On paper, Northside Social makes about as much sense as a drive-through steakhouse. A coffee shop, a wine bar and a gourmet pastry/sandwich shop? Right. After 5 p.m., the communal table upstairs and its smattering of surrounding two-tops becomes a full-service wine bar under sommelier Alison Christ’s smart and unassuming direction. Believe me, her internationally [...]
Note: We're publishing the entire Young & Hungry column on the blog so you can enjoy Darrow Montgomery's photography, which has its own story to tell. In the land of the over-stimulated mermaid, the landscape is always the same: the tiny tables crowded with laptap squatters, lost in their ear buds and their private worlds, [...]
This week's Young & Hungry column delves into the coffee-shop-cum-wine-bar-cum-bakery known as Northside Social, which is one of two new projects (the other being Lyon Hall) from the team behind Liberty Tavern. Northside has a rather painful genesis: Owner Stephen Fedorchak and his partners slowly pieced together their Frankenshop after deep-sixing their original plan, a [...]
Over on City Desk, staff photographer Darrow Montgomery has just published a series of black and white pictures of Big Chair Coffee N' Grill in Anacostia, which has to be the most-talked about java shop since Murky imploded on Capitol Hill. You can take a peek at Montgomery's mesmerizing shots here.
Nearly four years ago, WCP senior writer Jason Cherkis explained the woeful state of the sit-down restaurant in Ward 8. He summed it up in one concise sentence: "Ward 8’s culinary culture right now is the carryout." Consider this excerpt: People don’t power-lunch in Ward 8. For the most part, people who eat out communicate [...]
In its January issue, Bon Appétit lists the 10 best boutique coffee shops in America, and sneaking in right at the bottom is D.C.'s Peregrine Espresso, which also took home top honors in our most recent Best of D.C. issue. Writes BA on Peregrine: You've heard of microbrewed beer, but what about coffee? On Capitol Hill, [...]
The bikini-clad baristas at Knotty Bodies Espresso have really steamed the milk of some residents in Bellevue, Wash., who want to shut the place down for daring to expose the kiddies to G-strings, butt cheeks, and sexy outfits from Victoria's Secret. (Did they not think of the "stupidity" argument?) The city council is sympathetic but can't do much until civic ordinances [...]
It's a problem that coffeehouses everywhere have to deal with: What to do with squatters who camp at tables all day, their laptops locked into the free wifi, as they nurse a cup of Joe and live in some fantasy world where their very presence somehow helps the owners pay the bills. It's a particularly pressing issue as the economy continues to [...]
The irrepressible Nick Cho has found a new home, and it's at Chinatown Coffee Co., which just opened today at 475 H Street NW (which, technically, may be outside the formal boundaries of Chinatown). The shop is actually owned by Max and Katie Brown, a pair of "recovering attorneys" who decided to hire Cho, the [...]
It's natural to want to understand why someone like James Downs, co-owner of the beloved Cameron Perks coffee shop in the Alexandria community of Cameron Station, shot his business partner and girlfriend, Dominique Dunford, before turning the gun on himself last week. But I think it's premature to blame the whole tragic incident on the [...]
