🌸 Local restaurants step up during shutdown

Good morning, DC.

In today’s District Download:

Let’s get to it.

The DMV's fall color show is entering its final act, with peak foliage already behind us and leaves beginning their inevitable descent to the ground. WAMU's latest "Get Out There" guide offers a timely reminder that if you've been putting off that weekend drive to Shenandoah or that bike ride through Rock Creek Park, this week is your moment. The classic DMV spots remain reliable bets: Theodore Roosevelt Island's Swamp Trail typically holds its color longer than the memorial area, while Great Falls on both the Maryland and Virginia sides offers dramatic river views framed by lingering autumn hues. Shenandoah's 105-mile Skyline Drive continues to draw weekend crowds chasing those last mountain vistas, though rangers suggest weekday visits or arriving before 10 AM to avoid the bumper-to-bumper leaf-peeping traffic that turns scenic byways into parking lots. Closer to home, Rock Creek Park's 1,800 acres of hardwood forest and Seneca Creek State Park's reflection-perfect Clopper Lake provide easy escapes without the haul out to the mountains. The window is narrow—most trees will be bare by mid-November—so consider this your friendly nudge to stop scrolling through other people's foliage photos and go make your own.

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Now that Halloween's in the rearview mirror and your porch pumpkin is looking less festive and more forensic, DC has actual plans for that rapidly decomposing decoration beyond letting it become a mold science experiment. DC's Department of Public Works is collecting pumpkins at nine farmers market locations through mid-November, splitting them into two categories: uncarved and unpainted pumpkins get donated to organizations like Miriam's Kitchen and Martha's Table to feed people, while jack-o'-lanterns head to composting facilities in Prince George's County. The setup keeps more than a billion pounds of pumpkins from rotting in landfills nationwide, where they produce methane gas that's roughly 20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. In the suburbs, Prince George's County offers curbside pickup on Mondays for residents who put pumpkins in paper lawn bags or green carts, while Fairfax and Loudoun counties have drop-off sites at their landfills and recycling centers. Just remember to remove candles, wax, paint, and those battery-operated flickering lights before dropping off—turns out composting facilities draw the line at processing plastic spiders and LED candles along with your organic gourd waste.

The definitive guide to navigating breakfast and brunch across the Union Market District breaks down everything from Blue Bottle's 6:30 AM opening (earliest in the neighborhood) to weekend-only splurges at Pastis and Minetta Tavern. The guide covers 28 spots spanning three zones—inside Union Market proper, inside La Cosecha, and the broader district—with options ranging from Buffalo & Bergen's bagel-and-lox-garnished Bloody Marys to Yellow's za'atar croissants and Pluma's chocolate-pistachio pastries that locals swear by. The roundup solves the perpetual Union Market breakfast problem: with this many options packed into a few blocks, you need a strategy beyond just wandering in hungry and hoping for the best.

DC's restaurant community is mobilizing to support furloughed federal workers, with José Andrés offering free entrees at select restaurants, Moby Dick House of Kebab providing complimentary lunch sandwiches, and Taqueria Xochi in Navy Yard serving free tacos to civil servants caught in the shutdown. The response extends beyond free meals, with dozens of local spots offering discounts while nonprofits like Capital Area Food Bank scramble to meet surging demand—their first distribution saw lines twice as long as their initial 150-box supply, forcing them to more than double their inventory within days. Sometimes the best recipe for community resilience is a generous helping of neighborhood support, and DC's dining scene is proving that businesses built on hospitality know exactly when to extend it beyond the usual transaction.

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Here’s what’s going on around DC this week:

Klein Theatre | The Wild Duck | Ibsen's rarely produced drama about truth's toll | 7:30 PM

Keegan Theatre | Lizzie the Musical | Punk-rock musical reimagining the Borden axe murders | 8 PM

National Museum of Women in the Arts | Fresh Talk: Agency in Fashion | Designer Tracy Reese on reclaiming the industry | 6 PM

Arena Stage Kreeger Theater | Fremont Ave. | Three generations of Black men face off at cards | 7:30 PM

Get your name in front of thousands of DMV area locals 3x/week.

Monday

65 🌡 47 | 🌧️ 35% | 💨 3 mph

Tuesday

63 🌡 42 | 🌧️ 10% | 💨 10 mph

9:30 Club | Hot Mulligan with Drug Church | 6 PM

The Atlantis | Arcy Drive with Mercury | 6:30 PM

Lincoln Theatre | Robert Plant's Saving Grace | 7:30 PM

Birchmere Music Hall | Richard Thompson | 7:30 PM

The Anthem | Of Monsters And Men | 8 PM

The Fillmore | Little Simz | 8 PM

The Atlantis | Arcy Drive | 6:30 PM

9:30 Club | Minus The Bear | 7 PM

The Howard Theatre | SF9 | 7:15 PM

Birchmere Music Hall | Macy Gray | 7:30 PM

The Anthem | Halsey | 8 PM

Pearl Street Warehouse | Hunter Metts | 8 PM

Lincoln Theatre | Matt Maeson | 8 PM

The past few days have been brutal for DC-area sports, with losing streaks piling up like unpaid parking tickets. The Commanders dropped their fourth straight Sunday night in a 38-14 shellacking by Seattle that saw Jayden Daniels leave with an apparent arm injury, falling to 3-6 and making their playoff hopes look bleaker by the week. The Capitals matched that misery with their own four-game skid after a 4-3 shootout loss to Buffalo on Saturday and a 1-0 shutout by Dallas on Tuesday, leaving them at 6-5-1 while Alex Ovechkin remains stuck at 899 career goals. The Wizards (also on a four-game losing streak) got demolished 125-94 by Orlando on Saturday, while Maryland football's 55-10 humiliation at the hands of undefeated Indiana dropped the Terps to 4-4 and left coach Mike Locksley admitting he "didn't coach well enough" in front of a national TV audience.

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Till next time,