11.09.2011

Whirlwind Weekend: Fall in DC

Sometimes, the best planning happens on the fly. When my two besties Kimbril and Whitney came to town for the weekend, all we had on the docket was Saturday night at the Kennedy Center... but here's what happened...

Drinking Blue Veins at Black Jack
Friday night, it was a toss up between some place I love but had been (Estadio) and a new place (Pearl Dive Oyster Palace.) The girls declared I needed to try something new and they were fine to weather the hour plus wait at Pearl Dive Oyster Palace. We got our ticket number (ala DMV) and went up to Black Jack, the upstairs bocce/artisan cocktail joint. It wasn't too crowded, the bartender was fabulous (I might have been crushing on his handlebar mustache or maybe that was the Maple Bourbon drink in my hand.) In a flash, we were at our table, noshing on an amazing seafood stew and oysters. I'll return to try out the catfish-fried egg-BLT and shrimp & grits!
Pearl Dive Oyster Palace
Now, the last time we were all in DC together was probably a decade ago... and I took em to the Tune Inn. The Tune, if you hadn't heard, caught fire about 6 months ago and it was kismet that it was reopening that night. We weathered a taxi ride through Occupy DC's protest d'jour and made it to the hallowed ground of deer butts and Natty Boh... the good news, it looks pretty much the same, but smells a lot better!
The Tune Inn
And then, the coolest thing happened (well the coolest thing since we got a table and didn't have to stand at that crowded bar)... a guy sent a plate of bacon to our table.  In addition to being tasty and way less creepy than that rose selling guy, this gave us intro to half the bar who wanted a piece...

Plate o'Bacon at Tune Inn
Lest we watch the sunrise from our booth, we finally threw in the towel around 3am and went home. The morning required a slight bit of recovery, so we headed to BGR for sweet potato fries and burgers before hitting the 90th Birthday Celebration at the Phillips Collection. If you haven't gone yet, you need to go see the Degas ballet dancers exhibit- insane brush strokes, explanation of his process and co-exhibition of his influencers.
BGR: The Burger Joint
After that, we strolled down Connecticut Avenue with designs on hitting Foto Week at The Corcoran Gallery, but somehow ended up taking the obligatory photo in front of The White House....

The White House
 ... followed by the Washington  Monument, which every DC gal worth her salt knows is best seen from the roof top of the W Hotel...
POV at the W Hotel
 ... and then, because we care about history, we had to go to Old Ebbitt Grill... and because they'd never had them before, we needed Dark n' Stormy's...
Old Ebbitt Grill
Luckily, we are rally-cap-kinda-gals and we dolled up and made it to the Kennedy Center in time to see The Washington Ballet's performance of The Great Gatsby which blew my mind. It was sexy, stylish and cool with flapper dresses and live music. I sported the sparkle made my friend Jen's company, ban.do in LA (dig it, check out her site!)
Pre-ballet bite at Bourbon Steak
The Washington Ballet at the Kennedy Center
My phone battery faltered around this time, but suffice to say, we hopped a cab as soon as the ballet was over and went to J. Pauls to catch the end of the Bama-LSU game. Once the Tigers sewed that up, we wandered over to Mr. Smiths (don't judge) where we sat piano side and belted out tunes til last call.

But no, I wasn't done. I still had to hit Toki Underground... one of the places I'd been lamenting I hadn't visited. They just started staying open til 2AM, so there we were, chef-side with ramen til 3:30am.

It's nice to know we can still be rock stars. 

5 comments:

Miranda said...

Looks like a really fun time!
I love the view from the W, one of my favorite things in D.C.

Miranda
www.indcfashion.com

Tammy Gordon said...

It. Was. So. Much. Fun!

;) Thanks Miranda!

Peter Johnson said...

An interesting insight into the varied food and drinking options in comparison to our rural beachside village in Australia. Would love to see how you would write up the food options over here.

Tammy Gordon said...

Peter - I owe everyone my Aussie whirlwind as well. LOVED Byron Bay & Great Ocean Road, though had amazing eats in Sydney and Melbs too!

Unknown said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE! I laughed with delight when I saw your blog:) My blog urbanflipflops is my life in Florida since I moved from DC. Look, we changed lives;) I use to work at the Kennedy Center, oh the nice memories!:) I am so glad I found your blog! I can't wait to read more!