Shaw Celebrates Open Streets
On Saturday, October 5, the District Department of Transportation shut down Seventh Street between Rhode Island Avenue and E Street for its latest Open Streets event. The one mile stretch of Seventh Street was closed to vehicles so people could safely walk, run, bike, and play. As Shaw residents, along with other visitors, strolled down the street, yoga and pilates sessions were set up along the road. Giant Pharmacy opened up an Airstream travel trailer offering vaccinations. Young children enjoyed a giant moonbounce and foamboree.
The Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) set up a monster video screen that would allow people to play popular video games of the last century. The Gran Cata wineshop set up a ring toss competition offering a free bottle of wine to any winner. At the north end of the open street, at Rhode Island Avenue, a Marimba orchestra, Luna de Xelaju, played in front of the Maltiox Guatemalan restaurant.
Northern Irish Minister Tours Shaw
Shaw Main Streets hosted a tour of the neighborhood October 16 for Gordon Lyons, Minister for Communities in Northern Ireland, to outline the successes of the Main Street program in Shaw. Minister Lyons was interested seeing how Main Streets encouraged neighborhood economic development and picked Shaw as a result of its wining the Great American Main Streets Award as an exemplary illustration of how the process works.
Shaw Main Streets Executive Director Alexander Padro led the Minister and his entourage on a tour that started with the Marriot Marquis Convention Center Hotel, the Carnegie Library with its Apple Store and the Washington Convention Center. Then they moved to City Market at O and the Giant Food store to see that award-winning mixed-use development. At the Howard Theater, a site that the minister had expressed a particular interest in seeing, the group learned about this vaunted venue’s entertainment history and the effort required to renew it. The tour also visited Lee’s Flower and Card Shop to hear how a multigenerational small business has survived and thrived. The tour concluded a pass by the Little Gay Pub, whose three-story tall mural includes the flowers of the kingdoms of the UK, including the Northern Irish shamrock.
Pearl’s Bagels Declared Best in DMV
While the Washington Post is too afraid to make an endorsement in the Presidential contest, it is still willing to express a preference in the contentious contest for the Best Bagel in town. After an extensive examination of bagel purveyors in the DMV, the Post rated Shaw’s own Pearl’s Bagels as No. 1. The newspaper declared that “This husband-and-wife shop in Shaw ran away with the competition in every way conceivable,” beating out a number of bigger, more well-known businesses. Pearl’s plain bagel got the highest score from the Post’s team of judges, with its everything bagel getting the only perfect 10 in the competition.
Qui Qui Holds Rum Tasting
Qui Qui, Shaw’s Puerto Rican restaurant, held a special rum tasting on October 11, featuring Ron Del Barrilito rums. Brand ambassador Jose Ortega gave a history of the distillery, which dates to an eighteenth-century sugar plantation in Puerto Rico where a scion of the family decided to start making rum. Ortega noted some of the quirks of the process, including the fact that the distillery relies on only rainwater from a cistern to make its products. He then led the tasters through a series of rums rated four and five stars by the distillery. The highlight of the evening was a tasting of their Don Pedro Fernandez Selection 1, a rare single cask limited edition rum, of which only 143 bottles were produced. (Qui Qui has two bottles.)
Qui Qui is already getting ready for the holidays by setting up a Coquito Bar, featuring the traditional holiday drink of Puerto Rico. The bar features seven different flavors, including pistachio, banana, hazelnut/chocolate and a vegan version of coquito. Customers can order a three-flavor flight of coquitos at the bar. For Thanksgiving, Qui Qui is also packing a Caribbean-oriented family dinner available for pickup on the holiday.
Howard Theater Celebration November 23
The Historic Howard Theater Foundation and Events DC are holding a celebration honoring the 114-year-old theater. The event will raise funds for the newly launched Foundation, which is dedicated to the preservation of the theater, its vibrant history and educating the community about its unique cultural heritage. The main event of the evening will be a performance by iconic Jazz, R&B and Soul maestro Robert Glasper, who will stage a lineup of special musical guests. Tickets are available at thhf.org/night-of-music-2210.
Shaw Small Business Saturday/Tree Lighting November 30
Shaw will again mark the beginning of the holiday season November 30 with Shaw Small Business Saturday, the neighborhood’s version of the national Small Business Saturday push to give prominence to local small businesses during the shopping season. This year, Shaw Main Streets will again offer the ever-popular Shawbucks, five-dollar denominated coupons that could be used at participating neighborhood businesses that day.
The Shawbucks seem to do the trick to inspire purchases right after Thanksgiving, with businesses reporting sales to hundreds of Shawbuck-bearing customers in previous years. The $5,000 worth of Shawbucks will be distributed at a Shaw Main Streets tent on Eighth Street at City Market at O, starting at 12:00 p.m., while supplies last. Free hot apple cider, holiday cookies, candy and recyclable shopping bags will also be given away.
Roadside Development will start the holiday season this year by closing down Jeff Coudriet Way on Saturday afternoon from 3-6 p.m. to make City Market at O the center of the neighborhood’s celebration. Expect to again see “ice” skating, photos with Santa, and live music. A number of food trucks will also offer free delights to festival attendees. The celebration will close with a holiday tree lighting at sunset.
