Restaurant week alert:
Shirlington Village launches its Restaurant Week
on
Monday, and it’s more wallet-friendly than its area equivalents, with two-course lunches
and three-course dinners for $12 and $25, respectively. Browse the menus for eateries
such as Cheesetique online.
Street festival: Taste of DC takes over a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue from noon to
7 on
Monday. Head over for lunch or dinner from 50-plus restaurants and food trucks, and a Stella
Artois-sponsored beer garden. The $10 admission includes a complimentary brew, wine,
soda, or water.
Gin tasting: Learn more about a local-ish gin at
Wisdom on
Tuesday at 7:30 PM with master distiller Robert Cassell from Philadelphia-based Bluecoat
Gin. The $10 tickets for the session include a Bluecoat
cocktail of your choice.
Get soulful: Cafe Saint-Ex
launches midweek soul
food specials to correspond with its basement club, Gate
54,
spinning soul tunes. The series, called Pass the
Peas, launches
Wednesday at 6 PM, and continues the second Wednesday of every month with music and dishes
like fried chicken, shrimp and grits, cornbread, and more.
Cute alert: Wines for Canines and Felines a tasting
and dinner to benefit the Montgomery County Humane Society, returns to
Maggiano’s
on
Thursday from 6:30 to 9 PM. A silent auction
includes culinary buys such as a Napa Valley
wine tour and dinner at local restaurants.
Tickets
are $75 per person through cosponsor Paul’s Wines and Spirits.
Beer jamboree:
Snallygaster, a massive beer festival
from the Neighborhood
Restaurant Group folks (Birch &
Barley,
etc.), hits
Yards Park on
Saturday from 1 to 5. More than 100 different brews from beer director Greg Engert are on
hand, including Oktoberfest lagers and German-style ales, plus live music, food, and
kids’ activities. Tickets start
at $25.
Fatwash away: Learn how to mix pork fat and bourbon the tasty way with a “fat-washing” cocktail
class at
Ripple
on
Saturday from 3:30 to 5. Barman Josh Berner will take you through bacon-washed mezcal and
olive-oil-washed vodka. Reserve a seat by calling 202-244-7995 (admission is $45,
all-inclusive).
Free lobster buffet: Well, there aren’t actually crustaceans involved, but you’ll be too busy swing-dancing
to live tunes from the Free Lobster Buffet band to notice. Mixtress
Gina Chersevani teams up with the American Legion on Capitol Hill on
Saturday for an 1940s-style Boogie Woogie Dance Party
benefiting the USO ($35 per person). The tickets include an open bar and wines picked
by former Proof sommelier Sebastian Zutant.
Lamb roast: We’re fans of
Poste’s
brunch (check out our latest issue to see why), and the spot is taking it up a notch
this
Sunday with a whole lamb roast in addition to more classic brunch dishes and the BYO Bloody
Mary Bar. Radio hosts Nycci and David Nellis will be live-taping a broadcast of
Foodie & the Beast, in addition to other culinary-minded guests such as chef Patricia Jinich and Craig
Roberts from Virginia’s Border Springs Farm. Call 202-783-6060 to reserve a space
($35 per person).
Wine class: Spend a lazy
Sunday afternoon at
Maple
from 3 to 5, where Roanoke Valley Wine Company’s Robert McFarlane leads a course
on Oregon wines. The $40 session includes a taste of five wines and antipasti. Call
202-588-7442 to reserve a space or e-mail maple@dc-maple.com.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
