RSS FeedPenn Quarter Restaurant Opening Dates! (Bar Louie, Proof, Vapiano, Potato Valley, Chop’t)
Thanks goes out to Cheryl for all of this info!
Howto: Find Groceries – West End Trader Joe’s
Welcome to part three of our four part series where we look at the nearest accessible chain grocery stores. The store “du jour” is the West End Trader Joe’s (Store #653) at 1101 25th Street, NW, the intersection of 25th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. By car, you need to take a crosstown street such as K or I or Constitution and then cut north of Pennsylvania Avenue on 25th Street. The garage entrance is on the right as you head north on 25th Street. By Metro, you could get off at Foggy Bottom-GWU (Orange-Blue Lines) but then you have to hoof it for four blocks. By bus, however, both the Penn Ave Line (30, 32, 34 and 36 [PDF]) and the DC Circulator (Yellow line) pass right by and drop you off at the corner. The DC incarnation of this Cali based chain is open 9 am to 9 pm daily and is just under 2 miles from the core of Chinatown.
Plusses: Well balanced variety of foods, low prices on TJ branded items, fun shopping environment, fun flyers (such as their 2007 Summer Guide [PDF]), beer and wine available.
Minuses: Limited number of parking spots, long lines on weekends (but they move quickly), no familiar big consumer product brands sold (for example, nothing from Procter and Gamble)
Community Influence: Youthful clientele – lots of GWU students.
For off peak visits, this blogger likes this store…a lot. Despite a small footprint, they have a slice of everything including fruits, veggies, dairy, breads, meats, seafood, frozen foods, bathroom essentials, beer and wine. You won’t find any big corporate brand products stocked here that you find at Giant or Safeway; I have to get my Tide laundry soap elsewhere. The Jimmy Buffet dressed staff are always friendly and helpful and when all eleven cashiers are checking people out, the long single file line moves along quickly. I waited for 11 minutes and couldn’t imagine the line being any longer. If you go here during peak hours, you will have to wait for a parking spot in the garage. At 3 pm on a Sunday, there were five cars queued to park and at 3 minutes each, that’s 15 minutes of wait time. Fortunately, there was a street spot available on L Street which I snagged. Getting there by bus, bike or Metro are other good options and of the four stores we are reviewing, this store is arguably the safest to visit. If you’re a beer and wine person, then it’s also a reasonable choice. Two Buck Chuck (plus the better wine brands) and Magic Hat brew abounds in the beer and wine section. Sometimes there are so many people in the store, it is difficult to move around, but, the moderate prices and the consistently good food quality make this a repeat choice.
Next month’s store review: Logan Circle Whole Foods
Building Blocks for Kids
Have you noticed the large, decorative blocks popping up on DC streets? They’re part of DC Play Blocks advocating “quality early childhood education and care in the District of Columbia.”
This blogger doesn’t know much about group, but who can be against public art and childhood education? The block above sits outside Metro Center at the 11th & G entrance.
Go On Safari
Everytime a new browser is released, we hook it up in our GP Living computer lab and do some basic Blogspot testing to make sure it passes the a-ok, cool, fo’ shizzle suite of Windows tests. Since Apple seems to be on everyone’s mind this weekend, we tested Apple’s newest browser, Safari 3. It is the fastest we’ve seen and is available for both Windows and Mac; we can now formally put our stamp of approval on it. It is still a beta version so your mileage may vary.