04.29 - she loves me, she loves me not
what’s going on in d.c.
Friday: The Bethesda Film Festival features five short documentaries (7 pm, with additional screenings on Saturday)
Saturday: The DC Chocolate Festival returns to the French Embassy. $20 tickets provide plenty of tasting opportunities (10:30 am - 5:30 pm) | Petworth Porchfest returns with over 100 musical acts throughout the neighborhood (2-6 pm) | Gimme More, a Britney Spears-inspired dance party, takes over Union Stage (8 pm)
Sunday: For Mother’s Day, She Loves Me will provide free flowers (with purchase) and a photo booth at their Eckington location (10 am - 3 pm) | Literary Hill Bookfest returns to Eastern Market with a number of authors and events (11 am) |NWSL champions Washington Spirit head to Audi Field for their first match of the regular season versus OL Reign. Trinity Rodman leads the team (and the NWSL in contract values) (5 pm)
looking ahead: Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water music festival heads to the National Mall from June 17-19. Tickets for the event headlined by Pharrell, Pusha T, Calvin Harris, Ashanti, Chloe x Halle, and more, go on sale tomorrow at 10 am. | The Kennedy Center will host comedy’s The Second City from June 18-July 31. Tickets are now available for the show, The Revolution Will Be Improvised.
let’s talk food and drinks
my weekly best bite: Caramelized Onion pizza at a baked joint
Bitty and Beau’s, a coffee shop that hires and promotes individuals with disabilities, opens their first D.C. location tomorrow. The ribbon cutting for the Georgetown shop (32nd and M) is at 10 a.m. For the founders, the shops are “a human rights movement disguised as a coffee shop.”
Eighteen D.C. spots made Washingtonian’s list of fancy brunch options, including some beautiful options in Officina and Iron Gate.
This week, we caught up with Rajni Rao, founder of Jungli Vintage, a vintage clothing and accessory shop that hosts pop ups around the area. (ed. note: last weekend, I found the cutest white jeweled bag at one of her pop ups.)
On what inspired her to create a vintage business: Fashion has always been a passion for me, and I think my 90's/early 2000s childhood and Indian heritage to thank for that. I grew up watching Fresh Prince, Bend it Like Beckham, and Britney Spears on MTV. I remember shopping for colorful clothing and bangles with my grandparents and cousins in India every other summer. Every birthday I begged my parents for an outfit from Limited Too that I would wear 4 days a week. When I got to college, I discovered thrift shops for the first time, and I have been hooked on vintage ever since. During the pandemic, I expressed an interest in starting a vintage and secondhand shop to my friend, who immediately and relentlessly encouraged me to give it a shot. The rest is history!
On the name Jungli Vintage: Jungli means "wild child" in Hindi. It is also what your Indian mother will call you when you're being "badly behaved!" Given that my taste in clothing is wild and colorful, the name only seemed fitting!
On her all-time favorite find.: Hands down a 100% silk vegetable blouse that has full tomatoes, bell peppers, etc. (pictured below!)
On her go-to summer outfit: Funky button-down (probably one with cherubs on it), denim shorts, white sneakers + a gold chain. Plus earrings the size of my face!
On what’s coming next: I have lots of pop ups coming up! One in front of Sonny's Pizza on April 30 and one on May 7 in front of Bold Fork Books in Mt Pleasant. I've been refreshing the online shop biweekly, and have started a new video series where I show people how to style vintage and second handpieces with something new I've purchased from a favorite small business.
Quick links to other weekly #goodreads:
The Hottest Neighborhoods of Washington’s Real Estate Boom - Washingtonian. This is a compilation of articles by Washingtonian about different facets of D.C.’s housing market.
Escape to Zoom Island - per GQ, “When the pandemic untethered millions of workers from their offices, a new species of digital nomad was born. They set off with laptops and passports, and have made it clear they’re never coming back. Now, on a sun-dappled island in the middle of the ocean, a group of them is engaged in a novel experiment that might foretell the future of work.”
We Woke Up and We Lost Half Our Water - per NY Mag, “How climate change sparked a multistate battle over the Colorado River.”
The Price Kids Pay: Schools and Police Punish Students With Costly Tickets for Minor Misbehavior - per ProPublica, “Illinois law bans schools from fining students. So local police are doing it for them, issuing thousands of tickets a year for truancy, vaping, fights and other misconduct. Children are then thrown into a legal system designed for adults.”