🌸 The Thanksgiving Travel Math Is Brutal—Here's Your Window

Good morning, DC. The clock's running on Thanksgiving travel, and your window closes faster than you think.

In today’s District Download:

Let’s get to it.

AAA is projecting 82 million Americans traveling this Thanksgiving—the most on record—and 73 million of them will be in cars, probably on your commute. DC-area drivers face a simple choice: leave Tuesday morning or sit in traffic Tuesday afternoon. The math is brutal. The Baltimore-Washington Parkway at 4:30 PM Tuesday will take an hour and 50 minutes, roughly 2.5 times the normal drive, which means you'll be sitting on the BW Parkway longer than most Thanksgiving dinners last. Wednesday afternoon is equally grim across all major routes out of the District. Airfare is averaging $700 roundtrip—flat from 2024—and the FAA just lifted government shutdown flight restrictions, so expect fuller planes. The silver lining for road trippers: car rentals dropped 15% from last year, which partially offsets the gas you'll burn idling on I-95. Best strategy: leave before noon Tuesday, or accept that your Thanksgiving starts with two hours staring at brake lights.

Consider this your wake-up call.

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The annual invasion of Christmas kitsch has arrived. Twelve holiday pop-ups are now serving themed cocktails under approximately 50,000 twinkle lights—a conservative estimate—across the District and Virginia. Miracle at Black Whiskey in Logan Circle runs November 28 through New Year's Eve with Christmapolitan cocktails and enough tinsel to fill a Metro car. Union Market's Coquito Bar is serving Puerto Rican coconut-rum drinks that taste like the holidays if your family gatherings involved actual flavor instead of dry turkey. Tiki TNT at The Wharf went with a Home Alone theme this year, which is either genius or alarming depending on how you feel about boozy tributes to childhood trauma. The commitment award goes to Del Ray's Holiday Post Office Pop-Up (November 22 through January 4), where 2,500 Christmas bulbs and bourbon cocktails turn a corner bar into a full sensory assault. Additional spots have popped up in Shaw, Glover Park, and Georgetown. Fair warning: these places get packed after 8 PM, reservations fill fast, and your Uber home will be coated in glitter you'll find in your hair until February.

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.

The 2025 DC Michelin Guide landed with a thud Monday at a Philadelphia ceremony. No new one-star restaurants. No new two-stars. And the Inn at Little Washington—the DC region's lone three-star restaurant for years—dropped to two stars, meaning our area now has zero restaurants at that top tier. Reverie, which held a star, has closed entirely. The bright spots came from the Bib Gourmand category, which recognizes affordable excellence. Two new additions: Your Only Friend in Shaw, a sandwich-and-cocktail spot that's become a neighborhood fixture, and PhoXotic in Bloomingdale, a pho counter that's built a following without relying on Instagram gimmicks. These are the kinds of places where you can actually get a table on a random Tuesday and eat well for under $40. The starred restaurant scene may be stagnant, but for a great meal without a two-month waitlist and $200 tasting menu, the Bib Gourmand list just got more interesting.

The outdoor dining platforms that transformed 18th Street NW during the pandemic are about to disappear. New DDOT regulations would effectively ban most streateries in Adams Morgan, and public comment closes this Friday, November 21. The rules prohibit streateries near trees or with rain cover—criteria that eliminate nearly every existing setup on the strip. The irony is thick: the District funded pilot streateries on this block, and now those same businesses must tear them down and potentially build new ones that meet different standards. Some owners face paying three times over—once for their original DIY platforms during COVID, again for the city-funded pilots, and again for whatever compliant version DDOT will accept. On-the-street interviews show diners still packing the streateries on weekends, but popularity apparently doesn't translate to policy. If you've enjoyed eating outside at Mintwood Place, Tail Up Goat, or any of the other 18th Street spots, the comment period is your last chance to weigh in before the regulations become final.

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

National Theatre | Hadestown | Tony-winning musical retells Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice through New Orleans jazz and folk | 7:30 PM

The Chocolate House | Chocolate & Wine Tasting | Artisan truffles paired with Spanish cava, red, and white wines | 7 PM

Lincoln Theatre | The Moth DC GrandSLAM | 10 StorySLAM winners compete for DC storytelling championship | 8 PM

Ford's Theatre | A Christmas Carol | Craig Wallace returns as Scrooge in opening night of the holiday classic | 7:30 PM

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

Wednesday

49 🌡 39 | 🌧️ 7% | 💨 4 mph

Thursday

48 🌡 39 | 🌧️ 10% | 💨 3 mph

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The Atlantis | Anna of the North with Rachel Bochner | 6:30 PM

9:30 Club | Cut Copy with Ora The Molecule | 7 PM

Black Cat | bar italia | 7 PM

The Hamilton Live | David Nail with Juliet Lloyd | 7:30 PM

The Birchmere | Debbie Gibson | 7:30 PM

Howard Theatre | Mon Rovîa | 8 PM

The Fillmore Silver Spring | Lexa Gates | 8 PM

Blues Alley | Ben Wolfe | 8 PM

Union Stage | D Smoke | 7 PM

The Atlantis | Robyn Hitchcock with Emma Swift | 7 PM

The Birchmere | Jonathan Coulton with Paul and Storm | 7:30 PM

The Anthem | Gunna | 8 PM

The Barns at Wolf Trap | Natalie Merchant | 8 PM

Black Cat | Die Spitz with Babe Haven | 8 PM

Songbyrd | Triathalon | 8 PM

Echostage | El Alfa | 9 PM

The Commanders enter their bye week at 3-8 after dropping a heartbreaker to Miami 16-13 in overtime Sunday—their fifth straight loss and a slide that's buried them in third place in the NFC East. The silver lining: Jayden Daniels' dislocated elbow won't require surgery and he avoided injured reserve, meaning the rookie quarterback could return as soon as Week 13 when Washington hosts Denver on November 30. Marcus Mariota has kept the offense functional but not explosive, averaging 200 passing yards per start while the defense has allowed 30+ points in three of the last five games. The primetime matchup against the Broncos offers a chance to reset, but with the Eagles and Cowboys looming later in December, the Commanders need Daniels back under center soon.

Till next time,