04.02 - wework welive wefail
what’s going on in d.c.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre is presenting an interactive virtual show, Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, through April 18th. The darkly comedic show asks viewers to switch platforms from Instagram live to social media to dive into the effects of excess and overconsumption.
Salt & Sundry’s sister shop, Little Leaf, is popping up at Union Market for the rest of the month.
looking ahead: A full-service Taco Bell Cantina will open in Columbia Heights on April 21. looking really ahead: Puttery, an indoor mini golf and bar, is slated to open in the the former Spy Museum spot in Penn Quarter by late 2021.
let’s talk food and drinks
my weekly best bite: BKK Cookshop’s Tofu Coconut Noodle Bowl
Yardbird, a Southern comfort-styled restaurant, opened its first D.C. location in Mt. Vernon. The restaurant, famous for its original Miami location, specializes in fried chicken, biscuits, and other decadent options.
A new Alexandria waterfront bar, Barca Pier & Wine Bar, opened this week. The owners built out the barge’s space from repurposed shipping containers. Logan Circle’s female-themed Hotel Zena is opening its rooftop, Hedy’s Rooftop, as well.
Parkview’s Hook Hall, home of the winter Viking pop-up, redecorated for spring. The beer garden is now offering a cherry blossom theme with seasonal cocktails and Japanese bar food.
what’s on our minds?
DC Urban Moms and Dads is one of those blogs/forums that you may stumble on with an innocuous google search of some hyperlocal D.C. issue - like parking restrictions or the best dentists in Cleveland Park. If you get sucked in, the gossipy, questionably factual, site also offers all sorts of opinions on the best private schools in the area (and if they’re too “woke”), whether you should take your unvaccinated tweens to Mexico, and, per Brookings and Gallaudet University researchers, is used as a way to “reinforce the racial segregation of DC’s public education system” by discussing the ways to leverage the system to choose the “best” (and whitest) public schools.
In an effort to reduce disparities in vaccine access, D.C. is offering mobile vaccine units to tenants of public or affordable housing. The pop-up sites allow residents to receive their vaccinations in their buildings without going through the city-wide registration portal.
Quick links to other weekly #goodreads:
Walmart’s Company Town of Bentonville, Arkansas - per Jacobian, “Bentonville, Arkansas, is home to Walmart’s headquarters. It’s also a town in which the Walton Family Foundation works like a parallel state, creating a kind of twenty-first-century company town.”
The Therapy-App Fantasy - per The Cut, “An overwhelming demand for counseling has spawned slickly marketed companies promising a service they cannot possibly provide.”
Death of a (Really Good) Salesman - per Truly*Adventurous, “He was a powerful executive at some of the best-known companies in the world. Then he started robbing banks. The meteoric rise and dramatic fall of Steve Carroll, the high-flying corporate executive who wanted it all.”
HGTV Is Getting a Renovation - per The New Yorker, “In the streaming era, does the network need to be more than wallpaper?”
what are we watching/reading?
Remember WeWork? While not technically gone, the company’s meteoric rise and belief in transforming entire aspects of the United States’ economy was significantly hindered in a disastrous IPO attempt. The culty founder, Adam Neumann, epitomizes much of worst elements of the self-help, guru-esque, “purpose” culture - and it turns out he was a pretty terrible CEO. He’s now the focus of a new Hulu documentary, WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn.
The Last Cruise on HBO Max documents last year’s terrifying and isolating Diamond Princess voyage - the cruise ship ravaged by COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic.