Brad Pitt Has Your Secret Shit: Rolling DC

But this wasn't a case of eminent domain, right? Zanzibar took a lucrative buyout offer from PN Hoffman that they could have refused.

Yeah this seems like the owners making a call that's :/ culturally but not definitely not screwing them over or anything.

hah, just realized my high school reunion was there (didn't go)

No one is rejecting the buyout offers because I think the city may have made sweet deals with the developers.

I think help from the city is therefore making it easier for the developers to throw large amounts of money at the clubs. In August, Fenty was at Hogates/H20 for a ceremonial demolition ceremony. So yes, its not eminent domain, and yes the Zanzibar owners will do fine financially, and yes they theoretically could have turned the offer down, but I think the city could have made life difficult for them (especially since the city wants to shut down Water Street where Zanzibar is located, as part of their plans to change the traffic flow and build offices, condos and park space in that area).

so uh wow, not been ilxing for quite a while but stopped by b/c i've been on/off reading this
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61FAVwSQ9JL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
and came across curmudgeon quoted irl which was very cool.

anyway, rad to see dc blowing up with ilxors! who knew!

didn't know he's in that. i was def reading this at the columbia heights subway years back and someone walked up showing me their photograph in it.

Yep, I'm in there. And lots of things I said to Marc Anderson when he interviewed me never made it in the book as they didn't fit the meme or theme he was going for.

How about that Jack Johnson (PG County exec) and his wife--$80,000 cash in her bra, check flushed down the toilet. But's he innocent he says. FBI set him up (a variation on the Barry defense)

Dude is deeply, deeply in the pocket of the real estate industry.

Yep and as the W. Post noted, has been helping out friends with jobs and contracts for years.

friend of mine who works in news texted me she was having a crazy friday "because jack johnson had to go and get arrested"

i spent several minutes trying to figure out why the arrest of a mellow frat rock musician was a big news story

Tick Tock liquor store allegedly involved in no-good also. I used to go there. Good 'ol PG County (I say as someone who grew up there)

Finally ate at Chez Aunt Libe's, Senegalese place up Georgia Avenue in Petworth. Aunt Libe gave us free plaintains (with a super spicy dipping sauce)as an appetizer---I think cuz she asked if it was our first time there. We had the lamb in peanut sauce stew and the fish with couscous as entres. Only other people there were a Senegalese family. Rockin' Senegalese music videos on in the background.

I wanna go to the Turntable restaurant and disco up that way next. It's a Jamaican restaurant and they play Jamaican oldies at certain hours and blast dancehall in the latenight hours (or so I've read).

chez aunty libe is still there?! i had some of their food at some dc festival thing like.. 7-8 years ago. for some reason just assumed that place was no longer around. i'll have to go for some mafe, senegalese food is one of my favorites and i didn't think there was any place in dc to get it. (have tried to cook mafe myself and it didn't turn out too badly, but the spices were not quite right imo)

me and this girl walked from chinatown to u street and my feet huuuuuuurt

^^^no complaining unless you got hit by a cab while walking, which is how I DIED's travel about the city tends to go.

hey, I haven't been hit by a cab for a couple years! I think for a while it was part of some cab driver initiation rite.

I think I have to come down to see this queer portraiture thing at the NPGallery.

That show sounds great, I'm supposed to see it next week and will report back.

i'll be heading down myself at some point, would love a morbs meetup

k, I will see when I can get a cheap room and hope you don't get one of your crippling 3-inch snowfalls.

Ha.

x-post to Daria--The maffe (peanut sauce stew) was good. The few online reviews of Libe's said the Yassa was just ok. We bought juice drinks too--They gave us a ginger juice drink in a plastic bottle with no label and a pomegranate tasting one in a plastic bottle also. It's a small family run restaurant. Not sure how far the restaurant is from the green line Metro stop up that way or via bus, as I drove.

Hey morbs I have a guest room if you don't mind sharing a bathroom with a me (presumably not at the same time). Also have a cat so no help if you have kitty allergies.

me and this girl walked from chinatown to u street and my feet huuuuuuurt

this is not really that far iirc

also might be coming down some time soonish . . .

right but i had on ill fitting converse

i blame the shoes more than the walk tbh

also i am from texas and not used to you people's "walking"

I've walked farther around DC in ill-fitting converse. Man up, Hoos!

noted!!

Where can really good fried chicken - not fast food but not an extra-posh version at a silly price - be got in DC?

best: the general store in silver spring

good: the hitching post in petworth, oohs and aahs on u st, horace and dickie's on h st (more for the fried fish)

i know there's new fine dining places that have good stuff too, but those are my go-to spots.

Thanks - oohs and aahs looks accessible and good but also intrigued by the general store. Will report back.

I thought Oohs and Aahs was pretty tasty but kinda overpriced. The dining areas are kinda small also. But yea, it's pretty accessible, right there on U. St.

Which reminds me that I still have never tried the upscale soul food brunch at B. Smith's.

Oohs and Aahs is delicious but I generally stick to the dishes that benefit from sitting in hot pans for a long time, they rarely cook a la minute.

B. Smith's is a waste of time, unfortunately.

I find the fried chicken & waffles for brunch at a lot of the mid-level restaurants to be some of the city's best - Creme, Marvin, and especially Birch & Barley.

I'll second Hitching Post.

also, POPEYE'S

the general store is the shit. i eat there probably once a week. they only do sunday brunch but their chicken and waffles is amazing. it comes with mashed potatoes with a gravy that's half gravy and half syrup... so good. also, since it's out in the middle of nowhere, you don't have to deal with the crowds you get at some of the good dc places.

Ya gotta eat chicken & waffles out in Los Angeles at Roscoe's. Did that for the first time this summer. Anybody try it at Gladys Knight's restaurant at Capital Centre Blvd in Largo? Yes it's a chain restaurant

in high school tick tock liquor was always the reliable spot for getting your terrible fake id bought from the georgetown video rental place accepted

probably still is

"I Died" (or others), how's Georgia Brown's (southern soul food restaurant)?

only been once 3 or 4 years ago, but i wasn't that impressed.

my family likes it but i've never been into soul food.

their peach cobbler is right on time iirc

The maffe (peanut sauce stew) was good. The few online reviews of Libe's said the Yassa was just ok. We bought juice drinks too--They gave us a ginger juice drink in a plastic bottle with no label and a pomegranate tasting one in a plastic bottle also.

Not that big a fan of Libe's, it's passable though. The "pomegranate tasting one," if it was purplish, was most likely bissap, cold hibscus tea. For people interested, the Takoma metro is at least 1 mile away, but the Georgia Ave buses (70,71,79) stop right in front of the restaurant.

Georgia Brown's is pretty $$$ but the portions are huge. Maybe it was a good restaurant once, but it must have been before my time.

x-post
I think it was Bissap. Yea, I guess Aunt Libe's is south of the takoma metro and too far north of the other one.

I'm starting my quest to try D.C.'s various West and East (and wherever else) African restaurants. I mean I ate at Bukom years ago, some other place out in Langley Park, Roger Miller's in Silver Spring and have had Ethiopian, but have not yet been to Keur Damel in Silver Spring (just opened this year- Senegalese I think); or Akosomboh; or Sumah's Carryout.

i just watched an hour-long pbs show about breakfast spots in dc. damn, i want some eggs now!

Are there even an hour's worth of breakfast spots in DC? Never really thought of here as much of a breakfast town.

Was just reading a Washingtonian e-mail from their food critic Todd Kliman who used to be at the City Paper and he just wrote in response to a reader looking for a leisurely weekday breakfast:

Todd Kliman: This just isn't a breakfast town, unfortunately. You've got high-end hotel dining and some greasy spoons, and not much of anything in between.

That might over-generalize a bit