What a difference a few years make. As DC workers scurry for shorter commutes, this area has grown from a down-on-its-luck poor relation to Old Town to a somewhat more gentrified section that boasts new restaurants and shops. The nearby Metros are the Mecca to which these mainly white-collar feds scurry, and home builders have scrambled to keep up with demand.
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On Our Radar:
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Friday, February 16, 2007
Posted By:
Sara Kruger
Photo:
Sara Kruger
It’s time to clear away those Ikea flatpacks leftover from your college days and welcome home the real thing. Authentically Amish Fine Furnishings in Alexandria offers the enduring quality of solid wood in classic Amish styles. Among the furniture available are bedside tables, magazine racks, dining room tables and chairs, and the distinctly un-Amish CD and DVD racks. Prices start in the triple digits, but remember, the wood is going to last a long time. Pieces are made from cherry, maple, oak and pine. Pine, being a softer wood, is on the cheaper end, and the one to look for if you’re on a budget. Cherry, a harder, scarcer wood is the most expensive. Wooden Amish games and toys perch on some of the bookshelves–possible gifts for the little tykes in your life. Finally, don’t leave the store without learning how to avoid mistaking veneer for solid wood. Then, go home and throw out the Ikea catalogues.
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Thursday, February 23, 2006
Posted By:
Nancy Dunham
Photo:
Nancy Dunham
In a little strip mall by an Enterprise Car Rental and a Dunkin’ Donuts is Thai Lemon Grass, a restaurant that proves you don’t need to venture into DC for tasty ethnic food. The restaurant servers all of the traditional Thai food you likely seek, enhanced with pork, duck, chicken, and steak. The vegetarian offerings are also extensive. But the difference between Thai Lemon Grass and its more upscale cousins is that the staff goes out of its way to ensure the dish is prepared the way you want. Don’t like onions? No problem. If you’ve tried a dish elsewhere that you’d like to order, tell them the ingredients and they’ll likely create it. You can sit and work on your laptop or get those pesky tax forms filled out while you sip tea and eat appetizers. Stay as long as you like. This restaurant, decorated in a modern, comfortable motif, is a stand-out.
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Thursday, July 21, 2005
Posted By:
Nancy Dunham
Photo:
Nancy Dunham
Winkler Botanical Preserve
You probably drive by the back of Winkler Botanic Preserve all the time and have no idea it’s there. Few people do. Who would think that behind a high-rise hotel, on the other side of a garden-style apartment complex, lurks one of the prettiest hiking areas in the area? The Winkler Botanic Preserve was once a pig farm and later the dumping ground for old tires and trash. The Mark Winkler family bought the 43-acre grounds in the 1980s, cleaned them up, and created a jaw-droppingly beautiful, wooded garden with vegetation that is mostly natural to the area. Hikers can go straight down a mulch-covered path or climb onto the trails that lead toward the slightly hilly back of the preserve, past streams and plentiful wildlife. Some hiking paths take you by a Hobbit House (complete with glass windows and a tiny door). Other trails go by a mountain lodge that features rockers on the porch—perfect for stopping to rest while gazing out at the lovely man-made pond. Whichever path you take, you’ll be stunned to realize you’re only 4 miles from downtown DC, and within throwing distance of I-395.
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