Things I'm Talking About

• The cat crawl is only a week and a half away!!! This is your last chance to get involved.
• My favorite cookbook author, Fuchsia Dunlop, will be the guest of honor at the Monday 10/19 banquet at Chang Chang. At her last book signing that I went to in 2019, Peter Chang was there giving out samples for dumplings from Mama Chang too, which was delicious.
• Lots of pop music released on Friday: Miley Cyrus, Tove Lo, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kim Petras, and Meg Stalter, with singles/EPs from Tove Styrke and DRAMA. I know I thought this fall is pop girl concert central, but it's just a matter of time until tours are announced.
• I'm unclear on the status of some events at the Kennedy Center. There are some coming up that are still listed on their website, but they're indoors. Use caution when planning any Kennedy Center events.
• The African-American Civil War Museum is re-opening next week (9/30) after years of renovation and relocation (and delays).

Valerie

Give your opinion, and check back next week for the results.

Last week, we asked: What do you want more of in your life? You responded:

• Good company (91.3%)
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BODY LANGUAGE turns this all-too-familiar chaos into comedy, as Moth GrandSlam winner Jenny Napolitano takes on medical gaslighting, sex, reproductive health, relationships, and the deeply ridiculous experience of existing inside a human body.

Equal parts stand-up, storytelling, and theater, it premieres September 25-27.

🎟️ Get tickets for this weekend >>>​

(& get $5 off Saturday's show with code 5SAT5!)

Tried & True features your favorite go-to restaurants that have been around for a while and serve you consistently good food.

This Week's Feature: La Chaumiere DC

"@lachaumieredc has the best French food - I’ve been going to both for nearly a decade now! …especially in winter they have an indoor fire and it feels like you’re in a countryside chateau in France! I highly recommend one of their menu staples: the salmon puff pastry with champagne dill sauce!" Parisa

Location: 2813 M St NW
​Website​

😋 What is your favorite tried and true restaurant?

Where do you find yourself going back time and time again? Reply and let me know who should be featured and why, and share the love for a local DC restaurant.

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• 🍲 SHIA x Early Mountain Vineyards pairs five courses of Korean cooking, from mul hwe to lamb, with five wines from the Virginia vineyard, including a late harvest petit manseng with dessert. Wednesday 9/23. $250.
• 🤸 Fit @ Met Park brings free outdoor workout classes to Metropolitan Park, with this week’s session led by Onelife Fitness doing LM Pilates. Attend enough sessions and rack up punch card prizes like a gym bag or gift card. Wednesday 9/23. Free.
• 🕺 L’Rain is Brooklyn-based Taja Cheek performing her ethereal R&B at DC9. Catch music that weaves field recordings (street noise, a pastor singing at a funeral) into deconstructed instrumentals and delicate vocals. Wednesday 9/23. $20+.
• 🤓 National Geographic Trivia Night at Explorers Eatery runs real Sporcle-built questions on science, wildlife, and culture instead of the usual bar trivia grab bag. Entry includes a beer, wine, or soft drink and two rounds of play, with prizes for top teams. Wednesday 9/23. $10.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Survivor Season 51 Watch Party kicks off on DC9’s rooftop deck, where you can watch the premiere with a crowd of actual fans. Wednesday 9/23. Free.
• 🍲 A Taste of Autumn on the Plaza brings tastings from MGM National Harbor’s restaurants, including Osteria Costa, Ginger, and Voltaggio Brothers Steak House, plus live sets from Push Play and The Crank Crusaders featuring Raheem DaVaughn. Wednesday 9/23. $87.

• 🍲 A Taste of History: Favorite Presidential Cocktails is a six-station guided tasting at The People's House pairing small cocktail pours and bites with the history behind each president or first lady's favorite drink. Ticket includes a standard pour after the tour and a Truman Seal glass to take home. Thursday 9/24. $150.
• 🎭 Theatre Week stretches across three weeks and gets you $25-$65 tickets to productions at venues all over the DC region, from musicals to dramas to shows for kids. It kicks off with a free Kickoff Fest before the discounts roll out. Thursday 9/24-10/11. $25+.
• 📜 Brew to the People at Tudor Place is an after-hours evening modeled on colonial coffeehouses, where you’ll explore objects from the Martha Washington estate sale exhibition and then move to the Dower House for cocktails and conversation. Thursday 9/24. $25.
• 🍾 Catch the two-episode premiere of American Horror Story Season 13 at Spark Social’s watch party on the back patio, hosted by Grey. Thursday 9/24. Free.
• 🖌️ Bring paper, beads, or thread you’re not using to this Art Supply Swap & Market at Tim Kime’s studio and swap them for something new to work with. Stick around to make art with the supplies you find, alongside Finding Your Good and Goodwill Greater Washington. Thursday 9/24. Free.
• 🍲 This Malt Sensory Workshop at Heurich House Museum walks you through three guided malt steeps, including the malts behind DC’s historic Senate Beer and Senate Maerzen, with a panel from the brewers and maltsters behind the revival. A good pick if you want to understand what you’re tasting in a lager. Thursday 9/24. $30.

• 🎈 The National Museum of African American History and Culture turns 10 with a weekend of zine-making, a go-go performance from Proper Utensils Band, dance workshops, and a special anniversary menu at Sweet Home Café. Friday 9/25-9/27. Free, registration required.
• 🕺 Haute & Freddy’s Big Disgrace Tour brings the circus-inspired pop album to the 9:30 Club for a late-night show. Friday 9/25. $32.*
• 🎭 The REACH celebrates National Dolly Parton Day with a tribute to her Kennedy Center Honors legacy and an outdoor screening of 9 to 5. Rhinestones and fringe encouraged. Friday 9/25. Free.
• 🕺 Burlesque Underground at Dupont Underground is a Latin burlesque showcase headlined by international performers including NYC’s “Nuyorican Bombshell” Miss Frankie Eleanor and Houston-born Gia Vaughna, with two gallery exhibitions on view in the space. Friday 9/25. $20+.
• 🖼️ Girlism turns a private Upper Georgetown mansion into a salon-style gallery of work by women artists, hung floor to ceiling on every wall, up the staircase, and across the mantels. The opening gala is black tie with an open bar and live painting; eighty percent of each sale goes directly to the artist. Friday 9/25. $100.
• 🤓 Killer Queen New Player Night is a 5v5 arcade game blending Joust, Mario, and Overwatch on one screen, and this session at Midlands Beer Garden is built for people who’ve never touched the controls. You’ll learn the mechanics, get placed on a team, and play low-pressure matches with local regulars. Friday 9/25. Free.
• 🌐 MOAPIA’s Mid-Autumn Festival Night Market takes over Chinatown Park with AANHPI vendors, a mooncake bake-off, and the unveiling of a new sculpture at Lotus Plaza. Friday 9/25. Free.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Red Flag Or Not? Hot Take Night Vol 2 at The Craft turns your submitted icks and relationship hot takes into a crowd-judged debate, with an MC reading them aloud and prizes on the line. Friday 9/25. $20.
• 🧑‍🍳 At Wines of the Ancient World, you’ll taste six wines from regions that have been making them since 6000 BC (think Lebanon and the eastern Mediterranean) with Planet Wine’s director Erin Dudley, plus cheese and bread to go with. Friday 9/25. $53.
• 🍲 Cozy District’s Cinema Supper Club: Alice in Wonderland pairs a multi-course menu with a screening at The Moose in Vienna, with dishes timed to hit as the story unfolds. Friday 9/25. $90+.

• 🎈 The 24th Annual Alexandria Art Festival brings together juried artwork from artists across the country at John Carlyle Square in Alexandria. Saturday 9/26-9/27. Free.
• 🤸 The 50 States Ride is an annual bike ride through every state-named avenue in DC, with route options ranging from 10 to 60 miles depending on how ambitious you’re feeling. Pit stops and an after-party are included. Saturday 9/26. $50+.
• 🐾 Join the official B.A.R.K. Ranger at Rock Creek Park, where a ranger inducts new dogs with a badge, giveaways, and a photo op after you pledge to bag waste, leash up, and respect wildlife. Saturday 9/26. Free.
• 🕺 Camp SOD Fest is a new two-day festival at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, with PARTYNEXTDOOR and G-Herbo headlining Saturday and Don Toliver, DaBaby, and Yung Miami closing out Sunday. 21+. Saturday 9/26-27. $41.
• 🌐 Cumbiafest takes over Lamont Plaza with live sets from Milagro Verde, Los Nuevos Diablos, La Marvela, Electric Charango Beats, and DJ Bastian, tracing cumbia’s path from Colombia through the Americas. Expect an artisan market and family-friendly activities alongside the music. Saturday 9/26. Free.
• 🌐 The DC African Restaurant Week Festival brings together food from across the African diaspora alongside a marketplace, live cultural performances, and DJs spinning afrobeats, soca, kompa, and amapiano. Saturday 9/26. Free.
• 🌐 Fiesta DC 2026 spotlights Brazil as this year’s Country of Honor, with Brazilian music and dance on the main stage, food vendors, and cultural exhibitions alongside the wider Latin American programming. Come back Sunday for the Parade of the Nations. Saturday 9/26-9/27. Free.
• 🕺 Gorgon City is a UK house and dance duo playing Echostage, with support from Australian producer Hayden James. Saturday 9/26. $51+. *
• 🧑‍🍳 Chef Scheyla Acosta (former executive chef at Georgetown’s La Bonne Vache) is teaching a hands-on class built around five soups from five different culinary traditions, from Brazilian shrimp to Senegalese peanut butter. Beer and wine included. Saturday 9/26. $99.
• 🕺 Tinashe is DJing at The Sound Garden in Fell’s Point to mark the release of her new album “Popstar” on vinyl. Space is limited and priority entry goes to anyone who pre-orders the Stardust vinyl variant with in-store pickup. Saturday 9/26. Free with pre-order.

• 🧠 Paw Paw Tasting & Growing is a hands-on workshop at Edgewood Community Farm covering how to grow North America's largest native fruit, plus a tasting of locally foraged pawpaws. Everyone leaves with a seedling grown from seeds harvested at Great Falls. Sunday 9/27. $5.
• 🍲 Shuck, Taste, & Discover is a hands-on oyster shucking workshop tied to the Smithsonian’s African American history museum, covering knife technique and oyster anatomy alongside the story of Black watermen who built independence through the 19th-century Chesapeake oyster boom. Ticket includes oysters to shuck, a knife, and gloves to keep. Sunday 9/27. $15.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 The Super Soaker Showdown at Quincy Park splits up into teams for a full-on water gun fight, no water gun required (bring any water toy that works). Sunday 9/27. Free.
• 🎈 Abell Community Street Fair is a free outdoor block party in Baltimore that’s been running since 1973, set against the neighborhood’s brightly painted rowhouses with live music, local vendors, food, and a silent auction. Sunday 9/27. Free.
• 🐾 Baltimore Cat Tour is a neighborhood crawl through Fells Point where residents bring their cats to the door to meet the crowd. Sunday 9/27. $7.
• 📜 Meet reenactors from the DC Chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers Association at Buffalo Soldiers: America’s First Park Rangers at Peirce Mill, with historic uniforms on display and stories of the regiments who protected Yosemite and Sequoia. Peirce Mill has its own tie to the history: Hattie Sewell, who ran a concession there, was married to a veteran of the 10th U.S. Cavalry. Sunday 9/27. Free.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Hillwood partners with Rainbow Families for a picnic on the estate’s grounds, with lawn games, a putting green, an art project, and the textile exhibition Interwoven open for wandering. Bring your own spread or buy food from Merriweather To Go, and grab a blanket for the Lunar Lawn. Sunday 9/27. $5 advance, $18 same-day.
• 🕺 WPFW’s Jazz & Justice Festival takes over Meridian Hill Park with a lineup spanning Baltimore trumpeter Brandon Woody, singer-rapper MuMu Fresh, and salsa outfit Edwin Ortiz y La Mafia Del Guaguanco, alongside community discussions, documentary screenings, and an art gallery at Josephine Butler Parks Center. Sunday 9/27. Free.
• 🧑‍🍳 Masa & Mezza is a hands-on cooking class at El Tamarindo where you’ll make pupusas filled with spiced beef, spinach, and pine nuts, a nod to the historic culinary exchange between Levantine immigrants and Central America. Ends with a family-style spread of Levantine and Salvadoran mezze. Sunday 9/27. $115.
• 🎈 The Takoma Park Folk Festival fills six stages with music from around the world, alongside a juried craft show, international food, and a new jam session open to musicians of any skill level. Sunday 9/27. Free.

🤫 Psst! I couldn't fit everything in this issue. See all the events happening over the next week!

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* Items marked with an asterisks contain affiliate links (for which I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you) or sponsored. Events are featured based on if I find them interesting and think others will too, regardless if they are affiliate or sponsored.