Legendary Happy Hour

Stardate 65372.5

Snagged from the HC website

07:22 - A couple weeks ago, a coworker asked me to help plan a happy our for the office.  Focuse Foxies, DC runs on the concept and execution of the idea of happy hour. Washingtonians love a good happy; hell, we will even invite people form Virginia and Maryland to this merriment out of sheer good will and fun times. The challenge to me was to plan a happy hour for a group in a town with no space on a night before a holiday weekend. Challenge Accepted!

Space, location, and funness were all important aspects of a great Happy Hour bar.  Also, good food is a plus.  I searched high and low in the downtown, Chinatown, and Penn Quarter neighborhoods for the perfect bar for the young and old and all around cheap. Eventually, I went with what I knew to be a tried and true place: Hill Country BBQ.  Hill Country BBQ is where expat Texans go to find tender brisket and cold Shiner pitchers. With that in mind, I decided to bring all of my new coworkers to this Texas oasis.
And it was Legen..wait for it dary! Legendary! Half of the office showed up. More importantly, I used my Aggie connections to reserve two huge booth tables to accommodate everyone. Bonus, I introduced everyone to Shiner for the first time, and they were hooked. I actually have never partaken in the BBQ side of the establishment and corrected that, that night by ordering a brisket chomp meal.  Honestly, it tasted almost as good as my grandfather's pit.  Not bad praise from any Texan.

Everyone thought the event was a great success.  So much so, I earned a spot on the Party Planning Committee and am one of two people planning the office Christmas party.

Focus Foxy Shout Outs: Simon for making the Hill Country Connection

Evening with the National Symphony Orchestra

Instead of putting on my sweat pants and watching Sex and the City on a Friday night, I decided to go out and explore one of DC's not so hidden gems.  After work, I got onto the metro and headed towards Georgetown.  On the edge of Georgetown's waterfront sits the premier stage for preforming arts for DC: The Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center has three stages for theater, opera and concerts. Between the stages run two amazing hallways that display all of the U.S. state and U.N. nation flags. Also, The Kennedy Center hosts free shows for the public every night at 6 pm on the Millennium Stage. These shows range from puppet shows to jazz bands. The Millennium Stage is located in the back corner of the center.

Last Friday, I went to see the National Symphony Orchestra Prelude on the Millennium Stage featuring a small part of the orchestra.  To get to The Kennedy Center, I had to hike from Foggy Bottom, which required me to put on blinders and miss the fact that there was a free shuttle. But I was able to catch the second half of the performance; it was enough to be impressed with the talent and grandeur of The Kennedy Center. All in all, Focus Foxies, I consider my little adventure a success and pleasant departure from the usual Friday night activities. Don't take my word for it; watch the show in the link below!
Link to the Show

Halal Grill

Stardate 65340.1

12:09 - In L'Enfant Plaza, food trucks gather from around the district in masses for lunch. Lucky for me, I live/work close by. For those Focus Foxies not familiar with food trucks, they consist of a restaurant in a truck/moving van that rolls to where the people are.  These trucks do not resemble the 'roach coaches' on a construction site. Owned and operated by a different chef, each truck specializes in a different type of cuisines. For example, 'Feelin' Crabby' offer crab cakes, 'Cajunators' dish out po' boys, AZN Eats serves Korean, and Basil Thyme sells Italian. New people often get confused with all of the selection available in food trucks.  One way to know you are choosing a good truck is to check the line.  Long lines equal awesome food. Be patient with the wait time, padawan; good things will come.

As a hungry lunch goer, I patronized the food truck Halal Grill this week. Halal Grill specializes in Halal kabobs, and bonus, it is one of the cheaper trucks out there. The menu includes chicken on pita, gyro on pita, and kabobs on rice. I ordered a gyro on pita which consists of a warm, freshly baked pita, a salad of lettuce, tomato and red onion, seasoned gyro, and special sauces. I ordered mine spicy, so they delivered my pita with a punch of flavor. My order came out to be $6. It could feed two of me for lunch, but I soldiered through eating the whole thing. I am not saying it was easy eating my body weight in pita; I am saying it was delicious.

Drag Racing

Stardate 65319.8

12:00 - On the Tuesday before Halloween, the infamous High Heel Drag race happens in Dupont Circle.  This race does not include men in hot cars, but it does involve sweaty men in drag.  Each year the best Drag Queens around the capital come out to strut their stuff and race in high heels.  This race is not a new event to D.C.; these ladies have been crossing the line for 25 years.


Before the race, each Queen can parade around, show off their look, and rally support. We saw all types of Drag Queens out! We met Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth of England and Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice.  Princess Beatrice even wore her hat from Kate and Will's wedding. We saw the Olson twins, Michele Bachmann and Paula Deen.  Side note: One of my undergraduate friends actually knows Paula Deen. So, I know somebody who knows someone. It's kinda big deal.  Several versions of the black and white swan competed against each other for attention. And for your viewing pleasure, the flight attendants from Pan Am showed up. When the race started, these ladies flew past us.  No matter who you came as if you wanted to compete to win, you had to wear 2 inch heels. I only caught a small video below of the race:

Focus Foxies, you know the deal. Nobody holds a candle to these ladies in their red high heels.

Taste of Morocco

Stardate 65317.1

12:12 - Groupon makes you do silly things.  I grew up in too Polish of a household not to be familiar with coupons, but Groupon is a different kind of beast.  Based on a Groupon buy, a pack of us headed out to Arlington to try Taste of Morocco, a supposed authentic Moroccan place, last Saturday.  Even by my standards, this place was shenanigans from the start.

First, they could not accommodate 7 people in a half empty restaurant. Second, they would not uphold the Groupon deal to its fullest so we worked out a deal to accept a few. From there, we ordered.  Focus Foxies, I was craving great hummus, and I got some mediocre stuff.  I still devoured the whole plate. My original intention was to share with the table, but I failed hard.  My second course was a chicken bastilla. For those not familiar with Moroccan food, a bastilla is a dish with a baklava crust and a marinated chicken and almond inside with sugar and cinnamon top. The bastilla tasted delicious; it was a dessert and meal all in one.  However, the meal was overshadowed by the the belly dancer.  When the music turned up to blaring and the belly dancer came out, we got into it. A couple of us, including yours truly, danced with her.  But after the following 30-45 minutes of her dancing, grabbing children from tables to dance with her, and soliciting donations, we just wanted our food. I know its a lot to ask...at a restaurant.


The most shenaniganny of the whole experience was the waiter/manager. He went back on the Groupon deal with made with him. He bargined with us, saying that his staff worked for free and the lights cost money to turn on "if we accept all your groupons, what do we make? Please, let us make some money."  I wanted to tell him back that I have been sitting here for two and half hours, and I want to go home, please. Focus Foxies, I will tell you how this guy makes his money by charging a 22% service charge on the meal, which he did.


After almost 3 hours, we finally got out of the Taste of Morocco, but could not get the taste of bad service out of our mouths. I would not recommend this restaurant even as a take out place. It is too expensive for the food quality and too scammy to patronize.