Arts & Entertainment

Kangaroo critique

Food truck barbecue operation opens sit-down spot in Columbia Heights

Published

14 years ago

August 9, 2012

Jonathan Howard

Portions are generous at Kangaroo Boxing Club. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

The still-new Kangaroo Boxing Club, which opened at 3410 11^th Street NW in June, is a brick-and-mortar spin-off of the PORC food truck which its owners envision as a laid-back eatery where barbecue lovers can get in a restaurant the kind of food they serve in their food trucks.

Proprietors John Saltzman, Trent Allen, Peyton Sherwood, Chris Powers and Zack Spencer have opened a spot that consists of seven indoor tables, a few seats at the bar and limited patio seating. In November, I reviewed the PORC food truck and with the new establishment I was expecting a much-elevated version of the food. Unfortunately this was not to be.

We arrived and were seated in the front window seat. The waiter piled rustic wooden clipboards with the menu attached haphazardly on the table and scurried away. When he returned for our drink order, he directed us to a barely visible chalkboard across the bar. All I could see was the beer selections that were crossed off, indicating that they were out.

While we had his attention we selected the “Meat Board” appetizer that has pulled pork, Smokey Joe — beef smothered in barbecue sauce — and pastrami. It was served with a blueberry habanero salsa and three microscopic pieces of crostini. We did order more crostini but it didn’t arrive until after our entrees. This platter was met with a lukewarm reception from the table, partly because the meats were lukewarm and partly because they lacked a key element: flavor. I believe that sauces shouldn’t provide the only flavor for food, but they should enhance it; the blueberry habanero salsa didn’t do either. It fell flat, not even delivering the heat one expects from habaneros.

Our meat-centric entrees included pulled pork sandwiches, three little pigs platter, and the pastrami sandwich. I planned on ordering the Big Bad Wolf Burger that comes with ham, bacon and pulled pork, with the Costanza Burger patty instead of the standard, because it is described as the most sensual of burgers. However the waiter never asked me which I wanted, nor did he ask how I wanted it cooked. I was barely able to request cheddar cheese on the burger before he rushed off. With most entrees you have your choice of sides including collard greens, mac and cheese, barbecue beans, Johnny Cakes and fries. We chose a variety of these sides, although most of us also added the mac and cheese.

Our entrees arrived, moments after the appetizer. The pastrami sandwich could have fed four people and the pulled pork was erupting from the bun. My burger was on a thick slice of ham, pulled pork piled high and two pieces of bacon crisscrossed over top. It was missing the cheese, but I am not sure where that would have been placed anyway.

I smashed the top bun down and struggled to fit the sandwich in my mouth. My first sloppy bite was a preview to my disappointment — the patty was overcooked, the pulled pork was bland and dry and even the bacon couldn’t save it. I splashed on some hot sauce, but I quickly gave up. My mac and cheese, also ordered with bacon because I couldn’t resist adding more meat to this meal, had too much goopy sauce on top and the noodles were undercooked. The bite of blue cheese was barely evident in the sauce. Most startling however, was that all four mac-and-cheese sides at the table were significantly different.

Not all was disappointing, though. The Johnny Cakes were perfectly prepared. The meat-soaked collard greens and pastrami sandwich showed potential.

And while several of the offerings were lackluster, the overarching problem at Kangaroo Boxing Club is service. They need to slow down and pay attention to the needs of the patron. The only focus seems to be turning tables, and that is creating rushed, poorly prepared and inconsistent meals. It feels like they’re operating a stationary food truck at the peak of lunch rush. If they slow down and concentrate on the food, then Kangaroo Boxing Club could bring excellent barbeque to Columbia Heights. If the food is extraordinary, then people will be willing to wait. Until then, this offers little you can’t get at the food truck.

Up Next

Whatever happened to Baby June?

Don't Miss

D.C. arts briefs: Aug. 10

FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM

Celebrity News

Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam

Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon

Published

6 hours ago

August 2, 2026

Michael K. Lavers

Kylie Minogue with Madonna at the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam on Aug. 2, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Cejlon Studio)

AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.

The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.

“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.

Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.

Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”

(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)

“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”

Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue)

Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.

Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.

“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”

Theater

Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth

First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’

Published

15 hours ago

August 2, 2026

Patrick Folliard

Reggie D. White (Photo by Ambe J. Williams)

Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.

A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.

White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”

Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.

“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”

WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?

REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.

BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?

WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.

I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.

These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.

Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.

BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?

WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.

I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].

BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?

WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.

BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?

WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.

Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.