Boston benefit concert Thursday at Iota

Iota is hosting a great group of local talent this Thursday, May 2 to raise money for victims of the Boston terrorist attacks. There is a $10 minimum donation of which all proceeds will be donated to The One Fund Boston. The show starts at 8pm and the lineup includes:

The Highballers  

South Rail  

Caryn Sever 

Wes Tucker  

Jonny Grave  

Clarendon Cinco de Mayo block party

Next Sunday May 5, several local bars are participating in the a Cinco de Mayo block party. The party includes food and drink specials, 8 various DJs, a Mariachi marching band, and prize raffles for a $12 ticket.

The festivities start at Mad Rose and Darna between noon and 3pm for registration. Other bars like Clarendon Grill, Mister Days, and Sobe keep the party going until 8pm.

Click here to buy tickets from Eventbrite.

DJ Yezmin Soliz tonight at Mad Rose

Yezmin Soliz is DJing tonight April 27 at Mad Rose. She and DJ Audrey are spinning for the Girls Night Out themed night at the Clarendon venue from 9pm to cloe. The Bolivian DJ Yez has previously performed at Mad Rose, but also frequents the stage at many DC bars including Cafe Citron, Balletto, and Dirty Bar.

Oh, Arlington

I'm at a loss of words on how silly this photo makes Clarendon look. Fireworks Pizza uploaded this photo yesterday to their Facebook page, which shows four ACPD officers on segways talking to the driver of a Trolley Pub foot powered bar. This is the first time I've seen Arlington police on segways surprisingly. All we need is someone in the background in a popped collar eating cupcakes and doing Crossfit to complete every Arlington stereotype!

Balcony fire at Lyon Place apartments

Photo via @bmichele15

A large ACFD response to an apartment fire shut down the intersection of Clarendon Blvd and Garfield street Friday night. Luckily no one was injured and the local nightlife was only temporarily interrupted as numerous firetrucks surrounded Circa and La Tagliatella. The fire was started by a lit cigaretted dropped into a balcony planter at Lyon Place apartments according to nicknow.


Thanks to Brittany Michele for the tweet heads up and photo.

Rally Against Rape at Gateway Park tonight

Tonight, Thursday April 25 there is rally, candlelight vigil, music and speakers to support the Rally Against Rape movement. The event lasts from 7 to 9pm in Gateway Park in Rossyln. Rally Against Rape and Sexual Assault is a grassroots, community-action project dedicated to combating sexual violence and raising awareness about the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in Northern Virginia.



Canceled: Pussycat Doll Kaya Jones at Mad Rose

UPDATE: This show was canceled. Mad Rose really needs to get more mature with their communication. Instead of announcing it was canceled, they just deleted any mention of Kaya Jones' event from their Facebook and Twitter feed. Hope no one bought the $10 tickets from Eventbrite!

This Thursday April 25 another celebrity is visiting Mad Rose as Kaya Jones from the Pussycat Dolls takes the stage. Kaya Jones has several solo hits herself and started her own record label HueMan Race Records. DJ Biks starts the night off at 9pm for this free event, but you can pay $10 for a cut in line pass before 10pm.

AAC Art Bash fundraiser May 4

On Saturday May 4, the Arlington Arts Center (AAC) is throwing an Art Bash fundraiser. Proceeds from this annual event will fund exhibition programs, education programs for all ages, and studio residency programs. This year will mark the fifteenth installment of the biennial survey of metro-area emerging artists and will be the first time the show has been mounted outside of the distric. A silent auction, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and an open bar will complement the improvisational art competition. General admission tickets are $75 and doors open at 8pm, and 7pm for those with VIP tickets.

scratchDC coming to Arlington

This blog focuses more on dining out in restaurants and bars in the area, but it never hurts to mix things up by cooking a meal for two at home. Did you ever want to cook dinner for a date, but you have no clue what to make or have little experience cooking?

A new food delivery service called scratchDC is expanding soon just opened in Arlington and Alexandria. They currently deliver ready to cook ingredients and instructions to certain parts of DC. When you order their service, they will hand deliver that box's meal (they offer one different meal each day) to your home or work.

scratchDC graciously let me the be the first in Clarendon to try their service, and set up a promo code of "clarendonnights" for 15% off first orders for my readers. I thought this would be a fun exercise since I have zero cooking talent and experience. The closest thing I get to being a chef is putting a frozen meal from Trader Joes into the oven.

I chose to make the creamy garlic parm fettucini with lemon grilled chicken meal. The ingredients arrived right on time (they have great communication with their customers) in a fun little twine tied box:

All incredients are included, cut and measured for you. The photo below shows all the contents for this dish, including raw chicken cutlets, mushrooms, sauce, garlic, butter, flour and everything else needed. There also two chocalate chip cookie dough balls for desert.

Since everything is already measured and chopped for you, cooking it is much easier for a novice like me. They estimated it would take 30 minutes to complete this meal, but it took me 45. This receipe required 3 different sized pots/pans, a pasta strainer and a range:

The marinated chicken pasta turned out great, with the mushrooms adding some great flavor. The meal got great reviews, and the cookies were a nice little bonus.

This meal would have cost $26 and made about 3 servings, enough for dinner for 2 plus leftovers. This is great if you want to cook an impressive meal but have no time to get ingredients from the store. Remember to use my promo code of clarendonnights to get 15% off your first order!

Everyone's birthday is in April

 

Whitlows Tiki bar opening party in 2011

So many celebrations in Clarendon this month! Here is a quick listing of anniversaries:

 - Fellow local blog Boobs Bacon Bourbon celebrated its first year in town.

 - Mad Rose has been here 2 years now.

 - Whitlows has been in Clarendon forever, but its Tiki rooftop bar turned 2 this month.

 - Clarendon Fitness has been helping us burn off happy hour calories for 3 years.

 - Lyon Hall and Northside Social are also both turning 3 in April.

 - Sister restaurant Liberty Tavern is 6 years old.

 - Rhodeside Grill just finished their renovations in time to turn 17 on tax day.

 - And this month is also my birthday, coming just after Clarendon Nights turned 5 years old!