Arts & Entertainment
Hanks opens on the Hill
New oyster bistro slightly different from its sister locations
Gina Chersevani, left, and Jamie Leeds. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Jamie Leeds is doing something right — Hank’s Oyster Bar is a Dupont Circle mainstay that came to fruition in the spring of 2005. In 2007, she opened a second Hank’s in Old Town Alexandria.
Now she’s expanding the Alexandria location and she opened a third Hank’s Oyster Bar on Capitol Hill (633 Pennsylvania Ave S.E.) this week. Leeds says opening Hank’s on the Hill while expanding the Alexandria location is her “most exciting accomplishment.”
Leeds has partnered up with “mixtress” Gina Chersevani for this new venue. This 40-seat location features Leeds classics such as the lobster roll and her famous “Meat and Two” option, where patrons receive protein and two sides. This location also includes a 20-seat bar named The Eddy, where patrons can belly and enjoy a handcrafted cocktail.
Hank’s on the Hill feels like a New England cottage with white trim, light grey walls and whitewashed slats hanging from the ceiling. The white marble bar has a block of ice sitting front and center so Chersevani, who’s straight, and staff can carve ice for drinks. The raised oyster station at the back of the restaurant is purposefully the center of attention. Eventually, the Capitol Hill location will also have outdoor seating. Leeds is not anticipating the same trouble obtaining permits as in Dupont where half the outdoor seating area remains closed due to opposition from residents.
Leeds is excited to “deliver excellent seafood and become part of the neighborhood.” Her favorite items on the menu are the fried oysters and the molasses-braised short ribs. At the Capitol Hill location Leeds applies what she has learned from her other restaurants; one important lesson is surrounding herself with the right people. She looks for people who are dedicated, committed to teaching and service oriented. This is how she runs a successful business and balances her family life with partner Leslie Detenber and their son Hayden.
Leeds first hired Chersevani 10 years ago when working at 15ria. Thy have talked about working together and both were excited when the opportunity arose. Chersevani happily tells a story of an early experience with Leeds at 15ria when she had to make a Blueberry Smash — she simply threw the ingredients together, including frozen blueberries. Leeds was not impressed. Chersevani realized this was an opportunity to grow, and take her cocktails to the next level. Chersevani says that “training with chefs like Leeds has allowed her to become a better mixologist.” Cocktails should “tell a story,” and many of the stories she tells on the current Hank’s list are political.
The new mantra for Hank’s Capitol Hill is “swirling liquors and turbulent mixers” and Chersevani is excited to bring “better” cocktails to the neighborhood. Her beverage program consists of 20 intricate cocktails like her personal favorite, The Georgia Mafia, which contains peanut washed Michter’s Whiskey, Sweet Vermouth and marshmallow bitters. Chersevani dubbed this cocktail the “X-rated Fluffer Nutter.” She says that while it may be a small list at Hank’s on the Hill it’s a “small list with impact.”
On Tuesday night, I dined at Hank’s on the Hill and ordered grilled pork chop. I chose the heirloom tomatoes and the buttermilk onion rings as my sides. Both sides were palatable, but the pork chop was cooked unevenly and some morsels were juiceless. The short ribs were not available on the night I dined, but the fried oysters were and I agree with Leeds. The oysters were delicious fried bites that perfectly combined the crispy breading and delicate flavor of the oysters. I chose the Gnome Water Rebellion as my drink for the night and I was blown away by the freshness brought to the drink by the cucumber water and the overall balance of flavors.
Hank’s Capitol Hill “is not like anything else,” says Chersevani. “It will feel like home, with laughter and good times.” On the night I was at Hank’s the bar was bustling and Chersevani was chatting with patrons and handing out shots. Everyone was listening to her stories and enjoying the night. Hank’s on the Hill is open Sunday thru Wednesday from 5-10 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 5-11 p.m. The Eddy is open daily from 5 to midnight.
Out & About
Archuleta to host book signing in Rehoboth Beach
Entertainer to meet with fans at Browseabout Books
David Archuleta will chat with fans and sign his book “Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself” on Sunday, Sept. 6 at 2 p.m. at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach.
The book is an inspirational account of his transformation from a closeted Mormon teen singer to a pop star who is comfortable with his queer identity. For additional information on this event, go to browseaboutbooks.com.
Archuleta will also be in Rehoboth Beach to headline the “Night of Entertainment” on Saturday, Sept. 5 for CAMP Rehoboth’s SUNFESTIVAL weekend, which includes the Night of Dance Sept. 6.
Visit camprehoboth.org for more information.
Friday, August 28
Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Happy Hour” at 7 p.m. at DIK Bar.This is a chance to relax, make new friends, and enjoy happy hour specials at this classic retro venue. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
Trans Discussion Group will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This event is intended to provide an emotionally and physically safe space for trans people and those who may be questioning their gender identity/expression to join together in community and learn from one another. For more details, email [email protected].
Saturday, August 29
Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ+ community, including allies, together for delicious food and conversation. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
Sunday, August 30
“Nellie’s DC Drag Brunch” will be at 12 p.m. at Nellie’s Sports Bar. Come get served like a queen by a queen. Join Sapphire Blue, Deja Diamond and their team of amazing drag performers for the most fun you’ll have all weekend. Tickets cost $58.51 and are available on Eventbrite.
Monday, August 31
“Center Aging: Monday Coffee Klatch” will be at 10 a.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more information, contact Adam ([email protected]).
Tuesday, September 1
The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center will host a drop-in session to share resources, provide service navigation, connect with community, and gather feedback. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website.
Wednesday, September 2
Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom upon request. This is a weekly job support program to help job entrants and seekers, including the long-term unemployed, improve self-confidence, motivation, resilience and productivity for effective job searches and networking — allowing participants to move away from being merely “applicants” toward being “candidates.” For more information, email [email protected] or visit thedccenter.org/careers.
The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center will host “Movement for Healing” at 3 p.m. This trauma- and yoga therapy–informed class is designed to help guests gently reconnect with their body and their breath. Through mindful movement, somatic awareness, and grounding practices, guests will explore how to release tension, increase mobility, and cultivate a deeper sense of safety and ease within. For more details, visit the Center’s website.
Thursday, September 3
The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the Center. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5 p.m. if they are picked to receive a produce box. No proof of residency or income is required. For more information, email [email protected] or call 202-682-2245.
Virtual Yoga Class will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This free weekly class is a combination of yoga, breath work and meditation that allows LGBTQ+ community members to continue their healing journey with somatic and mindfulness practices. For more details, visit The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center’s website.
Movies
‘Teenage Sex and Death’ has never been more entertaining
Come for the jump scares, but stay for the tour-de-force filmmaking
If any movie title can be said to describe exactly what it is going to show us, “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” would have to be it – and yet, it doesn’t communicate anything to prepare us for what we are going to see.
For that, you’d have to already be a fan of the creator behind it – transfeminine, non-binary filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun – and the surreal, dysphoric, and meta-formal nature of their previous work.
A horror fan since childhood, Schoenbrun spent their teen years frequenting online message boards for popular horror shows, writing fan fiction, and going to see punk bands in basements; a bachelor’s degree in film from Boston University paved their way into the world of “indie” cinema, and their first directorial effort was an online documentary about the phenomenon of “Slender Man” (look it up), which explored the way media and reality can blend together in the cultural imagination.
That blending has continued to permeate their films: their first feature, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” about a lonely teen who is drawn into a creepy online challenge, tells its story entirely through video clips she and the other participants share online; their second, “I Saw the TV Glow,” is an eerie and devastating tale of two teen friends who form a bond over their shared obsession with a paranormal television show and drift apart when it is cancelled, only to be drawn together again when buried memories of it begin to infiltrate their “real” lives. Both are driven by themes of gender identity, social isolation, queer awakening, and transformation – the stuff that resonates deeply with queer and trans audiences – and Schoenbrun didn’t bury the subtext in the story; instead, the subtext was the story.
With “Camp Miasma,” their third and (thanks to its win of the “Queer Palm” at Cannes) highest profile feature film to date, they carry their creative obsessions forward into a surreal narrative that exists around the border between reality and media-manufactured fantasy, and brings them into the the world of queer adulthood. Even more boldly, perhaps, it’s a comedy (albeit a dark and grisly one), a satire of the movie industry itself – which gives the director plenty of cheekily self-referential opportunities to make this their most “meta” film yet. After all, it’s about a young non-binary director working on a horror film, and you can’t get much more “meta” than that.
The onscreen director who serves as Schoenbrun’s semi-autobiographical avatar is Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder), who has been tasked by a studio with remaking its classic slasher movie from the 1980s (“Camp Miasma”), in hope of generating an updated reboot of the once-lucrative franchise it spawned. Kris, who loves the original film, hopes to coax the actress who starred as its “final girl” – Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson) – into returning to the screen for the new one, though she has been retired from acting and living as a recluse ever since. Managing to get a meeting with her at her secluded home in the Pacific Northwest, Kris arrives in a snowstorm to discover that Billy now lives in the same abandoned campground where “Camp Miasma” was filmed four decades ago. She also has seemingly developed the unsettling eccentricities of an aging once-famous scream queen who has faded into obscurity and spent decades dwelling in memories of the past.
Despite some initial misgivings (on both sides), the two hit it off, and Billy agrees to help Kris develop her ideas for the reboot. As they work, their shared obsessions around the original film and its horrifying mythos draws them closer together into a more intimate kind of relationship – even as Billy’s unconvincingly “tongue-in-cheek” insistence that the franchise’s iconic killer is a real entity, waiting to be reawakened for the next massacre, begins to creep into Kris’s own psyche.
Ingeniously mixing fan nostalgia for vintage “Friday the 13th”-style slasher films with the Lynchian surrealism of modern horror cinema and the campy-but-transgressive absurdity of a movie that wants us to be “in” on the joke, “Camp Miasma” takes Schoenbrun’s broodingly ironic Gen-Z sensibilities and spins them into something that works on multiple levels. As a horror film, it relies on the familiarity of its tropes and gleefully manipulates our reactions, yet undercuts its own formula to turn it into a blend of parody and homage that somehow elevates the genre by way of its own deconstruction. As a piece of postmodern cinema, it precludes attempts at analysis by transparently analyzing itself as it goes as part of its own self-aware scenario, turning intellectual interpretation into just another trope of its own. As a queer allegory, it nullifies the standard critical interpretations by wearing them jokingly on its sleeve. As a love-letter to cinema, it brims with callbacks to iconic masterworks like “Sunset Boulevard” and “Psycho.” It uses the irresistible darkness of its milieu as a vehicle through which to express a liberating, sex-positive celebration of queer joy, unencumbered at last by a confrontation with the fear, shame, and insecurity forged by social constructs that are so often used to suppress it. It even works as a romance, turning the age gap between its two leads into a bridge that overpasses any notions of conformity and eliminates false sentiment by framing it as a sexy kind of cross-generational mentoring.
At the center of it all is the powerhouse pairing of Einbinder and Anderson, whose dynamic together works so well we never bat an eye over it, and who know what is being asked of them and deliver it with a fearlessness that feels a bit like pure glee. These might be the best screen performances of the year so far.
There are also some winking cameos, like “Kids in the Hall” alumnus Kevin MacDonald as a local hotel clerk who was once enlisted as a supporting player in the “Camp Miasma” franchise, and veteran character actor Dylan Baker as the facile-minded studio exec who simply wants Kris to create something commercial enough to turn the franchise into a cash cow again. Jack Haven (the trans co-star of “I Saw the TV Glow” opposite Justice Smith) commands our attention as Camp Miasma’s weirdly air-duct-masked slasher – named “Little Death,” a phrase which, translated into the French “La petite morte,” is a euphemism for orgasm, just in case it wasn’t already clear that the movie operates as a psychosexual drama, on top of everything else.
Ultimately, though, it’s Shoenbrun who is the real star; much in the way that Alfred Hitchcock turned his own unique milieu into a kind of star power that eclipsed even the draw of the big name actors who populated his films. They come into their own with “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, creating one of the best films of the year so far and cementing their reputation as one of the most excitingly visionary filmmakers of the post-Millennial era.
In other words, come for the blood, gore, and jump scares, but stay for the sublimely entertaining — and entertainingly original — tour-de-force filmmaking that raises this one to the level of pop culture masterpiece.
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