Washington Deli begins regular hours this week

I finally got to check out the new Washington Deli at 5830 Georgia Avenue. The past week was their soft opening, during which they were open only for breakfast and lunch, but Brett the manager informed me that they plan to start keeping their regular hours this week (Monday through Thursday 7am to 8pm; Friday and Saturday 7am to 9pm, and Sunday 7am to 6pm).

Pizza, sandwiches, and subs have been available throughout the soft opening, and the items I've tried have been quite good, but what I'm looking forward to is the institution of their vegan sandwich choices (vegan/veggie menu pictured below), which Brett said should be available this week. Very much looking forward to the Vegan Meatball Parmesan Hero!

The place was pretty crowded when I was in there, an indication of the fact that decent pizza has long been desired by Brightwoodians. Go check it out if you haven't been yet.

New blog covers three great things: beer, dogs, and Brightwood Park!

Welcome, Almost Undefined, to the Brightwood blogosphere.

Trohv, brought to us by the owners of Red Tree, on the brink of opening

Trohv, Takoma's new furniture-and-whatnot shop, is almost ready to open at 262 Carroll Street NW.

Trohv is owned and run by the same folks who are behind Red Tree in Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood. For those of you who've been wondering why they didn't just call the new store Red Tree, well, that's because they've changed the name of the Baltimore store to Trohv. I spoke to the owner briefly today, and he told me there was logic behind the name changes and that it made total sense (I took his word for that). He said the target opening date for the Takoma location is April 23, one week from this Saturday.

The Northwest Current's guide to the April 26 special election

The Northwest Current has a 13-page voter's guide containing information about the At-Large Council candidates as well as the candidates for Ward 4 State Board of Education, including candidate bios and their answers to lengthy questionnaires. Well worth checking out.

Attention girls: prepare to rock at the Petworth Library

Girls Rock! DC from Lisa Marie Thalhammer on Vimeo.

Girls Rock! DC, the summer camp that teaches girls how to rock, is having an instrument share this Saturday at the Petworth Library. It's a good chance for girls who might not have played guitars and drums to familiarize themselves with the instruments and have fun while doing it (and then go on to ask their parents to sign them up for the full week-long camp this summer).

What: Girls Rock! DC instrument share
When: Saturday, April 16, 1-3 pm
Where: Petworth Neighborhood Library, 4200 Kansas Avenue NW
Who: Girls of all ages

What we learned at Ward 4's Rediscover the Bus

Tommy Wells held the Ward 4 edition of his Rediscover the Bus listening tour tonight at the Northern Bus Garage's community room. A few things that were discussed:

There's poor east-west connectivity. Trying to remedy this is challenging, but the E2, 3, and 4 lines (aka the Military Road-Crosstown lines) are under study. We'd all like to see them run more effficiently. But east-west connectivity is going to get a big boost because...

A Circulator route that runs between Tenleytown and Silver Spring is being planned. The proposed route runs down Military/Missouri and then north on Georgia to Silver Spring. But alas, it won't be operational til at least 2019.

There are too many stops on certain lines, and because of that it takes forever for the buses to get anywhere. At least one attendee cited this as the reason he rarely rides buses anymore. A WMATA planner (whose name I did not catch) said that the standard amount of bus stops per mile is four, yet many bus routes in Ward 4 have seven or eight stops per mile. It'd be great to start eliminating some stops that are deemed underused, but then again, we've seen that eliminating stops can cause problems too. The 70 line has 59 stops, as opposed to the 79, Georgia Avenue's limited-stop bus, which has 17 stops. Speaking of which...

The limited-stop buses are awesome. Much praise was heard for both the 79 on Georgia and the S9 on 16th Street. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to try to get downtown from Brightwood before those bus lines existed. Plans are to extend the 79's weekday hours til 10 pm and add Saturday service; midday and evening expansion is being planned for the S9.

More changes are in the works. Future plans include a Petworth/Manor Park/Takoma shuttle, an access study for Fort Totten, and the elimination of the K1 line that runs between Takoma and Walter Reed upon Walter Reed's closure.

In non-bus-related transportation news, Wells said that his goal for Capital Bikeshare is to double its fleet within two years, bringing the number of bikes to 2,200, which will allow for expansion into Ward 4.

Ward 4 Transportation Summit tonight - Rediscover the Bus!

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, who chairs the City Council's Committee on Public Works and Transportation, has been on a listening tour he's dubbed Rediscover the Bus. His goal is to hear ideas and constructive criticism of our bus system. As Brightwood is Metro-free I know we have a lot of avid bus riders in the neighborhood; here's your chance to tell CM Wells what needs improvement.

What: Ward 4 Transportation Summit & Rediscover the Bus Listening Tour
When: Wednesday, March 13, 6:30-8:00 pm
Where: 4729 14th Street, NW; Metro’s Northern Bus Garage Community room

Washington Deli is open...sort of

Received a tip from a reader today that the new Washington Deli at 5830 Georgia Avenue, just south of where Georgia intersects with Missouri, is finally open. So I stopped by at around 5:00 pm, but the place was all locked up and the lights were out. I've written to the owner to inquire about when they might start keeping regular hours; I'll update this post when I hear back.

Ward 4 State Board of Ed candidates' forum, Thursday night, Coolidge HS

Late notice, but I just got the announcement myself:

What: Candidate Forum for Ward 4 Board of Education Seat
Where: Coolidge High School Armory, 6315 5th St. NW
(Please Enter from 5th St. at the Frank Williams Center)
When: April 14, 6:30pm -8:00pm

Candidates:
An Almquist
Kamili Anderson
Bill Quirk
Andrew Moss
Moderator: Ted Trabue

Tonight's at-large candidates' forum at the Black Cat: this oughta be good

Quick reminder, there's a big at-large councilmember candidates' forum at the Black Cat tonight. Details below:

When: 7-9 p.m.
Where: The Black Cat, 1811 14th St NW
What: Candidates' Forum/Debate

Sponsored by Washington City Paper, NBC4, and WPFW. Full details here.

You should attend for three reasons:

1. This is the first at-large candidates' forum (that I know of) that is going to contain a debate element, so if you've attended other forums, expect something different this time around.
   
2. Step up and keep the momentum from last night's event going
   
3. It's at the Black Cat, the stomping ground of my misguided youth and my former employer (briefly). The bar will be open!* They rarely host events such as this. Go!

* And by that I mean the bar will be serving, I didn't mean "open bar" as in "free drinks for everyone". Now that would be a great candidates' forum!