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Capital Coffee
December 17, 2012 December 20, 2012 Historic District Coffee, Shaw, Thomas Jefferson	Blind Dog Cafe, coffee, Kafe Bohem, M.E. Swing's, Peregrine, Shaw, The Coffee Bar, Thomas Jefferson
Anyone who knows me knows that my love of history is perhaps only matched by one other abiding past time – finding and drinking really good coffee.
Shaw's newest coffee shop, The Coffee Bar.
The District used to be a veritable desert for quality java, but the past few years has seen the birth of a serious coffee community in the nation's capital.
And while I used to have to travel far to get my fix, now I have a number of great choices in my own backyard – the historic district of Shaw.
Yesterday morning I had the chance to visit the newest addition to the neighborhood with the soft opening of The Coffee Bar.
A Drum-Major Misquote
January 16, 2012 September 12, 2012 Historic District Thomas Jefferson, Uncategorized	Jeanne D'Arc, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson
On this MLK Day, there was finally a place in the District where you could pay your respects to the fallen civil rights hero.
King's thirty-foot granite statue now stands prominently on the Tidal Basin, in sight of monuments and memorials to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt.
It was unveiled last fall, in a ceremony postponed because of the arrival of Hurricane Irene.
But that wasn't the only storm to hit the memorial – there was also a firestorm of criticism over a monumental misquote carved on the north side of King's statue.
The Capital of Macaroni
April 3, 2011 September 13, 2012 Historic District Capitol Hill, Chinatown, Restaurants, Thomas Jefferson, Uncategorized, White House	Bistro Bis, Capitol Hill, CapMacDC, Chinatown, food truck, France, Good Stuff Eatery, Graffiato, ice cream, Italy, macaroni, Mammoth Cheese, Meriwether Lewis, Mike Isabella, Monticello, Paris, Spike Mendelsohn, The History Chef, The Virginia Housewife, Thomas Jefferson, Top Chef, We the People
Historical trends come and go in the District, and food trends are no exception.
After a history of culinary neglect, Washington is now considered to be a foodie haven, with new restaurants, star chefs, and now food trucks coming to the city in droves.
Season 7 of Top Chef was set in the District.
It's currently home to two Top Chef stars – recent All-Star runner-up Mike Isabella, who is opening his Italian restaurant Graffiato in Chinatown, and Spike Mendelsohn, who helms a burger joint (Good Stuff Eatery) and pizza place (We, the Pizza) next door to each other on Capitol Hill.
The District even hosted a season of Top Chef, just a block away from where I live.
But for a town that used to be known only for its steakhouses and formal French restaurants, D.C. has had to import much of its food culture from other cities.
Recent food fads like upscale burgers and cupcakes (not served together, luckily) have their origins in nearby New York.
Right now, macaroni and cheese is having a resurgence of popularity in the
District, as evidenced by the success of the gourmet food truck CapMacDC.
The Lost (and Found) Library of Thomas Jefferson
February 21, 2011 September 15, 2012 Historic District Capitol, Capitol Hill, Congress, Library of Congress, Presidents, Thomas Jefferson, White House	British, Charlottesville, Jefferson Memorial, Library of Congress, Monticello, Pantheon, Rotunda, St. Louis, Thomas Jefferson, Today Show, University of Virginia, War of 1812, Washington University
It's not often that the discovery of a collection of rare books makes national news – but when those books are Thomas Jefferson's, even the Today Show takes notice.
This morning – on President's Day – there was an announcement on the NBC news program that a large number of books belonging to our third president were discovered among the collections of Washington University in St. Louis.
That makes the university the third largest holder of Jefferson's surviving book collection, after the Library of Congress in the District, and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
After a bit of sleuthing, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation – located at Jefferson's home Monticello in Charlottesville – discovered 74 of those books at Washington University's library. They had been donated in 1880 from the collection of a husband of one of Jefferson's granddaughters, but lost to historians for 130 years.
It turns out that they took a circuitous route there – from Charlottesville to Washington, D.C. to Boston, and finally to St. Louis. Missouri was a fitting repository for the collection – it was part of the territory in the Louisiana Purchase bought by Jefferson during his presidency.
Historic District Road Trip: Charleston Harbor
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