RSS FeedHistory on Foot: 601 Penn
Quite a lot of history occurred at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Did you know this was the site of the first public singing of “The Star Spangle Banner?” While the current building dates to 1985, the old facade has been incorporated on the corner. Be sure to stop and read the plaque when you’re passing by.
DC Shorts Film Festival: ‘Best Of’ Showcases This Weekend
Clip above: Trailer for Pickle, a film in DC Shorts’ Best of Showcase B
DC Shorts, DC’s long running short film festival, wraps up this weekend with the ‘best of’ showcases running tomorrow and Sunday at the Navy Memorial Theatre (Market Square) and the Atlas Performing Arts Center (H Street NE). Tickets are available in a variety of ways.
We saw a number of the films including one showcase and each film cleared a high quality bar. We laughed, we cried, and we pondered after seeing the films and endorse putting seeing one of the Best Of Showcases on your weekend’s ‘to do’ list.
Foodie Radar: Guilty Pleasure, Foie Gras
It’s a controversial topic for some, but we admit that one of our guilty pleasures is foie gras. There are a number of restaurants who do it particularly well, but we were especially delighted by the perfect preparation recently enjoyed at Charlie Palmer Steak (101 Constitution Ave. NW). There’s a new Chef at the helm and we look forward to seeing how he puts his mark on one of our standbys.
What are your foodie guilty pleasures?
Bistro d’Oc French Restaurant Appears Closed (518 10th St NW)
A long time Penn Quarter Living reader alerted us that Bistro d’Oc, a French bistro focused on Languedoc cuisine, was closed and all furniture including the bar had been removed. After further investigation, we see that it is marked as permanently closed on OpenTable, Yelp reports it closed, and its website is off the air. No one picked up the phone at the restaurant’s listed number. There is no sign on the front door saying it’s closed nor saying it will return.
We ate there for dinner or stopped in for a glass of wine and an appetizer a handful of times over the past years and while not an amazing French restaurant, we found it enjoyable enough. The wooden floors and bar along with the specials on a chalkboard evoked something European for us when we dined there. We don’t know if the construction next door at 10th and F St NW played a role in this turn of events but this was one of the longer standing restaurants in the neighborhood; we found a restaurant review from 2003 to illustrate.
