What's the deal with these old mailboxes?

We were walking around the other day and stumbled upon a very old mailbox right next to a nice new mailbox. It was such a funny contrast that I had to snap a picture of it.


When we went up to investigate the old mailbox, it turned out to be quite the little mystery. There's no slot for mail only a door in the front that is locked. There's not identifying information on the mailbox either, just the words "Relay Mail" on the locked door. Then we began to notice that these old mailboxes are all over. I can't believe I never noticed them before, but I guess they just blended into the background. Now that I've noticed them, I can't stop thinking about what they are used for. Obviously you could only put mail in them if you had a key, but who has a key? Can I get a key? Anyone who can shed some light on this would be my hero. I have to know if they are just old mailboxes that were never removed or if they are some secret system or communication between spies!

Drinks at Acadiana

I have an obsession with Passion Food's restaurants (Ten Penh, Ceiba, Acadiana, and DC Coast). Not because of their food (although that is often delish) or because of the drinks (often even more delish than the food) or because of their atmosphere (pretty fabulous in its own right). What actually made me originally fall in love with these places are their drink decorations! Ten Penh's got monkeys. Ceiba's got little bulls. DC Coast has mermaids. They are all so colorful and fabulous. I collect them whenever I go out to any of these places for drinks! (Then I decorate my pathetic little cubicle with them to remind me of my fun exploits).


Anyways this is a long way of saying that I had collected all the little drink characters from everywhere accept Acadiana which I had sadly never visited despite it being a 5 minutes walk from my work. So recently several girlfriends and I found ourselves on the way from the Portrait Gallery to Cork for dinner when one of those sudden summer rainstorms hit. (Doesn't it seem like we're having an awful lot of those this summer? Is this a global warming thing? Well if this sort of thing is going to keep up, I hope we can at least start growing mangoes up here.) Anyways being the resourceful ladies we are, we ducked into Acadiana for a few drinks to help us wait out the storm. I was sooooo excited to finally make it there! I couldn't wait to see what their drink decorations would be. And you know what it was?!?!

Nothing. They have drink stirrers with fleur de lis's on top of them. Clear drink stirrers at that. They don't even have multiple colors! So freaking disappointing. As soon as I saw this, I was totally ready to write Acadiana off as my least favorite of the restaurant group, but then, o but then I tasted my drink (and my friends' drinks too). WOW! No really! They were amaaaaaaaaaaazing. It should be illegal for booze to taste that good. I have a hard enough time resisting happy hour as is. All their specialty cocktails have 20 bajillion ingredients and require a decent amount of creation time, but all of the work put into them really does make them a level above any other drink I've ever had in Washington DC. I am not exaggerating. I am willing to go on record saying Acadiana makes the best drinks inside the District. You must go. Immediately. What are you doing now? Well stop it, and get over there. Ok wait, first put on pants. It's kind of a classy place. (See giant Grecian vase in background for indication of class level.) So you'll probably need pants.

(My Ramos Fizz. Sooooo yummy!)

Tips for Screen on the Green (bit of a rant, watch out!)

So this past Monday was the beginning of Screen on the Green, the free, outdoor film festival on the mall. I hope you all went. If you didn't, tisk tisk. You're missing out on an awesome time! However... I have to say Screen on the Green could be awesomer. There were a few things that irked me a bit. So if you do go next Monday (and you absolutely should), please try not to do one of the following in consideration of all the people around you:

1) Show up after the movie has started and cram into the middle of the mall somewhere on the pretense of sitting near your friends. Party foul! The movie doesn't start until 9 at night! It's not like you are rushing out of work to make it on time. If you can't make it by 9, sit towards the side/back. Really this advice is for your sake because everyone you step on/over or sit in front of/on top of is probably planning on how best extract their revenge.

2) Smoke. I know we're outdoors. Therefore, I don't think I can technically make you stop, but please be considerate. You smell. And then you make me smell. And maybe I was trying to flirt with the cute boy next to me. Now you've ruined my chances because he thinks I'm smelly. No one likes the smelly girl.

3) Sprawl out and sleep. If you were tired, you should have stayed home. Now you are taking up twice as much room as a normal sitting person, and you're not even conscious! Don't be surprised when you wake up next time with crude pictures drawn on your face. I'm not saying it'll be me. I'm just saying don't be surprised.

4) Bring a lawn chair unless you want to sit in the back. This shouldn't even need to be said, but if you bring a lawn chairs that is 18 inches off the ground, you are killing the viewing area behind you. SOTG is already packed. So try not to make the situation worse by effectively blocking a good couple of square feet immediately behind you.

Ok I'm done being snarky. I'm sorry; I just have very strong feelings on appropriate outdoor movie viewing behavior. Hopefully next Monday, we can all just get along.

Mondays are Play Days!

So my job is beginning to wear on me a bit, and to keep from going absolutely insane, I decided to take off all of the Mondays of Screen on the Green. Everyone keeps saying: "wouldn't it be more sensible if you took off on Tuesdays?" But no silly people, it wouldn't be because then I wouldn't have a 3 day weekend. Duh! So this was my first Monday off. I couldn't really enjoy it to its utmost because I was coming back from Delaware that morning, but Erin and I were able to catch some schmancy lunch with a friend. Then I introduced them both to TangySweet (new converts! yes!). Then we picked up lots of delish cheeses for a Screen on the Green picnic, and we closed the night out nibbling on brie and gouda while listening to James Bond seduce 3 women in under 2 hours.


But back track to the schmancy lunch... Erin and I decided these Monday Play Days would be a great time to try out nice restaurants we wanted to go to during lunch when the meal would be (theoretically) cheaper. So this Monday we hit up Circle Bistro in the Washington Circle Hotel. I have been to a few other hotel restaurants in DC, and I have to say I liked the atmosphere at the Circle Bistro the best. The decor was still a bit hotel-y, but the color palette really opened the whole place up. It was all fun oranges and yellows. The bright, warm colors were the perfect balance to the feeling of being underground and closed in.


Ok now down to more important things: food and service. Let's start with the service. It was exactly what I would have expected from a classy hotel joint, completely professional and a bit uptight. Our waitress wasn't making any small talk, but all dishes were served at perfect pace, all together, and to the right person without the food runner having to "auction off" anything. ("Auctioning off" = when they say "who got the chicken with the pasta type stuff on the side?" FYI from a former waitress, auctioning off is considered tacky in the world of formal restaurants. So I always note it at restaurants I feel should know better.) Service bonus: our waitress had some unidentifiable European accent and was built like a model, making her seem that much classier.

The surprisingly pleasant atmosphere and classy service was nothing, however, compared to the food. It was freaking awesome. We started off with the duck confit and a corn and pepper soup. The duck literally melted off the bone. It was cooked to absolute perfection. Seriously it was like Moses parting the Red Sea. The meat just glided away (and into my mouth) like there was some divine intervention. No joke. Don't believe me? Not sure if you believe in divine intervention? Try to the duck confit, Judas, and then get back to me. Food bonus: the portion was not small! In fact nothing that came out at Circle Bistro was teeny tiny in that snooty way some kitchens try to make their food seem cooler by putting less of it on a plate. Portion size alone would have won them a decent review. Erin also loved her soup. I tried it and liked it a lot, but I was glad I got the duck! Then the main dishes came out. I got the soft shell sandwich. Great job on the crab, but the bun was a bit to big for the whole thing. Erin got the salmon. She didn't say much about it, but there wasn't anything left on her plate at the end of the meal. So I am assuming it wasn't too terrible. Our friend who was dining with us got the burger. It always seems odd to me to go to a really nice restaurant and get the burger, but he could not shut up about how good it was. So I think in this instance, he probably got the best meal out of all of us. The bill came, and it was actually not horrendous. It wasn't cheap either, but I do think our attempt at eating a less expensive meal at a classy joint was successful for the most part. Everything was so good that I was tempted to see what they had for dessert, but TangySweet was calling! So off we went to the rest of the days adventures.

J Street Attempts to Thoroughly Review Cork

BUT ALAS! Is thwarted by evil co-owner! The plot thickens (insert dramatic organ music and castle thunder here).

Ok so I finally got to eat at Cork. I've tried a couple of times, but it's always been packed out the wazoo. This time we went on a rainy Sunday which apparently is enough in this city to thin the crowd at even the trendiest restaurants. This time we get there, and half the tables are empty. I'm thinking 'Sweet! We can sit down right away and can get something to munch on.' Um nope. Even though our reserved table was open (in addition to a handful of other tables) and 4 out of 5 people in our party were there, we couldn't be seated until everyone was there. Great lady. Thanks. So instead we had to stand at the bar for awhile since all the bar seats were taken while the hostess just stared at us standing and looking at our nice empty seats (see below). Major -1.

(Us standing.)

(Our empty table.)

Finally the hostess got off her high horse and let us sit down. Our waitress came up to tell us about the specials, but she couldn't really remember them. (According to her the stuffed quail was stuffed with stuffing. Yeaaaaa. Thanks, Shakespeare. You've got quite the way with words. -1 again.) Fortunately she did remember our orders correctly. All our food came out pretty fast, it was all correct, and it was freaking awesome. I loved everything I tried, especially the avocado bruschetta with pistachios. Aaaaaaaaaaaaa. So yummy. But the cold English pea soup was a really close second. Actually no the perfectly seasoned fries were the close second. They had some lemon zest or something. I don't even know. You just need to go and try them. Immediately. So I guess the soup was third, but really everything was second to the wine. The menu has great descriptions, and we all got wines we liked! (+5)


So I'm busy snapping pictures of all the pretty and delicious food which the co-owner is running to table until he says 'Um you can't do that.' Excuse, me I can't do what? 'You are not allowed to take pictures of the food.' What?! You're kidding me right? He wasn't. Apparently people could take pictures of the food and misrepresent it. Although I feel like a photo is actually a pretty accurate representation, Mr. Co-owner Man. I mean that's why they invented them, to capture reality. Aaaaanyways he could definitely tell that his no photo policy threw me for a loop because I made a half wtf face and a half you're breaking my heart here face. At this point I was about the write off the service at Cork as effing horrible, but the Mr. Co-owner dude managed to save the whole situation by bringing me a free glass of champagne (+ a million!!!!) So of course I forgave him for his silly photo rule. Plus, don't tell him, but I snapped a few pictures before he came over to chastise me!

(The delicious fries)

(The delicious soup)

So I guess long story short, Cork is a pretty great place to eat and drink, but just show up with your whole party to begin with. For your sake. And don't take pictures. And order the avocado bruschetta. And even if you don't understand you're meal (stuffed stuffing?), I promise it will be suuuuper good anyways. Just go. Ok?

More Fro-Yo Places?!?! There is a god!

So not too long ago I was complaining about how in New York there was a Pinkberry or Pinkberry rip off on every corner and they were all delish and all healthy and why the f*#@ hadn't this trend hit DC yet? Then TangySweet opened! I finally got over there to test them out and was totally satisfied that there was somewhere in my relative vicinity where I could get the yogurty desserts I craved. But behold! I new frozen yogurt place has hit the scene! How could I not know about this?! Apparently on the otherside of Dupont, one Mr. Yogato shop has opened up. Now Mr. Yogato seems to have broken from the Pinkberry trend of only offering a few flavors and appears to be following more along the lines of the Tasti D-Lite franchise which offers a bunch of choices. Yogato flavors apparently also change every week. (Which is just another excuse for me to check back even more often than I was already planning!) Check out the menu on their website for updates. Of this week's flavors, I am kinda feeling the orange. Anyone want to play hookie from work and go try Mr. Yogato with me?!

Side Note: Mr. Yogato also has all these odd rules that can earn you discounts on their yogurt. rule number 5, however, says that if you order a yogurt for 30 consecutive days, they will name a flavor after you!!! I'm going to shoot for a Search for J Street flavor by the end of September!

Well I know the fireworks have come and gone...

...but having been back at the office for 3 days now, I can't resist reminiscing about how awesome 4th of July weekend was! Before this year, I had missed fireworks 3 out of the last 4 years. I am totally a kid at heart. So missing fireworks always makes me super sad. When it started to rain before the display was set to go off, I started to get really worried that they would cancel them, but thank goodness most of the rain clouds cleared away! Amy, Steph, and I got to enjoy the full display from the 12th floor balcony of my tourist-free office building. Our favorites were the new fireworks that explode into little stars instead of the normal color blobs. For all of you who love fireworks as much as I do, here are some of the pictures to help you reminisce about the night!



This is the picture Amy took:

Enjoy the pictures! Til next year!