Angelina M. Lopez
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Contemporary Romance Author, Hyperromantic
Cursing Ben's Chili Bowl in Virginia
My taste buds were thrilled and my waistline was terrified when I discovered that there would be a branch of the famous D.C. diner opening in Arlington, on my side of the Potomac. How would I resist the thick, spicy half-smokes smothered in Ben's chili when I no longer had close-to-impossible parking or a two-train Metro ride separating me from them? When I visited the restaurant at 1725 Wilson Boulevard in Clarendon a few weeks ago, it was even worse than I feared.
Oh…damn you Ben’s Chili Bowl. You’re evil is what you are. My taste buds were thrilled and my waistline was terrified when I discovered that there would be a branch of the famous D.C. diner opening in Arlington, on my side of the Potomac. How would I resist the thick, spicy half-smokes smothered in Ben's chili when I no longer had close-to-impossible parking or a two-train Metro ride separating me from them?
When I visited the restaurant at 1725 Wilson Boulevard in Clarendon a few weeks ago, it was even worse than I feared:
- The store is bright and clean and welcoming, a spruced up version of its U Street forefather.
- They take credit cards. No more squinting at the ancient ATM machine at the original, cash-only Ben's OR forgoing the chili cheese fries because I don't have enough cash.
- The Arlington branch has lots of indoor and outdoor seating and you can sit wherever you'd like, unlike the bizarre hierarchy of seating that will get you charmingly yelled at if you sit at the wrong place at the original spot.
- No one yells at you in Arlington.
- The parking lot of the Colonial Village Shopping Center with its many popular restaurants can get a little crowded during prime dining hours, but there is a lot of accessible on-street parking nearby.
Worst of all, I discovered that the one-of-a-kind half smokes and the spicy, condiment-like chili were just as delectable on this side of the river. The shakes were just as spoon-standing thick and the chili-cheese fries were just as deliciously gluttonous. What have you done to me, Ben's Chili Bowl? My waistline may never forgive you.
Dogwood Tavern: Where Everyone Knows Your Name
That’s the thing about Dogwood, aptly named a tavern with its brick walls, large fireplace and beautiful wood-beam ceiling. Regardless whether you’re there for a Saturday night free-for-all or a Tuesday salad and tea, they make you feel welcome. They make you feel at home.
Whoever wrote that Cheers song was a sociological genius: “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.” And it’s true. Sometimes you want to get out of the house and go to a place where you know you will be greeted warmly. But in the D.C.- area, with high-end prices and even higher-end attitudes from serving staff and bartenders, it’s not always easy to find.
That’s why we were struck when the first time we went to Dogwood Tavern in Falls Church, the bartender asked our names. Gave us his as he leaned over the long wooden bar to shake our hands. And then remembered our names for subsequent visits! One female bartender almost got me in trouble. I went in with my husband and she smiled genuinely at me and said, “We haven’t seen you in awhile.” My husband raised an eyebrow and wondered how often was I frequenting the local tavern without him.
Once a month for lunch! I’d order tea!
Photo from Dogwood Tavern website
That’s the thing about Dogwood, aptly named a tavern with its brick walls, large fireplace and beautiful wood-beam ceiling. Regardless whether you’re there for a Saturday night free-for-all or a Tuesday salad and tea, they make you feel welcome. They make you feel at home.
“We live in the community; our customers are part of us,” said Paul Taylor, beverage director for Vintage Restaurant Group, which owns Dogwood Tavern in Falls Church, Rhodeside Grill in Clarendon and two other Arlington neighborhood bars. “We want to give good meals, good drinks and make people happy. That’s something we can really excel at where sometimes other people fail.”
I called Paul to ask him what his organization emphasized in making a great neighborhood bar. Getting to know their customers is one thing. So bartenders will always ask your name; go in, you can test it.
Click to see menu
They also work hard to provide something that will appeal to all of their potential customers. Falls Church is a land of working singles, families and higher-end wage earners; Dogwood offers bands on the weekend and sports viewing on big screen TVs for the young, large and comfy indoor and outdoor dining spaces for families, and a great selection of craft beers, cocktails made with small batch ingredients, and interesting daily meal specials to appeal to those looking for a higher-end experience.
“We’ve definitely strived to create a place where we want to go eat and drink,” Paul said. “We love that our employees will stick around after a shift and have a beverage; they’ve worked really hard to create a welcoming environment so why not stick around to enjoy it. At the end of the day, the customers become family.”
For a long time, we were just once-every-two-to-three-weeks customers. But we were made to feel like family. We’re rabid University of Kansas basketball fans, and the bartenders would always chat us up about that season’s potential. We were even bigger fans of an appetizer called Potatoskinadilla (Potato. Skin. Adilla. All the deliciousness of a potato skin – the bacon, chives, sour cream, soft bits of potato – stuck in a cheesy quesadilla and grilled to a crisp char on the outside. Yum). We bemoaned its demise when they took it off the menu, but whenever it’s a special, the bartenders bring it to our attention.
With the opening of a rooftop outdoor bar this spring, we became once-a-week regulars, grabbing a drink on a happy hour Friday or a lazy Sunday afternoon. That’s when we got to know the bartenders: Rachel, Drew, Mike, Cassandra. If anything speaks to the embrace Dogwood provides, it’s the fact the many of these bartenders have been here since its opening in 2008. Restaurants have an incredibly high turnover rate of 62 percent, but Dogwood has created a place where both staff and customers want to stay.
"There are a lot of places around that you can go to for a meal or a drink," Paul said. "When there’s that many choices, you need to have a level of service that goes above and beyond. That’s sort of our mission."
Mission accomplished. Thanks for giving us a place where everyone knows our names.
Dogwood Tavern
132 West Broad St., Falls Church, VA 22046
In-Between Tip: On Monday, Sept. 8, Dogwood is inviting its customers to enjoy a whiskey event with Catoctin Creek Distillery, a Virginia whiskey-maker from Loudon County's Purcellville. Paul said he was particularly excited about the Peanut Old Fashioned they will have available. "What's more Virginia than Virginia peanuts and Virginia honey?"
To check out some beautiful drinks I've enjoyed at Dogwood Tavern, check out my Instagram feed or my Pinterest page.
A Day at DC's Creepiest Museum
On a beautiful summer day, I walked through the National Museum of Crime and Punishment and stared at some of the creepiest stuff on display in Washington, D.C. And it was fascinating. The National Museum of Crime and Punishment has done a great job of balancing our gruesome, pause-at-a-car-accident curiosity with the true curation, historical research and interactivity that makes for an enriching museum experience.
Update: I'm super sad to report that the National Museum of Crime and Punishment closed in September, 2015. AND YEt This blog Still gets so many hits!! some other quirky museums I recommend:
And feel free to download my free Book!
A "cadaver" laid out on an autopsy table. Medieval torture instruments that punctured and crushed fingers. The bullet-riddled car that once held the bodies of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
On a beautiful summer day, I walked through the National Museum of Crime and Punishment and stared at some of the creepiest stuff on display in Washington, D.C. And it was fascinating. The National Museum of Crime and Punishment has done a great job of balancing our gruesome, pause-at-a-car-accident curiosity with the true curation, historical research and interactivity that makes for an enriching museum experience.
Located in the densely packed museum-and-restaurant area of the Penn Quarter, the Crime Museum seems to get overlooked for the more popular International Spy Museum down the street. It shouldn’t. Although a bit smaller, the Crime Museum offers plenty of bang for your 22 bucks.
The Crime Museum has three tales to tell as visitors wind through it: The first section focuses on crimes and criminals through the ages; the second focuses on punishment – the booking process, jails and law enforcement; and the final section focuses on case solving and modern forensic technologies. CSI fans will love this place.
Through each section is woven interactive elements for all ages. Young ones can test their cyber safety skills with hand-operated multiple-choice quizzes or they can tunnel out of a jail cell. Us older ones can gain more knowledge from the museum’s many interactive screens, participate in a lineup or we can try out our pursuit skills in a driving simulator.
What I like most about the museum – in all its creepiness – is its restraint. The boards soaked with Jesse James’ blood, John Dillinger’s death mask and the wall chunk from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre are all paired with careful, intelligent text that honors the items' place in our country’s history and minimizes the sensational. The section that I find the hardest to walk through, the one about modern-day mass murderers, is small and succinct, acknowledging the horrors we’ve witnessed without aggrandizing the killers. (Tucked into a corner, it’s also easily skipped if – like me – you want to keep the youngsters away from it.)
A Tour of the National Museum of Crime and Punishment
Crime Museum, 575 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20004
In-Between Tip: After your dark trip through our nation's underbelly, refresh your spirits with a margarita at Jose Andres' light-filled Mexican restaurant Oyamel, which is just down the block on 7th St., NW. It's much easier to get a table at this festive restaurant with an inventive take on Mexican food during the day. And did I mention the margaritas?
Taking Tea at Historic Rosemont Manor
Going to a tea at the Historic Rosemont Manor in Berryville, Va., is everything little girls imagine tea parties are like when they put on their mothers' floppy hats and drink fruit punch out of tiny cups. As full-grown women, my girlfriend and I got to wear our pretty summer dresses and enter the elegant Southern-style manor where American royalty like the Kennedys once stayed. We got to drink tea from delicate rose-painted cups and eat peach scones topped with Devonshire cream.
Going to a tea at the Historic Rosemont Manor in Berryville, Va., is everything little girls imagine tea parties are like when they put on their mothers' floppy hats and drink fruit punch out of tiny cups. As full-grown women, my girlfriend and I got to wear our pretty summer dresses and enter the elegant Southern-style manor where American royalty like the Kennedys once stayed. We got to drink tea from delicate rose-painted cups and eat peach scones topped with Devonshire cream.
Downton Abbey is a hit for a reason. That show about a noble family and its servants living in an esteemed English manor encourages a certain amount of adult pretend. But for the two hours of the tour-and-tea luncheon at Historic Rosemont Manor, you can live that elegant lifestyle.
Like Downton Abbey, the history of Rosemont Manor is long and rich (I’m referring to the fictional history of the show, which I know, versus the actual history of Highclere Castle, which I don’t know). Originally built in 1811 as a merchant groom’s gift to his landed gentry bride, the manor has been home to a Union hospital, has been sold for a $1 and has been considered as a site for 90 luxury homes. Most notably, the home was owned by Virginia governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. The names of the many luminaries who visited him there – Charles Lindbergh, Albert Einstein, FDR, Eisenhower, Nixon, Johnson – are used to designate the manor’s twelve suites and four cottages.
We owe the fact that we simple folk can visit the place to the daughter of current owner William "Biff" Genda. When she saw its perfect location, at the top of a slope that overlooks beautiful park grounds and the Shenandoah Valley, she commented that she’d love to be married there. That lightbulb transformed the 200-year-old private residence into an elegant B&B and wedding venue that opened in 2010. The manor has hosted 64 weddings this year and already has 20 booked for 2015.
But back to the tea. On occasional Saturdays and Wednesdays, the Rosemont Manor hosts a three-course tea service for $44 a person. The event begins in the wedding reception hall with a champagne glass of fruit juice. We women in attendance looked like butterflies, and the staff treated us like honored guests. Director of Weddings Michael Haymaker led us into the home and explained its history and Manor House Chef Tona Bays talked excitedly about the three-courses she’d chosen.
Bays focuses on seasonal, local offerings and apologized for what she felt was a diminished peachiness to the peach offerings of the summer menu. Our area’s unending winter, she explained, hit the local peach hard. She had nothing to apologize for. The peach scone with peach preserves was rich with summer sweetness. I originally thought we’d be hitting a rib stand on the one-and-a-half-hour drive home, but the one-bite sandwiches, scones and desserts were substantive in flavor and surprisingly filling. I don’t know teas well, but these were delicious.
My girlfriend and I are already looking forward to the spring menu, when the area is exploding with azalea flowers, or the Christmas menu, when the house is done up for the holidays. There's no reason we have to limit our elegant make-believe to once a year.
Taking a Tour of the Historic Rosemont Manor
A Stroll Through the Hirshhorn Museum
We in the DMV are spoiled rotten. Why? Because we can wander down to the National Mall and take a gander at the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the United States, the Declaration of Independence, Dorothy's ruby slippers. For free. The Hirshhorn Museum has always been a favorite museum at the Mall because of its contemporary art, its outdoor sculpture garden and its general lack of crowds. It feels like the museum you can breathe in.
This is the first time I've said this in this blog, but it won't be the last: We in the DMV are spoiled rotten. Why? Because, should we have the urge, we can wander down to the National Mall and take a gander at ... I don't know ... the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the United States, the Declaration of Independence, Dorothy's ruby slippers. For free.
On a recent Saturday, I did just that: Drove down to the Mall, found a two-hour parking spot on 7th St. SW, and took a slow walk through the second floor of the circular Hirshhorn Museum, through the "Speculative Forms" exhibit. The Hirshhorn has always been a favorite museum at the Mall because of its contemporary art, its outdoor sculpture garden and its general lack of crowds. It feels like the museum you can breathe in.
Reading the placard of the "Speculative Forms" exhibit, I was completely confused about the objective: "The exhibition highlights the importance of installation and the viewer's eye and body in relation to the object." And then I saw this:
The exhibit is about the interaction between a sculpture, the space that it's exhibited in and the way the viewer views it. This metal sculpture, "6-68" by David Lee Brown, reflects the light and arc of the Hirshhorn hallway. And I could only see that by standing at a certain perspective.
The Hirshhorn Museum made me smarter. In about an hour's time. For free. See, I told you we were spoiled rotten.
Speculative Forms at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
At the corner of 7th Street and Independence Ave. SW, Washington D.C.
In-Between Tip: Avoid the overpriced and unimpressive Smithsonian museum cafes and enjoy a quick, interesting bite al fresco at the many food trucks that gather on 7th Street SW. During the weekdays, you will find them south of Independence Ave at 7th and D Streets SW. On the weekends, the trucks line 7th on the Mall.
One Hour to a Happy Hour at Home
Putting together a Friday happy hour when it's nice outside only takes one hour. I promise. With one hour of work, you can host a happy hour that will provide you many happy hours of reminiscing with your friends.
This time of year – post-freezing, pre-mosquitoes – is my favorite time to invite a few friends over because it requires very little work. And the work, the planning and execution of a gathering when we’re swamped with so many other things, is why we take don’t take more time to hang out with the people we enjoy.
But putting together a Friday happy hour when it's nice outside only takes one hour. I promise. With one hour of work, you can host a happy hour that will provide you many happy hours of reminiscing with your friends.
Ready? Go.
0:00-0:10 – Send an email.
- Keep your invite list short. No more than 15 people or four families, if everyone will be bringing kids.
- The email should be as casual as the event: “Happy hour at my house from 5-7 on Friday. Bring a snack to share. I’ll provide the booze.” (Feel free to cut and paste)
- Keep the event to two hours so friends don’t assume you’re feeding them dinner.
- Provide an end time so the happy hour doesn’t turn into someone sleeping it off on your couch.
0:10-0:30 – Make an alcohol run.
In Between Tip: If you decide you’d like to provide a cocktail, make sure it is one you can make ahead of time and serve in a pitcher. White Peach Sangria and Berry Vodka Punch are a couple of my summer favorites.
- Grocery store list:
- A six-pack of a craft beer
- A 12-pack of something Sam Adams-like
- A big bottle of red. (At 6 p.m. on a Friday, people are more concerned about quantity than quality.)
- A big bottle of white
- Plastic cups (The short clear ones allow people to moderate their drinking a bit better than the red Dixie cups.)
- Water bottles (for kids or designated drivers)
- Bag of ice
- Flowers
0:30-0:50 – Clear a path.
- The key to making a happy hour simple is to shove everyone outside. Nicely. So hide the clutter on the walks between your front door, your back door, and your bathroom, and make sure your guests know that the party is outside.
- Ask your guests to come through the side gate, if you have one. Then you’ll only have to clear a path to the bathroom.
- The other option – and this is ALWAYS an option when you entertain – is don't clean and know that your guests are happy to be invited into the welcoming hug of fun friendship.
0:50-1:00 – Prep your outdoors.
My lovely friend Paige's happy hour table
- Set out platters and bowls for the chips and cookies friends will bring. Asking them to bring a snack takes a load off you, and they’ll be happy to offer something to the party.
- Ice down the beer, white wine and water in an ice chest.
- Put out napkins, plastic cups and flowers.
- Graciously accept the "oohs" and "aahs" from all your appreciative friends who are certain it must have taken you hours to put it all together.
Do you have a party shortcut? An easy appetizer, a go-to Pandora party playlist, or a simple way to make the food table look extraordinary? Please share it with the rest of us In-Betweeners on my Facebook page.
Cold Beer After a Hot Day
Sometimes this is the sum total of what I need to enjoy my life. A pretty summer day. Hard work. A feeling of accomplishment. And a cold beer.
Sometimes this is the sum total of what I need to enjoy my life. A pretty summer day. Hard work. A feeling of accomplishment. And a cold beer.
Today, for the first time in 15 years as a homeowner who aspired to garden, I got every plant I bought at the garden store into the ground or a pot. I didn't let them wilt in their sad, plastic containers as I walked past them, day after day, declaring that tomorrow I would get them in the ground. I didn't curse myself for the money spent then wasted. I plodded through four hours in a pretty decent heat and got everything where it needed to go. A beer, a Bud, seemed like the appropriate toast to this sweetly Americana achievement.
Now let's see if I water.
Angelina M. Lopez,
contemporary romance Author
Writing ferocious love stories
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