Residents of our nation’s capital can enjoy the most celebrated food in the area on April 19, when DC’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry returns to a new venue, Nationals Park. The annual tasting event will showcase the city’s top chefs, sommeliers and mixologists teamed up for a cause: making sure all children in this country get the healthy food they need every day. One hundred percent of proceeds from the event benefit No Kid Hungry’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America.
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Location: Nationals Park, 1500 S Capitol St SE, Washington, DC 20003
Time: 6:00 – 9:30 p.m. for VIP/VIP Plus; 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. for General Admission
Led by Chef Chair George Pagonis (Kapnos, Kapnos Taverna, Kapnos Kouzina), Dessert Chair Tiffany MacIsaac (Buttercream Bakeshop), Mixology Chair Derek Brown (The Columbia Room, Mockingbird Hill, Southern Efficiency, Eat the Rich), and Sommelier Chair Nadine Brown (Charlie Palmer Steak), DC’s culinary tastemakers will provide guests with bite-size fare, craft cocktails, and sweets treats, driving taste buds out of the park. Taste of the Nation will offer foodie fans a chance to sample the city’s latest dining spots. Guests will also enjoy live DJ entertainment and the chance to win one of a kind auction items.
Every Kid, Healthy Food, Every Day
Nearly one in five children in this country struggles with hunger, including more than 29,000 kids in Washington, DC. No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger in this nation by ensuring that kids start the day with a nutritious breakfast and families learn the skills they need to shop and cook on a budget. Since the campaign’s launch, No Kid Hungry and its partners have connected kids struggling with hunger to more than 500 million meals.
In 2016, DC’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry raised enough to help feed children in need more than 2 million healthy meals. Area beneficiaries include Capital Area Food Bank, DC Hunger Solutions, and Mary’s Center.
DC’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry is supported by national presenting sponsors Citi and Sysco®, national media sponsor Food Network, and national sponsors OpenTable, and The Glenlivet.
Tickets start at $100 for General admission. For additional information and to purchase tickets, please visit: ce.nokidhungry.org/dc
The best eateries in the DC area will be represented at the event, including:
Agora Restaurant | Art and Soul | B&O American Brasserie | Bangkok Joe’s | Bar Pilar | Barrel | Best Buns Bread Company | Beucherts Saloon | Bidwell | Birroteca | Bub and Pop’s | Carlyle | Del Campo | Dino’s Grotto | Dirty Habit DC | District Distilling Company | Dolcezza Gelato |Espita Mezcaleria | Firefly DC | La Cuchara | Mandu | Mason Dixie Biscuit Co. | Medium Rare | Osteria Morini | Plume | Policy Restaurant & Lounge | Preserve | Radiator DC Sweet Home Cafe at the National Museum of African American History and Culture | RPM Italian DC | Sixth Engine Restaurant | Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar | Soup Up | Sugar Shack Donuts & Coffee |The Prospect | The Food Market | Whaleys | Wit & Wisdom | Zentan
Residents of our nation’s capital can enjoy the most celebrated food in the area on April 19, when DC’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry, presented by Citi and Sysco, returns to a new venue, Nationals Park. The annual tasting event will showcase the city’s top chefs, sommeliers and mixologists teamed up for a cause: making sure all children in this country get the healthy food they need every day. One hundred percent of proceeds from the event benefit No Kid Hungry’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America.
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Location: Nationals Park, 1500 S Capitol St SE, Washington, DC 20003
Time: 6:00 – 9:30 p.m. for VIP/VIP Plus; 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. for General Admission
Led by Chef Chair George Pagonis (Kapnos, Kapnos Taverna, Kapnos Kouzina), Dessert Chair Tiffany MacIsaac (Buttercream Bakeshop), Mixology Chair Derek Brown (The Columbia Room, Mockingbird Hill, Southern Efficiency, Eat the Rich), and Sommelier Chair Nadine Brown (Charlie Palmer Steak), DC’s culinary tastemakers will provide guests with bite-size fare, craft cocktails, and sweets treats, driving taste buds out of the park.
This year, Citi is excited to host Judah & the Lion on the mainstage overlooking the ballpark. Judah & the Lion blend the twang of folk, the beat of hip-hop, the drive of rock & roll and the punch of pop to create a truly genre-bending sound.
The new venue will also bring a refreshed cocktail scene. National sponsor Glenlivet will host an on-site pop-up bar and mixologist Gina Chersevani will serve Casa Noble Margaritas out of her Union Market airstream Suburbia
As always, Taste of the Nation will offer foodie fans a chance to sample the city’s latest dining spots, including ANXO Cidery & Pintxos Bar, Clarity, RPM Italian, Succotash and Whaley’s, and the greater DMV through “Baltimore Row” and “VA is for Food Lovers” sections. Baseball fans will also get a taste of the ballpark. A District Dugout area will feature some of Nationals Park’s favorite vendors, including Blue Smoke, Shake Shack, and On Rye!
Every Kid, Healthy Food, Every Day
Nearly one in five children in this country struggles with hunger, including more than 29,000 kids in Washington, DC. No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger in this nation by ensuring that kids start the day with a nutritious breakfast and families learn the skills they need to shop and cook on a budget. Since the campaign’s launch, No Kid Hungry and its partners have connected kids struggling with hunger to more than 500 million meals.
In 2016, DC’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry raised enough to help feed children in need more than 2 million healthy meals. Area beneficiaries include Capital Area Food Bank, DC Hunger Solutions, and Mary’s Center.
DC’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry is supported by national presenting sponsors Citi and Sysco®, national media sponsor Food Network, and national sponsors OpenTable, and The Glenlivet.
Tickets start at $100 for General admission. For additional information and to purchase tickets, please visit: ce.nokidhungry.org/dc
The best eateries in the DC area will be represented at the event, including:
1789 Restaurant | Agora Restaurant | Al Dente | Alba Osteria | Alta Strada | ANXO Cidery & Pintxos Bar | Art and Soul | B&O American Brasserie | Bangkok Joe’s | Bar Pilar | Barrel | Belga | Best Buns Bread Company | Beuchert’s Saloon | Bidwell | BLT Prime | BLT Steak | Blue Smoke | Boqueria | Bub and Pop’s | Buttercream Bakeshop | Captain Cookie and the Milkman | Carlyle | Casolare Ristorante + Bar | Chloe | Choolaah Indian BBQ | Compass Rose | Cork Wine Bar | Del Campo | Dino’s Grotto | Dirty Habit DC | District Distilling Company | District Doughnut | Doi Moi | Dolcezza | Don Churro | Espita Mezcaleria | Estadio | Farmers & Distillers | Firefly DC | Fluffness | Fork & Wrench | Gravitas | Hersh’s | Homestead | Ice Cream Jubilee | Insomnia Cookies | Jack Rose Dining Saloon | Kapnos | L’Hommage Bistro | La Cuchara | Le Diplomate | Mandu | Mason Dixie Biscuit Co. | Matchbox | Medium Rare | Modern Cook Shop | Mon Ami Gabi | Oceanaire Seafood Room | Olivia Macaron | On Rye | Osteria Morini | Ottoman Taverna | Palette 22 | Pen & Quill | Petit Louis | Pinea | Plume | Policy | Preserve | Proof | Radiator DC | RASA | RPM Italian DC | Shake Shack | Sixth Engine Restaurant | Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar | Soup Up | Stella Barra Pizzeria | Succotash Restaurant | Sugar Shack Donuts & Coffeee | Summer House Santa Monica | Sweet Home Cafe at the National Museum of African American History and Culture | Ted’s Bulletin | The Bird | The Charmery | The Fainting Goat | The Food Market | The Prospect | The Royal | The Salt Line | The Sweet Lobby | Thip Khao | Tico DC | Trummer’s On Main | Vinoteca | Whaleys | Whisked | Wit & Wisdom | Zentan
The Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) has increased its fundraising goal for the 14th Annual Blue Jeans Ball to $500,000—enough to provide 1.25 million meals to those in need around metropolitan Washington. Following its recent move to stop accepting junk food donations, the CAFB received national praise among leading voices in the fight against hunger, resulting in record levels of pre-event exposure and sponsorship. Consequently, the organization is introducing new elements at this year’s gala celebration, slated for Sunday, April 23, with the goal of funding more nutritious meals than ever before.
New food and drink:
- New restaurants serving 40+ savory and sweet bites include Colada Shop (“Little Havana Done Right” – Washington Post), Arroz by Mike Isabella, Pub and the People
- Mixology Chair Gina Chersevani, Buffalo & Bergen, to pour specialty cocktail
- Chef Chair Ryan Ratino, Ripple to feature kampachi crudo with uni botarga and leche de tigre mousse
New entertainment:
- New Orleans-style band Dupont Brass will entertain throughout the evening
- Unique bottles from outstanding distilleries will be offered at a special “Spirits Pull,” where a $35 donation offers guests the chance to take home a bottle of prized liquor
New auction items:
- One week’s stay at an 18th century farmhouse in Umbria, Italy
- Tour for 20 of BrightFarms’ hydroponic greenhouse, with catered lunch and as many greens as you can carry
- Austin, Texas dream trip: 7 days for four guests with live music, famous Austin dining, and much more
- Tickets to the 117th U.S. Open golf tournament, with hospitality included
As always, guests arrive in their most fashionable denim and taste to their hearts’ content. Each ticket to the Blue Jeans Ball provides 500 life-changing meals for people in need in our area, and can be purchased at capitalareafoodbank.org/blue-jeans-ball/.
When: Sunday, April 23, 2017
5 pm: VIP reception
6 pm: Tastings, cocktails and silent auction
8 pm: Program & live auction
Where: Marriott Marquis Hotel
901 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001
Hotel valet parking available for a fee
Why: The Capital Area Food Bank is the largest organization in the Washington metro area working to solve hunger and its companion problems: chronic undernutrition, heart disease and obesity. By partnering with nearly 450 community organizations in DC, Maryland and Virginia, as well as delivering food directly in hard to reach areas, the CAFB is helping 540,000 people each year get access to good, healthy food. That’s 12 percent of our region’s mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, and grandparents. Visit: capitalareafoodbank.org, facebook.com/CapitalAreaFoodBank, and Twitter at @foodbankmetrodc.
Meet Lisa Messerschmidt, whose life was changed by the Blue Jeans Ball. With a parent who needed care and no sibling to rely on for help, she had to leave work and rely on her husband’s salary alone. When he then lost his job due to the government shutdown, they couldn’t pay their bills, had their car repossessed, and their credit crashed. Lisa spent the next couple of years at the mercy of others, at times living without heat, running water, medical care, or, very often, food.
Enter her neighborhood nonprofit, supplied with food by the Capital Area Food Bank. They provided her family with the training and resources needed to get back on their feet – starting with vegetables, fruit and other ingredients to cook with. In Lisa’s words, “having food on the table made everything else seem possible.” The Capital Area Food Bank helped to turn crisis into stability for her family, and by attending this year’s Blue Jeans Ball, guests can do the same for others.
Each ticket to the Blue Jeans Ball provides 500 life-changing meals for people in need in our area. Today, Lisa works for the food bank, helping distribute food made possible by the Blue Jeans Ball.
When: Sunday, April 23, 2017
5 pm: VIP reception
6 pm: Tastings, cocktails and silent auction
8 pm: Program & live auction
Where: Marriott Marquis Hotel
901 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Hotel valet parking available for a fee
What: 40+ savory and sweet tasting stations from Oyamel, The Palm, Ripple, Occidental and more…Made-to-order cocktails from Mixology Chairs Gina Chersevani (Buffalo & Bergen) & Eddie Kim (Bar Dupont)…and the Washington Redskins Foundation has joined this year’s effort to end childhood hunger!
How: Ticket details available at capitalareafoodbank.org/blue-jeans-ball/; as always, guests arrive in their most fashionable denim and taste to their hearts’ content!
About: The Capital Area Food Bank is the largest organization in the Washington metro area working to solve hunger and its companion problems: chronic undernutrition, heart disease and obesity. By partnering with nearly 450 community organizations in DC, Maryland and Virginia, as well as delivering food directly in hard to reach areas, the CAFB is helping 540,000 people each year get access to good, healthy food. That’s 12 percent of our region’s mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, and grandparents. Visit: capitalareafoodbank.org, facebook.com/CapitalAreaFoodBank, and Twitter at @foodbankmetrodc.
Shaw Main Streets will host its annual Taste of Shaw Gala on Tuesday April 25, 2017, from 7pm to 9pm. The annual event celebrates the neighborhood’s diverse businesses and residents, and is a fundraiser for initiatives that enhance and promote commerce within the Shaw neighborhood. DC’s beloved Howard Theatre will be the backdrop for live music and libations and delicious bites from some of DC’s best bars and restaurants. Proceeds from the event support Shaw Main Streets’ economic revitalization and historic preservation activities in the Shaw neighborhood of DC, which have helped bring about the transformation of central Shaw since 2003. This year’s hashtag, #LoveShaw, represents the comradery of Shaw’s business owners and the citywide support and accolades the neighborhood continues to receive. From Michelin stars to Rammy nominations and stellar reviews, Shaw’s bars and restaurants continue to help raise the Shaw neighborhood’s profile locally and nationally.
A hospitality renaissance led by top chefs and mixologists has been under way in recent years, bringing fresh concepts and perspectives in cuisine and beverage, as well as a host of new talent, making Shaw the city’s top dining and imbibing destination. Recent openings such as the neighborhood craft cocktail bar Service Bar DC (a new take on the local watering hole from veteran bartenders Chad Spangler and Glendon Hartley), the Chinese-French concept Kyirisan from husband and wife team Tim and Joey Ma, and neighborhood anchors such as The Passenger, DC’s favorite industry bar, and Convivial, which was one of 2015’s opening highlights; will be among the many participants in the annual Shaw Main Streets Gala. Shaw Main Streets invites the entire region to explore some of the best of the neighborhood has to offer at one venue, on one special evening.
Guests can expect a festive atmosphere, open beer and wine bar, and unlimited cuisine and cocktails from a Taste of Shaw’s stellar host committee of chefs, restaurateurs, and mixologists. Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen will receive the 2017 Shaw Champion Award, chosen by the Board of Directors of Shaw Main Streets for his consistent support of economic revitalization in Shaw and SMS’ efforts to create the thriving community that Shaw is today. Appearances by Mayor Bowser and other public officials are also slated.
The 2017 Taste of Shaw host committee includes the following bars and restaurants:
The Brixton Buttercream Bakeshop Cava
Convivial Dacha Dino’s Grotto
The Tavern at Henley Park Eat the Rich El Rey
Etete French Quarter Brasserie Haikan
Half Smoke Kyirisian La Jambe
The Passenger Service Bar Seylou
Southern Efficiency Tiger Fork
Advance tickets are $80 and can be ordered online at www.smsgala17.eventbrite.com. On the day of the event, tickets will be $100. Tickets include unlimited food and cocktail tastings, beer and wine, and complimentary valet parking.
The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s (ADDF) Seventh Annual Great Ladies Luncheon &
Fashion Show will be held in partnership with Neiman Marcus Mazza Gallerie. All proceeds benefit the ADDF and
its mission to find effective treatments for Alzheimer’s and related dementias. The event opens with a morning
presentation, “The Symposium to Conquer Alzheimer’s.” After the scientific presentation, guests enjoy lunch
followed by a runway show featuring the Fall 2017 Collection of Brunello Cucinelli.
WHO: Leonard A. Lauder will welcome guests to the luncheon. The morning’s presentation will be given by
ADDF neuroscientists Howard Fillit, MD, and Penny Dacks, PhD, with an introduction by Andrea Mitchell.
Sally Quinn is the Honoree and other guests scheduled to attend include the event’s Founding Executive Chairs
Elise and Marc Lefkowitz; Honorary Chairs Ambassador of Italy Armando Varricchio and Mrs. Armando
Varricchio; Committee Co-Chairs include Shelley Banks, Nancy Taylor Bubes, Andrea Mitchell, Kelly Ripkin
and Patricia Sagon; Committee Members include Amy Baier, Lisa Brandt Beek, Grace Bender, Tracy
Bernstein, Wilma Bernstein, Admiral Susan Blumenthal, MD, Buffy Cafritz, Sharon Collins Casey, Meryl
Comer, Debbie Dingell, Liz Dubin, Samia Farouki, Alma Gildenhorn, Marlene A. Malek, Melanie Nussdorf,
Mary Ourisman, Thomas Pheasant, Genevieve McSweeney Ryan, Lorraine Wallace, Tony Verstandig, and
Carol Gildenhorn Winer; Nancy Goodes and Judy Glickman Lauder will also be in attendance.
WHERE: The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.
1150 22nd Street N.W.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 26, 2017 | 10:30 am – 2:00 pm
10:30 am | Scientific Presentation
12:00 pm | Luncheon & Fashion Show
The Friends of the National Arboretum Garden Fair and Plant Sale will be taking place on April 28 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on April 29 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the U.S. National Arboretum.
The 27th annual Garden Fair and Plant Sale, hosted by Friends of the National Arboretum (FONA), has moved to a new central location in the U.S. National Arboretum, which is celebrating its 90th year.
This year’s event, April 28-29, has been relocated and will now be outside the Administration Building and Visitor Center, adjacent to the National Capitol Columns, Azalea Collection and the Grove of State Trees. Attendees will see more of the Arboretum grounds as they shop for traditional and rare plants from nurseries around the world, including new offerings like Gentiana acaulis hybrids, Beesia deltophylla, Phygelius cultivars and eight different types of Cypripedium orchids.
The Garden Fair and Plant Sale is a weekend designed for gardeners of all levels in the D.C. area searching for their perfect plant, herbs from the Potomac Unit of the National Herb Society or horticulture guidance from expert horticulturists. The 2017 Garden Fair and Plant Sale will also feature food and drink vendors, a performance by the Washington Revels, and a strawberry potting activity for children.
For more information please visit www.fona.org/gardenfair. I am available to answer any questions you may have.
The Child & Family Network Center announces its Spring Benefit, its largest fundraising event of the year, that will take place on Friday, April 28, 2017 at 7:00pm at the beautiful home of Ray and Shaista Mahmood (4290 Neitzey Place in Alexandria). Their gorgeous house on the shores of the Potomac River has been a sought-after location for many local and international philanthropic events, and gatherings of diplomats and other political and business leaders. With 200 guests, an exclusive venue, and the theme Black, White and Read All Over, this year’s benefit is sure to be bigger and better than ever.
Since 1984, The Child & Family Network Centers has brought education and opportunity to thousands of families in need. In 2017, our critical focus continues to be meeting the ever increasing needs of the community we serve, the working poor of Northern Virginia. Your help is essential to ensure hundreds of children don’t enter kindergarten without the basic skills necessary to succeed. Please join us for a memorable night and help us give Alexandria’s most vulnerable children the preschool education they deserve.
For more information click here or contact Maggie Klefstad at mklefstad@cfnc-online.org
This is the link to purchase tickets: https://
As much as Jonathan Larsen’s unprecedented Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent impacted popular culture, it also transformed the lives of the actors that embodied a group of young friends trying to forge a life for themselves in New York’s bohemian East Village. 20 years after Rent’s Broadway debut, original cast members Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp reunite at the Music Center at Strathmore on Friday, April 28, 2017 at 8 p.m. to commemorate this cultural touchstone and 20 years of friendship. The concert of duets and solos will include originals, reimagined Broadway classics, and favorites from Rent. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.
Throughout the set, the duo will share stories about their careers, including what it was like working on one of the longest running musicals in Broadway history. Rent has proved a thread throughout their careers that has periodically brought the two back together—prior to the 20thanniversary concert tour, both reprised their Rent roles during the national tour in 2009.
Tony-nominated Adam Pascal recently returned to Broadway’s Nederlander Theater, where Rent lived for years, in the new musical Disaster! Since his days playing Roger in Rent, Pascal has starred in Aida, Chicago, and Memphis. He is currently playing Shakespeare in the national tour of Something Rotten!
After originating the role of Mark in Rent, Anthony Rapp went on to originate another character in If/Then alongside previous Rent co-star Idina Menzel, which debuted at Washington, D.C.’s National Theatre. He wrote the book Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent, about the demands of life in the theater during his mother’s battle with cancer, which he later adapted into a one-man show. It was recently announced that Rapp will star as “astromycologist” Lt. Stamets in Star Trek: Discovery for CBS All Access, the first series developed specifically for this platform and the first Star Trek series since Star Trek: Enterprise (2005). Stamets is also the first openly gay character conceived for the Star Trek franchise.
The Friends of the National Arboretum Garden Fair and Plant Sale will be taking place on April 28 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on April 29 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the U.S. National Arboretum.
The 27th annual Garden Fair and Plant Sale, hosted by Friends of the National Arboretum (FONA), has moved to a new central location in the U.S. National Arboretum, which is celebrating its 90th year.
This year’s event, April 28-29, has been relocated and will now be outside the Administration Building and Visitor Center, adjacent to the National Capitol Columns, Azalea Collection and the Grove of State Trees. Attendees will see more of the Arboretum grounds as they shop for traditional and rare plants from nurseries around the world, including new offerings like Gentiana acaulis hybrids, Beesia deltophylla, Phygelius cultivars and eight different types of Cypripedium orchids.
The Garden Fair and Plant Sale is a weekend designed for gardeners of all levels in the D.C. area searching for their perfect plant, herbs from the Potomac Unit of the National Herb Society or horticulture guidance from expert horticulturists. The 2017 Garden Fair and Plant Sale will also feature food and drink vendors, a performance by the Washington Revels, and a strawberry potting activity for children.
For more information please visit www.fona.org/gardenfair.