All Articles
Sign Up for the Destination DC Media List
!function(o,t,e,a){o._aoForms=o._aoForms||[],o._aoForms.push(a);var n=function(){var o=t.createElement(e);o.src=("https:"==t.location.protocol?"https://":"http://")+"marketing.washington.org/acton/content/form_embed.js",o.async=!0;for(var a=t.getElementsByTagName(e)[0],n=a.parentNode,c=document.getElementsByTagName("script"),r=!1,s=0;s
Sign up for the Meetings eNewsletter
!function(o,t,e,a){o._aoForms=o._aoForms||[],o._aoForms.push(a);var n=function(){var o=t.createElement(e);o.src=("https:"==t.location.protocol?"https://":"http://")+"marketing.washington.org/acton/content/form_embed.js",o.async=!0;for(var a=t.getElementsByTagName(e)[0],n=a.parentNode,c=document.getElementsByTagName("script"),r=!1,s=0;s
Sign up for the Meetings eNewsletter
!function(o,t,e,a){o._aoForms=o._aoForms||[],o._aoForms.push(a);var n=function(){var o=t.createElement(e);o.src=("https:"==t.location.protocol?"https://":"http://")+"marketing.washington.org/acton/content/form_embed.js",o.async=!0;for(var a=t.getElementsByTagName(e)[0],n=a.parentNode,c=document.getElementsByTagName("script"),r=!1,s=0;s
Sitting Down with Jamie Leeds, Owner of Hank’s Oyster Bar
Ten years ago, the crab cake was king of local menus, then Jamie Leeds opened a niche market: oysters. Thanks to her, the capital is enjoying oyster-centric gastropubs, but her baby, Hank's Oyster Bar in Dupont Circle, stands tall above them all. Leeds sat down with us to answer a few of our most burning questions: You’re someone who has really made a commitment to DC’s neighborhoods. You could have put your restaurants anywhere and you chose four DC-area neighborhoods: Dupont Circle, Petworth, Capitol Hill and Old Town Alexandria. How did you come to get started in Dupont? JL: I wanted to be in a neighborhood, and of course it always depends on the space and the location. I was actually looking for a bigger space but I came across the space that I have now. It was Trio’s Pizza on 17th Street in Dupont where everybody went at 3 a.m. It was a four-seat restaurant when I walked in, but it kept going back and back and back, and I saw a lot of potential for more seats there. There was a six-foot drop ceiling. I lifted it up and shined a flashlight and saw 17-foot ceiling with the original pressed tin. And I thought about what this place could be. It was a diamond in the rough. So I wanted to explore the possibilities of putting in a financially successful restaurant. The landlord gutted it for me and I figured I could put 60 seats in there. I like being in old townhouses or places that you have to renovate. DC reminds be a lot of Brooklyn, especially Dupont Circle, it reminds me of Brooklyn Heights. I used to live in Park Slope so it really reminded me of home. I wanted to be in that area. It was perfect. What's the difference between your restaurant in Dupont and your Capitol Hill location? JL: They are very different. The Dupont location was my first restaurant so it’s kind of like my baby. And it is much bigger, like double the size. The menus are very similar but the drinks and mixology programs are different. Gina Chersevani (aka Mixtress DC) designed the mixology program for the Hill location. She does her magic with the cocktails and there’s a mixology program over at Dupont as well. We have a private dining room at Dupont too so we can have large parties of 12-14. Have you had a coolest all-time customer? JL: James Carville comes in all the time. There are a lot of oyster joints but you were really the pioneer in the District. How have you taught DC to love oysters? JL: We get a lot of "oyster virgins." So yeah, we have oysters from all over the country. We have our milder oysters and we have our saltier, brinier ones. So we try to start people off on the milder ones and work them up to the complex ones. How did you know the oyster would catch on in DC? JL: Well I’ve always loved oysters and I wanted to do a seafood restaurant as an homage to my dad who loved to fish and loved to eat seafood. He died when I was young so I really wanted to do something for him. When I lived in New York, one of my favorite restaurants was Pearl Oyster Bar so that was an inspiration for me: also a place with a female chef/owner, Rebecca Charles. I credit her a lot, she inspired me. When I came here there were no neighborhood restaurants, there were only big boxes, and they were all downtown: DC Coast, Kinkead’s. There were no little neighborhood seafood restaurants. I was so surprised especially as we’re right on the water. I’ve been able to capitalize on a lot of the local oystermen. I buy oysters from oyster farmers who grow only one kind of oysters. What are those local oysters? What should we look for if we want to taste the Chesapeake Bay? JL: East Coast oysters, their shells are a little flatter, they’re not as as fluted as West Coast oysters. They are more briny and have a bit more liquor to them. West coast oysters are sweeter. You have four businesses, so your free time is precious. When you get a night off, where do you like to go with your family? JL: We always go out to eat. I love Japanese food. It’s my big thing so I have a couple of options: Izakaya Seki. I love it there. I like to go to Daikaya. I think their ramen noodle shop is to die for. What do you make of all this change in DC? JL: I think it’s good for the city. 14th Street is just booming. We’ll see what happens. Another beautiful thing, aside from the restaurant scene is Rock Creek Park. We go there a lot. It’s really a hidden gem. A lot of people don’t explore it the way we do. How do you use Rock Creek Park? JL: We always bike. They close off the streets to traffic on the weekends and we bike along the water. You’re ten minutes away from the city and you’re out in the wilderness. And there are skate parks too. My son loves to rollerblade so we go to Shaw’s skate park. He’s been asking me to take him to the Maloof Skatepark, too. What makes living in DC so cool? JL: The people are surprising. You think everyone is so conservative and everything so political, but there are so many not-for-profit organizations here. There are a lot of really down-to-earth and interesting people, people who are really into food and they challenge us to create better food and use local ingredients and use sustainable fish. You have an "oyster virgin" coming to Hank’s for dinner tonight. What are you going to serve them? JL: Tonight, the Chincoteague oysters from Virginia or maybe the Totten Inlets from Washington, and grilled local blue fish from Virginia. I would eat that in a minute. You can visit Hank’s Oyster Bar at its Dupont Circle location, or venture to its other two locations in Capitol Hill and Old Town Alexandria. Still hungry? Check out more places to eat in Dupont Circle.
Sitting Down with the Sisters of Georgetown Cupcake
Sisters Katherine Kallinis Berman and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne are the co-founders of Georgetown Cupcake, stars of the TLC's hit series DC Cupcakes and best-selling authors of "The Cupcake Diaries" and "Sweet Celebrations." Inspired by their grandmother, in 2008, Katherine and Sophie traded careers in fashion and venture capital to follow their passion for baking and opened Georgetown Cupcake in – you guessed it – Georgetown. The driven sisterly duo describe for us their world-famous cupcakery, favorite restaurants and District living: What are your favorite things to do or places to go in DC? KKB: I have a daughter. I’m recently a new mom. So I love to do anything that’s kid friendly in the city. We actually live near Roosevelt Island and we love to walk around the island. It’s very beautiful. And I love going shopping, obviously, for baby clothes and baby toys. Dawn Price Baby is a local DC business. They have the cutest things for children in there. The Georgetown Waterfront is gorgeous, too, especially with the fountains and the park. I love to bring my daughter there. SKL: And just the design, I love Cady’s Alley here. There is so much character to it. There are very few other neighborhoods in the country, really, that have this kind of character. There’s just something about the alley and the cobblestone. It makes the neighborhood very walkable and it’s very family friendly. It’s a great place to spend a leisurely Sunday or Saturday afternoon. What are your top three restaurants for a pre-cupcake meal? KKB: We have a favorite restaurant near Logan Circle. SKL: Le Diplomate. It’s very good. KKB: I think if you want to go a little fancier, I would say Ristorante Tosca. It’s very good Italian food. SKL: We like Good Stuff Eatery. KKB: Oh yeah. I’m so glad they opened in Georgetown because when I was pregnant with my daughter, I made my father drive me in rush hour traffic, from Georgetown all the way to their Capitol Hill location to get a toasted marshmallow milkshake. It’s the best. It’s worth the splurge. And if you don’t want something too fancy but something a little bit nice, I like Peacock Cafe in Georgetown. SKL: Yes. We love brunch. That’s our favorite. We love their mint lemonade. KKB: Oh yeah the mint lemonade at Peacock is really good. They blend the mint leaves into the lemonade. It’s delicious. Oh one more: the one thing that we are obsessed about is the kale salad at Kafe Leopold. It’s one of our favorites. Sometimes we’ll just get it as an entrée. What is the coolest experience you’ve had since opening Georgetown Cupcake? KKB: I think for us, definitely hands-down, is being able to ship 10,000 cupcakes to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And it’s been one of the greatest things we’ve ever done and we’ve been able to give back in a way that I don’t think we really understood that we could. SKL: So every year we donate happily to our troops. It’s a special relationship we have with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs office and the USO. We love supporting our troops. Another highlight was having Sasha Obama’s birthday at our bakery. KKB: Yes, she had her 10th birthday here and we baked cupcakes with her, her sister and her friends. SKL: They made them from scratch and frosted them themselves. So that was super fun. It’s just those kinds of experiences; being in Washington, DC you don’t know who’s going to walk into your door. KKB: It is so true. I mean when we’re walking across Key Bridge to come to work every day, we’ll see Marine One (the presidential helicopter), just fly overhead. You can’t get that in any other city. You really can’t. SKL: And since being here, we’ve had everyone from U.S. Senators come in to Stevie Wonder to Kim Kardashian. It’s just amazing the kind of people that come through the door here. Martha Stewart visited— KKB: We did her show twice, and she came in asking for us, but we weren’t here. We were in New York. But she ordered a mocha and coconut and took pictures with our staff. What is the all-time coolest cupcake that you’ve ever created? KKB: I would say, for me personally... was when Sophie made the lavender earl grey teacake for my bridal shower. I drink lavender earl grey tea every morning. And so she developed a recipe. She got lavender sugar from France. And it turns the cake into this beautiful pistachio green color, and the lavender frosting. It’s to die for. And now it’s on our menu every April/May. What do you think is cool about Washington, DC? KKB: I think what’s cool about Washington, DC is that you are in the most powerful and historic city in the world and – it is home. SKL: When you drive by the White House and you see the monuments— KKB: Or a motorcade going by, you pinch yourself and you’re like, “Wow, I live here!” SKL: It really is a cool city. It’s like history in the making- in your backyard. KKB: It is pretty crazy, because when we first started Georgetown Cupcake, we would never think that we would have Sasha Obama in the bakery baking with us. We would never think that we would meet the vice president. It’s an amazing place to live because you just never know who you’re going to meet here. KKB: I‘m a huge fan of DC. SKL: We’re very proud of being from DC. After you get your sugar fix at Georgetown Cupcake, discover what else there is to see and do in the neighborhood.