Maryland

Though beetles may not be our favorite pests, the Beatles are one group whose tunes we’re not looking to eradicate any time soon. North America’s largest and longest running Beatles tribute festival, Abbey Road on the River, will return to National Harbor, MD, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center over Labor Day Weekend from September 1st to September 5th.

Beatles Look-A-Like: The Jukebox from Puerto Rico, photo by Andrew Raitz.

George Harrison said, “I’d like to think that the old Beatle fans have grown up and they’ve got married and they’ve all got kids and they’re all more responsible, but they still have a space in their hearts for us.” Well, he may be right about his fans leaving room in their hearts, but he got one thing wrong: Beatles fans span generations, and those that grew up as the Beatles became popular passed their fervor along to their kids.

Thus we have the tribute festival. Highlights of the 2011 festival will include a special performance by acclaimed soprano Alessandra Marc and a full reenactment of the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album LOVE. The five days of peace, love and rock-n-roll will showcase more than 50 bands from around the world performing on seven indoor and outdoor stages, as well as a Beatles merchandise marketplace, film screenings, lectures, and more. Plus, a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit the American Red Cross.

Don’t worry about the weather, because they’ve got indoor and outdoor venues. It’s the world’s largest Beatles inspired music festival, and we’re excited because it will host some Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. local bands. Plus, Bobby McKey will lead the sing-a-long party each night, which is sure to end the day’s fun with a bang.

Book your tickets now because they’re sure to go fast! Visit www.abbeyroadontheriver.com to purchase festival tickets and make a reservation at the Gaylord National Resort, or call (216) 378-1980 for more information.

–Clara Ritger

This Saturday, Party to Benefit a Charity or Two

Posted by clara / Friday, July 15th, 2011

Friday, July 15, 2011

Looking to party? Or simply looking to benefit a good cause? Thinking that both of those things will make you feel really good about yourself? Then head to Village at Leesburg this Saturday, July 16, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. for their second annual Summer Block Party benefiting Loudoun ENDependence (LEND)!

LEND provides peer counseling, independent living skills training, advocacy services and more to Loudoun County residents with disabilities to help them live better lives. Sound like a good cause? Then make sure you head on down! Family friendly fun will occur between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and we hear that they’ve got a Cirque de Soleil stilt walker! Other draws include live entertainment from local bands, giveaways and prizes, and face painting. For more information, visit their Facebook page.

Image: Shutterstock/SNEHIT

This Saturday, July 16, from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. is also Summertime Ride 2011 at the Summertime Estates in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. This event costs $45 at the door, and partial proceeds will benefit the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, The National Hand Dance Association, and the Emerging Diversity Education Fund. Another great way to celebrate and support charities!

At the festival, you can see new cars, motorcycles and a fashion show, all while eating free food! Want to participate? They’ve got contests going on throughout the day, but if competition isn’t your thing, you can head over to one of the three dance floors and party with DJ Bird, DJ Swaami, and DJ Julian. For more information, visit www.zvents.com.

Bucky Pizzarelli at Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI, 2010. Photo by Jim Carty.

Still can’t find anything you want to do this weekend? Jazz Guitar Legend Bucky Pizzarelli will join Chuck Redd, Delores King Williams, Tom Williams and Nicki Parrott for a Reston Concert on the Town. Pizzarelli is known for being one of the first guitarists to master the seven string guitar, and he’s worked with legendary musicians Les Paul and Benny Goodman. This concert takes place in the Reston Town Center Pavilion from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. While you’re not benefiting a charity, this concert is free. Visit www.restontowncenter.com for more information.

–Clara Ritger

Local artist brings photographs to The Art League

Posted by clara / Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Frances Borchardt. Image Courtesy Frances Borchardt and The Art League.

Frances Borchardt grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and has always been fascinated by art. Though she’s not sure where her inspiration comes from, she says, “perhaps having access to museums as a kid got me started.”

Her exhibit “Prints in Pieces: Views of South County” takes an honest look at a community south of Annapolis, Maryland. “It is a farming community that has successfully fought off development,” Borchardt says. That is one reason to capture it now. Many of the towns in the D.C., Northern Virginia, and Maryland areas, are now cosmopolitan centers of business and growth. “I’ve tried to capture the natural beauty of the area. A lot of people don’t understand the calling of the community.”

Borchardt got her start in photography at the University of Maryland and worked as a photography editor for newspapers and magazines, not wanting to take the risks of being a photographer. “It takes initiative and financial backing to start photography as a career,” she says. “It is essentially a small business.” After traveling through Southeast Asia and taking photographs, she realized that it was time for her to make the switch. “I think of myself as a non-traditional photographer,” she says.

She describes her images as “clean and straightforward” though some of what she’s capturing is “very eclectic housing.” She lists the water, farms, tobacco barns, and community events as some of the subjects of her work. She’s also got their Fourth of July parade. She says she likes how her parade photos capture the spirit of the community and adults when they’re playful. “The community itself is like taking a step back in time, and the exhibit is trying to capture that and its rural, natural beauty.”

"West River Sunrise." Image Courtesy Frances Borchardt and The Art League.

"Jug Bay Medley." Image Courtesy Frances Borchardt and The Art League.

Some of her photographs have great memories. “I went rowing and I’d take a photo of the sunrise every morning,” she says, describing “West River Sunrise.” When Borchardt captured “Jug Bay Medley” she found it was a nice place to kayak. “I don’t think the Washington area even knows it exists,” she says. Set on a 2,000 acre tract of land, those photographs contain images of wildlife such as eagles, turtles, and snakes. “There is an abundance of wildlife at the bay,” she says. “But that’s also characteristic of this area.”

Though her artwork is of South County, she will be featured in Alexandria, and hopes to do more photography work in the NoVA area. Frances Borchardt’s exhibit “Prints in Pieces: Views of South County” for The Art League is at 105 North Union Street in Alexandria, July 8 through August 1. The Opening Reception and Meet the Artist, featuring a bluegrass performance by The Higher Ground String Band, is on Thursday, July 14, from 6:30 – 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.theartleague.org.

–Clara Ritger

Don Rockwell: Pro Reservations

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

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(Image: Sasan Saidi)

Those of you who don’t necessarily eat, sleep and breathe all things hospitality may not be as familiar with local food spy Don Rockwell or his eponymous dining forum as the more sybaritic amongst us.

But that may all change if his nascent concierge service, DCDining.com, succeeds in elevating the workhorse of a wandering diner to undisputed restaurant stud.

Though he shies away from deigning himself a bona fide critic–”I don’t rate restaurants so much as meals,” Rockwell insists–the Silver Spring native estimates he pounds the D.C. Metro-area pavement in search of interesting nibbles roughly 350 days a year, tackling at least a pair of establishments per day (averaging approximately 700 restaurant meals per year).

To date, he’s been sharing that hard earned reconnaissance free of charge on the always electric DR.com–a cyber-Thunderdome where local chefs, restaurateurs, gourmands and critics flock to debate the topics of the day (food trucks; disappearing landmarks), rail against perceived injustices (trade groups; unfavorable press), work to (re)build bridges or just gush about epicurean epiphanies.

And that’s just in the Restaurants and Dining-verse (the largest and arguably most active of the discussion groups in the DR.com community, accounting for approximately one-third of the nearly 7500+ conversations on the site).

Rockwell launched the freestyle food forum in April 2005 and said he’s been wrestling with tapping a non-invasive revenue stream to keep the largely unfiltered exchanges flowing ever since [*Rockwell chronicles the fiscal pressures he's been operating under in a letter distributed to dr.com confidants, reproduced in its entirety below*].

His penchant for investigative ingesting certainly hasn’t alleviated the burden.

“Me going out to every restaurant in town and trying to be superman is a major financial drain and it has been for years,” he said of the profligate spending that’s fueled his “hobby” up to this point.

But the one-time computer consultant has finally decided to go pro, setting himself up as a one-stop reservations shop for tourists looking to enjoy a quintessential D.C. dining experience.

The concept is simple enough: clients provide guidelines (geographic boundaries, preferred price points, favorite cuisines, etc.) for a potential outing and Rockwell fills in the requisite blanks.

But as any good facilitator knows, god lives in them thar details.

“I have no idea what to expect because there’s no business model that I’m following,” Rockwell concedes, adding that “a lot of this is going to have to be reactionary.”

Though he has both his own encyclopedic knowledge and the communal wisdom of the DR.com boards at his disposal, Rockwell anticipates that each custom tailored package will require case-specific research, exhaustive cross-referencing, carefully crafted write-ups and, ultimately, a personally conducted phone call to ensure that the stage is flawlessly set for each client.

Total outlay for this white-glove treatment: $18.95 for a single booking or $31.95 for a pair of engagements (alterna-scenarios to be billed on a case-by-case basis).

And that’s before you even step foot in the prescribed restaurant.

“There’s no denying it’s a lot of money,” Rockwell readily admits of his adjunct fee. But he believes the investment will be worth it to out-of-towners who would rather hit the ground running than spend their time researching.

One potential sweetener: all DCDining.com clients will be awarded instant access to the DR.com Dining Guide–a running commentary on the regional restaurant scene currently reserved for “active” commentators.

“I’ve thought about making the dining guide available only to people on DCDining.com, but I don’t have the heart to do that to DR.com members who use it regularly,” Rockwell noted. “That said, I may begin work on a beefed-up version for DCDining.com, the drawback being that there are only so many hours in the day, sigh.”

Meanwhile, Rockwell suggested that he’ll still make himself available to DR.com members seeking counsel in the Help Needed forum–”I do read every restaurant post,” he maintains–and fully intends to keep sharing new finds.

Who knows, he may eventually earn enough scratch from DCDining.com to eat out those last two weeks of the year.

“I’m not going to make any money on this stuff, I can tell you that right now,” Rockwell predicted. “[But] I’m good at this … and I think I can fill a niche.”

–Warren

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* Rockwell’s explanation/announcement to the DR.com faithful about the dcdining launch:

Hi, I’m sending this note exclusively to long-time participants of donrockwell.com, so if you’re getting it, let me start off by saying THANK YOU for all you’ve done for the community.

Over five years ago, I founded donrockwell.com. I never wanted to name it that, but all the good names were taken, and a Famous Restaurant Critic advised me that if I didn’t put my own stamp on it, nobody would take it seriously, so I listened to what he said.

During the past five years, dr.com has grown from being a tiny, close-knit band of marauding food pirates to a large, diverse community, with statistics measured in the thousands and millions.

The whole time, I’ve been running this rapidly growing monster in my “spare time” with the help of a tireless troupe of volunteers who’ve never asked for anything in return.

For the past couple of years, I’ve known that donrockwell.com – in its current form, and with its current rate of growth – is unsustainable in the long-term. I’ve spent many hours thinking, stressing out about it, and every time I’d arrive at the same conclusion: At some point, something was going to have to give … but what?

What am I supposed to do when so many people have so much vested in this community? Do I flip a switch and turn it off? Do I start charging everyone? Do I start throwing advertisements in your face? Or maybe I should just let the whole thing decay, and die a long, slow, death, hoping that nobody will notice how bad it’s gotten.

I kept blindly thinking some Martian would appear at my front door holding a sack of money. Or maybe Ed McMahon from Publishers Clearing House would show up, or maybe I’d get a phone call from the MacArthur Foundation.

Slowly, very slowly, it became more and more clear, painfully clear, that none of this was ever going to happen. So here I was, all alone at sea, an amateur, part-time fisherman doing battle with a giant, fighting marlin relentlessly pulling at my line, my resources being sapped, and me starting to lose the fight, in danger of either letting go or being dragged into the water. What was I supposed to do?

Early this summer I was driving through rural Ireland with my son. We’d just had lunch, and he’d fallen asleep in the car, leaving me nothing but green countryside and not a care in the world. I wasn’t really thinking about any of this, but all of a sudden, things came pouring into my mind, and within twenty minutes, my entire future was mapped out for me.

Above all else, one thing became clear: donrockwell.com needs to stay the way it is, and compromising it would be a huge mistake.

Beginning next week, the first prong of a multi-pronged approach to serve both diners and restaurants to the best of my ability will be launched, with the second prong coming later this year. In tandem, the two may eventually change the landscape of DC dining, all the while preserving the integrity of donrockwell.com – which is going to remain a separate entity, untarnished and unchanged.

As you read this letter, you should no longer consider me an “amateur” in the restaurant business; I am going to take my great passion – and perhaps my greatest area of expertise – and make it my career.

DCDining.com will have its soft opening next week, and will be the first of its type in the United States, if not the world – a concierge service where I will lead tourists, visitors, businesses, and anyone passionate about dining to the right restaurant. Publicity, hype, and marketing? They’ll have no effect on my decision making, and if I have any say in the matter, those superficial lures are going to have less and less importance as time goes by.

At this point, I want to thank Leigh Maltese, without whom none of this would be happening. To say Leigh has been “instrumental” in bringing this to fruition would be an understatement – she has been the engine driving this project, and dcdining.com would all just be an unrealized daydream if it weren’t for her endless work. She will continue on, not only as the “librarian” for donrockwell.com, but also as an integral part of the continued growth of dcdining.com, having my full support and authorization. I know that I’m given to superlatives, but I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with a faster, sharper mind than Leigh Maltese.

It’s too soon to begin discussing the second, complementary prong that will be launched later this year, so I’m going to close this letter by thanking everyone for our first five years, and assuring you all that the time, effort, and commitment that you’ve invested in donrockwell.com will remain in force, with my full dedication and respect to the document and community that YOU are responsible for building.

Kind regards,
Don

Mad About Hoops

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

It’s that time again…time for the madness that ensues during the NCAA Basketball Championship. A time when things become a little less productive in the office and at home.

(Video: Youtube)

Poor kid is going to have an aversion to peas.

If you don’t have a nice home theater of your own, you can catch this year’s NCAA tourney at several sports bars in the DMV area.

Even if your alma mater didn’t make it to any of the tournaments, you can root for several local teams that made the NCAA and NIT/WNIT tournaments.

-Men’s NCAA tournament: Georgetown, Maryland, Morgan State, Old Dominion, and Richmond.
-Women’s NCAA tournament: Georgetown, Hampton, James Madison, Liberty, and Virginia.
-National Invitational Tournament (NIT): Virginia Tech and William & Mary.

-Women’s NIT: American, Maryland, Old Dominion, Richmond, and VCU.

What a difference a couple of years makes among Virginia collegiate sports.

Luckily the Fastest Bartender Contest won’t interfere with many of the games. Events will be held on numerous dates and venues around Northern Virginia. The contest raises funds for the Tender Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization that works with families that have children with congenital heart defects.

Speaking of madness…you can still vote for your favorite DC area sports bar in the Bar Madness contest.

And Coke Zero is having its own ‘Bracketville’ contest where fans can vote on the most creative way to enhance the college basketball fan experience. Some ideas are pretty cool, like a grub gun that shoots food instead of t-shirts at games, a “drink in yo afro” wig cup holder, or the ‘zebracam’ where you can see the bad calls refs make.

If you do decide to watch the games while at work, just don’t be too loud or you’ll be that guy.

(Video: Youtube)

What are you waiting for? Go fill out your bracket!

–Aisha Salazar

James Beard Award Semifinalists Announced

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, February 18th, 2010

The James Beard Foundation has announced its 2010 semifinalists for the Restaurant and Chef Awards. Twenty-two D.C., Virginia, and Maryland restaurants are represented; a significant honor and indication that the D.C. region is a culinary hot spot.

Congratulations to all of the nominees!

Outstanding Restaurateur

* Ashok Bajaj, 701/Ardeo/Bardeo/Bibiana Osteria-Enoteca/The Bombay Club/The Oval Room/Rasika – D.C.

Outstanding Chef

* Jose Andres, minibar – D.C.