It might not change a thing, but Glover Park residents are at least getting to vent their emotions as they protest, in various ways, that the landlord for Max’s Best Ice Cream did not renew the lease and instead gave it to Max’s next-door neighbor, Rocklands Barbecue. The latest development comes at the hands of fifth graders, who staged a peaceable protest outside Max’s on Thursday afternoon.
The group of 15, who marched to the store with posters, are students from Benjamin Stoddert Elementary School. “Stoddert Peacebuilders is a group of students at the school who care about making the world a better place by planting ‘seeds of peace’ whenever and wherever possible,” says Steve Dingledine of the Georgetown Patch.
Photograph by Lauren Joseph.
A crew from Adobe DPS films our digital development manager, David VanVoorhees, at work in the Washingtonian offices.
Looks like the Redskins will remain the Redskins as long as Dan Snyder has his way. He told USA Today Friday morning that he would “never” change the name of his NFL team.
“It’s that simple. NEVER—you can use caps,” Snyder told the publication.
The development comes amid continued criticism that the moniker is a racial slur against Native Americans. Just last week, at-large DC Council member David Grosso, an Independent, introduced a non-binding resolution calling on Snyder to drop the team’s name, which Grosso described as “historically racist and derogatory.”
Grosso suggested that Snyder change the team’s name to the Washington Redtails, a reference to the famous World War II-era African-American pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
In the USA Today story, Snyder offered a firm response to critics of the team’s name:
“We will never change the name of the team. . . . As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it’s all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season.”
At the new Wagshal’s on New Mexico Avenue, the sign (almost) says it all. Photograph by Carol Ross Joynt.
For a certain segment of Washington—upper Northwest neighborhoods such as Spring Valley, Kent, Wesley Heights, American University park, and a few nearby Maryland suburbs, schoolkids, people attending weekend sporting events at Turtle Park, AU students, and commuters along the Massachusetts Avenue corridor—Wagshal’s is part of their daily lives. They can probably tell you their first Wagshal’s sandwich. I can, for sure: a #275, turkey with Russian dressing and coleslaw on rye bread. That was 1976. It’s still a favorite, along with the fine BLT. Other times it’s the Reuben and, like many devoted fans, the brisket. The point is, Wagshal’s is beloved. I wouldn’t change a thing. The owners of the store, however, are more ambitious.
In the next week, owner Bill Fuchs and his family will quietly begin to open their new enterprise in a building complex owned by American University that formerly housed Balducci’s and has long been home to Chef Geoff’s. Wagshal’s next-door neighbor, sharing half the space that was Balducci’s, is Roberto Donna’s Al Dente. The new Wagshal’s, a mile and a half from the old Wagshal’s, will take the brand into the 21st century.
At first it will open for a couple of hours a day. By the end of the month the Fuchs hope to have it fully open and serving practically everything under the sun, from sunrise to sunset. The approximate hours will be 8 AM to 9 PM. A sign that hangs outside the front doors on New Mexico Avenue lists “delicatessen, breads, pastries, butcher, organic, produce, seafood,” and the Fuchs are adding to the repertoire with house-made pastas and gelato, a grill for hamburgers and hot dogs, a deep fryer for latkes, indoor and outdoor seating, and table service.
Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert.
We’ve already shared our favorite photos of President Obama with kids—now, in honor of Mother’s Day this Sunday, we’re bringing you ten photos of the self-proclaimed “mom-in-chief” in action.
Before the Nats faced down the Detroit Tigers, Screech appeared in his rain gear. Photograph by Carol Ross Joynt.
The downside of a rain delay at Nats Park is, obviously, the rain delay. But there’s also an upside: the chance to see team mascot Screech in his foul-weather gear.
Wednesday night’s historic 3-1 win against the Detroit Tigers—historic because it was the first time ever that the Nats beat Detroit—got off to a late start due to a steady rain. Fans used the hour stall to take advantage of $1 hot dogs and $5 beer. Once the field crew began to roll back the diamond’s rain cover, Screech appeared in a fetching yellow raincoat and hat, with matching umbrella. This fashion statement turned heads and distracted from the drizzle that lasted into the early innings. Just screeching in the rain, perhaps? But soon enough the sky cleared, and the game went the Nats way, including a Denard Span triple, Bryce Harper’s tenth home run this season, and strong pitching from Jordan Zimmermann. Despite the rain and chill, the turnout was strong at 34,893.
The win wasn’t the only gift from the Nationals to fans on Wednesday. After an outcry, they reversed a new, stricter rain-delay policy that was announced after Tuesday night’s game against Detroit was postponed to Thursday. Without going into all the details, here’s what you need to know, as announced by the team: “The Washington Nationals wish to announce that all fans who purchased tickets for Tuesday night’s postponed game with the Detroit Tigers will be guaranteed their same seats for Thursday’s scheduled 4:05 PM makeup game, or will retain the option to exchange their tickets—as they have in the past—for any remaining regular or value home game during the 2013 season, subject to availability.”
The 2013 Green Giants pose for a photo op after the awards. Photograph by Andrew Propp.
Tuesday night The Washingtonian celebrated the 2013 Green Giants featured in the May issue with a cocktail reception at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery in Chinatown. The 2013 honorees include Arlington Energy Masters, Anson “Tuck” Hines of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Carter Roberts and Jackie Prince Roberts of the World Wildlife Fund, Living Classrooms Foundation, and Ronald Kaplan of Trex. The evening was sponsored by AT&T, benefited 2013 Green Giant Living Classrooms, and featured delicious fare from Catering by Seasons, beverages from Veev Vodka, Honest Tea, Sierra Nevada, and Evian, flowers from Multiflor, music courtesy of Pop Culture Strings with Andy Kushner Entertainment, a candy bar by the Chocolate Chick, and valet by MarcParc.
When Orb, the horse owned by Stuart Janney III and his cousin Ogden Mills Phipps, won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, it was a victory for their entire family. One of the nation’s most prominent horse-racing operations, the Janneys and Phippses have endured heartbreak to get to this moment. In 1975, their filly, Ruffian, snapped her foreleg during a televised race and was later euthanized.
Butler, Maryland-based Janney, now chairman of Bessemer Trust, has a long history in Washington. Early in his career, he worked as a legislative assistant to senators Charles Mathias and Howard Baker, and as a special assistant at the State Department. He also practiced law in Maryland.
Janney spoke with The Washingtonian about his nerves on Saturday, his trust in Orb’s trainer and jockey, and whether Orb will race in the Preakness in Baltimore on May 18.
What does this victory mean to your family?
It means everything in the sense that the Kentucky Derby is kind of the pinnacle of the sport. The horse that we won with goes back to, really, my grandmother, and goes through my parents. In a sense, whatever’s been accomplished has been accomplished because of all of those people who came before us. If you go back to his horse’s great-grandmother, four or five generations, this was a mare my grandmother owned and gave to my parents in the late 1950s, early 1960s.
Tell us about Orb. What makes him a champion?
I think he’s got an easy, fluid stride that allows him to put himself anywhere he needs to be in the race. He doesn’t want to be completely in the front, but he’s perfectly comfortable being a stalker and mid-pack if the pace is a bit slower. He’s comfortable in the back if the pace is really fast, which is what it was in the Derby. All credit to [jockey] Joel Rosario for figuring that out. Then he’s got a huge finishing kick, which he can sustain for a long time. That makes him a very dangerous horse. A lot of horses do have a terrific turn of foot at the end of a race, but they can’t sustain it for a long period of time. And the other part is he’s got a very good mind.
How did you feel going into the derby?
I’m always nervous. The bigger the race, the more nervous I am. That’s unfortunately a nasty side effect of being in this sport, because I don’t enjoy that. I felt comfortable that we had the best horse, but that doesn’t mean you win—lots of times you don’t. Particularly with a race like the Derby, which has 20 horses, there are a couple of things you know can go wrong. It’s the first time they’ve ever seen a crowd like that, [with the] noise and commotion, and they wait longer at every stage before they actually get to run. Some horses end up pretty much done before they even get in the starting gate. The second thing is a 20-horse field introduces a huge amount of racing luck. What [Orb’s trainer] Shug McGaughey suggested to Rosario was to just save as much ground as you can at the beginning of the race.
Describe that moment when you saw your horse finish first.
Huge relief. Well, some relief and some disbelief.
“What’s it like being the new editor of DCist?” I asked Ben Freed one spring night when I met him at ChurchKey.
“I’ve been at it one hour,” he responded. “Check back with me tomorrow.”
It will take more than a day to assess how Freed does at the helm of the news website devoted to all things local in and around Washington, DC. But he knows where he wants to take it.
“It's an interesting time for local news,” he says. “The Washington Times seems to be packing it up. The Examiner is closing down its newspaper. It leaves a big hole to fill. Why shouldn't it be DCist?”
I had to ask whether he was daunted by the Washington Post’s battalion of local news and culture reporters.
As Freed explains, “I can’t go head to head with the Post. But if I see an angle the Post is missing, a fresh hook, I’ll take it. That’s what we’ve been doing. There’s a certain advantage to being small and scrappy.”
Since DCist, an arm of Gothamist, debuted in 2004, it has staked out solid ground in the capital city’s blogosphere. It serves up a daily dose of local news, from crime to politics to food and theater, and draws loyal readers who, Freed says, “want us to curate the city for them. It’s a tall order.”
Especially for Freed, a full-time reporting and writing staff of one. There's a whiff of the Wizard of Oz behind the DCist curtain. The 29-year-old Freed runs the blog from his Columbia Heights apartment. No news truck, no producer, no editor—not even an assistant on his first day as top dog. He gets around by bike—when he can. (It was in the shop when we talked.)
An elite lineup of hosts with the author: David Bradley, Michael Beschloss, Afsaneh Beschloss, Kristin Mannion, Richard Haass, David Rubenstein, and H.P. Goldfield. Photograph by Carol Ross Joynt.
The height of spring is a tough time to host a party, because on any given weeknight there are several competing events—meaning the competition for guests is similarly fierce. That was not a problem Tuesday night at the Renwick Gallery, where many of the city’s elite showed up to celebrate Richard Haass and his new book, Foreign Policy Begins at Home. Haass is the head of the also-elite Council on Foreign Relations. Add to that the influence and/or wealth of the party’s hosts: Katherine and David Bradley, Afsaneh and Michael Beschloss, Norma and Russ Ramsey, Alice and David Rubenstein, and Kristin Mannion and H.P. Goldfield.
The historic Renwick, next door to Blair House and across the street from the White House, is one of the city’s most impressive venues—especially the Grand Salon, with its sky-high ceilings and walls hung with 70 of the Smithsonian’s prized works by American artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including George Peter Alexander Healy, Romaine Brooks, Guy Wiggins, and George Inness.
Admiring the art, the gorgeous flowers, and the offerings of Veuve Cliquot Champagne, good Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and the two bountiful buffets, one guest remarked, “So this is what it looks like when billionaires host a book party.” Yes, indeed. There was the requisite book party wine and cheese, but also rare roast beef, lobster rolls, pasta, artichoke tart, mozzarella and tomato salad, salmon tartare, and Peking duck rolls, plus an assortment of passed canapés and a separate table for pastries and coffee.
In welcoming everyone, David Rubenstein, head of the Carlyle Group and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations board, commended Haass’s stewardship of the CFR, a job he began a decade ago after a high position at the State Department advising Colin Powell. “I see dramatic improvements; its influence is much greater than it was,” Rubenstein said. Haass, a Rhodes Scholar from Brooklyn, manages to find time for both Washington and New York (his base), and for engaging with both political parties. He is also a prolific author. “He has written a number of books. This is his 12th,” Rubenstein said. “You will all benefit from reading his insights about what we should do domestically to make sure we have good foreign policy.”
All that lofty stuff aside, Rubenstein said, “Richard’s influence is greater than ever before, and not just because of the books, or because the council is so great, but because of his new career at Morning Joe. He has more influence on foreign policy through that show than all the books, the career he’s had in Washington, and with the council, but I’m not supposed to say that.” Morning Joe is a popular daily breakfast program on MSNBC hosted by Joe Scarborough, Mika Brezinski, and Willie Geist.
