RSS FeedDowntown Neighborhood Association Meeting Tomorrow Night
We’re glad to hear that the Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA) is resuming meeting. Tomorrow night the DNA will meet starting at 6:30 pm at Carmine’s Restaurant (425 7th St NW) and this is an open meeting for all downtown residents and neighbors. RSVP to dwntwn2010 [at] gmail.com if you plan to attend.
DC Link Roundup: Heard In The ‘Hood
Follow PQ Living via Facebook here and Twitter here. Our Flickr tag is pqliving.
Here’s what we were reading last week about neighborhood news in DC. Have neighborhood thoughts? Leave them in the comments!
All Over DC – The Mayoral race is now in full effect. [TBD.com]
Downtown – Wayback machine in effect…a look at Washington’s first sidewalk cafe – Bassin’s on Pennsylvania Ave. [Streets of Washington]
Downtown – Our memories get a little fuzzy going back to the ’80s and ’90s but the future hot spot referred to here on Vermont Avenue may have been The Insect Club back in the day. [WaBizJo]
Mount Vernon Triangle – A farm springs up in the middle of the city. [The Triangle]
Downtown – A review of the Plume restaurant at The Jefferson hotel. [Two DC]
Mount Vernon Triangle – Results Gym at CityVista will be closing. [The Triangle]
Shaw – The EFN Lounge, fomerly BeBar, on 9th St NW closes. [14th and You]
Downtown – Tax woes for Douglas Jemal. [WaBizJo]
Tea Partiers Cometh, Declare Penn Quarter Safe
To our dear fellow Penn Quarter residents: You will be proud to know that the Penn Quarter has been declared a safe zone for Saturday’s Glenn Beck March on Washington. Also, one of our favorite Penn Quarter restaurant’s, Jaleo, is highlighted as nice (but pricey) restaurant that is also close to the National Mall. That’s nice, considering that the author seems to heavily recommend that visitors stay and patronize establishments in northern Virginia.
While the unofficial guide to DC perpetuates many stereotypes, like avoiding all of the hipsters on the green line, we can’t lose sight of the likely intended audience of the guide: Tourists.
DC’s National Aquarium – Don’t Go For the Fish
After our visit to DC’s National Aquarium we were set to tell our readers not to waste their money. But a little online research has us changing our tune, just a bit. We still wouldn’t recommend it as a major family outing, but it might be a worthwhile visit… just not for the obvious reasons.
A couple of weeks ago a friend came downtown for an afternoon with his own one-year old daughter and we decided to meet up at the Museum of Natural History. PQ Mom had taken our daughter there earlier and she loved the mammals exhibit with all the large animals. On this occasion, however, we hit the museum at the wrong time and there was a huge line just to get in the door. Lacking patience, we decided to go somewhere else and walked over to the National Aquarium on 14th Street, since neither of us had been there before.
If you don’t know already, the DC’s National Aquarium (not to be confused with the identically-named aquarium in Baltimore) is in the basement of the Department of Commerce building at 14th and Constitution Ave, NW. Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for kids ages 3-11, and free for kids under 3. There are military and group discounts available as well.
As we approach the entrance with kids in tow we notice a banner promoting shark week (we assume this coincides Discovery Channel’s Shark Week) and after we get in, we watched a video of sharks on screens designed to look like ship portholes. That’s it, there are no other sharks to be seen in the aquarium, and no live sharks at all. It was not impressive to say the least. The aquarium itself is equally disappointing; essentially it is just a really dark room with several fish tanks installed into the walls. For us, the overwhelming feeling was more of pity for the fish stuck in the dingy tanks than anything else. It’s so small that, even at a one-year old’s non-walking pace, you can easily get around the entire aquarium in about 10 minutes. When you combine the small public viewing area with the lack of light (it was so dark that our daughters could hardly see the fish unless they were right up against the glass), well, we left thinking that we won’t be able to get those 15 minutes back.
It was in researching the background of the National Aquarium for this post, however, that we came across some facts that were pretty interesting. According to the National Aquarium FAQ:
- The DC National Aquarium is the nation’s oldest aquarium;
- The National Aquarium was first established in 1873 in Woods Hole, MA as part of the Federal Fish Commission. In 1878, The National Aquarium moved to the site of the Washington Monument, and consisted of holding ponds, known as “Babcock Lakes;” and
- The Fish Commission became part of the Department of Commerce in 1903, and moved into the building of the Department of Commerce Building in 1932.
It’s funny how a little thing like “Nations Oldest Aquarium” can change your attitude. While our recommendation stands at “don’t go there to see the fish,” it might be worth $9 to you for the historical side of things. You get to check out the nation’s oldest aquarium and see a little bit of history of the Commerce Department. For us, that part of the aquarium is more interesting than the wildlife held in the tanks.
[Editors Note: Image courtesy of the DC National Aquarium website]
Everything Must Go!
A few weeks ago we walked by the once vacant address at 908 F Street NW to find tons of antiques and other things for sale – literally hundreds of items. This space is connected to the Ventana Condo building, and this particular retail address is still being shopped around by Douglas Corporation for an established tenant. We thought it was a bit strange for this location to, apparently, all of a sudden have tons of items for sale. We asked around and found out that the items for sale are from the recently closed Kalaroma Bed and Bath and other buildings. If you’re looking for furniture or are interested in antiques, you may want to pass by for a look. Be aware that the hours of operation don’t always seem to be consistent so it may take a try or two and they are open until sometime in mid-September. More photos follow…
Souvenir Row
Maybe that’s what Tour Guide meant in the comment section of our post a few weeks ago about Joe’s Souvenir shop closing. Tour Guide noted that we shouldn’t feel bad for Joe, he owns the other souvenir shops on what has become PQ’s souvenir row. Well we’re guessing Joe still owns this spot as well, the one at the corner of 10th & F, and that he’s just cleaning it up to match the brighter, nicer stores he’s opened in the surrounding block.
See those slats on the back wall? Those look to us to be the telltale supports you see in all our cleaner neighborhood souvenir shops. So our guess is that 1000 F st NW will soon be brighter and nicer, and will sell the same goods that made Joe’s Souvenir a favorite of the tourist bus crowds.
Smoking In The Boy’s Room
It appears that the downtown destination for cigar smokers, Shelly’s Back Room (1331 F St NW) is expanding into the next door space that used to be occupied by Class Act Salon (also at 1331 F St NW). Class Act is now closed, and attached to their windows are both a building permit and ABA beverage notice. It is that beverage notice that includes the Shelly’s contact information. The building permit only notes that it is for restaurant alteration and repair.
Shelly’s is certainly a popular spot and one of the few places that you can kick back with your Have-A-Tampa. It makes sense that they want to expand their operations, assuming we’re reading these notices correctly .
DC Link Roundup: Heard In The ‘Hood
Follow PQ Living via Facebook here and Twitter here. Our Flickr tag is pqliving.
Here’s what we were reading last week about neighborhood news in DC. Have neighborhood thoughts? Leave them in the comments!
All Over DC – Our current poll in the upper right shows everyone loves a good swim during the summer. Where can you get your swim on? This link will clue you in. [The Other 35 Percent]
Downtown – Clyde’s says they’re getting into the music biz at the soon-to-be-closed Border’s at 14th and F Streets NW and it will be within walking distance of the Penn Quarter. A 500 person venue by late 2011…rock on Garth! [WaPo: Click Track]
Penn Quarter/Chinatown – The Verizon Center jumps on the free Wi-Fi craze. [We Love DC]
Green Line – The Guardian Angels are pitching in to keep the peace on Metro. [NBC Washington]
Penn Quarter – The anonymous word is that Mike Isabella’s new restaurant will be on 6th Street between G and H Streets NW. Isabella was Zaytinya’s head chef. Any tipsters out there care to confirm to the PQL Mailbag? [PQL Intelligence Network]
Penn Quarter – A few observations on the reason for the now closed Manhattan Deli by the Navy Memorial and a “new” Exercise Man. [InShaw]
Yesterday’s 15th and F Street NW Transformer Fire
An underground transformer fire on F Street almost at the corner of 15th Street NW on the south side caused billowing smoke and emptied the downtown Willard and W Hotels of people yesterday evening around 7:30 pm. The incident was finished by approximately 11 pm and the streets reopened by 11:30 pm. All the major local news outlets were all over this incident within 30 minutes of its breaking. Most notable was TBD.com’s coverage which used some novel tricks to provide evolving coverage of the event including posting a geotagged Twitter link [today's TBD tweet summary here] that let users see real time streaming of tweets near that location as well as information from WeLoveDC, part of the TBD Community Network. The Washington Post went with a blog post for breaking coverage and a news story today for the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey would say). Local news coverage is a changing!
One of our intrepid guest writers, LiveAndWorkInPQ, was on the scene and provided the photos for this post.
Photo Of The Week: Ducks in Navy Memorial Fountain
After all of the rain we’ve been getting these past few days (and with more rain on the way this afternoon), we thought that spectreman’s photo of a duck in Penn Quarter’s Navy Memorial fountain was appropriate for a photo of the week. Check out spectrman’s photo stream for more pics of Penn Quarter.
