Arts & Entertainment

Thankfully not cooking

Several area restaurants have deals for those dining out on Thursday

Published

15 years ago

November 24, 2010

Be honest with yourself — sometimes you don’t want to worry about spending all day in the kitchen cooking and cleaning for the holiday. Many of the area’s restaurants are offering special “turkey day” menus to make it easier on all of us.

BRABO (1600 King Street, Alexandria) by Robert Wiedmaier will be open on Thanksgiving between 2:30 and 7 p.m., offering patrons a Thanksgiving-themed three-course dinner for $65, with the regular children’s menu also available. The bar will be open during those hours and the regular bar menu will be available exclusively at the bar.

The three-course Thanksgiving menu will include appetizers such as roasted beets with arugula, pistachios and goat cheese fondue and a squash soup with duck confit ravioli. Entrees include a traditional turkey dinner with sweet potato purée, Brussels sprouts, cranberry relish, chestnuts dressing and giblet gravy and a pan-seared ribeye with Pennsylvania mushrooms, potato purée and Bordelaise sauce, among other offerings. Dessert selections include everything from a pumpkin pie to a caramel walnut tart with calvados ice cream. Reservations are strongly recommended. (703-894-3440)

Commonwealth (1400 Irving St. N.W.), Columbia Heights’ own British gastropub, is offering a three-course, family-style Thanksgiving dinner from 1 to 8 p.m. for $35 per person, as well as its à la carte menu with snacks ranging in price from $5 to $13, all boosted by U.K. and American beers (202-265-1400).

If you want to indulge yourself on gourmet food while giving to a worthy cause, head out to Tyson’s Corner to partake in the feast offered at Wildfire (1714 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean). Serving a family-style menu with spit-roasted turkey and classic sides, a portion of the day’s proceeds will be donated to feed the needy (11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; $36.95 per adult, $14.95 per child 12 and under; 703-442-9110).

Holiday traditions will be showcased with style at West End dining room Blue Duck Tavern (1201 24th St. N.W.), where diners can gorge on a three-course brunch with turkey and trimmings, plus hors d’oeuvres and dessert buffets (10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; $90 per adult, $45 for children 6–12, complimentary for children under 6; à la carte dinner available from 6–10:30 p.m.; 202-419-6755).

For those of us with a hankering for higher brow cuisine, with a French flair, check out 2941 (2941 Fairview Park Dr.) in Falls Church. The kitchen is turning out a three-course prix fixe with appetizers like a mushroom feuille and lobster chowder with Indonesian long pepper, and entree choices ranging from turkey to bouillabaisse (noon to 8 p.m.; $65 per adult, $25 per child 12 and under; 703-270-1500).

Vidalia (1900 M St. N.W.) is going for a more “stuff-your-face-and-go-home” Southern approach with its a la carte offerings showcasing shrimp and grits, frogmore stew, lamb and steak as well as a stuffed turkey with all the fixings (seatings from noon to 3 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m.; 202-659-1990).

Looking ahead into December, Urbana will host “Kimpton’s Red Hot Night in the Nation’s Capital,” a cocktail party benefiting Whitman-Walker Clinic. The event will feature popular TV personality and beauty/lifestyle expert Paul Wharton as co-host and emcee, $5 “Cocktails for a Cure,” light bites of Western Mediterranean cuisine from Urbana’s kitchen, and a live/silent auction including a weekend getaway to any Kimpton hotel nationwide and two roundtrip jetBlue tickets. A $10 admission fee includes one drink ticket and all proceeds benefit Whitman-Walker Clinic. The event begins immediately following the 5:30 pm candlelight vigil in Dupont Circle. (Wednesday from 6 to 8:30 p.m.; Kimpton’s Urbana Restaurant & Wine Bar, 2121 P St. N.W.)

Then on Thursday, get out to Palomar in Arlington for “A Taste of Virginia’s Own,” a Virginia wine tasting event benefiting the Northern Virginia AIDS Ministry (NOVAM). Guests are invited to enjoy hors d’oeuvres while sampling varietals from top Virginia winemakers, including Chateau O’Brien, Horton Cellars, Pearmund Cellars, Tarara Winery, Rappahannock Cellars and Boxwood Estate Winery. Admission is $30 per person in advance and $35 at the door with all ticket proceeds to benefit NOVAM. Reservations are recommended. (Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Kimpton’s Palomar Arlington)

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Photos

PHOTOS: Denali at Pitchers

‘Drag Race’ alum performs at Thirst Trap

Published

13 hours ago

April 14, 2026

Michael Key

Denali performs at the Thirst Trap Thursday drag show at Pitchers DC on April 9. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Denali (@denalifoxx) of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” performed at Pitchers DC on April 9 for the Thirst Trap Thursday drag show. Other performers included Cake Pop!, Brooke N Hymen, Stacy Monique-Max and Silver Ware Sidora.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

Arts & Entertainment

In an act of artistic defiance, Baltimore Center Stage stays focused on DEI

‘Maybe it’s a triple-down’

Published

2 days ago

April 13, 2026

Baltimore Banner

Last year, Baltimore Center Stage refused to give up its DEI focus in the face of losing federal funding. They've tripled down. (Photo by Ulysses Muñoz of the Baltimore Banner)

By LESLIE GRAY STREETER | I’m always tickled when people complain about artists “going political.” The inherent nature of art, of creation and free expression, is political. This becomes obvious when entire governments try to threaten it out of existence, like in 2025, when the brand-new presidential administration demanded organizations halt so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming or risk federal funding.

Baltimore Center Stage’s response? A resounding and hearty “Nah.” A year later, they’re still doubling down on diversity.

“Maybe it’s a triple-down,” said Ken-Matt Martin, the theater’s producing director, chuckling.

The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

Books

Susan Lucci on love, loss, and ‘All My Children’

New book chronicles life of iconic soap star

Published

2 days ago

April 13, 2026

Terri Schlichenmeyer

(Book cover image courtesy of Blackstone Publishing)

‘La Lucci’
By Susan Lucci with Laura Morton
c.2026, Blackstone Publishing
$29.99/196 pages

They’re among the world’s greatest love stories.

You know them well: Marc Antony and Cleopatra. Abelard and Heloise. Phoebe and Langley. Cliff and Nina. Jesse and Angie, Opal and Palmer, Palmer and Daisy, Tad and Dixie. Now read “La Lucci” by Susan Lucci, with Laura Morton, and you might also think of Susan and Helmut.

When she was a very small girl, Susan Lucci loved to perform. Also when she was young, she learned that words have power. She vowed to use them for good for the rest of her life.

Her parents, she says, were supportive and her family, loving. Because of her Italian heritage, she was “ethnic looking” but Lucci’s mother was careful to point out dark-haired beauties on TV and elsewhere, giving Lucci a foundation of confidence.

That’s just one of the things for which Lucci says she’s grateful. In fact, she says, “Prayers of gratitude are how I begin and end each day.”

She is particularly grateful for becoming a mother to her two adult children, and to the doctors who saved her son’s life when he was a newborn.

Lucci writes about gratitude for her long career. She was a keystone character on TV’s “All My Children,” and she learned a lot from older actors on the show, and from Agnes Nixon, the creator of it. She says she still keeps in touch with many of her former costars.

She is thankful for her mother’s caretakers, who stepped in when dementia struck. Grateful for more doctors, who did heart-saving work when Lucci had a clogged artery. Grateful for friends, opportunities, life, grandchildren, and a career that continues.

And she’s grateful for the love she shared with her husband, Helmut Huber, who died nearly four years ago. Grateful for the chance to grieve, to heal, and to continue.

And yet, she says of her husband: “He was never timid, but I know he was afraid at the end, and that kills me down to my soul.”

“It’s been 15 years since Erica Kane and I parted ways,” says author Susan Lucci (with Laura Morton), and she says that people still approach her to confirm or deny rumors of the show’s resurrection. There’s still no answer to that here (sorry, fans), but what you’ll find inside “La Lucci” is still exceptionally generous.

If this book were just filled with stories, you’d like it just fine. If it was only about Lucci’s faith and her gratitude – words that happen to appear very frequently here – you’d still like reading it. But Lucci tells her stories of family, children and “All My Children,” while also offering help to couples who’ve endured miscarriage, women who’ve had heart problems, and widow(ers) who are spinning and need the kindness of someone who’s lived loss, too.

These are the other things you’ll find in “La Lucci,” in a voice you’ll hear in your head, if you spent your lunch hours glued to the TV back in the day. It’s a comfortable, fun read for fans. It’s a story you’ll love.

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