory boards of several museum associations. Appointed by President George W. Bush to the Committee
for the Preservation of the White House in 2002, Bunch was reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2010.
NEW SYNETIC MANAGING DIRECTOR Following the planned departure of Linda Holder, Synetic Theater, based in Arlington, Virginia, has hired Jason Najjoum as managing director. Najjoum, who recently spent four years working at Yale Rep, has a BA from Emory University, an MFA from Yale School of Drama and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Synetic (the name is a mashup of synthesis and kinetic) was founded in 2001 by Georgian dance, theater and film artists Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili.
2019 SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL The theme of this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, directed by Sabrina Lynn Motley, is “The Social Power of Music.” Reduced from 10 days to two — Saturday, June 29, and Sunday, June 30 — as a result of the government shutdown, the festival, on the National Mall, will feature a local record label market, zine-making activities, archiving demonstrations, instrument workshops and, on Sunday, a Smithsonian Folkways tribute to Pete Seeger and a performance by Grandmaster Flash.
pastels, several oil paintings and at least three watercolors. Upon returning, he fully embraced the medium of watercolor. “Mr. Whistler is about to surprise both his friends and his detractors by appearing in the new character of the water-colour artist,” a reporter wrote in 1881. Traditional landscapes held little interest for Whistler, but, he claimed, “The sea to me, is, and always was, most fascinating!” Rendered with simplicity, his seascapes of Southend, a popular seaside destination south of London, rely on broad washes of color with sparse detail. Whistler was a master at creating a mixture of pigments that produced a tonally balanced palette. His seascapes were often organized in a three-part composition of sky, sea and shore. In the late 19th century, an artist’s studio was regarded as a sanctuary of creativity and mystery. Whistler played on the appeal of the studio by welcoming patrons and collectors into his own and providing tantalizing peeks behind the scenes of his creative production. In “Milly Finch,” a model wearing a lavender dress poses provocatively on a red chaise lounge. In “Note in Pink and Purple,” Milly sits demurely with her hand in her lap. The identical dress, chaise, table and drapery swag are present in both works, yet the mood is quite different, illustrating how Whistler used his studio, with its theatrical trappings and bohemian intrigue, much like a performance space. Perhaps most enticing of all, Whistler’s street scenes and “nocturnes” (nighttime scenes) offer a view into Victorian England street life through a romantic but accurate lens. Whistler was fascinated by street scenes throughout his career, from his early watercolors of the village of Saverne to a busy flower market, also in northern France, and on to the children, rickety houses and small businesses along Cheyne Walk in London’s Chelsea neighborhood, where he lived for many years. The watercolors that resulted from his 1882 trip to Amsterdam are among his most experimental works. Maintaining a wet surface while he worked, the artist rubbed and scraped the paper to achieve his desired effects. Among the many large-scale and highconcept exhibitions on view during the summer season, “Whistler in Watercolor” is a breath of fresh air. It is for connoisseurs, for the lovers of museum hush, who like looking closely at beautiful work in a beautiful space.
ANTIQUES ADDICT
Buttoned Down With Antique Buttons BY MICHE L L E GA L L E R character; restored buttons lose their status Through their 3,000-year history, buttons During the 19th century, buttons shrunk as antiques. Also, antique buttons were made evolved from being merely fasteners to about half the size of their 18th-century from natural materials like horn, ivory and connecting through a loop of thread to, for a predecessors. More often, they were bone. Wooden buttons, typically made using a time, miniature works of art. mass-produced works of craft instead of tagua nut, were most common from the 1860s Ornate buttoning became fashionable individual pieces of art. Button making among Europe’s wealthy citizens during the accelerated with the Industrial Revolution, until after World War I. A perk of collecting buttons is that they 13th century. In 1250, the first button makers’ when engravers cut steel dies into the latest can be found everywhere, from garage sales guild formed in France, making buttons so fashionable shape and women and children to flea markets and trade shows. They are prized that sumptuary laws restricted their stamped out pasteboard and cloth to cover relatively inexpensive historic artifacts, use. A powerful leader could pay off a debt the buttons by machine. Another machine combining artistic merit and quotidian use. by plucking a precious button from his suit. stamped out the four holes that we regard as Buttons became even more prominent as the iconic pattern today. Michelle Galler is an antiques dealer, a women’s fashions came to require a snug But larger, more ornate buttons became the design consultant and a realtor based in both fit, following the lines of the body from rage in the late 19th century, when women Washington, D.C., and Washington, Virginia. shoulders to hips. rebelled against earlier, staid fashions and Her shop is in Hazel River Arts & Antiques in By the 18th century, colonial Americans turned to flowing garments in adventurous Sperryville, Virginia. Reach her at antiques. imported most of their buttons from England. colors. Young girls began gathering buttons to and.whimsies@gmail.com. However, fashion once again changed the use for “charm strings.” Once a girl collected course of button making. Almost every piece of a man’s clothing — jackets, waistcoats, shirts and breeches — in the colonies utilized buttons, demanding a steady supply and prompting a few small American button manufacturers to spring up. Early American button makers made buttons of brass, wood, pewter, shell, silver and ivory. Those who could not afford imported goods often made their own buttons in their homes from cow or pig bone. The raw material was soaked to soften it, then separated into sheets to cut out the button blanks, which were polished. Holes were drilled to allow for sewing the buttons onto garments. Many 17th- and 18th-century bone, gilt, ceramic and shell buttons are available today Brass buttons from the uniform of a Danish World War I artillery lieutenant. Courtesy Wikipedia.org. from purveyors of antique buttons, ranging in price from a few dollars to several hundred for a rarer ceramic or jeweled button. 999 buttons, her future husband would George Washington’s 1789 inauguration provide her with her 1,000th. ushered in the mainly American tradition By the early 20th century, most buttons of politically significant clothing buttons, were mundane, mass produced from a variety some as large as 50-cent pieces. These could of cheap materials. In an attempt to revive close a pair of breeches or a jacket while some of the elegant button making techniques simultaneously announcing the wearer’s of the 18th century, France began to produce politics. Authentic George Washington “under glass” buttons and Italy contributed inaugural buttons are quite rare; a set sold for glass “paperweight” buttons with tiny bursts $225,000 at auction last year. of kaleidoscopic color. These are particularly attractive to collectors and hard to come by; hence, they can cost several hundred dollars apiece when one can find them. The United States joined the revival with calico buttons, made of china and featuring designs reminiscent of homespun fabric patterns. But the most popular buttons at the turn of the century were “picture buttons,” picturing everything imaginable — birds, dogs, cats, portraits, even fairy-tale scenes — often worn in long rows down the front of coats and dresses. The more tailored look that followed World War I prompted designers of men’s and women’s clothes to adopt the plain fourhole button as their standard. When longer and more feminine clothing styles became A George Washington inaugural button. Courtesy georgewashingtoninauguralbuttons.com. popular again, large glass and pottery buttons appeared. Then, during World War II, patriotic buttons featuring eagles, flags and stars were Photo by Steven Rattinger produced. After the war, button manufacturers In 1810, after purloining the gilding secret returned to the mostly synthetic, largely from the British, Americans began making unassuming buttons we wear today. gilt buttons. Five grains of gold per gross of With so much to consider and inspect, it can buttons were added to a mixture of mercury be hard to tell if an antique or a vintage button and brushed onto brass buttons. The buttons is legit. Generally speaking, antique buttons were then cooked in a furnace. These new must be around 100 years old or older and gilt buttons were the vanguard of a “golden vintage buttons between 50 and 100 years old. age” that flourished in the first half of the They must retain at least half of the original 19th century. GMG, INC.
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IN COUNTRY
Leesburg Daytrip One-Two Punch: Raspberry Falls and Tuscarora Mill BY WAL LY GRE E V E S
A historical view of Raspberry Falls hole #3, at the base of the Catoctin foothills. When I was a commercial real estate broker in downtown Washington, D.C., in the ’90s, I occasionally suffered from “concrete-itis.” Every turn of the head would showcase another building, an address
conjuring up square footage, vacancies, and phone calls to make. Leaving the city for a round of golf and some good eats was a frequent remedy. When Raspberry Falls Golf & Hunt Club opened in 1996, I cemented the
Country Club Kennels & Training AND The Chance Foundation This Chance Foundation dog needs a loving family! Wylie is an adorable pup with a complicated past. He is good-natured, but has has suffered abuse, and can sometimes take a while to warm up to a new person. His foster parents can tell you that once you have earned his trust, Wylie is a loyal and true companion who loves snuggles with his foster mom and fetch with his foster dad. However, he is still wary of strangers and requires time and patience before he can fully trust his loved ones. A patient and experienced dog owner will be needed to give Wylie the forever home that he has always dreamed of. For more information, visit countryclubkennels.com Boarding Services Available • Personalized, loving care for your special pet • Luxurious accommodations in a stress-free country environment where fun, games, exercise, love, and attention abound • Locations in Fauquier and Orange County, Virginia. 10739 Bristersburg Rd, Catlett, VA 20119 (540) 788-3559 www.countryclubkennels.com
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cure for “concrete-itis”: golf at Raspberry and lunch at Tuscarora Mill. Early tee-times at Raspberry just allowed me to leave buildings behind, and I always enjoyed chuckling at the folks in traffic on the way to the jungle. The décor from cartcolor to vests and bowties, always made me feel welcome and like I was doing something very important (and I was). Nothing has changed except I liked it so much I joined and now get to feel this way more often and they know my name. General Manager and Head Pro Willie Lutz does a remarkable job of making a guest feel like a “member for a day,” a motto of the club. “I hold the greatest office in public golf,” says Lutz, who after only five years maintains hearty friendships with the many famous athletes, business owners, politicians, hobbyists and citizens that show up at the club. The club hosts over 100 golf events a season, houses the Raspberry Golf Academy in a stand-alone building featuring all the latest in instructional technology, and organizes everything from demo-day to club championships for its members. Raspberry Falls is a Gary Player Signature Course, the only of its kind in Virginia, and the Black Knight designed it himself, remarking “this site was made for a golf course!” The second punch that completes my “spa day” is lunch at Tuscarora Mill, known locally as “Tuskies.” Since 1985, this smoked-lumber, shiny-bottled, warm hearted and culinarily creative establishment has served t-shirts and tuxes alike, in a fashion that makes it a regional favorite. I have frequently played golf at Raspberry by myself and ended up eating here with folks I was paired with. Some bar time with owner Kevin Malone the other day after a visit to Raspberry was a tale-filled pleasure, with stories ranging from the friends of the establishment that have passed on to cranky and loveable
30-year veteran diners and drinkers. My favorite item on the menu is the seafood salad, but there are no shortage of scrumptious and original choices. Malone also owns Magnolia’s at the Mill in Purcellville, South Street Under (located right under Tuskies), and three Fireworks Pizza locations, one of which is right next to Tuskies. Fireworks just opened up in Arlington also. The most I could get Malone to say upon querying him as to whether he has more restaurants on the horizon was “I love my wife.” Some restaurants just have that thing, that aura that makes you feel welcome when you walk through the door, and this is one of them. The Market Station complex was
Willie Lutz, the Raspberry Falls general manager and head professional, holds “the greatest office in public golf.”
IN COUNTRY originally developed by Bruce Brownell in the ’80s, and the cozy Tuskie’s space that used to be a mill (machinery still intact for your dining pleasure), was moved 200 yards from where the bike path is now. The complex almost feels like it is right out of a colorful, historic western town. … Oh wait, that’s what it is. I have been subjecting myself to this onetwo punch for almost 25 years now, and I still enjoy it just as much as I did the first time. If you need a cure for the city blues, this highly important, sometimes confidential, always enjoyable itinerary will put the wind back in your sails and deliver you home a happier soul.
The Raspberry theme is a fun touch at the course.
Tuscarora Mill “ Tuskies” has been a Leesburg tradition since it opened in 1985.
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HAUTE & COOL
Destination Summer: The Ultimate Beach Bundle
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BY A L LYS ON BURK H A R D T For a fun-filled day of sun and sand, the perfect swimsuit is top priority. You may prefer a one-piece or a twopiece — or just need options — but style and function must align. Test the waters in this season’s blazing hot corals and golden ambers of the Sunbelt. Be sure the cut is flattering and the fabric is firm and tight. No waterside wardrobe malfunctions, please! Once you have that under control, you’ll be ready to invest in a kaftan with personality. But don’t they all? Find lightweight sandals that can handle the scorching sands. How about a clever carry to add a touch of zest? Top it off with a wide brim hat to provide some sunshade. Now it is time to take the plunge. Whether you are sunning on the shore or surfing the seas, you are guaranteed to be making waves.
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The Mykonos, $95 andieswim.com
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Textured Straw Hat, $495 Neiman Marcus
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3. SUSAN ALEXANDRA Citrus Beaded Bag, $280 Saks Fifth Avenue
4. RHIANNON
Rhinestone Claw Clip, $12 Urban Outfitters
5. BURBERRY
Icon Stripe Detail Swimsuit, $420
6. BODEN
Embroidered Kaftan (Jam), $42
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Slim Flip Flops, $28 Shopbop
8. SOLID & STRIPED
Wave Print Bikini, $166 Nordstrom
9. PIPPA HOLT
Mini Multicolored Kaftan No. 79, $540 MatchesFashion.com
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Looking for a specialized company to remodel a house located in Mclean, VA. Please email: rsna1972@yahoo.com or call (202) 298-1578.
LOOKING FOR LIVE IN HOUSEKEEPER.
Responsibilities include: Cooking and serving meals, laundry, ironing, cleaning. Uniform provided. Please call: 202.445.9073
WE’RE LOOKING FOR WRITERS!
The Georgetowner is looking for ambitious, high-energy real-time news reporter/editor. This position requires a person to compile and produce lightning-fast stories and posts on all news that is driving the conversation online and for print. The Real-Time News Reporter will be responsible for writing, compiling and/or producing lightning-fast stories and posts that effects the Georgetown community.
SERVICE DEPARTMENT OF SMALL AND LOCAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Notice of Public Hearing and Preliminary Finding on Extension for Georgetown Business Improvement District, Southwest Business Improvement District and Mount Vernon Community Improvement District Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to section 6 of the Business Improvement Districts Act of 1996 (“Act”), D.C. Official Code § 2-1215.18, the Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) will hold a public hearing on the extension of the Georgetown Business Improvement District, the Southwest Business Improvement District, and the Mount Vernon Community Improvement District. The public hearing will be held at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 in Suite 850N, 441 4th Street NW, Washington, D.C. DSLBD Director Kristi Whitfield has informed the Georgetown Business Improvement District, the Southwest Business Improvement District, and the Mount Vernon Community Improvement District that the filing criteria set forth in D.C. Official Code § 2-1215.18 have been met and their applications are otherwise in conformity with the Act. The BID applications are available for review by the public online at https://dslbd.dc.gov/service/businessimprovement-districts-bids. DSLBD invites the public to testify at the public hearing. Witnesses should bring a copy of their written testimony to the hearing. Additional written statements may be submitted by e-mail to Jennifer.prats@dc.gov or mailed to: Jennifer Prats, DSLBD, 441 4th Street NW, Suite 850N, Washington, DC 20001. The public hearing record will close ten business days following the conclusion of the hearing, or Wednesday, July 3, 2019 before 5:00 p.m. Persons submitting written statements for the record should observe this deadline.
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FOOD & WINE
Dining Guide
WASHINGTON DC’S FINEST RESTAURANTS
Cocktail of the Month Papa Doble Daiquiri BY JOD Y KU R ASH
CLYDE’S OF GEORGETOWN 3236 M ST., NW 202-333-9180 | clydes.com
This animated tavern, in the heart of Georgetown, popularized saloon food and practically invented Sunday brunch. Clyde’s is the People’s Choice for bacon cheeseburgers, steaks, fresh seafood, grilled chicken salads, fresh pastas and desserts.
ENO WINE BAR
2810 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., NW 202–295–2826 | enowinerooms.com HAPPY HOUR: Offered nightly Tuesday - Thursday from 5 - 7 PM & Sunday from 4 - 7 PM. Enjoy select $7 wines on tap. Join us on Wednesday’s for College Nights from 9 - 11 PM and Sunday’s for 30% off bottles. Our delightful wines are best enjoyed with local charcuterie, cheese and small plates.
THE OCEANAIRE SEAFOOD ROOM 1201 F ST., NW 202–347–2277 | theoceanaire.com
The Oceanaire blends a sophisticated atmosphere with simple, seasonal and regionally-inspired cuisine – the result is “the ultra-fresh seafood experience”. From our wines and cocktails to our seafood, steak and desserts, our commitment to sustainable and locally-sourced ingredients is apparent in everything we do. Reserve your table today for an extraordinary dining experience.
Hemingway (center, in white) in La Floridita bar in Havana in 1955. Courtesy “Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway.”
FILOMENA RISTORANTE
1063 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202–338–8800 | filomena.com A Georgetown landmark for over 30 years featuring styles and recipes passed through generations. Balanced cuttingedge culinary creations of modern Italy using the fresh ingredients and made-from-scratch sauces and pastas. Seen on The Travel Channel, Award-winning Filomena is a favorite of U.S. Presidents, celebrities, sports legends, political leaders. “Don’t miss their bakery’s incredible desserts” - Best in D.C.
ROCKLANDS BARBEQUE
2418 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202-333-2558 | rocklands.com This original location has served barbecue since 1990. We now have more space for you to sit down with family and friends at our new dining room Driving or walking up Wisconsin Avenue, you ask “mmmm, what’s that aroma??” That’s pork, beef and chicken coming out of our wood-only smoker, falling off the bone and ready for a dousing with our Original Barbeque Sauce.
CAFE BONAPARTE
1522 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202–333–8830 | cafebonaparte.com
MARTIN’S TAVERN
1264 WISCONSIN AVE., NW 202-333-7370 | martinstavern.com Fifth generation Lauren Martin learns the family business from her dad, Billy Martin, Jr. Since 1933, the warm atmosphere of Martin’s Tavern has welcomed neighbors and travelers looking for great food, service and years of history within it’s walls. Fourth generation owner Billy Martin. Jr. continues the tradition of Washington’s oldest family-owned restaurant.
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Captivating customers since 2003, Cafe Bonaparte has been dubbed the “quintessential” European café, featuring award-winning crepes and arguably the “best” coffee in D.C.! Other can't-miss attractions are the famous weekend brunch every Saturday and Sunday until 3 p.m. and our late-night weekend hours serving sweet and savory crepes until 1 a.m.
JOIN THE DINING GUIDE! EMAIL ADVERTISE@ GEORGETOWNER.COM OR CALL 202-338-4833
When June arrives, it brings the first day of summer, the start of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and, of course, Father’s Day. With Father’s Day still fresh in our minds, here’s a refreshing suggestion: Why not toast your pop with an Ernest Hemingway Daiquiri, also known as the Papa Doble. Hemingway earned his fatherly nickname early on. Phil Greene, author of “To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion,” says the nickname dates back to when Hemingway lived in Paris in the 1920s. It appears as though Papa is what his firstborn son John, aka Bumby, called him. The nickname was further cemented into lore when another son, Gregory, wrote his 1976 book “Papa: A Personal Memoir.” The original daiquiri is a mixture of rum, lime juice and simple syrup, belonging to the sour family of cocktails. Sours are mixed drinks containing a base liquor, lemon or lime juice and a sweetener. The first daiquiri, invented around 1900, takes is moniker from Daiquiri Beach in Cuba. There are two stories about its inventor. The first involves a mining engineer named Jennings Cox, who was planning to entertain some guests from the U.S. when he discovered he had run out of gin. So, he improvised with rum, sugar and lime. Another tale, reported by Wayne Curtis in his book “And a Bottle of Rum,” tells of William Shafter, a U.S. Army general who came ashore during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Shafter added ice to a local concoction of rum, lime juice and sugar. From there, it was christened: the daiquiri. The Papa Doble daiquiri also has its roots in Cuba, at the bar called El Floridita. Hemingway began frequenting El Floridita around 1932, during visits to Havana from his home in Key West. It was around this time that
he wrote much of “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” He was such a regular that the 1937 edition of the Floridita’s cocktail manual featured a version of the daiquiri named for him. Hemingway made two simple changes, according to Greene. First, due to his distaste for sweet drinks, he had the daiquiri made without sugar. Second, to save time and effort while drinking, he began to order doubles (doble is Spanish for double). He would often drink a dozen of these frothy elixirs in one sitting, “For the Daiquiri,” Greene writes, “he didn’t want sugar in his drinks (likely because he was diabetic), so he called for just a touch of maraschino liqueur in its place, and also added grapefruit juice to the usual lime juice.” As Hemingway noted in “Islands in the Stream,” he loved to drink “these double frozens without sugar. If you drank that many with sugar it would make you sick.” This cocktail is a wonderful hot-weather refresher. Its bold grapefruit twang and tartness give it a pleasant distinction and its lack of sweetness gives it a bold taste. The extra rum elevates it above any frou-frou type of summer drink. Best of all, it’s easily mixed up in a blender for a cookout or a pool party.
PAPA DOBLE DAIQUIRI 3 3/4 oz. Bacardi or Havana Club rum Juice of 2 limes Juice of ½ grapefruit 6 drops of maraschino liqueur (or cherry brandy) Fill a blender 1/4 full of ice, preferably shaved or cracked. Add rum, lime juice, grapefruit juice and maraschino. Blend on high until the mixture turns cloudy and light-colored.
KITTY KELLEY BOOK CLUB
‘All That You Leave Behind: A Memoir’ A YOUNG WOMAN STRUGGLES WITH THE DEATH OF HER LARGER-THAN-LIFE FATHER — AND HER OWN SOBRIETY. R EVIEWE D BY KIT T Y K E LLE Y “The gods giveth and the gods taketh away.” So goes a biblical tenet from the Book of Job, which Erin Lee Carr confirms in her new book, “All That You Leave Behind.” With piercing honesty, she writes a dazzling drunka-log about her on-again, off-again struggle with sobriety, examining which genes the gods gave her and which they took away. Her book is also a love letter to her father, David Carr, who wrote his own addiction memoir, “The Night of the Gun,” in 2008. He died seven years later at his desk at the New York Times. He was only 58; his daughter, then 27, was inconsolable. She obviously wrote this book to find a way out of her grief. But even a year later, she writes that she could not bear to be “around women and their fathers.” Erin was a daddy’s girl because Daddy was the only parent she had, even when he left her and her twin sister in a car in the dead of a Minnesota winter to get high in a crack house. Their mother, still alive and still drug-addicted, has not been in their lives since they were 14. “Sorry Mom,” Erin writes in her acknowledgements, “I know this is hard for you.” “Sort of a mic drop, really,” Erin writes. I came to this book because I admired This might not seem like salvation to many, David Carr’s reportage on film, media but — given Carr’s epic battles with addiction and culture in the Times. I was riveted — his five-plus decades on this planet were a by his harrowing life story of down-and- triumph over lifespan logic. out addiction, steel bracelets and jail cells, David Carr bequeathed his talents and followed — heroically — by AA recovery, his torments to his daughter, who writes which, coupled with monumental talent, bravely about her struggles with sobriety and finally rocketed him to success as a journalist. bracingly about the father she adored, who His daughter tells us it was his raging once told her: “Looking at you is like looking ambition to write his way to national into a dirty mirror.” recognition, and possibly a Pulitzer Prize, that She recalls that the comment stung in the pushed him into the sobriety that finally saved moment and stung again when she wrote it. him. The Pulitzer eluded him, but he attracted “It shows that he wanted me to be a mirror a huge following on Twitter and died at the image of himself, but was disturbed when it crest of an accomplished career. actually looked like him.”
As a millennial writing a memoir, Erin Lee He was her father and mentor, “one relationship always in conflict with the other.” Carr sits at her father’s desk, “hoping some In both roles, he needed her to be successful magical transference will take place and I’ll be gifted, if only for a moment, with his way to be part of his legacy. “You can either be a big deal in your own right or have a drinking with words.” The magic worked. She’s more than gifted, and she writes beyond her years problem for the next ten years and be of little significance,” she quotes him as saying. He — yet frequently shows the charm of her youth. prided himself on his golden Rolodex, filled She refers to “my newish boyfriend,” commenting, “I felt instantly crushy toward with famous names: “People I read about in my battered copies of Entertainment Weekly. Bryan.” She marvels about how “I rocked a He liked to name drop.” Rolling Stone t-shirt.” “I tend to crowdsource everything,” she admits. About her career as a Erin Lee Carr’s writing is filled with documentary film maker, she says, “I’m very tiger-stalking courage. In fact, she writes so much grooving along in that path.” well that, when she falls off the wagon, you can almost taste the tingling pleasure of her One wishes the best for this talented young first forbidden sip of cold white wine; how woman who almost lost her moorings when the second and third sips loosen her tightly her father died, but who, instead, turned her grief inside-out to write a gift-giving book braided psyche; and then, how the wine slides her into sociability. about survival — one day at a time. “I craved the easy intimacy that came with alcohol,” she writes. Georgetown resident But as night follows day, one bottle follows Kitty Kelley has written several number-one New another, unto the thundering descent into York Times best-sellers, a drunken abyss. You plummet with her, including “The Family: tumbling to the edge of demon hell, when The Real Story Behind you suddenly freeze and want to scream at her: “No, no, stop now — before it’s too late!” the Bush Dynast y.” But she can’t turn back. She’s soldered Her most recent books include “Capturing herself to one more bottle that is plunging her into blackout oblivion. As Mark Twain Camelot: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images said, “Too much of anything is bad, but too of the Kennedys” and “Let Freedom Ring: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the March much good whiskey is barely enough.” For alcoholics, Twain’s humor is a shattering truth. on Washington.”
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GOOD WORKS & GOOD TIMES
Arboretum’s Dinner Under the Stars Friends of the National Arboretum honored Robert A. Bartlett, Jr. with its first Distinguished Supporter award, presented during FONA’s 25th annual Dinner Under the Stars at the U.S. National Arboretum June 11 under a star-lit sky. Bartlett has been a longtime FONA board member and financial supporter. His company, the F. A Bartlett Tree Expert Co., has donated thousands of hours of service to maintaining the Arboretum’s trees. Funds from the dinner enable FONA to advance its programs in support of the Arboretum’s mission of research, education and outreach. Photos by Nancy Kleck.
Awardee Robert A. Bartlett, Jr.
Carmen and Stephen Censky, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Arboretum.
Mike Massimino and Scott Altman.
Caroline and Jimmy Ervin with Barbara and Tommy Wells, director of the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment.
Elayne Bennett and Vicki Campbell, president of the Georgetown Garden Club.
Kreeger Marks Silver Anniversary Kreeger Museum celebrated the legacy of David and Carmen Kreeger and honored artists who have shown work at the Foxhall Road complex, designed by Philip Johnson, over the past 25 years. Proceeds from the June 1 event support its public school education programs. Photos courtesy Kreeger Museum.
Clarice Smith, Judy Greenberg, Helen Chason, Basil Arendse, and Peter and Ineke Kreeger.
Jim Sanborn, John Ruppert and Jae Ko.
Betsy Stewart and Clark Fox. 22 JUNE 19, 2019
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Harvey Galper, Roger Ferguson, Alice Galper and Annette Nazareth.
GOOD WORKS & GOOD TIMES
Hirshhorn Shows Off at Its First Gala “Make a statement with your most extra outfit,” advised the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden for its first-ever gala on June 15. Attendees got the memo making the fresh event — hosted by Pussy Noir — extra surreal with their outlandish outfits, one of which was a giant tampon. Not your usual National Mall event.
Host committee member Brian Smith in the courtyard. Courtesy Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo by Tony Powell.
Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu, Hirshhorn Ball host Jason Barnes (Pussy Noir) and ball co-chair Aba Kwawu. Courtesy Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo by Tony Powell.
Friends of Volta Park Party at Visi Prep The Friends of Volta Park met Visitation Prep on 35th Street June 7 to raise money through its unique silent auction that celebrates the community as well as to enjoy the fine food and beverage from 1789 Restaurant. The festive reception has become a Georgetown tradition.
Diana Minshall, event co-chair Jess Homa, Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans and Anita Kulkarni with her husband Amol Rangekor. Photo by Robert Devaney.
Liz D’Angio with John Richardson, founder of the Friends of Volta Park. Photo by Robert Devaney.
Guests dress to express. Courtesy Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo by Shannon Finney.
JoAnn Fabrixx and Hirshhorn Ball co-host Di Mondo. Courtesy Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo by Shannon Finney.
Tony Feted on His 82nd Birthday Tony Cibel, co-founder of Tony & Joe’s Seafood Place at Washington Harbour, celebrated his 82nd birthday June 6 and invited a couple of his hundred close friends and family to the seafoodladen lovefest. Get going it, Tony. Photos by Bill Starrels.
Philanthropist Harold Zirkin, Jr., Tony Cibel and former ambassador Stuart Bernstein.
Former D.C. mayors Anthony WIlliams and Vincent Gray. GMG, INC.
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