Hope everyone had an excellent meal on the greatest American food day of the year. It's been a quiet week in food news as it seems everyone was more interested in turkey. DCist Food alum Erin Zimmer has an excellent recipe from Butterfield 9's chef Michael Harr for leftover cranberry sauce muffins. Mmm... Pizza Mania Looks like it's another pizza week in D.C. - everyone is covering pizza. From DCist's review of Pizza Zero,......

From DCist Contributor Oscar Bunoan It's often said that bad luck comes in threes. In Vietnam, for example, a photo of three people represents bad luck. However, Vietnam is a restless, 22-hour flight away and Greg Cahill (owner of the successful Whitlow’s on Wilson) and Jonathan Williams (Whitlow’s general manager) are not superstitious men who rest their beliefs in ancient folklore. No self-respecting restaurateur, especially these two locally respected entrepreneurs, would conceive their restaurant on......

What was the hullabaloo at Ben’s Chili Bowl last night? Sources tell us it was a video for Capitol Records artist J. Holiday, an R&B singer from D.C. determined to rep his city on screen. Passersby report they got the cold shoulder from the video shoot's official sidewalk blocker and were sent car-dodging into U Street to get around. From DCist Andrew: Andrew: "What's going on?" Sidewalk Lady: "What does it look like!?" Andrew:......

From DCist contributor Jeff Simmermon. This DCist was walking through Georgetown with an old college friend on Sunday, wallowing in the warm sun and the uniquely back-to-school feel you get from hot late-summer days. We reminisced about the good times, lamented our button-down jobs and 50-hour work weeks and wondered like hell why we wanted to get out of school so badly. Then we saw this guy talking and laughing with two admiring girls in......

From DCist food contributor Melissa McCart Chances are, if you've ordered wine at Tallula, Café Atlantico or Two Amys, you may have been served in a stemless glass. Better known as Reidel's "O" line, the tumblers "are for kitchen entertaining," said Maximilian Riedel, 29 year-old CEO of Riedel Crystal in the October issue of Food and Wine. The glasses come in several varieties: Syrah/Shiraz, Cabernet/Merlot, Pinot/Nebbiolo, Savignon Blanc/Reisling, Sake, spirits and fortified wines. Despite......

From DCist food contributor Adam Bailey Having It Out on the Wednesday Food Pages Wands raised! Food-world wizards David Hagedorn (most recently of David Greggory) and Phyllis Richman (revered Washington Post food critic from 1967 to 2000) ignited the pages of the Post's food section yesterday with a healthy debate about running a restaurant, diner expectations and stolen napkin rings. Expelliarmus! DCist thinks both should put their pens down and take a couple breaths. Mr.......

From DCist Food contributor Adam Bailey As you know, the many tentacles of DCist pay no heed to political boundaries. Even Western Ave. at the fair District's northwest edge can't contain us. That's why we're looking forward to the 16th annual Taste of Bethesda. ToB is Saturday, October 1 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Woodmont Triangle in conjunction with the annual Best of Bethesda Day (or, as DCist prefers, Besthesday), so mark your......

We crossed Dupont Circle after our staff meeting last night, marveling at how in D.C., even parks full of people relaxing are still somehow frantic. As we crossed the circle, we saw our hands-down favorite bunch of street performers. We don’t know their official name, but they are a squadron of joyous, soulful trombones with percussive accompaniment. They’re out there in the heat and the cold, performing a colossal public service by lifting the......

From DCist contributor Kristin Kovner Since when did literary events become D.C.’s hot tickets? Since last night, when John Irving decided to grace the National Press Club with his (commanding) presence and promote his new bestselling novel, “Until I Find You.” On Monday evening, over 400 fans packed into the NPC’s Ballroom to listen to the author of "The Cider House Rules," "The World According to Garp," and "A Prayer for Owen Meany," read aloud......

From DCist contributor Justin Kielsgard If you walk the D.C. streets past midnight, there is a good chance you have already heard 23-year-old singer songwriter Ethan Edwards. Setting up shop on street corners and in bus enclosures, the Mosquito Bay, Maine native sings through his smoke stained throat, meditations of the rocky road of love, life and the French countryside. Armed with only his guitar, harmonica and tambourine, Edwards has played steadily in the D.C.......

From DCist contributor Ryan Avent MONDAY: >> Monday is an excellent time to visit Fort Reno as Garland of Hours (featuring noted DC cellist Amy Domingues and a Fugazi rhythm section) take the stage. They’re joined by DCist favorite The Aquarium and by local songwriter-slash-St. Ex bartender Paul Michel. The show is free as always and begins about 7:15. Click here to read last week’s interview with Paul Michel. >> If tranquil melodies are your......

(From DCist contributor Colleen Clark) On first listen, it's hard to believe the album "These Are All Beautiful Things" was birthed from Paul Michel, a D.C.-based musician weaned on flamenco guitar, high school jazz and years with metal and hardcore bands. But give it another spin and you'll get it. This is the album of a guy with musical chops -- he plays all the instruments and plays them well -- who has the restraint......

(From DCist contributor Amanda Mattos) The Kaiser Chiefs are getting some good press as a not-to-miss live band. DCist agrees. Their debut album, Employment, perhaps isn’t a standout in the stellar crop of 2005 releases, but it’s been in heavy iPod rotation nonetheless. Expectations for the sold out show at the 9:30 Club last Friday were high, and the Kaiser Chiefs did not disappoint. DCist slid into the show just in time to catch the......

(From DCist contributor Amanda Mattos) To play in D.C. this week, you apparently have to have played at Bonnaroo, been involved with a movie star, or started your career here. MONDAY: >>After a 2004 tour with the Blind Boys of Alabama, and countless appearances on mix CDs burned in dorm rooms, Ben Harper (at right) alights the 9:30 Club with friend and cohort, Tom Freund. The two recorded the album Pleasure & Pain together in......

(From DCist contributor Kristin Kovner) We remember Ari Hest when he was just another NYU student with killer pipes and a guitar. We remember when he played at virtually every indie venue around the country. After all, how could we forget? It was only a couple of years ago. And then, he signed with Columbia. So with great interest (and a dash of anxiety that he'd become just another John Mayer-type), we trekked out to......

(From DCist contributor Kristin Kovner) Every week, James Stevens plays to a packed house. Not a chair in the place is empty, and a line of listeners overflows onto the sidewalk during most of his set. Some of the audience members are newcomers, and many of them have never even heard of James Stevens. Others are regulars, who come out each and every week. And why shouldn't they? James Stevens plays a mean guitar, sings......

(From DCist Contributor Colleen Egan) With temperatures surging in D.C., it just seems wrong to commute in shoes and socks. But without the proper grooming or sandal choice, you could end up with enough blisters and dirty looks to wish you had never abandoned your Chucks. Let's review the four stages of summer footwear: Preparation, or a pedicure; Optimism, or high-heeled strappy sandals; Defeat, or Band-Aids; and, Acceptance, or flip-flops. Arguably the two most enjoyable......

(From DCist intern Judy Coleman) The Modigliani exhibit enters its final week at the Phillips Collection, and all D.C. seems to know it. The small third floor of the building was packed this past weekend when DCist was there. It's no surprise the exhibit is such a hit –- the distinctive works of the early Modernist master are immediately accessible. His biography is presented as an equation of identity struggles, passionate affairs, and the artistic......

(From DCist contributor Seth Thomas Pietras) The influence of Greek and Roman architecture on our fair city is undeniable. The Capitol building, for example, is pure neoclassical bliss, evoking the connection the Founders had to ancient ideals when creating the Republic. On the outside, the building conveys all the balance and order of the Greek tradition without betraying the chaos within. It is this concept of Greek architectural poise and symmetry that will be the......

(From DCist contributor Colleen Egan) For an engaged couple, their upcoming wedding brings thoughts of unity: a merging of lives, families, DVD collections. But for a frequent wedding guest, the pending nuptials can spark a bout of separation anxiety. Separating with your cash, that is. From plane fares to rental cars to hotel rooms, the wedding gift might be the only purchase of which you have control. DCist perused the area to find shops with......

(From DCist Contributor Angela Gaw) First came the introduction of the food pyramid in 1992, which whimsically suggested the recommended number of servings of grains, vegetables, dairy, meat, and fat in a polygonic form. When the public chose to ignore these recommendations and continue to eat ice cream straight out of the tub, the government issued a new set of dietary guidelines, which pushed for the addition of more fruits and vegetables, more low-fat milk,......

(From DCist contributor Seth Thomas Pietras) Rest assured citizens of D.C., you will have three to five days to formulate a survival plan during a worst-case scenario “super-volcanic” eruption of Yellowstone Park, according to the Discovery Channel and the United States Geologic Survey. The Yellowstone region is what is known as a caldera-forming volcano, which has the potential to spew some 250 cubic miles ... yes, cubic miles ... of liquid-hot magma into the atmosphere,......

(From DCist contributor Seth Thomas Pietras) Whoever said art and foreign policy don’t overlap? For the 54th season, the National Gallery of Art presents the world renowned A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, a series of six hour-long lectures taking place each Sunday beginning on April 10 going through May 15. This year’s lecturer will be Harvard professor Irene J. Winter, who will be presenting “Great Work”: Terms of Aesthetic Experience in Ancient Mesopotamia......

(From DCist contributor Seth Thomas Pietras) DCist ventured down to Hemphill Fine Arts on 14th Street NW to see the opening of the William Christenberry exhibit and was satisfied not only by the artwork but by an increasingly lively neighborhood for a Thursday night at seven o’clock. Amid the new construction and old tattered buildings, a vibrant, active crowd was wandering about the restaurants, bars and stores. Never mind this inconsistent and torturous weather, the......

(From DCist contributor Seth Pietras) It appears D.C.’s public school art teachers have been hit hard by layoffs in recent years, leaving about one-quarter of the District’s 61,000 public school students without art instruction in 2002-2003 (slightly fewer students were left without music or gym). Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to get any better any time soon, despite how flush the District may be as a result of the real estate boom. According......

(From DCist contributor Martin Austermuhle) The usually Spartan feel of the Capitol South metrorail station has been broken by, of all things, pictures of smiling couples. As part of an advertising campaign, all nine available billboard spots at the station's entrance have taken to declaring the merits of marriage. While it isn't odd for policy pushers to target the metrorail system, especially stations close to the Capitol campus (like Capitol South and Union Station), we......

( From DCist contributor Terrance Heath) Living in the relatively "gay friendly" metropolis that is D.C., it's easy to forget the the political leanings of surrounding areas. Case in point, Virginia. The latest comes from Fairfax County, where a school board member sent a letter to school principals urging them to invite "ex-gays" into schools to speak to students. Board member Stephen M. Hunt (his bio can be found here) sent his letter -- written......

(From DCist contributor Terrance Heath) When Martha Stewart gets sprung from the clink, she's going to star in a version of "The Apprentice," in the Trump role. We think you'd have to be some kind of a masochist to subject yourself to working for the likes Trump or Stewart. Then again, D.C. has more than it's share of people willing to endure a little abuse and humiliation for shot at money, fame and power. If......

(From DCist contributor Terrance Heath) It's great that the D.C. Council is leaning towards giving gay and lesbian couples in the District many of the same rights as married heterosexual couples. Nine Council members have signed on to a bill that would give domestic partners legal rights including alimony, child support and rules for dividing property after a partnership is dissolved, but stop short of recognizing gay marriage or civil unions. Imagine that. Equality before......

From DCist contributor Eleanor Davis In order to promote her Valentine's Day Aphrodisiac Menu, Andale chef Alison Swope is offering “romantically inclined” Washingtonians a chance to create their own recipe for love. Create a three-course dinner menu for the object of your affections, along with a 100-word essay explaining your choices, and you could win big. First place is an all-expense paid trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, where Chef Swope first fell in love with Mexico.......