Washington DC

Izakaya Time

Housed in the flash CityVisa complex stuck between Mass Ave, New York Ave, and 395, Kushi is DC's first izakaya. As such, it's got a comprehensive drinks menu (hot and cold sake, plum wine, beer, and cocktails) with complementary kushiyaki (charcoal-grilled, skewered food) and kobachi (small plates). And in addition to the robata bar, where the sight of chefs nimbly grilling pork bellies is truly captivating, there's also a sushi bar and bar bar. Kushi is being billed as a Japanese gastropub, but it couldn't be further in atmosphere from the cozy, dark watering holes of the UK. It's bright, chic, and loud--a little slice of Tokyo in an unlikely location.

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Restaurants • Near Northeast

I Growl Therefore I Drink Coffee

The Big Bear Café is a place full of contradictions. It's always brimming with white folk in a 99% black neighborhood. The food they serve is simple and easily prepared, yet the staff is so perpetually high that it's not uncommon for an iced coffee to take twenty minutes. The clientele seems to pride itself on being a bunch of pretty little individuals, yet they all use the same MacBook and go "Hey, this is from Daydream Nation" when it inevitably gets put on the boombox... again. All of this points to the kind of coffeehouse that'd be better off in Berkley or Harvard Square, not a block off North Capitol Street. Here's to hoping it doesn't all go horribly wrong sooner or later. In the meantime, they make a pretty good hummus panini (shrugs).

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Coffee • Near Northeast

Race Relations/Green Space

LeDroit Park is a neighborhood in Northwest, DC, boxed off between W Street, Florida Avenue, Rhode Island Avenue and 2nd Street. It was first developed back in the 1870s, and consists predominantly of beautiful row houses complete with bay windows and turrets. So what makes this neighborhood so bad-ass? Well, the silly white folk who built it for themselves should have distanced it a little farther from Howard University, as black students eventually tore down the fences—literally—and created an integrated DC neighborhood. By the 1940s, LeDroit Park was home to some of the most prominent African-American elite of the time, including Duke Ellington (420 Elm Street), Edward Brooke (1938 3rd Street), and even the Rev. Jesse Jackson (Corner of 4th and T streets). I’ve actually ran into Jesse Jackson twice at the corner market, which is kinda cool, since celebrity sightings in DC are few and far between if you’re not counting politicians and pundits.

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Landmarks • Near Northeast

Washington Coliseum

After much scouting around the internet looking for new and exciting places to show the fam on their annual tourist trek to visit me in DC, I decided to take them to see a waste management facility in North East for some real DC culture. No, I don’t hate my family, and no, I don’t have a fascination for other people’s crap. I took them there because during its first life, the building was actually the Washington Coliseum (otherwise known as Uline Arena), where the Beatles played their first live US concert (yes, seriously) and where the photograph of Bob Dylan on the cover of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits was taken. It’s an iconic, historical DC landmark (currently listed as one of the most endangered historic places in DC by the Historic Preservation Review Board) that sadly not many people remember or even know exist—but is totally worth a quick visit just to say you’ve been there! So, if you’ve got some jaded, perpetually bored friends or family members who scoff at another visit to the Smithsonian coming to see you this summer, tell them you’re taking them to see a waste management facility.

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Landmarks • Near Northeast