Things I'm Talking About

• I am so excited that we launched the full Not Bored app yesterday! You can download it on iOS and Android
• I would love to hear any feedback, good or bad! Just reply and let me know!
• Did you know that the owners of Eebee's and Andy's Pizza are cousins? I had no idea. Well, now they're doing a collab dish of crab dip pizza, with a party tonight (h/t Washingtonian).
• DC United, who got $140 million plus $43 million in tax abatements from DC in the 2014 funding agreement to build the stadium, is asking for another $300 million from the city to build a roof on the stadium.
• King Arthur Baking Company is opening a baking school and store in Alexandria in December.
• 🦃 Join me for the 3rd annual Thanksgiving volunteer shift at Food For All DC in Dupont Circle on November 24, 2026! This is a really fun way to meet others while giving back to the community.

Valerie

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

Last week, we asked: How surprised were you with the mid-term election results? You responded:

• Somewhat surprised (59.6%)
• Very surprised (21.2%)
• Not surprised at all (11.5%)
• About what I expected (7.7%)

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: Zaytinya

"every time my parents get in town to visit, their first question is “When can we go to Zaytinya?!” 😂 never disappoints" Eric

Location: 701 9th Street 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.

Looking for something specific? Check out these options:

• ​Ways to disconnect in DC​
• ​Museum parties & happy hours​
• ​Mosaics classes
• ​Pottery & ceramics classes​
• ​Knitting & crochet classes​
• ​Photography classes​
• ​Run clubs​

• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Missed Connections: Chai Cafe Pop-Up turns Mood District into an offline hangout with board games, chess, newspapers, and henna on hand. Bring a book, a craft project, or just yourself and linger with coffee and snacks for purchase. Wednesday 11/11. Free.
• 🖌️ This fused glass candle holder workshop has glass artist Irene Vangsness walking you through cutting, layering, and firing techniques to build a candle cup and screen, with your finished piece kiln-fired and ready for pickup about a week later. Wednesday 11/11. $82.
• 📜 The Jane Austen Tour at Hammond-Harwood House walks through the 19th-century Annapolis home while comparing the real-life Loockerman family’s customs to the social rules governing Austen’s characters. Wednesday 11/11. $12.
• 🎈 Meadowlark’s Winter Walk of Lights opens its 15th season with a half-mile trail through Meadowlark Botanical Gardens strung with lighted displays, plus hot chocolate, s’mores, and a limited-edition ornament for sale. Wednesday 11/11. $19+.
• 🖌️ Get your hands dirty making a grapevine wreath at this free plant workshop in Metropolitan Park. You’ll create something beautiful to take home, and it’s perfect for anyone who wants to try something new. Wednesday 11/11. Free.
• 🍲 Guest chef ClandesKitchen takes over the kitchen at Providencia for a one-night taco pop-up, with the bar’s regular cocktail menu running alongside. Wednesday 11/11. Price not stated.

• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 After Dark: Stories We Carry turns the Anacostia Community Museum into an after-hours space for art-making, a DJ, and a recipe swap where you bring a family dish to trade for someone else's. Spiked cider and snack boxes included, 21+. Thursday 11/12. Free.
• 🎭 District of Pupusas is a documentary screening on how Salvadorans shaped DC through food and community, followed by a Q&A with co-directors Valeria Massarelli and Alexandra Colón-Amil and pupusas for the room. Thursday 11/12. Free; $10+ donation.
• 📖 Moments in Time: District History Through Photography gathers Art Bank grantee photographers Frank Day, Farrah Skeiky, Jarvis Grant, and Lely Constantinople at Eye Street Gallery to discuss documenting DC’s changing neighborhoods, marking the Art Bank Collection’s 40th anniversary. Thursday 11/12. Free.
• 🛍️ The Museums & Makers Holiday Market brings shops from DC’s museums and cultural institutions together under one roof at Strathmore, selling jewelry, toys, and gifts you won’t find at the mall. Proceeds go back to the nonprofits themselves. Thursday 11/12-11/14. Free, suggested donation $10.
• 📖 National Gallery Nights: Gratitude closes out the fall series with a communal mosaic, poetry writing in the galleries, and tokens of appreciation, plus a set from DJ Chan Don. Entry is by lottery. Thursday 11/12. Free.
• 🎭 Unpopular Opinion brings its live debate show back to Warner Theatre, with audience members taking the stage to defend their most controversial takes while the crowd reacts in real time. It’s the tour’s final DC stop of the year, and presenter applications are open for anyone who wants to argue their case on stage. Thursday 11/12. $48+.

• 🎭 The Alexandria Film Festival marks its 20th year with 80 films across venues in Old Town and Potomac Yard, ranging from documentaries to thrillers. More than 50 filmmakers show up for Q&As, and nearly 70 percent of the films are having premieres. Friday 11/13-11/15. $15.
• 🕺 Entre dos sombras is Edwin Aparicio’s world premiere at the Fuego Flamenco Festival, a tribute to three DC artists lost this year, including flamenco pillars Ana Martínez and Paco de Málaga. Friday 11/13-11/15. $25+.
• 🤓 Games, Play, and Community gathers local game designers and community builders at MLK Library for a day of talks and a tabletop showcase with Labyrinth Games, including a keynote on mahjong, culture, and connection. Friday 11/13. Free.
• 🍲 Doubles’ Seed to Cup Coffee Tasting brings together a roaster, pour-over demos, and the Colombian farmers behind the beans to walk through how coffee actually gets made, from growing to roasting to cup. Friday 11/13. Free.
• 🕺 Afrodesi DC ft. Mr Saj & Friends at Songbyrd mixes Afrobeats, Amapiano, and Dancehall with Indian Cinema and Desi anthems in one dance floor. Friday 11/13. $20+.
• 🍲 Brewing a Revolution: After Hours at the National Museum of American History pairs a historian panel on taverns and coffeehouses with five tastings from Dynasty Brewing, Right Proper, and The Roost. Includes a curator-led tour of the FOOD exhibition and live music. Friday 11/13. $39.
• 🖼️ Handwork: Contemporary Craft opens at the Renwick Gallery, pulling handmade objects from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection to examine what craft means in American culture. Friday 11/13. Free.
• 🛍️ The DowntownDC Holiday Market turns F Street NW into a stretch of market stalls for its 22nd year, with over 115 local vendors selling handcrafted gifts, art, and seasonal treats. Friday 11/13-12/23. Free.
• 🎈 Frosted at Franklin Park strings Downtown DC’s largest green space with thousands of lights, an icicle walkway, giant illuminated snowflakes, and a pair of light-up bears named Baby and Momma. It runs through early January, so there’s no rush to catch it on opening night. Friday 11/13-1/9/27. Free.
• 🎭 The Ibero-American Film Festival screens short films from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal with English subtitles at Planet Word’s Friedman Family Auditorium. Friday 11/13. Free.

• 🍲 The Autumn Maguro Festival marks the Japanese celebration of fall with whole tuna carving, nigiri and sashimi served minutes after the cut, live oyster shucking, and Japanese tea tastings. Saturday 11/14. $100.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 The Boozy Book Fair: 90s Edition turns Merry Pin into a grown-up Scholastic fair, with Goosebumps and Babysitters Club throwbacks alongside new releases, plus 90s-themed cocktails and crafting stations. Saturday 11/14. $18, includes your first drink.
• 🤓 District Arcade 2026 gathers 30+ independent game developers from DC, Maryland, and Virginia at MLK Library, with their games set up to play. Saturday 11/14. Free.
• 🤝 Brandywine Valley SPCA’s Home for the Holidays Open House covers what it takes to foster a dog or cat over Thanksgiving, Christmas, or both. Stop by to learn the process whether it’s your first time fostering or your fifth. Saturday 11/14. Free.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Socrates Bonfire Night revives the old Guy Fawkes tradition at Locust Grove’s Sycamore Campfire Ring, with a crafting station where you build your own small effigy to toss into the fire. Bring a dish to share. Saturday 11/14. Donation.
• 🛍️ The Urban Wood Sale stocks cedar, pine, oak, beech, and ash slabs in sizes ranging from 3/4” to 3” thick, with proceeds going to Montgomery Parks’ wood recycling programs. Saturday 11/14. $5-$400, credit card only.
• 🎭 No Country For Mothers is a documentary on the policy gaps and cultural pressures facing American mothers, including the country’s lack of guaranteed paid family leave, followed by a self-directed discussion. Saturday 11/14. Free.
• 🐾 A Cat’s Life Rescue brings adoptable cats to The Big Bad Woof in Takoma Park. Saturday 11/14. Free.
• 🎈 CityCenterDC’s Annual Holiday Tree Lighting Celebration kicks off the season a bit earlier this year, with a 78-foot tree, two 25-foot reindeer, balloon artists, and face painters before NBC4’s Eun Yang hosts the countdown. Saturday 11/14. Free.
• 🧑‍🍳 Learn to make your own loaf at Beginner Sourdough, a hands-on workshop at Edgewood Community Farm covering starters, folding, and shaping. Saturday 11/14. Pay what you can.

• 🍲 Suzie Q's 1st Annual Pie-Off is a blind-judged pie contest where store-bought crust is allowed but the filling has to be homemade. Sign up to compete for a spot on the Stanley Crust, or just show up to taste and vote for people's choice. Sunday 11/15. Free.
• 🍲 The DC Tofu Party at Spark Social asks everyone to bring their own tofu dish, making for a potluck built entirely around one ingredient. Sunday 11/15. Free.
• 🌐 Kimjang DC 2026 marks the Korean tradition of making kimchi together, with a kimchi demonstration from chef Patrice of Taegu Kimchi, a Samulnori drum performance, a fireside chat with Chef Danny Lee, and a K-pop dance workshop. Sunday 11/15. Free.
• 🎭 Noir-vember Matinees continues with a free screening of The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe untangling blackmail and murder alongside Lauren Bacall. Sunday 11/15. Free.
• 🧠 Aquaponics 101 at Edgewood Community Farm walks through how to grow plants and raise fish in one closed-loop system, with a live demo and tastings of greens and fish grown onsite. You’ll leave with a materials list and design guide for building your own setup at home. Sunday 11/15. $5.
• 🖌️ This Kente Weaving Workshop with Kwasi Asare teaches double shuttle design and plain Kente weaving techniques, open to adults of all skill levels. Sunday 11/15. $42.
• 🍲 This Russian-Uzbek lunch outing gathers women from around the world for lamb plov, dumplings, and borscht at RusUz in Arlington. Sunday 11/15. Free.
• 🖌️ The Sea Jewel Workshop at Torpedo Factory Art Center has artist Alison Sigethy guiding you through making jewelry from recycled glass. You leave with the piece you make. Sunday 11/15. Price not stated.
• 🤸 Sound Voyage brings crystal singing bowls and gong inside the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, with participants lying on mats beneath the hall’s columns and murals. Sunday 11/15. $55.
• 📜 This Land Before Oatlands presents new research on the Indigenous history of the land before the plantation, covering thousands of years of agriculture, trade, and migration in the Piedmont. A presentation is followed by a walking tour, so wear comfortable shoes. Sunday 11/15. 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.