I’m emerging from my blogging coma to pass along some good news for 14th Street. A new “vintage clothing and curios” boutique is opening next week above Som Records! Called Treasury, the shop is hosting an opening party Saturday, July 11th (promising “grand opening sale prices”). The boutique will feature hand-plucked vintage garments from Cathy Chung and Katerina Herodotou, formerly of Listopad, the “roving vintage shop/party” that I believe is responsible for a lasso-strewn shirt I somehow convinced Noah to buy a while back. You can read an interview with the co-owners here.

I only casually shop vintage (not ravenously, like some folks!) but think this is excellent news for the neighborhood. For those who grumble that 14th and U Streets are over-run with furniture shops and/or overpriced bars, I think it’s way more interesting to focus on the fact that our corridor has become a nexus for shoppers seeking already-loved goods (see Miss Pixies, Good Wood, Ruff & Ready, Millennium, et al). In other words, a vintage clothing shop is long overdue. Welcome!

I recently had the chance to live out one of my ultimate little-girl fantasies*: palling around with ponies on Assateague Island National Seashore. Neither Misty nor Stormy made any cameos, but you really can’t beat peering out your tent in the morning to find a couple of their friends moseying around your campsite.

Misty mania aside, Assateague is a sweet spot to camp. But you probably already knew that, considering how hard it is to reserve a campsite.

*Apparently I already crossed this off my to-do list, back when I was actually a little girl, but I regrettably don’t recall the experience. So yay for Noah! He got to join this time around.

Maybe it’s the corn-fed Iowa girl in me, but there’s little I love more than wandering a quality farmers market. And though no DC market could ever compare to the incredible bounty that is the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market, the one at 14th and U has fast become my local fix.

It’s admittedly much smaller than show-stealers like the popular Dupont Circle FreshFarm market, but it’s also more laidback. If you ask me, frenzied Dupont can feel too much like trying to navigate Whole Foods at 6 p.m. on a weekday, which is pretty much the antithesis to my idea of an ideal farmers market experience.

Three reasons I’m loving 14th and U right now:

1. Right on the corner, a baked goods stand is manned by a serious Michael Cera lookalike. (Seriously, he’d be wise to give selling frozen bananas a shot.) Bonus: the cookies he sells are soft and delicious.
2. Last season, one of the vendors offered to sell me some produce with an IOU when I realized I was out of cash. (I’m a regular, but not that much of a regular.) I was impressed, though I didn’t need to take her up on the offer since Noah was meeting me there with wallet loaded. This year that won’t be an issue, as the market just launched a token system. For a $2 surcharge that helps fund the market food stamp program, you can swipe your debit card for wooden tokens worth $5 each, good the rest of the season. We used a couple on Saturday and they worked perfectly. (You get change back in cash.)
3. Bookending the market on the north end of 14th, Panorama Baking’s olive oil buns have a snooty pedigree and were recently described by the Post as “what just might be the best hamburger bun in the city.” So that might sound annoying to some of you, but they are awfully tasty (though I’m definitely not an expert). Think buttery without being, well, buttery, $3 for three buns. Perfect for the black bean burgers we made last night.

Photo: Thanks, Flickr!

Stay tuned for more exciting-to-us highlights from last weekend’s Eastern Shore excursion. And sorry, we have no idea what it means to be “Lost in the 60’s” in a rap-free zone such as this one, which we spotted in Easton, Maryland. I can only assume it’s a hub for aging hippies, maybe with a few Mad Men wannabes sprinkled in for good measure. We were merely driving by and thought this sign was funny enough to snap a quick photo…

Chances are fairly high that you might not know a lot about Finland. In a bid to right that wrong, the Finnish Embassy opens its doors this month to present an exhibit called MyHelsinki. Based on a new collaboration between Helsinki and Washington, the exhibit showcases the impressions of 12 high-achieving Washingtonians who recently traveled to Finland’s capital city to share ideas and experiences.

I wrote about the collaboration for this month’s DC magazine and was looking forward to seeing the final product. (I was not disappointed.) The Embassy alone is worth a visit for its beautiful design, and the exhibit provides a compelling window to Helsinki. Like, did you know the public education system in Finland is the top in the world, with a mere four percent variation in success among students? And that the world’s first sign-language rapper is a Finn? Or that they eat things other than halibut?

I confess, I’m pretty unequivocally fascinated by all things Scandinania, which I’d say stems back to a childhood photo of me looking mighty fierce—if I do say so myself—in a Viking-esque helmet, a nod to my Norwegian heritage. These days my interest surfaces in the form of an affinity for modern Nordic design, Domku, and pinings for a successful welfare state. But! Even if you just have a passing interest in world cultures—or creative Washingtonians—the MyHelsinki exhibit is worth a visit.

Details here.

[Photos via MyHelsinki.fi]

In which we review a local establishment’s French fries. Because it’s Friday, which sorta sounds like “Fries Day,” and there’s a whole weekend of French fries-eating ahead of you.

Place: The Black Squirrel, 2427 18th St. NW

Menu Says: “Hand-Cut Boardwalk Fries – Russet potatoes tossed in Old Bay and sea salt; served with Malt vinegar and ketchup”

Price:$4; with blue cheese or cheddar add $1

Ah, Black Squirrel. I’ve only been a couple of times now, but the bar continues to prove itself as one of a couple of redeeming spots in Adams Morgan where you can enjoy a good drink, actually hear your friends talk, and not have to pry your shoe off the gross-sticky floor.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that we tried these fries after the Kentucky Derby and as such were a couple mint juleps into our night. (But really, isn’t that the best time to review French fries anyway?) So, overall, we were really pleased with this offering. The fries were potato-y and salty. If you want to get picky, they could have been a tiny bit crisper. One of our fellow taste-testers thought they were a little too salty, but, well, she’s crazy—I thought they were just right.

Speaking of selling out, time for a bit more shameless self-promotion (my apologies!). Wednesday’s Express included one of the more fun stories I’ve written in awhile, a quick drinks piece about mint juleps in time for Derby Day tomorrow. A couple of highlights worth sharing:

1. Bourbon (both locations, in Adams Morgan and Glover Park) is hosting a Kentucky Derby Party from 4 to 7 p.m. tomorrow. Free Kentucky food, off-track betting, TVs broadcasting the race/commentary, and—of course—the bar’s special mint juleps, concocted from a batch of homemade mint-infused bourbon (a process that involved three weeks of steeping).

2. If you’ll be watching the Derby from home (or just want to down some juleps), here’s the recipe barman extraordinaire Derek Brown, of The Gibson, uses. I can attest it’s mighty tasty.

Photo via Getty

I like free stuff, and I’m willing to bet you do too. As such, here’s a quick piece of wallet-happy news: The spendy Spy Museum ($18 admission) has started offering Community Nights—AKA free admission the last Wednesday evening of each month from 5 to 9 p.m. And hey, that’s tomorrow!

Sign up online for your free admission time (note: tickets for 5 and 5:30 were sold-out as of this posting). This is great news for cheapos like me. After all, usually I have to get my fill of espionage from regular ol’ eavesdropping (always free! but often unsatisfying).

Photo via Flickr

Happy Earth Day! Ever since my dad launched this do-good holiday in 1970—Ed. note: that’s a bold-faced lie, but he did participate in the first one—I’ve had a soft spot for it. So in my dad’s honor, I thought I would post a really random picture of this wild desk cobbled together from what appears to be scavenged materials.

We spotted this in a Chelsea art gallery a few weeks ago while visiting friends in NYC. I love the desk’s ReadyMade sensibility, though I’m sure the artist would be none-too-happy to hear me describe his or her masterpiece as such.

On a much more relevant note, Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria is apparently in the midst of an exhibit called “Reclaimed,” which highlights everyday objects that have been “reclaimed, recycled, reinterpreted and transformed into art.” The exhibit ends Sunday. I wish I would have known about it sooner…

If you would, allow me a moment to climb onto my soapbox: Was anyone else irked by the Flaming Lips’ anti-green antics at the Earth Day concert on the Mall yesterday? I mean, a free Flaming Lips performance is pretty sweet and all, but it smacked me as a little off-message when frontman Wayne Coyne started blasting confetti into the air within minutes of their set.

Granted, I was what Noah you might call “cranky” due to the cold and drizzly weather, so I’m sure that didn’t help. But not only was the confetti pretty pointless and premature, at the very least (it wasn’t even the grand finale or anything!), but the Earth Day festival organizers had apparently kindly requested the Lips to bag the confetti portion of their legendarily showy performances. Coyne justified his actions by saying something about how if the crowd was truly eco-conscious, they’d pick up after him. Around that time a little yellow piece of what appeared to be plastic drifted by. At which point I got really annoyed.

But whatever. Celebrities can do whatever they want! As long as they have a few tree-huggers around who will clean up after them. Apparently they also shot off smoke bombs later in their set (by which point we had ditched). I mean, sure, you’ve gotta love the Flaming Lips’ ridiculousness, but would it have killed them to make such small concessions at an event intended to raise awareness about global warming?

(P.S. I understand that a little confetti isn’t going to doom the planet, but I just can’t shake the hypocricy of the symbolism. And I’m not the only one who thinks it was inappropriate.)

Photo via Flickr