The X2

From the 2008 Festival The 11th Annual H Street Festival will be held on Saturday September 17. The fest begins at noon and continues until 7 PM. The few times I've been have always been a blast and I always thought it was more chill and more consumable than the Adams Morgan Day, which I tried to attend every year. Anyway, here's how the organizers describe this years H Street Festival! The 2016 H Street Festival will take place on Saturday, Sept. 17 from noon – 7 p.m. This year’s event will span 10 blocks of H Street NE with 14 staging areas, dozens of interactive attractions and displays and over 250 businesses, restaurants, community organizations and vendors. Join us for great entertainment, food, drinks, contests, family-friendly activities and more!   Organized by H Street Main Street, the annual event highlights the unique spirit of the H Street NE Corridor and is one of the most popular in the D.C. region. It’s been named the best community Festival by The ...

Walking by 501 H Street NE, I always peek into the construction pit to check on the progress -- and wonder why it's so deep. The plans from the developer, Douglas Development, call for 28 residential units, including studios, one BRs, one BRs + den, and two BRs. But, why so deep for a building with just 28 units?  Parking? Nope. There will only be 5-6 on-site parking spaces for the building, all of which will be on the ground floor. Subterranean apartment rental units? Hopefully not. Storage? Not this time.  The real reason: retail. There will be three floors of retail in the building, totaling 22,000+ square feet, impressive for a lot that is just 9,800 square feet. Almost a third of that retail square footage will below grade. The below-grade level of retail will have 15 foot ceilings, hence the deep dig. The first floor will have 16 foot ceilings, and second floor will have 15'6" ceilings, still plenty tall. Floors 3-6 will be comprised of residential units....

Upcoming at the Atlas Performing Arts Center . Atlas is located at 1333 H Street NE. Search programs and buy tickets here . Satchmo at the Waldorf by Terry Teachout | Directed by Eleanor Holdridge August 25- September 25, 2016 "It’s March 1971 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and Louis Armstrong has just played one of the final performances of his extraordinary career. Backstage, he recounts events that transformed him into the world-famous “Satchmo.” With no-nonsense manager Joe Glaser, his Jewish manager,at his side, and Miles Davis, his fiercest colleague and critic, challenging his standing in African American culture, Armstrong keeps steady through an era of enormous social change… but at what cost? The absorbing, uplifting Off-Broadway hit and now regional theater power-house about the music, struggles and triumphs of the man who invented jazz. Armstrong as you’ve never seen him; hilarious, moving, and breathtakingly human." -- via Atlas Performing Arts Cente...

Although they decry "fast casual," that's exactly how I would describe this place. Another Philadelphia grown, fast casual restaurant is coming to Penn Quarter/Chinatown. Honeygrow is a small chain of restaurants that has a menu focused on stir-fry, salads, and smoothies. Check out the menu here . There aren't many stand-alone vegan dishes, but it looks like you could make you own version of each dish with some variety, which is cool. Honeygrow will be located at 716 7th St NW, just doors down from another recent Phila transplant, HipCity Veg. 716 7th was previously occupied by Comfort One Shoes. The PQ Honeygrow will likely open before the end of 2016. It appears that they are looking to expand and grow a footprint rather quickly, mostly in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic. This recent news article mentions the ubiquitous "next Chipotle" vision of some investors, but I say they should be careful about growing too big, too fast. On that note, the op...