🌸 The last month for street dining

Good morning, DC.

In today’s District Download:

Let’s get to it.

The city's $750,000 Adams Morgan streatery pilot flopped spectacularly—just three of 33 restaurants want to keep the Norwegian-designed platforms that DDOT now admits are too wide to meet the very regulations the agency itself will enforce starting November 30. Restaurant owners face $20-per-square-foot annual fees (up to $24,000 for some), a ban on enclosed winter dining, and distance requirements that make most existing streateries illegal, which Duke's Grocery says will slash their setup from seven tables to one. This lands precisely as restaurants call the moment "Pandemic 2.0"—government shutdown impacts layered onto immigration raids and federal cuts—yet DDOT director Sharon Kershbaum defended the "onerous process" by noting only 10 percent of New York streateries survived similar rule changes, as if DC should aspire to a 45 percent survival rate. Councilmember Charles Allen captured the subtext: "This feels like a way to say 'I don't want streateries, but I don't want to say that part out loud.'" Translation: The outdoor dining infrastructure that kept restaurants alive is being regulated to death by the agency that built it, at the worst possible time, with no apparent awareness that Covid-era ventilation concerns aren't relevant in 2025.

Margaret Hutton's debut novel If You Leave pulls from the city's wartime past when thousands of women flooded DC for government work and transformed neighborhoods like McLean Gardens—the 1942 Glover Park housing development that still stands today. The George Mason MFA graduate and longtime DC resident (since 1991) spent years researching the era, interviewing women who worked here during WWII and studying everything from David Brinkley's Washington Goes to War to 1930s surgical recordings to capture authentic period details. Her Washington deliberately sidesteps political power struggles to focus on everyday autonomy—women living independently for the first time in a "lush green city with quaint gardens and redbrick walls shaped by politics from the perspective of people who bear the weight of politicians' decisions." The novel tackles moral questions around abortion access, women's rights, and the obligations we owe others through two central characters navigating wartime DC, offering locals a rare literary glimpse of the city's domestic history rather than its usual political narrative. Hutton, who also paints following Flannery O'Connor's advice to "draw in order to learn how to see," brings that visual attention to her prose in ways that illuminate corners of DC history most residents never knew existed.

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Executive chef Marcus May runs what guests call a "super kitchen" at Miriam's Kitchen, feeding 400+ people daily from a rotating cast of donated ingredients that would stump most chefs—think Chopped, but with 1,600 volunteers and 120 pounds of protein per dinner service instead of a TV prize. The operation earned a visit from former Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema and delivers restaurant-caliber food (signature biscuits and gravy, Polynesian caramel chicken, salmon that regulars rave about) alongside the dignity of choice for people experiencing homelessness, especially critical as SNAP cuts from the shutdown increase demand. May's philosophy is simple: "These people are ignored all day long; they're pushed aside. They come in here, and we give them their dignity back"—breakfast 6:30-8 AM, dinner 4-5 PM at 2401 Virginia Ave NW.

Gigi's Pasta officially opened last week in Foggy Bottom's Western Market after original Dupont plans fell through, with husband-wife owners Stephanos and Constandina Andreou importing a ceramic pasta machine pedestal from near Amalfi and designing the 100-seat space around Southern Italy's striped patterns and yellow-white-green color schemes. The made-to-order concept prioritizes low prices during the ongoing shutdown—smart positioning for the GW-adjacent food hall where federal layoffs have students and workers cutting spending—and runs 10 AM to 11 PM daily in the space Bussdown DC vacated last December. Skip the carb guilt and embrace what the Andreous call "new school vintage"—their pesto chicken with sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts runs $16, while simpler builds start at $12.

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

Sixth &I | Michelle Obama: The Look | Former First Lady discusses new fashion book | 7:30 PM

Quarry House Tavern | Noir reading series | Pelecanos and Grady read local crime fiction | 7 PM

Sixth & I | Alison Roman: Something From Nothing | Cookbook author discusses new pantry-staples book | 7 PM

Woolly Mammoth Theatre | Ho Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha Ha | Estonian clown's improvised holiday problem-solving show | 8 PM

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Wednesday

58 🌡 39 | 🌧️ 0% | 💨 10 mph

Thursday

57 🌡 36 | 🌧️ 0% | 💨 15 mph

The Atlantis | Lily Fitts | 6:30 PM

Birchmere Music Hall | Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox | 7:30 PM

9:30 Club | Geese | 8 PM

Warner Theatre | Samara Joy | 8 PM

Soundcheck | Ahee | 10 PM

Warner Theatre | Boz Scaggs | 7 PM

Birchmere Music Hall | Colin Hay | 7:30 PM

Lincoln Theatre | Josh Ritter | 8 PM

The Theater at MGM National Harbor | Tye Tribbett | 8 PM

The Anthem | The Band CAMINO | 8 PM

Soundcheck | Franky Rizardo | 10 PM

The Spirit host Portland Thorns Saturday at noon at Audi Field in the NWSL semifinals after surviving a nail-biting penalty shootout against Racing Louisville last weekend—goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury saved two PKs in front of 19,215 fans, the team's third straight playoff sellout. A win Saturday sends Washington to its second consecutive NWSL Championship game (and fourth overall) on November 22 in San Jose, though health questions linger around star forward Trinity Rodman who's been dealing with a sprain. Portland's riding momentum with only two losses in their last nine games, powered by a stellar midfield trio of Sam Coffey, Olivia Moultrie, and Jessie Fleming—but the Spirit beat them earlier this season at Audi Field with a stoppage-time winner, and home-field advantage has been everything for this team. Tickets still available, game on CBS.

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Till next time,