Brad Pitt Has Your Secret Shit: Rolling DC

Spirit Catcher @ Muse this Thursday
John Selway @ Muse this Friday
Wolf + Lamb @ Comet this Saturday
Junior Boys on Tuesday

busy week

the only one of those i can attend is jb :(

Obama's making the restaurant rounds--Citronelle with his wife, and now Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington with Biden

i can recommend he check out minibar (though it wouldn't be good for the optics). pretty amazing.

somehow i'm going to that $$$ cocktail party at proof tonight. dropping more dough on food/drinks in one week's time than i usually do in like four months.

excited, though. 10 cocktails on a monday night. yeah.

see you there

lol my username may be very accurate in this case - I lost my phone after the dinner last year, although it certainly didn't help that I went out for drinks afterward, too.

hey guys, i am playing at comet ping pong next month, is it cool?

It is! It's in a kind of residential part of town but it's a neat pizza place with a backroom they've been using to do really great shows & DJs in the past few months.

Yeah, I've really enjoyed myself the few times I've been. Nice, intimate little venue.

sweet. i am definitely going to eat the #4 when we're there.

xpost - cool, i'll keep an eye out for you.

make sure to get the chicken wings at comet. they are...good. very good.

ooh.

cool, i'll post when i find out the date but it'll be sometime between june 17 - 22.

They got back to you, cool. That's great. I've been e-mailing your buddy. Working on a Baltimore show

thx for the help, steve!

i take it back, we're doing thurs. june 18th at chick hall's surf club

huh.

is that a bad huh?

nah, just surprised. place has a lot of history, but mostly as a country/zydeco venue. curmudgeon would know more, i'm sure. i didn't know they did rock shows now.

i don't even know if your band is rock

not rock

it's new orleans brass band music, so that place might be a cool fit

yeah that makes sense

I told them about both Comet and Chick Hall's and both were contacted and alas, only Chick Hall's was interested.

Does anybody have any suggestions on where they could play a quick free set during the day at a streetcorner or something? Like in front of a Smithsonian museum? This is the other idea I am trying to encourage them to try. There used to be (or still?) a House of Prayer gospel brass band that played near Dupont Circle I think. And I think there's still a paint bucket go-go drummer or 2 near Natural History.

Also, any Baltimore ideas? I think 8 by 10 is booked, and An Die Musik has not responded.

These would be in addition to the Surf Club

I bought a condo. Fenty is doing a walk through the hood on the 27th! Have you guys checked out http://dc.everyblock.com/ yet?

two guys bought a diner, the kind you can move on a truck, from a town in upstate ny. they want to open dc's first "real diner" on a bladensburg rd lot that used to be one of those money laundering car dealers. follow the ensuing hijinks: http://twitter.com/capcitydiner (for best results read from bottom up)

(dcra is the dc dept of consumer and regulatory affairs)

dcra is the scourge of my days

i've yet to hear anything positive about them, ever. surprised someone there has a twitter account!

from everything I've heard, the dcra twitter feed is really helpful!

Not sure how they're working out all the code issues w/ the diner - it it possible to get a building relocated from another state grandfathered? What about accessibility/emergency egress path requirements? I have enough trouble getting regular construction to meet the latest codes so it's hard to imagine how an old diner will.

yeah, i have no idea. it sounds like they thought they had everything good to go, but perhaps they were clueless.

are dc's codes particularly tough? or is it more a question of finding out exactly what dcra is looking for to satisfy them? like, where does breakdown occur that seems to stop so many new businesses from opening or existing ones from expanding?

DC enforces code a lot harder than most other cities and the permit office is understaffed and generally screwed up.

I bought a condo.

o_O

I mean I knew about this, but seeing it on ilx is blowing my mind a little bit.

everyblock.com looks like facebook for a neighborhood--mine's even showing party photos at the moment. much easier to scan their crime reports than inspector d3lgado's yahoo group emails.

Anyone signed up for the DC Police Alert texts or emails? It's pretty awesome, nice to get violent crime reports within minutes rather than days.

Parking in DC sucks, guys. Please build a supertrain to pittsburgh, please.

of all people, ed, i would have thought that you'd have ridden your bike

one of my friends from undergrad is on the team that built the everyblock, they started it up in chicago. so cool to see it taking off.

i sort of envy the guy because he didn't come from an IT background at all, but went on to do so much great work for progressive organizations & now has this thing going. most def winning at life right now.

if they could somehow integrate freecycle offers...yeah.

I like how DC was giving out parking tickets in residential neighborhoods to folks whose cars allegedly stuck out too far down from their driveway.

And y'all been following the Adams Morgan issue re pulling liquor licenses from places that don't sell enough food--Bossa and some other place so far.

yeah fuck those places imo - the way DC has gone about enforcement is kind of heavy handed all of a sudden but these places have been operating in clear violation of their licenses for years.

I do not understand how the licensing works for 'restaurants that sell alcohol'--How do they arrive at the percentage of food a place has to sell? How do they decide how many places can only be restaurants with liqor licenses rather than bars with liquor licenses and no food?

And if Bossa is closed, can it only be replaced by an establishment that also has to follow the 'restaurant with liquor license' rules rather than the bar with liquor license and no food rules?

I'm just asking, as I do not know enough about it, but do you think the DC license system is fair and that places in "clear violation" (I read that Bossa claims it came very close last year to meeting the proper percentages) have no reason to complain?

Do we still drink?

File this under "Be careful what you wish for," but I'm getting nostalgic about frat parties and have a hankering to see a bar fight (from a safe distance).

Now here's something to talk about over brews and the right amount of food in a properly licensed establishment--- I see in the Washington Post that the Mayor's former substitute teacher in school is now (as a civilian not employed by DC) driving the mayor around town and getting millions of dollars for his private business from the mayor's administration.

I do not understand how the licensing works for 'restaurants that sell alcohol'--How do they arrive at the percentage of food a place has to sell? How do they decide how many places can only be restaurants with liqor licenses rather than bars with liquor licenses and no food?

The issue is that many bars and nightspots in Washington are operating under restaurant-class licenses, which require businesses to derive either 45 percent of their gross receipts or at least $2,000 per seat in food sales. (The other usual option is a tavern license, which doesn't require food sales. Those are usually limited, though, and some neighborhoods, including Adams Morgan, have a moratorium on issuing new tavern licenses to prevent a buildup of bars.)

Keep in mind that $2,000 per seat per year is very very little - $5.95 per seat per night will get you there.

And if Bossa is closed, can it only be replaced by an establishment that also has to follow the 'restaurant with liquor license' rules rather than the bar with liquor license and no food rules?

Based on the Adams Morgan license moratorium, yes.

I'm just asking, as I do not know enough about it, but do you think the DC license system is fair and that places in "clear violation" (I read that Bossa claims it came very close last year to meeting the proper percentages) have no reason to complain?

Yes - the business owners know what the license class is when they start the business and what the requirements are. Skirting the regulations here isn't doing the neighborhood any good and heavily contributes to Adams Morgan being the hellhole it is.

But aren't some of Adams Morgan's problems caused by "taverns" and not just the 2 "restaurants that sell food" that were shut down--Bossa and Bobby Lews?

And isn't the issue in some way just like the issue is/was in Georgetown--too many knuckleheads (from DC, Md, and VA) who drink too much in both types of licensed establishments, and establishments that are happy to sell more and more drinks to people who should be stopping at say 2 drinks?

So hypothetically an "I Died" designed and promoted establishment in Adams Morgan could meet the food and drink rules and help establish a reason to go to that part of town?! They may be wrong, but Bossa claimed it was not so easy.

I'm going to be in DC for about 24 hours next week (one night). Any recommendations for dinner and breakfast/brunch?

argh, there was an awesome place on U Street that TOMBOT took my brother and me to but I can't remember the name, super awesome brunch spot tho