Restaurant Reviews

Hey there kids,

Everyone get outside this weekend? I hope so. It was the most perfect weekend of the year here in DC. I was able to make the most of it with biking, golf, and walking around capitol hill with Kate, mom & Heinz. So, I've been visiting a lot of restaurants of late and thoughts I would recap a bit for those looking to get a bite to eat in DC. Some recent visits (in order of my favorite to least favorite)

Coppis on U Street. Still one of my all time favorite places, this all-organic Italian place is named for a famous Italian cyclist. Their pizza is outstanding. I also love the lasagna that uses prime cuts of steak instead of ground beef. If you want a seat you pretty much have to have a reservation.

Dakota Cowgirl on 14th. This is hands down the best burger in DC. The servers and bartenders are all really friendly and the place has a hip interior. It's a gay joint so don't go if that'll make you feel uncomfortable. If you're gay, you can work off the burger by dancing upstairs at Ramrod (though I think it's mostly for leather daddies). I took my mom here for an after dinner drink on her birthday. Priceless.

Zaytinya at Gallery Place. We were there for Angela's birthday. The Mediterranean tappas and the service is always outstanding. I love their bar and they now have live belly dancers. Oh, and they take reservations now which is awesome. I highly recommend this place. Also, we were joined by the lovely and talented Silvia with her strapping young boyfriend Yoshi - those two really class up any joint.

Al Crostino on U Street. We went to this small Italian restaurant for Sam's birthday. The food was quite good. It was loud up on the second floor and the wine list left much to be desired but the service was well done.

Jaleo at Gallery Place. This Spanish tappas place is always crowded because DC people love tappas for some reason. The service is fair as is the ambiance. I usually feel tucked into a corner at this place. The food is good but despite having lots of dishes, I can rarely find more than a couple that interest me. This is a good place for vegetarians however – lost of non-meat options.

Tony & Joes at the G-town waterfront. We went there for my Mom's birthday this weekend. We were looking for great view of the harbor but the water is not visible from most the this restaurant. They serve good (if pricey) food in a big dark room that's quiet except for some soft live music. I didn't like the atmosphere of the huge dark room but they receive points for having Benton Lane Pinot on the wine list.

Apex Bar & Grill on U street. This is a brand new restauratn serving mostly American fare and seafood. I did not actually eat here but while the bar is neat, the menu looks entirely too pricey for a place that is essentially a pub. $22 for a piece of fish in a bar?

Enjoying Eastern Market

Ever since I started dating Kate I've been spending more time in her neighborhood - Eastern Market. It's a beautiful capitol hill neighborhood with great architecture, parks, lots of restaurants and the famous Eastern Market for which the area is named. This weekend Kate and I got sandwiches at Eastern Market and then had a picnic at Lincoln Park. We were joined about about 20 frolicking dogs, their owners, some kids, and a few musicians. It was fun. If you have a chance, swing by there some weekend.

New Band Name

After we found that and indie rock band in the UK had already named themselves Aquabox (who woulda thunk it?) we decided to find a new name. The band is very happy with our new name - Collider.

Branding

So, there is no doubt that I am a product of my parents. My father brands BK and my mother brands AmEx. Before becoming a mom, my sister branded hi-tech companies. So, why is it that I am working for NREL doing strategic planning for the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy instead of at some marketing firm? Well, for lots of reasons, but I haven't entirely escaped the family business.

We are currently helping our clients (the Planning, Analysis, and Evaluation office) in their planning process for the next fiscal year. My proposal is that PAE needs to build its internal brand. I thought you might get a kick out of this exerpt from an email I sent to my team:

"As you can probably tell, I am a believer in the power of branding. It is important to create positive expectations about the quality and usefulness of your product. When you spend some time selling yourself, you can then spend much less time selling each individual product you offer - the consumer is predisposed to trust your products. This results in considerable economies of scale. When the Assistant Secretary comes to think of PAE as a source of valuable products, they will need to expend much less effort demonstrating the value of things like the planning summit, risk modeling, or anything else we would like him to focus on. Branding is not easy though. It requires discipline and consistency and can be undermined MUCH more quickly than it can be built."

You can take the boy out of the marketing family but you can't take the marketing out of the boy.

Artomatic

This Saturday I went to Artomatic - DC's month-long arts festival featurring every artistic medium you can think of from painting, to movies to freak shows (http://www.artomatic.org/). We had a total blast. If you're in DC - go to Artomatic. If you're there on May 6th or May 16th you can see my new band play at 9pm on the Electric Stage.

And now - in response to popular demand - here is another Evan pic:

KATE's BIRTHDAY!

Today, the lovely Katheryn turns 27. I had flowers (lillies, roses, birds of paradise) sent to her office and I'll be seeing her tonight. I can't wait. Hmmm...no real reason for a blog post. Oh well.

To salvage this post I'll make a useful recommedation. If you haven't been to the Building Museum in DC, I highly suggest it. If only to feel how serene it is to stand in that building's great hall (pictured right). Kate and I were there last weekend. In addition to being an amazing building, they have some neat building-related exhibits and the coolest gift shop in all of DC. Go in the next couple months and you can see the Green Home exhibit which focuses on sustainable residential design.

Triumph and Tragedy

This week there is both triumph and tragedy. The triumph is that my nephew Evan is a doorstop no more! The young lad has crawled for the first time! Of course, the proud mother (my sister) will now need to deal with something that can not only cry, but can now cry in various locations without third part intervention. Hopefully for her, parenting challenges will continue to come one at a time so they can be mastered before a new one arises.

The tragedy is the loss of one of my favorite authors. Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday at the age of 84. I was not first introduced to Vonnegut in an English class (though I eventually met him there as well). I originally read Slaughter House Five because no one could explain to me what it was about. Having eventually read all of his books, I can say that this applied to most of them. I can’t really tell you what a Vonnegut book is about – I can only tell you to read it. I did not like everything he ever wrote, but I liked most of it. Vonnegut’s stories help you see reality from a different angle. They help you realize that it is only reality is you accept it as such. Vonnegut was one of the major influences in what I consider my healthy skepticism of anything base enough to become a “social norm”.

My favorite of his short stories, The Powder Blue Dragon, is a story about a poor boy who saves up enough money to purchase an expensive sports car (the Maritima Freschatti) and then destroys it. He kills it with speed – fusing the brand new engine by dropping the hammer and quietly urging it on “explode…..explode”. Why work two jobs for years and years to buy something that you’ll just destroy? It was the car that made him feel inadequate. It was the dream of owning such a car that made him want to be something other than what he was. By killing it, he killed his own inadequacies and was able to live in his own reality without torment. This story spoke to me and I reread it frequently. So, in honor of this great author and reluctant philosopher, let’s all find one thing that we’ve taken for granted for too long and say “bullshit!”

Aquabox

So, the band is finally formed. Aquabox is Mona (vocals), Pat (guitar), Brian (guitar), Tom (bass), and Bryan (drums). We just recorded a demo track of "Nothing Now" that we'll use as our submission to play at Artomatic - a DC arts festival featuring every medium imaginable (www.artomatic.org).

Our original idea was to play very simple rock with lots of swagger. Since then, that concept has evolved a bit and our music has become more layered. We're going to try to stay as simple as possible though moving forward. We believe that the combination of driving rock, played well, and fronted by a chick with a killer voice is a winning combination. Too many people try to deviate from that equation and they get stuff that is too poppy, too arty, too Evanescency or whatever. Here's hoping we can keep it straightforward and just rock some asses.

The Greatest Thing Ever

Check out what my sister (master quilter) has hung over her son's crib. Clearly the boy will be raised properly. Now, without offending Caryn's Christian sensibilities, I'll say that I think raising one's child by the code of the Jedi is pretty much the best way to ensure a kind, generous, well-adjusted member of society. Religions are often full of carrots and sticks telling us why we should do certain things or act a certain way. But why do we really adhere to certain standards of behavior? Simple - because they work. If you are a good person, good things come your way. Not because of karma per se, but because people like being around nice people. People like doing business with honest people. No one respects a quitter. And, frankly, reality doesn't listen to excuses. Do or do not - there is no try.

New Singer, new amp!

This was a great weekend. Pai and I did a really nice 25 mile ride on Satruday. We ended the ride by going through downtown which was a mess because of the Cherry Blossoms. It's amazing how far your stamina can fall over the winter. Oh well, time to build it back up! That night we went and saw the movie 300. This movie had a higher ab-to-plot ratio than scientists have previously speculated to be possible (hence debunking the long-held "Sparconi Ab Principle"). It had several cool scenes and VERY impressive visual effects. Other than that, it was a poor, green-screened man's Gladiator.

On Sunday the band jammed with our new singer Mona for the second time. She's outstanding! She has some hesitation about joining a band (she had a bad experience with her last group) but we're hoping to convince her to join us officially. Also, remember that warranty check for my guitar? I spent it on a sweet new amp! This thing has more power than I'll ever need. I played through it on Sunday and we all agree that it sounds wonderful.