Results tagged “coffee”

Where: Giant, Magruder's, Wagschal's

It's been a sluggish hump day, hasn't it? Now we know it's not quite as pleasurable as ice cream, but Au Bon Pain will be giving out free medium iced coffees after 2 p.m. today. And if you don't need the pick-me-up, there is also a decaf version. Check here for a list of locations.

Former Murky Coffee owner Nick Cho revealed on Don Rockwell this morning that he will be opening his new coffee shop, Chinatown Coffee Company, sometime in June. Cho also said that Wrecking Ball Coffee roasting company, which DCist previously reported would go into the space at 5th and H Streets NW, is actually "a separate venture." And for anyone who had a favorite Arlington Murky barista, Cho says he will employing a number of them in the new Chinatown storefront. Photo by erin_m

The 14th and U Street NW corridors have experienced a number of setbacks in the locally-owned coffee shop department over the last couple of years. First was the end of Sparky's (making way for the wildly popular Cork). Then it was the shuttering and now presumed death of 14U, despite rumors that it would reinvent itself as a retail/cafe hybrid. Cafe Collage entered the scene, but since then Love Cafe has sharply reduced its hours, no longer serving coffee in the early morning hours (it's been opening at 11 a.m. for a couple months). And if wireless internet is important to you, as I noted on Sunday, Mocha Hut has become markedly inconsistent in that area.

We posted earlier about the Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista Competition that took place over the weekend. Congrats to locals Katie Duris (Murky Coffee), Allyson Turner (Murky Coffee), David Flynn (Peregrine Espresso), and Jeremy Sterner (Peregrine Espresso) for taking the first four spots, respectively, in a field of over 25. An espresso sure sounds good right about now...

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista competition is being held in Cranberry, PA this weekend. You can check out a live stream of the contest, featuring local contestant Peregrine Espresso's David Flynn. (Hat tip, Big Bear Cafe's twitter feed.)

Plenty of people put soy milk in their coffee, but soy sauce? John Ulaszek, who also goes by the DCist Flickr contributor pseudonym F1.4, was eating breakfast at what he describes as one of his favorite restaurants in Northern Virginia over the weekend, when he had an experience that makes us a little queasy

The ever attentive waiter noticed my empty cup and promptly topped me off – by now I was rockin the caffeine, the birds were chirping, the sun was smiling, so I gulped down another mouthful and……and something is really wrong here – what the hell did I just drink – It looks like coffee, but I don’t think it is, as a matter of fact it tasted like hot Soy Sauce?! Suddenly I wasn’t sure if I just drank coffee, soy sauce, or maybe some cleaning chemical ended up in the coffee. I am almost instantly nauseous, probably not from what I drank, but my mind and body running in overdrive trying to figure out if I should hurl, because whatever I just drank sure as hell wasn’t coffee.

Continue reading "How 'Bout a Nice Cuppa Soy Sauce?"

In case you missed the list of Starbucks that will be closing in the D.C. metro area, WTOP has the whole list up. Only one out of the 600 stores that will close nationally is in the District -- at 2101 L St. NW. Given that there are also Starbucks locations at 2109 M Street NW, 2175 K Street NW, and 2400 M Street NW, we doubt anyone will be too inconvenienced by the change.

The Post finally picked up on the Murky Coffee brouhaha this morning, and it appears it's been a topic of conversation at other locally owned coffee shops around town. We snapped this photo at Big Bear Cafe in Bloomingdale today. Thanks to Catherine Andrews for the tip.

Apparently Starbucks wasn’t the only coffee shop closed yesterday. According to a post on Murky Coffee's website, their Capitol Hill location was shuttered on Tuesday by the D.C. government.

We've had a hiccup with the DC Government, and were shut-down for a couple of non-compliance issues. We're in communication with them, and expect to be back up-and-running in a couple of days.

Our pals over at Seattlest have been following this far longer than we have, but in case you hadn't heard, Starbucks will be closing its 7,100 stores nationwide tonight from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in order to re-train all of its employees simultaneously on ... how to make coffee.

For any coffee lover brave enough to venture through the coffee saturated air and contact caffeine high in the D.C. Convention Center this past weekend, both the Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista Competition and Millrock Latte Art Championship proved to be a feast for the nose, as well as the eyes.

Come 7 a.m., D.C.-area coffee counters turn into mini-war zones. Every morning, baristas are assaulted with wave after wave of java-heads, looking for their morning fix, and only the most grizzled, hardened and well-trained survive.

Rather than bringing a bottle of a nameless, never-tried bottle of Pinot Noir to your holiday parties, bring something the hosts will actually remember that it was you who brought it. Bring something that they'll be thankful for the morning after two too many egg nogs or a night of putting up with the relatives in town for Hanukkah. Bring them Joe. Two pounds of coffee is the new bottle of wine. Don't be an...

>> Open City, the coffeehouse, diner and bar in Woodley Park, is celebrating its 2nd birthday tonight by offering diners their choice of a free cup of Tryst blend coffee, a glass of champagne, or a piece of chocolate birthday cake. >> Homegrown online fashion purveyors Unsung Designers are heading to New York, but tonight they'll be hosting a final D.C. trunk sale from 6 to 9 p.m. at 2412 18th Street NW in...

Through a pre-coffee haze this morning, we were a little confused by an AP story up on WTOP about how the Smithsonian is looking for someone to move in and take over its Arts and Industries Building. Why did it seem so ... familiar? Oh right. Because the Washington Post wrote the same story back in May. So why did the AP pick up on it today? Because the The Smithsonian Institution issued yet...

Welcome back to work, Washington. Perhaps you're struggling to focus this morning, having only barely recovered from the weekend's Halloween festivities. Perhaps you just had a difficult time extricating yourself from your bed on this first cold morning of the year. Whatever the case may be, DCist recommends a strong cup of coffee with a dash of Rumbler to get your motor running today. The Rumbler is described as a "high-tech blaster" being used in...

Authors Matthew Gilmore and Andrew Brodie Smith dug through a wealth of treasures at the Library of Congress and in the D.C. public libraries to produce Historic Photos of Washington, D.C.. Gilmore and Smith will be at Candida's World of Books tonight to sign their weighty book. Though certainly an attractive book for anyone with a coffee table, Historic Photos is also a gem for local history buffs, with nearly 200 photos that span...

It's rare that any of the well-read political blogs based here in Washington take on issues that fit within DCist's mandate to stick mainly to local issues, but when they do, boy howdy, they can really make a mess of things for themselves. The American Prospect's Ezra Klein has already issued a mea culpa for a post he put up late last night on his personal blog, which wondered why there aren't more amenities for...

By DCist contributor Elisabeth Grant D.C. can be an expensive place to eat lunch. A meal from Cosi will set you back $8, any sit-down place is at least twice as much that, and even if you're just going for coffee, a grande pumpkin spice latte (the most delicious beverage on the planet) will put you out over $4. While many of the folks who work on or around the Hill, like those with expense...

Via the DCist tipline, we heard there may have been a fire at year-old Mt. Vernon Square-area coffee shop Breakwell's, on the corner of 9th and M Streets NW. Sure enough, the windows at the front and along the side of the shop have been boarded up, and there is visible fire damage to the exterior of the building. While checking out the extent of the damage, DCist chatted with the proprietors of WIDE...

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market...

>> "Michael Vick agreed Monday to plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges, a deal that leaves the Atlanta Falcons quarterback facing up to 18 months in prison and puts his NFL career in jeopardy." [AP via WTOP] >> Rep. Robert Filner (D-Calif.) was charged with assault and battery following an incident at Dulles International Airport Sunday night. [WJLA] >> Taxi GPS doesn't eliminate fare zone confusion. [Free Ride] >> "Four years after a...

>> Bobby Boswell sounds off with a strongly worded criticism against ESPN's refusal to acknowlege a fantastic game of soccer in favor of nonstop coverage from the "Beckham Cam." [D.C. Sports Bog] >> Fare thee well, Rock Creek Rambler. >> Late Wednesday afternoon, a portion of the ceiling on the underside of the outdoor overhang in the “lower plaza” area of the State Department's Columbia Plaza complex fell down, damaging several cars parked underneath....

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness – we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts...

>> Mayor Adrian Fenty has chosen Clark Ray to serve as the city’s director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Ray was previously the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services. >> D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier has called for her third summertime "All Hands on Deck" initiative for Monday and Tuesday, to coincide with Tuesday's National Night Out. The last "All Hands on Deck," when Lanier requires all MPD...

Our friends over at Campus Progress sent us an email about a contest they're sponsoring that should be good for a few laughs. The Social Capital blog's Free Food-a-Thon promises to pit two of the most demanding needs of any Washington intern -- to save money and to eat -- in a battle of epicurean proportions. Here's the deal: Next week, Campus Progress interns will compete, two a day, where they will document their meals/snacks/crumbs...

Veg D.C. Names Best Veggie Restaurant VegDC.com has tallied the votes for the area's best vegetarian restaurant, and the award goes to Java Green, the downtown eatery that serves a wide range of vegetarian and vegan cuisine (and really great coffee drinks) in the Farragut North area of downtown. Even an avowed meat-lover like me can find something to enjoy at the busy restaurant; the fake meats they use taste and feel nearly like the...

Sparky's Has Indeed Been Shuttered Following our conversation last week about the Warehouse's impending closure, several commenters were asking about the fate of Sparky's at 14th and R, NW, which was suddenly shuttered a few weeks back. Phone calls to the shop lead to a message that doesn't recommend that you leave a message, because no one checks the machine We searched for something more official, but the closest we found was at Brightest Young...

Near sunset on a Tuesday in the middle of May, Lana Labermeier and her husband Stuart Davenport were sitting outside their then-unfinished new Bloomingdale coffee shop, Big Bear Cafe, enjoying a hard earned cold beer after a long day of landscaping work. Unfortunately, their neighbors could hardly let them rest. "When are you gonna be open?" shouted one man from his car. "Are you hiring?" asked another. "What's this going to be?" "Aren't you...