A little bit of Richmond brought to DC

I spent my college years at the University of Richmond. In the beginning I was unimpressed with the city of Richmond, but as I explored more I began to realize that Richmond is actually a gem when it comes to restaurants. I could go on and on about all the places I loved, but one that was special in my heart, on of my first discoveries, was Sticky Rice, an Asian-American fusion restaurant that is known equally for their PBR and tater tots as they are for their innovative sushi rolls.


So of course when a Sticky Rice opened in Washington DC, my new home, I was on top of that shit. All us Richmond transplants had been on Sticky Rice alert for ages, ever since the first whispers that on might open up here. We went during its first week open, and (thankfully) all the old favorites were there. I'm not sure if DC Sticky Rice plans to change it up from Richmond Sticky Rice, but for now I'm just glad everything I have been missing was finally available to me. So we started things off wiiiiiiiiiith... tater tots! Duh! I told you it's a Sticky Rice tradition. Then we followed that up with some more classics like the Godzirra (which looks like the most adorable sushi caterpillar you've ever seen), the sticky balls (I know that sounds foul but it's the beeeeeeeeest. Mmmmmmmmmm.), and the south roll (it's got sweet potato!)


The food was all fantastic. Great Richmond food with some great Richmonders. However, there was definitely something lacking in the preparation time. None of our apps or entrees came out together. The first round of entrees came a good 25 minutes before the final round was delivered. I don't think this had anything to do with our server. He was great for the most part. I think the real culprit is that the kitchen is on the ground floor while the sushi bar is on the top floor, and coordination between the two hasn't been worked out yet. Hopefully that will improve, because it was by far the biggest annoyance. We were all so grateful for the food, though, that we were able to over look the delays.

On a completely different note, I did like the ambiance that was going on. It was a little more polished than Richmond Sticky Rice, so it lost a little street cred there. Although the restaurant is on H St. NE, so it picks up street cred there. But what I liked most was that the back wall was covering in pictures of tattoos. Richmond is a huge hub for tattoos, and the art work seemed to be an homage to the city.


Overall, though, I'd totally recommend dragging your butt out to H St. for Sticky Rice. It is a deliciously good time, but just don't end up like I did after too many sake's.


Sike! Totally kidding, Mom! Gotcha, didn't I? Really though, I behaved like the nice young lady you rose me to be. You can breathe easy. The night actually looked a lot more like this:


Just good wholesome fun with awesome sushi and tots!*





*Maybe a little sake was involved. Also, some of the fun may not have been 100% wholesome.

The heat will not stop Search for J Street!

We started the weekend off right with the Rilo Kiley concert on Friday at the 9:30 Club. It was obviously amazing as Rilo Kiley and Jenny Lewis are capable of no less. They started off with new stuff that I was not as familiar with but fell in love with immediately. (Ooo! It feel good to be free!) Then I absolutely freaked out when she played 'Does He Love You.' I think everyone around me was a little annoyed with how loudly I was shrieking along with the lyrics, but I couldn't help it. I could literally write a dissertation on that song considering how many times I listened to it on repeat. The concert was a great mix of new and old. I didn't want the show to ever end.


On top of the music being great, everyone in the band looked fabulous! The boys wore cute, formal wear inspired outfits with vest and suspenders. Boys in bands are so hot! Even the one who used to be on Salute Your Shorts! Jenny wore a fabulous gold glitter dress with a tiny black bow in the center of the square neck line. It perfectly matched her bedazzled guitar strap! While I was surfing online for set lists and pictures from the concert, I noticed this actually appears to be the exact same thing she wore to her concert at the 9:30 club in the fall except this time she wore it with jeans and a retro flapper-esque headband. I guess she really likes the dress, but it was fun and looked good. So why not rock it twice? Plus, I've got to give it up for a girl rocker who maintains her femininity and knows how to use accessories. Mary Kate could take a few lessons on the do's and don'ts of headband usage.

(Sept, 2007 show courtesy of http://fukaduk.blogspot.com/)

After the concert, it was a few beers at Solly's then off to bed in order to wake up bright and early (aka 11 am) for brunch at Vinoteca. This is Erin's and my umpteenth brunch at Vinoteca. We used to go every weekend because it was so damn cheap, but they've raised the prices since then. It's still pretty cheap, but I can no longer justify going every weekend. Although, their grits are so indescribably delicious that sometimes I try to justify going every weekend anyway. Also delicious: the co-owner. Click on picture 2 for proof. He may or may not have a little something to do with the copious amounts of women I always see there sipping on wine and trying to look classy. (Also, I may or may not be included in that group.) Here's a few shots of the inside of Vinoteca that I took from a brunch we went to months back and some shots of us already feeling the heat while having brunch outside. Sorry no shots of the grits!


The ladies are being too cool for school with their sunglasses on. After brunch Steph jetted back to the mysterious world of Virginia, while Erin and I abused a friendship for access to a rooftop pool. (J/k Lynne. We love you... but now we just love you even more.)

After roasting my Irish skin by the pool, it was off to our final stop for Saturday: the Nats game. I won the firm's seats in the raffle a few weeks ago, and although I am not huge into baseball, I love ballpark food. Erin really likes baseball, though. So we went together, and I brought a magazine for times when the game got dull. Erin mocked me, but it was a good thing I brought the magazine! The stupid teams went 7 innings without scoring a single run. My hot dog and pretzel would have entertained me through only so many of those innings. Just an FYI, I'd skip on the pretzel in the future. They were way chewy and not in a good way. Save the $4 for a bottle of water to go with some vingary boardwalk fries. Even thought the game wasn't the most exciting and the Nats lost in the end, I did really like the new Stadium. It is so inviting. Plus there are so many food stands that none of the lines are terribly long. Double plus, the food stands take credit cards!


Unfortunately immediately after the game left out, it began to thunder store, meaning that it become absolutely impossible to get back into the metro. So Erin and I gave up on trying to get on at the Navy Yard stop and instead we went on a little adventure and made some ridiculously silly videos (documented below in 2 parts).

Lethal Combination

I was so proud of myself for posting twice in 1 night (since I am a slacker blogger that is totally unheard of), and I was all motivated to come home last night and post again... Unfortunately drinks at Park at Fourteenth with some girl friends got in the way.



I feel morally obligated to recommend to all people who read this blog and enjoy drinking without breaking the bank that you go to Park during the week. I almost don't want to share this news because its a pet peeve of my when a place gets too trendy, but Park is already too trendy (I mean Lebron James has shown up there) so I figure it can't hurt. Anyways they are packed on the weekend, but much slower on the week days. So to bring in some business they run some ridiculous specials. The first time Erin and I went it was a Tuesday. The place was dead with a capital D. So our cocktail waitress spent a lot of time chatting with us, and we got the details. Apparently happy hour changes every day depending on the managers mood, but when you catch them in a good one (like we have), Park's a steal!!! The first day we went it was $5 beer (lame-o discount), $6 wine (awesome discount since the glasses normally run $10-$12), and $5 food (I mean everything on the effing menu was $5! Sweet action in a bottle!) So Erin and I, who had just come for a drink to check it out, each got dinner and drinks for $15-$20 a piece.

The second time we went was last night. Everyone was in need of drinks. So it was a good thing the managers were in a good mood again! All beer = $5 (lame-o again) All wine = $5 (score!) All mixed drinks = $5 (wtf?! these managers must be on Valium) We couldn't get food because apparently that is not allowed on the third floor. Someone needs to tell them that denying food to people who are drinking is a bad business move.

Overall the night was fabulous, though, because even though it was way more crowded and waaaaaaaay more ghetto fabulous than before, the drinks were cheap and the bartender was smoking hot. Shaved head, chiseled jaw, tattoos everywhere. Plus he forgot to charge me for my second (very full) glass of wine! That's the equation for a winner night for me. But in the end the wine and the new Netflix movie waiting for me at home was a lethal combination, and I didn't end up writing my blog post.

<-- Chihuly chandelier which is their center piece. (For those of you who appreciate art.)

Side note

I'm totally obsessed with this site Garfield Minus Garfield. You have to check it out. Garfield minus Garfield is such a statement about our isolation and insanity as a society. When you take the stupid cat away, you have this incredibly moving story about a man (and metaphorically all men) told in 3 pictures.

Just kidding! Did you believe me as Cara, the deep thinking scholar? Actually I like this cartoon because it makes me giggle in its absurdity. Plus it's kind of fun to try to make up the story of what is happening! If you are bored today at work, check it out! Here's my fav (it weirdly reminds me of Erin):

(Picture courtesy of gerfieldminusgarfield.net)

The end of law school touring

So finally the absurdly long law school trip comes to an end. The rest of my time in New York was split between gallivanting and law school visiting. I woke my ass up absurdly early on Friday to make it to the 8 a.m. criminal law class at Columbia (I was determined to see more of the school than that spinster witch librarian) in order to make it back down town for the 11 a.m. evidence class at NYU. The class at Columbia was great. A judge taught it. (And he knew a little something about criminal law. He'd had just a smidge of experience in that arena.) So it was great hearing him back up all these theoretical lessons with stories of "When I was in court last week..." Plus I sat next to this very friendly kid who told me lots about the school, but even with all of that, I still didn't like it as much as NYU. I mean the NYU facilities are beautiful, the students were also so nice I would have thought they were creepy if they weren't equally cool as shit, and... AND....


IT IS RIGHT NEXT TO THE ONLY PEANUT BUTTER & CO. STORE IN THE WORLD! Have you tried their peanut butter? No? Well your life is incomplete then. I don't care if you've found your soul mate and cured cancer and composed a tear jerking symphony. You have not lived until you've tried their awesome flavors of peanut butter!!! O the dark chocolate flavor! So obviously after attending 2 classes before noon on a Friday (which is, for the record, more than any other law school student in the country attends), I needed a little fluffernutter to keep me going. Mmmm. So yummy!


For $5 and change, I got this piece of heaven wrapped in tin foil like mom used to do with Peanut Butter & Co. brand carrot sticks and potato chips. I felt like I was right back in middle school. Needless to say, this revelation elevated NYU to a level unobtainable by any other school in my mind. (Plus it didn't hurt that I sat next to a kid in class who wore a fedora and totally pulled it off. I just thought to myself: "Self, these are the kind of people you want to be eating fluffernutter sandwiches with for the next 3 years.")

So to celebrate my last official stop on the law school tour de force, I decided to celebrate these few remaining moments of vacation by continuing my eating tour de force. So I met up with Jamie again and it was off to Magnolia's for cupcakes!



Magnolia Bakery (of Sex and the City fame) is supposed to have the best cupcakes in Manhattan, which to people living in Manhattan, this means the best cupcakes in the world. I'm not actually a huge fan of cupcakes so I went for the mini key lime cheese cake instead (which was freaking awesome), but I did appreciate how undeniably adorable all the cupcakes were. I picked one up for my friend Brittany. She was another friend I was visiting in NYC, and it just so happened to be her birthday. She and Jamie swore up and down that the icing is to die for. Best in the city they said. I took their word for it. Then I took a bunch of pictures of Jamie scooping it right off the top of the cupcakes in the middle of the street. (She's classy like that.)



After all that sugar, that is when I finally decided enough food was enough.



Sike! I still had a whole day left in vacation. I wasn't done yet, and its a good thing (aka bad thing) because my most interesting (aka absurd) meal was yet to come!

On Saturday, I did what many New Yorkers never do: I ventured out into Queens. Brittany, the birthday girl, lives in Astoria so I crashed with her that night we went out to celebrate. Before the heavy drinking ensued, though, we went out for some Greek food which is about all you can get in Astoria since Brittany is 1 of 5 non-Greeks living in the neighborhood. I was thinking that this would be the most authentic Greek food this side of the Atlantic. I was so excited I even branched out from my usually gyro and flaming cheese. Turned out trying new things on the menu was actually pretty risky at this place. Of all the interesting things that actually came out of the kitchen, the poor birthday girl got the biggest surprise. Chicken with vegetables and potatoes turned out to be grilled chicken and sauteed veggies in a salad of store bought french fries with lemon garnishes.


That face just says it all, but of course I still had to try it! The moment after trying this, dear readers, is when I actually did end my eating tour de force. I figured nothing could top a Greek French Fry Salad (aka at this point I was so disgusted with food, I thought I'd never eat again). In the morning I packed up my bags, let skipped on any traditional Greek brakfast, and headed back to DC. Now I'm back to searching for J street in my home base.

Search for St. Marks Street

I've been to New York dozens of times, but mostly it hasn't been until this past year that I have really started exploring neighborhoods located outside of the typical tourist epicenters. On this trip, Jamie (one of the ladies from my group of fav girlfriends from college) introduced me to some sights in the East Village. I am totally in love with the neighborhood! The ceramic collaged light post and the jazz street musicians parked outside of the Mudtruck spoke to my wannabe-artist soul. I could see myself moving there and trying to write that novel that I'm always telling Erin I'm going to write. Of course my hopes of living there were shattered when Jamie told me that starving artists hadn't lived there in over a decade. But screw it. A girl can dream, right? Even if she can't dream, she can enjoy the fair trade coffee and jazz music.


You know what else a girl can enjoy in the East Village? Shopping! (Did you really think I was going to say anything else?) There were the fun boutiques that you are bound to run into in a trendy New York neighborhood, and then there was this awesome discount designer store. I almost got suckered into this pink Zac Posen number which was marked down to $300 and change. It was just such a steal, but I talked myself out of it. I had already blown so much money (damn you, Chicago!), and I didn't really need it. But, boy, did I want it. Later, however, I was glad I saved my money. I ran into an outpost of Love Saves the Day. The only other one is in New Hope, Pennsylvania, which I have randomly been to in my other explorations, and I jumped on the chance to check out the New York one. For those of you who have never been, Love Saves the Day is this amazing vintage/memorabilia/junk store. You can get everything from authentic 70's pimp coats to a complete set of Smurf action figures. The store is effing awesome. The last time I was at one, I picked up this absurd 50's prom-type dress which I wore to my 21st birthday party. The skirt of the dress was actually ripped, but I couldn't resist it. So I ended up covering the rip by sewing a vine of flowers into the dress. It took foooooreveeeeeeer, but was worth it on the night I finally got to wear the dress.

This time around I got this Amishy looking dress that I am in the process of hemming. Once I bring it up above my knee, I think it will be the perfect work dress: businessy enough up top to compensate for a little leg below. Kind of like a mullet: business up top, party in the back. So I guess you could say its a mullet dress! When I finally do get around to hemming it and wearing it (which might not be until the end of the summer since it is already a little humid to survive wearing a wool dress outside), I will be sure to post pictures!

NYC, finally at the end of my trip!

By the time I got off the train at 2 am in New York, I was wishing I had just rode it all the way back to DC with Erin. I was exhausted, but I hadn't been up to New York since the Spice Girls concert. Plus the weather was so miserable that weekend that Erin and I didn't do much in the way of touring. So I reminded myself that I NYC and all my friends there and that I'd be missing out on a lot if I skipped over it. (Plus the train conductors would notice if I road all the way back to DC with a New York ticket and they would not be happy.) Looking back, I am so glad I stayed! The weather was amazing. I got my first new freckles of the year! And I got to spend a ton of time playing around the city!

So on the first day, I slept in pretty late. Finally around noon, I rolled out of Jamie's/Allie's/Alex's apartment where I was staying and ventured up to Columbia (look another law school!). Of course I am a complete dunce and didn't read their visitor's information page very closely online because all classes were canceled that day for the moot court competition they had which Chief Justice Roberts presided over. When I tried to follow their little self tour booklet (I was at the school, I felt I should do something), I got even more frustrated. The directions weren't clear, and I couldn't find any of the things they pointed out. The one thing I did find, the library, was reigned over by your stereotypical spinster-looking evil librarian. After she was so short with me, I gave up on trying to poke around the school an just walked around the neighborhood instead. The most note worthy sights were this statue and a girl laying out in a tiny bikini in the park (in April!).


Check out that detail! The mini ark was fabulous! Anyways no pictures of the bikini-clad girl. Although I was impressed by her boldness, I was not impressed to the point where I was going to risk looking like a creep by taking long distance pictures of this stranger. After these 2 sights, I figured I'd gotten the most out of the neighborhood and headed back down town to wait for Jamie to get out of class. As I was amusing myself snapping photos of the different architecture downtown (see below), I ended up running right into Jamie's school.


This building was very 70' s-esque, but I adored all the color tile! Bright and fun never goes out of style.


These are actually the Credit Suisse buildings which is a company I know only through my encounters with that at work (which means I know very little outside of they have a lot of money and do financially stuff with it). I've always imagined them as one of those cold, evil, John Grisham-type companies. So it seemed perfect that they would have that standard blah NYC high rise with some Gothic looking towers, but then they had this bridge. The bridge is really what interested me because it reminded me a lot of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. Now if a soulless, profit-obsessed company is going to reference anything in their architecture, I'd think the last thing they would choose would be the Bridge of Sighs, but whether it was an accident or not, it is perfect poetic justice.


And look! Here's Jamie's school! I thought this building was awesomely modern, took a picture, realized this is where Jamie happened to matriculate, and 2 minutes later she called me to say she was out of class. Then I told her I was here to pick her up from school. It was perfect timing. Off we went to play! First Jamie introduced me to the wonderful world of fancy frozen yogurt chains. (Why do we not have these in DC yet?!?!?!?!?) Obviously I had heard of Pinkberry before thanks to endless plug from Perez Hilton and the Plum Card commercials, but there are so many more that I had never heard of! There's Flurt, Berrywild, Tasti-D-Lite... There's probably even more than that, but it was hard to keep track. Seriously, though, every block it was a different Pinkberry knockoff! NYC certainly has more than enough yogurt chains to share. Spread some fro-yo loving to the District! In my short time visit New York I was only able to sample 2 of the contenders. It came down to the contender...


...versus the original...


And the winner was... Pinkberry! Hands down. I am obsessed with their green tea flavor. Mmm so good! I was totally blown away with how it actually tasted like frozen yogurt. Not like the frozen yogurt you get at the store, but like someone took a cup of yogurt and made it really really cold. Totally unlike ice cream and also totally awesome. Mayor Fenty needs to get on this lack of Pinkberries ASAP. Books for inner city schools can wait, what those children really need is some vanilla fro-yo with fresh fruit and Cap'n Crunch. That'll edumacate them.