The new “Boccato Lounge” will serve as a “place for families and the community to gather,” according to co-owner Cristian Velasco. Featuring beer, wine and live entertainment, the lounge will similar to Tryst in Adams Morgan — a hybrid coffee/alcohol hang-out spot.
Velasco says the lounge will allow Boccato to give its coffee and espresso program the attention it deserves, while giving customers more room to enjoy their drinks. There will, of course, be free WiFi.
It’s not every day that a group of belly dancers spontaneously shows up outside a Metro station and starts performing for onlookers. But that’s exactly what happened Friday night when dancers from the Saffron Dance belly dancing school in Clarendon (3260 Wilson Blvd) organized their very own flash mob.
Nightlife on Columbia Pike has just gotten a bit more vibrant with the addition of Club 31-11, a nightclub, hookah bar, lounge and pool hall all rolled into one.
Club 31-11 (3111 Columbia Pike) is housed in a two-story building that was formerly home to an Ethiopian restaurant. It features Latin fusion cuisine and multiple DJ stations in an eclectically-decorated, two floor building. It opened for the first night of publicly-announced music and dancing last night, as first reported by a new blog called Pike Town Center.
Uncompensated Care Costs Local Hospitals $102 Million — While discussing health care on a local TV interview show earlier this week, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) cited a figure that seemed unbelievable. Moran said that in our congressional district alone, hospitals spend more than $100 million per year paying for those who don’t have insurance or can’t pay the bills. That figure appears to be accurate, says TBD’s Facts Machine.
Lawmakers Outline Priorities — Arlington’s state lawmakers discussed their priorities for the 2011 legislative session earlier this week. Proposals include eliminating the sales tax on food and replacing it with a higher income tax for the wealthy, increasing the state’s low cigarette tax and setting more stringent requirements on petition drives. More from the Sun Gazette.
How there is only one domestic band that combines North Indian Bhangra and brass band funk is beyond us, especially considering the infectious energy that the culture-melding band brings to their shows.
New York-based Red Baraat features a rapping sousaphone player, three percussionists (counting the guy on cow bell), and a band leader whose collaborations have included performing with rapper Q-Tip and a fitness instructor known as “the Indian Jane Fonda.” That, combined with a five-piece horn section, produces a group that, in the words of the PR department, “plays fresh originals and Bollywood classics with an explosive stage performance and presence.”
Now thanks to one of our marketing partners, you can now get salsa lessons for free while mingling with D.C. area professionals.
Local group buying web site So What’s the Deal is offering the two hour, $10 dance lessons for $2. But why pay anything at all? Email [email protected] and get a coupon code to make your ticket free.
Earmark Could Save Planetarium — Rep. Jim Moran says he’s going to try to dig up $400,000 in federal funds to help renovate and save Arlington’s David M. Brown Planetarium. But even if he’s successful, Moran’s press secretary says the money would not be available until late next year — past the fundraising deadline the school board set for the non-profit Friends of the Planetarium group. More from the Sun Gazette.
Golf Farce Premieres at Signature Theater — Now playing at Shirlington’s Signature Theater: A Fox on the Fairway. The show, which is making its world premiere at Signature, is a “screwball comedy” and “a tribute… to the great English farces of the 1930s and 1940s.” Starring Jeff McCarthy, Holly Twyford and Andrew Long, A Fox on the Fairway is “about love, life, and man’s eternal love affair with… golf.” See a video promo here.
Now, DC’s top gay and lesbian (and “straight-friendly”) square dancing club is offering lessons in Arlington. On Saturdays starting on Oct. 9, the DC Lambda Squares club will teach you the fine art of spinning one’s partner round and round.
It’s a beginners class, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Lessons run from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a one-hour lunch break. A total of four classes will be held, on Oct. 9, 16, 30 and on Nov.6.
Dancing in the street sounds like a fun, whimsical way to work off some extra energy on a beautiful, non-stormy summer evening. But it can also be a traffic hazard! Just ask the citizen who alerted police to the two juvenile males breakdancing in the middle of the 1900 block of North George Mason Drive, near Virginia Hospital Center.
Martha and the Vandellas would approve of letting loose in the public right-of-way, but Johnny Law dutifully responded to the area to tell the b-boy punks to move on.
Arlington officials took select members of the media (read: not us) on a hard hat tour of the still under-construction Artisphere last night.
In her write-up of the tour, the Washington Post’s Jacqueline Trescott is skeptical of the county’s ability to finish the project in time for its scheduled October 10 opening.
The event will kick off at 8:00 a.m. with a free open skate, followed by a development camp scrimmage at 10:00. There will also be airbrush artists, face painters, moon bounce, obstacle course, street hockey and an equipment sale. Brooks Laich and “select draft picks” will be signing autographs after the scrimmage.
If hockey isn’t your thing, but eating and dancing is, you may want to check out the 22nd Colombia National Day Celebration.The event will feature Colombian folkloric dance and musical groups as well as a variety of Colombian food. Some of the performers will be flown in from Bogota and Miami for the occasion.
