What's New

Wassup D.C.? It's 2009 and change is breaking out all over. A new president is in the White House. The shaken-not-stirred Congress is full of new faces. As the administration turns over, so do our neighborhoods, where people from the old political guard depart to their home states and new politicos arrive to take their place.

On a personal level, I would say that hope is in the air. Even locals, like me, who have lived here for decades and witnessed many shifts in administration, look with eagerness toward our newly elected officials, ready to believe that these people surely will strive to represent our country's best interests as well as our own. You might think that Washingtonians would be the most jaded of Americans, having experienced, often firsthand, the ruthlessness of politics. I think, instead, we may be some of the most positive-thinking individuals in the country. Maybe it's a criterion for living here, this belief in the essential goodness of people and in our democratic institutions. The discouraged move away.

Thankfully, politics is not the only game in town. How about them Washington Nationals? Hmm. It's true that so far the capital's baseball team has not excelled in its Eastern Division of Major League Baseball, but once again, hope springs eternal. As of April 2008, the team has its own stadium, Nationals Ballpark, whose worst seats, in nosebleed territory, offer the best view of city landmarks -- some consolation, I guess, if yours is only a bird's-eye view of the game.

The other good news about the ballpark is the fact that local-favorite restaurants are the food vendors. Vendors include Gifford's ice cream; Red, Hot & Blue barbecue; and the Washington institution, Ben's Chili Bowl.

Feed Washingtonians well and we're yours. We love to eat, and we have a booming restaurant scene to show for it. Apparently, word has seeped out to the culinary world at large, for suddenly several celebrity chefs are setting up shop here. (Just to make sure you understand they are celebrities, these VIP chefs always use their own names in the restaurant titles.) So now look for the Westend Bistro by Eric Ripert, in the Ritz-Carlton Washington, and the Source by Wolfgang Puck inside the Newseum . By the time you read this, another big name restaurant will have debuted, Adour Alain Ducasse, in the lavishly renovated St. Regis Hotel. Honestly, though, you're in for a treat if you dine at any of these restaurants. (Try the dumplings at the Source.)

Long before Eric, Wolfgang, and Alain graced us with their presence, we had our own resident bon vivant Frenchman, chef extraordinaire Michel Richard. Richard, who fell in love with Washington, D.C., ages ago, is renowned for his award-winning Michel Richard Citronelle. In 2007, Richard opened his more casual bistro, Central, which promptly won the James Beard Foundation's 2008 "Best new restaurant in America" award. Central, which is located at 10th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, in the Penn Quarter, is currently our hardest restaurant to get in to.

Other new restaurants are wowing locals and food critics, alike, including the wine-centric Proof in the Penn Quarter and Tackle Box in Georgetown, a very inexpensive place to enjoy fresh fish, obtained in ecofriendly fashion, and delicious sides, like mac and cheese and french fries.

So what else is there besides food, sports, and politics going on in the nation's capital? Culture, of course. Making headline news in its own right is the humongous Newseum, which debuted on Pennsylvania Avenue in April 2008, billing itself as "the most interactive museum in the world." You can watch 4-D movies on heroic journalists, like Nellie Bly, and tape your own news broadcast. Folks from National Public Radio and other TV and radio stations sometimes broadcast their programs from the Newseum's studio.

Not far from the Newseum, the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, which opened in May 2008, presents a sort-of Hollywoodish take on crime, displaying the car used by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde movie, for instance, rather than the actual car used by the criminals.

Up on Capitol Hill, the Capitol Visitor Center is now open -- for real, this time. The center lies beneath the Capitol and can fit as many as 4,000 (!) people. This is where you go to queue for a tour of the Capitol, and to learn a bit about the building and its history, too. The center holds exhibits, a restaurant, and 26 restrooms.

In Smithsonian news, the National Museum of Natural History pulled back the curtains on its grand new Ocean Hall in September 2008; and the National Museum of American History reopened its doors in the fall of 2008, ready to show off its Star-Spangled Banner Gallery.

On September 11, 2008, the Pentagon dedicated its outdoor Pentagon 9/11 Memorial to the 125 Pentagon workers and 58 passenger victims killed in the terrorist plane attack of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The Pentagon has taken pains to allow the public 24-hour access to the memorial while restricting parking and walkways. In other words, whether you take the subway, drive, or take the Tourmobile to the memorial, you're going to have a bit of a walk to reach it. As has been true since September 11, 2001, only Pentagon employees are allowed to enter the Pentagon building.

The conclusion of 2009 will see the dedication of the National Mall's newest memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial.