Tweaked

It's beef carpaccio from the six year old dairy cows that they use for the Tuscan steak nights, served like they serve it at Harry's Bar in Venice.

2Amys was on point last night. The specials menu was packed with delicious things. One of the best nights in a while. We enjoyed: Sicilian anchovies with bread, butter, and olive oil Oven roasted spring onions wrapped in prosciutto Arrosticini with lemon (lamb skewers. Amazing) Capicola cotta tonnato (shaved capicola with tuna sauce. Also amazing) Shaved artichoke salad with pecorino, lemon, and mint Dairy cow carpaccio the harry's bar way (also, also amazing) A surf and turf pizza of our own creation with cockles and pork sausage cooked well done Strawberry ice cream and a cookie plate We didn't have room for the grilled squid salad, pork liver terrine, potato and prosciutto croquettes, nor Tuscan steak night.

We have eaten breakfast at Koloman twice and enjoyed it both times. The early morning service is friendly but sometimes a little confused, with little things off, like not having silverware set or even the breakfast menus printed at opening time. However, the food is well prepared, tasty, and not terribly expensive if you are looking for a nice sit-down breakfast in NYC. The space is retro, turn on the 20th Century European cafe. It is the former Breslin space. We have enjoyed the breakfast pastries (carrot cake and pain au chocolat). They make a nice omelet and kartoffel schmarren style breakfast potatoes. One dish not to sit on is the homemade granola, an absolutely delicious bowl of granola, pecan, and caramelized bananas served with whole milk. It might seem odd to order granola while on vacation, but this is serious stuff. We have made reservations for breakfast, but they always seem to have seating if you are arriving around 10am-11am. Service is also not necessarily swift, so plan for an hour for breakfast. Think of it as a leisurely delicious start to your day in New York.

Tucked into the Neue Gallery (5th Avenue between the Guggenheim and The Met) is Cafe Sabarsky, a Viennese inspired cafe serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Seating is first come first serve, but they do take reservations for dinner hours, and I would suggest making reservations if possible, or you might wait for 30-45 minutes. The restaurant is salon style European with a long side table filled with Viennese desserts. The menu also includes German Austrian dishes. This past weekend the specials were white asparagus dishes. The crowd is a mix of tourist, museum goers, and Upper East Side residents. If you are looking for something a little different yet so NYC, this is a good choice and convenient if you are doing a day of museum-ing. The Mozarttorte (pistachio, chocolate, nougat cake) is very good. The Neue Gallery also has Cafe Fledermaus which serves the same menu as Cafe Sabarsky, but has limited lunch hours and is a less interesting space.

Truly a mind-bending exhibition. Works by Mutu are on all gallery floors, although the best floors are number 2 and 3. Works feature a mix of sculpture, video, and collage and painting on Mylar. The show is alien, futuristic, and organic with traditional African influences. This is someone who conceptualizes the world different from other people. If you are in NYC over the next month, do not miss.

Ethiopic on H Street. You can even walk there from Union Station.

Calabash, NC Five years later and Mmm...Que Rico is still good. The spicing isn't as robust as the DMV pollo places, but they do a good job. I would stick with the dark meat, the breast meat was a little dry. Good plantains and chorizo sausage. The rest of the sides are average. If you are tired of the fried Calabash style seafood, Mmm...Que Rico is a good choice. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Along the main drag of Calabash, is a collection of small cottage style huts. Coffee Cottage does a good job for coffee. They do lean hard on the crazy coffee concoctions, but when the parents only drink decaf, a large cafe mocha really hits the spot. The cottage has a small seating area and the vibe is friendly hippy chic. Across the way is a small used bookstore, Books and Moore, as well as the Calabash Garden Tea Room and Gift Shop. This little cluster is a one stop shop for your caffeine and used bookstore needs. All are closed on Sunday. Coastal Craft Beverage Company is a good spot to find North Carolina craft beer. They have 18 taps with NC beer (Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Wilmington areas) and according to their website 155 beers in cans and bottles, again primarily NC. It looks like they update their website every couple of days. They have funky hours so check their website. Also closed Sundays.

For all the Seki fans. SPRING/SUMMER 2023 NOTICE: WE WILL BE FULLY CLOSED BETWEEN MAY 15-25 FOR SOME MUCH NEEDED RENOVATION. WE WILL BE OPEN AT THE COUNTER ONLY FOR PARTIES OF 1-2 BETWEEN MAY 26-JUNE 8. WE INTEND TO BE FULLY OPEN AGAIN (PENDING RENOVATIONS) ON JUNE 9! Apologies for any inconvenience during these times.

I like Taim in Dupont. Vibe is fast casual, so I usually order to go. Yellow Cafe also have falafel. As does Yasmine in Union Market.

Now open in Woodley Park (soft opening for the next few days as they get situated). I believe the current hours are 8am-2pm. Today they had 4 types of doughnuts, three cookies, one kouign amann, and a breakfast sandwich. We enjoyed the fluffy doughnut filled with a coconut pandan cream. Haven't tried the cookies yet (we got matcha chocolate chip and black sesame). We also enjoyed the Rose Ave latte and orange cardamon iced coffee. They had a steady stream of customers around 11am, but the line never got longer than 5 or 6 people. There are a small number of tables in the front section of the space. After one visit, a tasty addition to Woodley Park!

I feel like the Textile Museum has fallen off the radar since their move to George Washington University, which is a shame because at their old Kalorama location, the Textile Museum often put on very interesting exhibits. Plus the mansion was cool. Anyway, this one should be well worth the visit. "Prayer carpets share a distinctive iconography recognized by Muslims around the world. Developed over centuries and circulated through trade and religious pilgrimage (hajj), this set of images – including flowers, an arch, lamp and water pitcher – transforms each carpet into a sacred space where the worshipper can commune with God. Prayer and Transcendence explores this iconography and its interpretation across time and artistic traditions, from Ottoman Türkiye to Safavid Iran to Mughal India. Examples on display from western Anatolia, the Caucasus and Iran all share a central motif: an elegant arch surrounded by vegetation and flowers. One of the most iconic images in a prayer carpet, the arch often symbolizes the gateway to paradise, conceived in the Koran as a lush, walled garden. The exhibition also explores the spiritual meaning of the lamp and water pitcher motifs that recur throughout prayer carpet design. Spanning the 16th through 19th centuries, the works on display are drawn from five collections – The Textile Museum Collection, Harvard Art Museums, Cincinnati Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Markarian Collection – and also include related examples from outside the Islamic tradition."

Is there a neighborhood that has improved its dining options post-pandemic? Woodley Park would certainly be in the running...yes Woodley Park. You could say the commercial strip along Connecticut Avenue continues to be anchored by New Heights (with recent attention from the Michelin Guide) and the Lebanese Taverna outpost. While I've never been impressed by the wine selection at Sherry's, it does have a very good beer selection and the liquor selection is better than most. New to the neighborhood is Donsak Thai, which is usually packed and while we have had some misses (pumpkin curry) we have also had some very good dishes (love the Essan Sausage). Han Palace isn't as good as the Rockville Chinese places, but it is a vast improvement over the always terrible Mr. Chens (sadly now in Cleveland Park). Opening soon is Rose Ave Bakery, which has as a devoted following at The Block food hall. And, recently announced, a new Ethiopian restaurant taking over the former Medaterra space. Certainly there is still dead weight along the block, but given the sorry state of Woodley Park pre-pandemic, this is indeed a sea-change in dining options.

Sheila Johnson has expanded the Salamander portfolio with several more high-end hotels and resorts, including taking over DC's Mandarin Oriental hotel along the SW waterfront. A friend stayed there on a recent business trip and I thought isn't that the hotel where CityZen was years ago.

Check the seafood vendor at Eastern Market, they often have shad roe.

SakuSaku has moved to a permanent location at 4200 Wisconsin Avenue (Tenleytown area). For now, they are still operating the store front location in Cleveland Park and have a pop-up location at the National Building Museum. All their pastries are baked at the new location. Coffee beans by Lost Sock Roasters. Their matcha kouign-amann is really good. Washingtonian article

We went to see "Purple" over the long weekend. Very good installation. We arrived just as the video was about to start and watched the whole thing, the 62 minutes flew by. The piece features 6 large video screens with film projected on each screen. The original footage filmed in Greenland, Sweden, Scotland and other places is amazingly lush. I feel like the archival footage was not well integrated...some clips seemed completely random to the piece. The 6 screens are spread out across a large gallery space. There is seating, however, if you are not in the middle, it's hard to see all the screens at once. The left side screens have more archival footage and the right side screens have more original footage. The music score by Tandis Jenhudson and David Julyan is great. Overall, well worth seeing but we both agreed it was not as good as his piece Vertigo Sea.

For fans of contemporary photography, this is an interesting exhibit at the Hirshhorn. I was familiar with a couple of the artists, Zhang Huan and Qiu Zhijie, but was pleased to be introduced to the work of Lin Tianmiao. A lot of good stuff up at the Hirshhorn right now. A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China "A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China will be the Hirshhorn’s first survey of photography by leading multigenerational Chinese artists made between the 1990s and 2000s. The exhibition will showcase 186 artworks made between 1993 and 2022 of which 141 are a landmark promised gift to the Hirshhorn from pioneering collector of Chinese art Larry Warsh. The exhibition’s title is drawn from a 1997 publication, a near manifesto, by Rong Rong and Liu Zheng that celebrated the possibilities in shifting the practice of photography away from realism toward a conceptual art practice. A Window Suddenly Opens will chronicle how, over three decades, emerging Chinese artists independently embraced the immediacy of print and digital photography, recorded performance and video art during an unprecedented cultural shift away from the priority of the collective to a revived focus on the self. Among the roster of 25 participating artists to first engage with this trend are Cang Xin, Cao Fei, Lin Tianmiao, LuYang and Song Dong. Artists such as Hong Hao, Huang Yan, Qiu Zhijie, Sheng Qi and Zhang Dali questioned individualism in a rapidly mechanizing environment, responding in and to the moment with candor. Featured artists include Cang Xin, Cao Fei, Chen Shaoxiong, Cui Xiuwen, Gu Dexin, Hai Bo, Hong Hao, Hong Lei, Huang Yan, Lin Tianmiao, LuYang, Ma Liuming, Qiu Zhijie, Rong Rong, Sheng Qi, Song Dong, Song Yongping, Wang Jinsong, Wang Qingsong, Weng Fen, Xing Danwen, Zhang Dali, Zhang Huan, Zhang Peili and Zhuang Hui."

This week, NMWA announced its reopening date and inaugural exhibition after a monumental two-year renovation. NMWA Press Release "The National Museum of Women in Arts (NMWA), the world’s first major museum solely dedicated to championing women artists, reopens its extensively renovated building on October 21, 2023. The transformed museum will feature new exhibition spaces, re-envisioned public programming areas, improved amenities and increased accessibility for visitors at its historic home at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C. In addition to an expansive reinstallation of the collection, NMWA will present an inaugural exhibition, The Sky’s the Limit, featuring powerful monumental sculpture and immersive installations by a dozen contemporary women artists, in an innovative presentation not possible prior to the renovation." "NMWA will reopen with a special exhibition focused on women’s pioneering work in large-scale sculpture. On view October 21, 2023, through February 25, 2024, The Sky’s the Limit presents artworks by 12 artists, including Petah Coyne, Cornelia Parker, Mariah Robertson, Shinique Smith, Joana Vasconcelos and Ursula von Rydingsvard. Sculptures will be suspended from the ceiling, arc across walls and project outward from corners, inspiring close encounters with artworks. The core of The Sky’s the Limit is a group of never-before-exhibited works from NMWA’s collection. The renovation has created purpose-built spaces for art of all kinds, inspiring bold installations that tell a fuller story of women in art—notably encompassing powerful and monumental work. Highlights include Mariah Robertson’s 164-foot-long abstract photograph Untitled (9) (2011), which cascades from the ceiling; Joana Vasconcelos’s Rubra (2016), an illuminated chandelier made from crocheted wool and Murano glass; Shinique Smith’s Daisies Up Your Butterfly (2013), a hanging bundle crafted from reclaimed clothing, which brims with the energy of secrecy and discovery; and Cornelia Parker’s ghostly Thirty Pieces of Silver (exhaled) Sugar Bowl (2003), featuring steamrolled silver teapots and musical instruments that hover above the floor as if by magic." Washingtonian City Paper

One for the "must-see" list if you are planning a NYC trip this Spring. "The New Museum will present a major solo exhibition of the work of Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972, Nairobi), which will bring together over one hundred works from across her twenty-five-year career. Representing the full breadth of her practice, the presentation will encompass painting, collage, drawing, sculpture, film, and performance. Mutu first gained acclaim for her collage-based practice exploring camouflage, transformation, and mutation. She extends these strategies to her work across various media, developing hybrid, fantastical forms that fuse mythical and folkloric narratives with layered sociohistorical references. “Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined” will trace connections between recent developments in the artist’s sculptural practice and her decades-long exploration of the legacies of colonialism, globalization, and African and diasporic cultural traditions. At once culturally specific and transnational in scope, Mutu’s work grapples with contemporary realities, while proffering new models for a radically changed future informed by feminism, Afrofuturism, and interspecies symbiosis."

Apparently the exact number is up for debate. The Rijksmuseum is claiming 37, other sources say 34 firmly attributed to Vermeer with another 3 unclear (works that might be partially painted by him and/or from his work shop)

An art exhibit so blockbuster-y it doesn't need explanation or a subtitle: "Vermeer" will do. The show gathers 28 of the known 37 Vermeers. The 1995 National Gallery of Art Vermeer show contained a mere 21. Advanced tickets are required and 200,000 have already been sold. If you are in Amsterdam this Spring, a show not to be missed. Vermeer For Vermeer fans, this Amsterdam exhibit is the show of a lifetime (Wash Post) The Absolute Vermeer, in a Show More Precious Than Pearls (NY Times)

Closing Feb. 18

We went to The Roost several times over the holiday break to catch up with friends. The Roost has 10 different eating and shopping concepts, including Caruso's Grocery, which is a stand alone restaurant and covered elsewhere on DR. This is more about the eating spaces actually in The Roost. The setup is a little more upscale that say Union Market, which has more of an open market food hall setup. The Roost has various seating areas, nooks and crannies, ranging from cafe tables to lounge seating to more restaurant feeling seating. You can also sit bar style at each specific food vendor. The space does work well for everything from working during the day to getting a drink after work to group get togethers. Once seated you can scan the QR code and then scroll and order from any of the vendors, as well as pay as you go or set up a tab and pay at the end. It takes a moment to get use to the ordering setup, but once you figure it out, it's quite simple and convenient. Most of the food vendors open at 4pm on weekdays, so if you go for a weekday lunch, offerings are limited. So far, I've tried food from: Yoko & Kota: Pan Asian from Eric Bruner-Yang. Good pork wontons with chili oil. The mushroom curry buns were bland. The fried pork gyoza were terrible, could have been a pack of deep fried pork gyoza from Trader Joes. The Cambodian Noodle Salad was fine, but I wasn't a fan of the citrus chili peanut sauce. AKO by Kenaki: The menu is primarily Makimono plus a couple of donburi bowls. Their offerings won't blow away a sushi connoisseur but it does the trick for a sushi fix. Hi/Fi Taco: Tacos, obviously, plus nachos and quesadilla. The crispy avocado taco is really good. The orange soda braised carnitas was a greasy mess. Shelter: The main bar, with 50 beers on tap, cocktails and a small wine selection. Shelter specializes in low alcohol session beers below 5% ABV. All in all, The Roost is a decent concept and a good addition to the Hill, especially for casual dining or for a group setting with varied appetites.

Perhaps not a coincidence now that Maria Trabocchi is no longer involved.

Grant was one of the top soccer journalists in the US, writing for Sports Illustrated for much of his career. When the England France match cut back to the second half coverage, they had just finished an in stadium tribute to him, and the lead FOX commentator, John Strong, was choking up on air. Certainly a great and unexpected loss for the US soccer community.