Big Weekend, Plan Ahead!

There is a LOT going on this weekend. The Heights Life suggests you plan ahead.

Here's our list of top picks:

Friday
Makepeace Brothers are back at Bloom Bars, 8PM, just north of Kenyon on 11th. They like peace and love and there might be hugs.

Saturday
Passport DC means open embassies all day and all around town. I'm going to Benin. No, I don't know why.
KIDS 90s hip hop dance party at DC9, $5 and free Old English until 10PM, just south of U on 9th. The party is apparently named after the movie... which is kind of disturbing.

Sunday
Sundress Party at the Wonderland! Roast pig, happy hour, men in dresses... for charity. Spend the afternoon there.
Cursive & Man Man perform at the Black Cat. My friend caught the show in Nashville and called it "loud." Come see Tim Kasher emote. $15/$17DOS, 14th near S.

More of Columbia Heights on the Internets

Sometimes all it takes is a simple message on the Columbia Heights listserv that leads to a 60-minute internet surfing and searching extravaganza. The fruits of my time well-spent:

The Malcolm X Drummers and Dancers have a new website - http://malcolmxdrummersanddancers.weebly.com/index.html - and be sure to stop by Meridian Hill Park on Sundays after 3 pm for the weekly drum circle.

The Circulator has a YouTube channel with profiles of cool neighborhood businesses and people.





Since we have been posting about local history recently, check out this video: “Columbia Heights: The Legacy of Public Development in DC”

CH on the Interwebs Back in the Day

I found another Columbia Heights archive, this time via the Google.

Check this website out, InnerCity.org. It's a turn of the millenium web creation dedicated to the neighborhood and appearing amazingly antiquated next to ten years of web development and ten years of neighborhood development.

Among the most interesting finds here - a list of businesses from the neighborhood. Notice how much the restaurants have changed, among other things. And a link to the Columbia Heights Yahoo! Group (still going strong).

They also host some media files, though a lot of them have gone dead. But these stories from people are the neighborhood live on.

And here's a story from 10 years ago about "disastrous development plans" that accompanied the opening of the Metro stop... plans and their consequences that I still hear regularly debated in the neighborhood.

I'm sure some of our readers remember using this site - anyone know who ran it? If it's a .org, it was likely a nonprofit or neighborhood association.

Rumor Mill - Top Chef Carla to Columbia Heights?

Prince of Petworth has my favorite rumor of the week. Is Carla Hall shopping for space in Columbia Heights?

DC's own Top Chef (who totally should have won) told someone that she had checked out the Highland Park retail space. Apparently she wants something that will be part cooking school, part dining room.

In case she has a google alert on her name... HEY CARLA, YOU SHOULD TOTALLY COME TO COLUMBIA HEIGHTS! WE LOVE YOU HERE! PLEASE! HOSEA SUCKS!

Some of the Advantages of Beautiful Columbia Heights

Sam over at Red Sky at Night sent us a really cool find: a booklet published by the Columbia Heights Citizens' Association in 1904. The title alone—A Statement of Some of the Advantages of Beautiful Columbia Heights, a Neighborhood of Homes—is enough to make me want to flashback 100 years (but I am not a character on Lost).

The publication includes a rundown of the advantages of living in Columbia Heights, some of which haven’t changed for over a century: "street railway facilities" and "attractive residences will all the modern improvements." It also has photos of houses and row homes in the neighborhood. Some of the East-West streets have different names, for instance Roanoke is now Euclid. Does anyone know of other examples?

UPDATE: Flickr comes through with a map of Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights, and Pleasant Plains from 1887



The full booklet is available to view online here: http://www.archive.org/details/statementofsomeo00colum

And, of course, a post about Columbia Heights history is nothing without one of my favorite photos from 1926 of 14th and Irving.

Coming Soon: Social and Room 11

The list of what's not coming soon to Columbia Heights just grows and grows. No Sake Club, no Royal Blue, no Ellwood Thompson, no Petco (oh how I wanted a Petco!)...

But a few places still promise to show up and in the next two months we should be seeing Room 11 and Social bring some more places to booze and bite in the area.

Social - Tapas but don't call it that

So you can get small plates, or bigger ones, and you can share, but it's not mezze or tapas... it's "micro-dining." Whatever, I bet they have pretty cocktails. Here's how Social describes itself:

Social, located at 14th St NW & Meridian Pl NW, is soon to be the hottest new restaurant in DC. With a nod to the Columbia Heights community, partners AJ Guy, Scott Hammons & Tim Korzep, have created a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere to stylishly wile away the night. The inventive micro-dining menu guarantees no one will have to commit to the whole meal in one order or go home without being well fed. Walking distance from the Metro, Social is situated to closely serve its Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Petworth, & Shaw neighbors as friends.

Room 11 - Final inspections, please pass!

The Room 11 blog says they should have had their final electrical inspection today. We hope you passed! They are also tiling, paving, and building mad wine storage. According to what the owners told us a few weeks back... they should have opened up by now. But, these things always tend to take a little longer and if their blog is any indication, they are right on track.

Got any more rumors or updates on things coming or going from the neighborhood? Email us: theheightslife@gmail.com. Or tweet at us: @theheightslife. Also if you are having a neighborhood event, let us know!

The Scene at Pete's Birthday Party

Half price pizza brought hoards of Pete's Apizza fans into the 14th and Irving Street restaurant. The manager told us that the calls started coming around 5:30PM and didn't stop. The line wrapped around the inside of the restaurant and seats and parm were hard to come by. People were left waiting up to an hour for their pies, but when it did show up - it was delicious as always.

Half Price Pizza Day!

Happy birthday to one of The Heights Life's favorite local pizza joints (recently ranked second best pizza in DC by the readers of the City Paper)!

Pete's Apizza turns one today and to celebrate you can get a HALF PRICE pizza all day. Click here for details. And Pete's has also added a few new menu items - which you can check out here.

You might know that The Heights Life is on Twitter, but did you know that Pete's is, too? We like them because they "follow" us. So follow them back - @Petes_Newhaven.

The Mt. Pleasant and U Street Farmers' Markets are Back

This Saturday both the U Street and Mt. Pleasant farmers' Market are open for the season. I have found the markets to have similar offerings and prices, but Mt. P might win for an opening day bonus: spring bike tune up!

14th&U Farmers' Market
Reeves Center sidewalk - 14th and U streets NW
Saturdays - 9 am to 1 pm
May 2 to November 21
On the Web: www.14andufarmersmarket.com
E-mail: marketsandmore@gmail.com

Mt. Pleasant Farmers' Market
Lamont Park - Lamont and Mt. Pleasant streets NW
Saturdays - 9 am to 1 pm
May 2 to November 21
On the Web: www.mtpfm.org
E-mail: rebbie@pinkopaque.com
Participating farms and producers:


View Mount Pleasant Farmers' Market in a larger map

All Around the Neighborhood: Pancakes, Crime and Love

Pancakes! Maybe... Prince of Petworth is reporting some "scuttlebutt" that IHOP is considering coming to DCUSA. The big question, says ArtBart, is how late it would stay open. The Heights Life has long supported a 24 hour restaurant to save us from 2AM CVS mac and cheese purposes. And hey... pancakes! Did we mention the many kinds of syrup?

Crime! It's warm out, which means more people on the streets and an inevitable crime spike. The Heights Life witnessed a good amount of police activity around the neighborhood this weekend. Yesterday evening, three police cars raced up 14th at ridiculous speeds. And the CH Yahoo Group has two disturbing reports. One person asked about shots fired in broad daylight on Sunday afternoon. Another says there is a groper in the neighborhood.

Love! The CH News Forums are notoriously nasty. Last year a group of forum posters held a happy hour to try to engender a little forum love, but DCDireWorlf and broNat continue to battle with CH Kool Aid and New2CH. Alas, one friendly forumite has decided to seek some common ground based on universal support for escalators at the Metro and universal hate for zombies. As of this update, nobody has joined in the attempt at forum community building.

Ellwood Thompson's Store Opening Delayed

It looks like Giant will still be the only grocery store in Columbia Heights. As reported by Washington City Paper and DCist -- Ellwood Thompson's has put their DCUSA store opening on hold.

“We believe that DCUSA in Columbia Heights is an excellent location choice and are eager to serve this community, which is a perfect fit for our products and philosophy. However, with this delay we are acting prudently to keep our company sound during these difficult times for retailers. We continue to work with DCUSA on a timetable to locate there," said Ellwood Thompson's owner Rick Hood on the company's blog.

This is unfortunate news for DCUSA and its tenancy. The most recent additions to the retail complex were the Bank of America and Panda Express, and Desi's chicken looks to be the next expected opening. But after that, who knows. But the real question is, does this mean a revival of the Whole Food for CH petition?

And just for an interesting comparison of where things were almost three years ago, here is the proposed tenant list and layout for street level.

Who likes to rock the party?

I like to rock to the party. Or maybe it should be new luxury apartment buildings want to rock the party but they are trying too hard. Seriously, just let the neighborhood speak for itself.

The news that Highland Park was holding a rival open house party surprised me when I came home from work last night. But the ability to compare the two buildings, even with a year of occupancy on Highland Park, made me appreciate the Allegro that much more. Lame party theme but beautiful building. You win!

Jim Graham Dishes on Allegro Apartments, Partying, and the Future of CH

Last night The Heights Life ran into Councilmember Jim Graham at the Allegro Apartment's DESIRE party. He was touring the facility with developer Jeremy Rubenstein and School Board Member Dotti Love Wade... and come to think of it, US TOO!

So, we cornered him in the pent house apartment kitchen and made him talk to us about the development, the neighborhood, and apparently his partying habits. Hey, he brought it up. No wait, maybe I did...

Either way, we bring you our EXCLUSIVE interview with Councilmember Jim Graham, and at the end Jeremy Rubenstein joins in.

Photos from the Highland Park vs. Allegro apartment showdown