🌸 Spirit Championship Bound + 15 New Restaurants to Try

Good morning, DC. The Spirit are championship-bound after Saturday's playoff demolition of Portland, and if you're looking for ways to celebrate (or just survive another Monday), we've got 15 new restaurants worth your time, 1,000 cyclists riding for safer streets Sunday, and Hadestown finally opening at the National Theatre.

In today’s District Download:

Let’s get to it.

Gregory Trent's daily routine as a Downtown DC BID Safety and Maintenance Ambassador reads like urban beautification meets endurance training—10-hour shifts managing a seven-to-eight-block downtown zone with grabbers, leaf blowers, and a hybrid cart, occasionally stomping out cigarette fires in trash bins with his shoe because apparently that's a thing that happens in downtown DC. He's part diplomat (directing lost tourists to monuments), part janitor (removing litter from flower beds), part city planner (flagging broken street lights), and full-time neighborhood connector—local businesses request him personally to sweep their storefronts. Here's the thing nobody talks about: DC's best infrastructure isn't the Metro or bike lanes or those sad Capital Bikeshare stations—it's people like Trent who actually make downtown feel like a neighborhood instead of a concrete maze where everyone's rushing to Happy Hour or an Uber. The 60+ BID ambassadors across downtown handle everything from graffiti removal to tourist directions, proving that civic infrastructure works best when it comes with a friendly face and actually shows up every day. Worth remembering next time you're walking a clean sidewalk in Penn Quarter or wondering why downtown doesn't feel as grim as it did three years ago—someone like Trent already swept it this morning.

Join over 4 million Americans who start their day with 1440 – your daily digest for unbiased, fact-centric news. From politics to sports, we cover it all by analyzing over 100 sources. Our concise, 5-minute read lands in your inbox each morning at no cost. Experience news without the noise; let 1440 help you make up your own mind. Sign up now and invite your friends and family to be part of the informed.

Sign up today!

Sunday's Ride for Your Life marks four years of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association turning grief into advocacy—a 10-mile trek from Bethesda's Caroline Freeland Urban Park to the Lincoln Memorial led by Dan Langenkamp, whose wife Sarah was killed while cycling on River Road in 2022 by a driver who left the scene, because apparently we've normalized 5,000-pound SUVs piloted by people checking Instagram. The ride coincides with the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and spotlights genuinely terrifying stats: 40,000 U.S. road deaths in 2023, with 30% involving cyclists or pedestrians, fueled by an arms race of bigger vehicles and more distracted drivers that makes every bike commute feel like Frogger on hard mode. Over 1,000 riders are expected Sunday at 10 AM (free registration online or at the start) pushing for the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Safety Act, which would actually let states spend federal highway funds on bike lanes and sidewalks instead of the endless loop of adding more car lanes that somehow never fix traffic. The play here: Show up Sunday if you bike in DC or just want safer streets—Maryland's already installing protected bike lanes on River Road where Sarah died, proving that showing up and making noise actually works when cities would rather pretend cyclists don't exist. Registration takes two minutes, and riding with 1,000+ people beats your solo Sunday coffee ride while sending a message that DC-area cyclists aren't going away just because infrastructure planning peaked in 1955.

Refer the most new subscribers this month and score a $200 gift card to DC's most iconic French bistro—your referral link is below. We’ll count all verified, unique signups from now through November 30.

This season's restaurant openings read like a passport stamp collection: Eric Adjepong's Dawa bringing Ghanaian jollof rice with suya-crusted short rib to 14th Street, Chai Pani's James Beard Award-winning Indian street snacks in Union Market, Bao Bei's Taiwanese steamed buns in Rockville, and Tempo Shack's Nepali momo dumplings on H Street NE. The range spans from Michael Mina's Acqua Bistecca doing caviar-topped mozzarella sticks in Georgetown to Nuli's Nigerian healthy bowls on K Street, with standouts like Hush Harbor—a no-phones bar on H Street serving Southern soul food and pimiento cheese—and Florería Atlántico, a Buenos Aires-inspired bar hidden behind a flower shop in Georgetown. DC's food scene is finally betting on chefs who actually have something to say instead of another generic Italian spot or overpriced steakhouse.

Hitachi's dropping $100 million on a 307,000-square-foot factory in Hagerstown that'll pump out 256 new 8000 series metro cars starting in 2028, marking the first time DC Metro trains will be manufactured in the Washington region instead of Nebraska or Italy. The prototype unveiled at the ribbon-cutting shows sleeker brown-and-silver cars with center-facing seats, open gangways between paired cars, and significantly more space for bikes, strollers, and wheelchairs—plus a robotic "dog" named Spot will patrol the factory at night doing safety inspections. At 20 cars per month starting in 2028, it'll take years to replace the aging fleet, but the $2.2 billion investment signals Metro's commitment to local manufacturing and design improvements that might actually make your commute less soul-crushing.

For $5/month, you help keep District Download independent and support the writers bringing you insider DC intel three times a week.

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

9:30 Club | Violent Vira | Energetic indie rock performance | 7 PM

Keegan Theatre | Lizzie the Musical | Punk-rock retelling of the Lizzie Borden legend (runs through Nov 30) | 8 PM

National Theatre | Hadestown | Tony Award-winning musical opens (8 Tonys including Best Musical) | 7:30 PM

Lincoln Theatre | Digable Planets | Jazz rap pioneers celebrate 30th anniversary of "Blowout Comb" | 8 PM

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

Monday

50 🌡 31 | 🌧️ 3% | 💨 9 mph

Tuesday

49 🌡 31 | 🌧️ 25% | 💨 5 mph

Respond to this email and tell us what you think of the newsletter. Let us know if there are any topics you’d like to hear more about. Your input helps shape the content and makes District Download a more community-driven publication.

The Atlantis | Khamari | 6:30 PM

9:30 Club | Violent Vira | 7 PM

The Howard Theatre | PJ Morton | 8 PM

The Fillmore - Silver Spring | Leon Thomas with Ambre | 8 PM

Warner Theatre - DC | David Garrett | 8 PM

The Atlantis | Sydney Rose | 6:30 PM

Tally Ho - Leesburg | Jake Shimabukuro | 7 PM

9:30 Club | The Faint | 7 PM

The Theater at MGM National Harbor | Motor City Live - A Motown Tribute | 7:30 PM

The Fillmore - Silver Spring | The Home Team with Arrows In Action | 7:30 PM

Union Stage | The Altons with Thee Sinseers | 8 PM

Lincoln Theatre - DC | Digable Planets | 8 PM

The Washington Spirit dismantled the Portland Thorns 2-0 Saturday at a sold-out Audi Field, with Gift Monday and Croix Bethune finding the net to send 19,365 screaming fans home happy and the Spirit to their second consecutive NWSL Championship appearance. Saturday's win sets up a November 22 title showdown in San Jose against Gotham FC, who edged defending champion Orlando Pride 1-0 in Sunday's other semifinal on a dramatic stoppage-time goal. The Spirit are riding serious momentum after back-to-back dominant playoff performances—they knocked out Racing Louisville on penalties in the quarterfinals before shutting down Portland's attack completely in the semis. Kickoff is 8 PM EST on CBS, and if you're not already planning your watch party, you're missing out on DC's best shot at a championship this year.

Happy birthday and thank you to all of our readers! This newsletter wouldn’t be possible without your support. Share this email with three people to get a shoutout on your next birthday.

Taylor from Columbia Heights

Till next time,