The fine people at Zagat officially released their 2012 Washington, DC/Baltimore Restaurants Survey today. This year's top restaurants? Marcel's, Inn at Little Washington, Komi, CityZen, Rasika, Makoto, Eve, Citronelle, and Palena. Wow, nothing's changed in the span of a year, has it? more ›

This afternoon, the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C. released the results of an evaluation of the "gay-supportiveness" of the politicians running for Mayor and the D.C. Council in this year's Democratic primary. The scores are based on candidates' answers on a questionnaire developed by GLAA and their records -- the final number is expressed on a scale between positive and negative 10. The results aren't really that surprising: incumbents won the day -- Jim Graham (Ward 1) and Phil Mendelson (At-Large) both received perfect +10 scores, mostly for their work in pushing forward the marriage equality bill, while Tommy Wells (Ward 6) and Mary Cheh (Ward 3) also got high marks. Leo Alexander (running for Mayor), Delano Hunter (Ward 5) and Kelvin Robinson (Ward 6) finished with the only negative scores. (Makes sense: all three have been endorsed by the National Organization for Marriage). The lone exception to the incumbent parade? The race for Mayor, where Vince Gray's +8.5 rating was much higher than Mayor Adrian Fenty's +4. Most of the candidates fall firmly into the +4 to +7 range, though there were several candidates who didn't bother to return the organization's survey. Mostly, though, we really just like that the ratings resemble some kind of fabulous turn-based strategy game where a Graham or Mendelson card is simply unbeatable. A full breakdown of the scores can be found here. more ›

The 2011 Washington DC/Baltimore Zagat Guide was released today. Zagat's rankings are based on a survey which rates restaurants' food, decor, service, and cost on a 30-point scale. more ›

As if we needed any more evidence that the Washington Nationals are far from D.C.'s most popular professional sports team, the Washington Business Journal reports today that new ratings information indicates that "D.C. is the only TV market in the country where a team from another city gets better ratings than the hometown team." Yes, apparently an average of 16,000 D.C. households tuned into Orioles games on MASN this season, compared with 14,000 who watched the Nats. That's a rough slap in the face for the Nationals, though a MASN rep trots out that old canard that the D.C.-Baltimore area is "really one large mega-market." more ›