Posts Tagged ‘Baltimore’
Posted by Natalie Kaar / Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Foot Juggling (Courtesy of Daniel Auclair © 2010 Cirque du Soleil Inc.)
Yet another reason I love Travelzoo, tickets to several shows of Cirque du Soleil’s new big-top show, “Totem,” debuting this week in Baltimore, have been reduced 40 percent!
- Thursday, April 7, at 8 p.m. (opening night)
- Friday, April 8, at 8 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 12, at 8 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 13, at 8 p.m.
- Thursday, April 14, at 8 p.m.
- Friday, April 15, at 4 p.m. & 8 p.m.
Buy them while you can.
Happy shopping!
–Natalie Kaar
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
The first family of hospitality crowd-sourcing, Nina and Tim Zagat, have released the results of their 2011 Washington D.C./Baltimore survey, an all-too-familiar litany–the Inn at Little Washington continues its decade-long streak of ping-ponging back and forth between the #1 and #2 spots for food; Restaurant Eve remains firmly entrenched in the food top 10–which I highly doubt will surprise any fine dining aficionados or even casual gourmands.
I was, however, interested to see how the D.C./Charm City surveyors stack up against other markets and how often they hit the streets in search of a good meal.
According to Zagat’s, there are roughly 6,500 surveyors actively evaluating 2,400 meals per day across the D.C./Baltimore corridor. While that sounds like a whole lot of eating, our area ranks second-to-last in surveyor meals per week (2.6).
Texans, on the other hand, have gorged themselves into four of the top five spots (Houston – 4 meals per week, Austin/Hill Country – 3.8, Dallas/Forth Worth – 3.6, San Antonio – 3.5).
The economy, of course, is partly to blame.
Approximately 40 percent of local surveyors admitted to eating out less because of forced belt-tightening, while another third of those surveyed copped to more carefully eyeing menu prices when they do step out.
On the upside, over half of the surveyors said lean times have prompted restaurants to beef up their dining deals while approaching 45 percent said the downturn has rekindled a passion for home cooking.
Amateur food sleuths might also be interested to know that Zagat’s stable of local food spies skews female (51 percent) and relies heavily on retirees (60+ year olds comprise 25 percent of their core constituency)–though Gen Xers (30-year olds) and late Boomers (50s and up) account for 23 and 22 percent (respectively) of the roving reporting crew.
Rankings-wise, NoVA restaurants seemed to do pretty well.
We claimed six of the top 20 food slots:
* Inn at Little Washington (2)
* Restaurant Eve (7)
* L’Auberge Provencale (10)
* L’Auberge Chez Francois (15)
* 2941 (16)
* GoolDaeGee (19)
Seven of the top 24 cuisine categories:
* New American: Inn at Little Washington
* Chinese: Peking Gourmet
* Classic French: L’Auberge Provencale
* South American: El Pollo Rico
* Southwest/Tex-Mex: Sweetwater Tavern
* Thai: Thai Square
* Vietnamese: Four Sisters
And scored a handful of entries in the 20 “Key Newcomers” list:
Would love to hear what you all think of the current crop of popularly appointed dining champs AND/OR the Zagat’s scouts among us.
–Warren
Films Connect Food and the Environment
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Image: Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
The 18th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital will be held March 16-28 in Washington, DC and will feature 155 films. One of the main themes at the festival this year is the connection between food and the environment. 32 of the films will be part of the Food & Agriculture Film Series.
Topics include school food programs, the sustainable organic movement, biodiversity, the slow food movement, food security, migrant farm workers, and urban agriculture. Bonus: The majority of the films are free!
Below is a list of films that relate to our region.
If you haven’t seen Fresh, which features Virginia farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, you can watch it on March 17 at 7:30pm at the National Geographic Society. Following the screening, you can participate in a discussion featuring the filmmaker Ana Sofia Joanes, Ann Yonkers, Co-director of FRESHFARM Markets, and by phone, Joel Salatin.
Lunch is a short documentary co-presented by the Earth Day Network & Center for Environmental Filmmaking. The film takes a look at school lunch programs, particularly within the Baltimore, MD public school system. It will be shown with the film Potato Heads at American University with a discussion afterwards with the Potato Heads filmmaker and the Director, Avis Richards of Earth Day Network. The film can be seen on March 22 at 7pm and is free to the public.
NORA! A film about Nora Pouillon, DC’s pioneer in the organic and local-food movement and owner of the nation’s first certified organic restaurant. Following the film there will be a discussion with the star herself. The film can be seen for free on March 23 at 7pm and will be screened at the International Student House.
Who Killed Crassostrea Virginica: The Fall and Rise of Chesapeake Bay Oysters. A whodunit film about the decline of the Chesapeake Bay oyster population. Was it the watermen, the oyster farmers, or the scientists who study them? The film can be seen for free on March 21 at 1:30pm at the Carnegie Institution for Science and will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Michael Fincham and oyster biologist Ken Paynter and Captain Ed Farley.
There will also be films on global water issues, including a film on the restoration of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC (The Meaningful Watershed Education Experience), and a fifteen minute excerpt on chemical contaminants within the Chesapeake Bay (Poisoned Waters: Chesapeake Bay).
For a complete list, visit the film festival 2010 Films page.
