STAFF PICKS PEOPLE&PLACES
Best Place to Watch a Sunset
Best Place to Watch a Sunset: Cardozo Education Campus Parking Lot
Cardozo Education Campus Parking Lot 1200 Clifton St. NW
To feel like you’re the angsty protagonist of a John Green novel, grab your JUUL or joint just before the sun sets and head to the parking lot of the Cardozo Education Campus, which boasts one of the most commanding views of downtown D.C. While tourists might opt to take an elevated view of the monuments from a hotel rooftop or double-decker bus, locals know that the sightline from 13th St. NW can’t be beat. There’s something about the hazy orange glow the skyline takes on in the summer that’ll make you fall in love with the District, over and over again. —Morgan Baskin
Best Mobilizer Over the past two years, Chef José Andrés has demonstrated true American spirit and earned a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nomination along the way. The restaurateur behind Jaleo, Zaytinya, China Chilcano, Oyamel, minibar, and many other dining destinations was also named 2018’s Humanitarian of the Year by the James Beard Foundation. His legacy for nurturing people with food is, at this point, unimpeachable. Andrés has long fought world hunger through World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit he founded in 2012, but his recent pivot to disaster relief has elevated his mission to a new level, in part because WCK’s efforts and resources often outpace the federal government’s. In Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria; on the Florida Panhandle after Hurricane Michael; in North Carolina after Hurricane Florence; in California after massive wildfires; in Texas after Hurricane Harvey; and in Nebraska following severe flooding, Andrés and his teams of volunteers and chefs have served millions of meals from improvised kitchens and made sure those affected by natural disasters were able to eat. Internationally WCK has come to the rescue in Guatemala after the Fuego volcano erupted, fed those trapped in
Darrow Montgomery
José Andrés
the conflict at the Colombia-Venezuela border, and served refugees at the U.S.Mexico border. The organization is currently working in Mozambique as southern Africa recovers from Cyclone Idai. These initiatives are all on top of WCK’s long-term programs, which work to end hunger in impoverished global communities by creating cleaner cooking environments, supporting school kitchens, training individuals for culinary and hospitality jobs, and funding small-scale social enterprises. Andrés’ work became more visible to Washingtonians in early 2019, when WCK sprang into action with #ChefsForFeds during the longest partial federal government shutdown in U.S. history. A small kitchen on Pennsylvania Avenue NW cranked out more than 100,000 meals for furloughed workers with the help of dedicated volunteers, some of whom were furloughed feds themselves. The WCK team also partnered with more than 400 restaurants in 35 states to serve several hundred thousand more
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meals in other parts of the nation during the shutdown. While all of these relief efforts were occuring, often simultaneously, around the world, Andrés was working toward his next big restaurant project—a 35,000-square-foot food hall called Mercado Little Spain in New York. While we’re feeling a little jealous in D.C., we have just two questions for the restaurateur-humanitarian super human: Do you sleep? And what’s next? —Laura Hayes
Best Shove Vince Gray re-enacting Vince Gray getting shoved out of a nightclub
The remake is almost never better than the original, but Councilmember Vince Gray is the exception to that rule. During last October’s Art All Night festival, Gray tried to use his Council ID to get into an event hosted at The DC Eagle, a gay nightclub on Benning Road NE. The
bouncer, having none of that, asked the 76-year-old Gray for an ID with his birthday on it. Gray protested, things escalated, and the bouncer grabbed Gray, pushing him out the door and onto his keister. While City Paper has not seen the original footage, there is no way it’s better than Gray’s re-enactment. Two days later, in his Council office, Gray demonstrated the scuffle on NBC4 reporter Mark Segraves. As the camera rolls, Gray grabs Segraves by the shoulders and drives him out of the frame like an offensive lineman. The councilmember also showed the camera the boo-boos on his hands, and told Segraves he wanted the bouncer arrested and fired. Earlier this year, the DC Eagle had its alcohol license temporarily suspended and was fined $2,000 by the Alcohol and Beverage Regulation Administration in response to the attack. Gray told Metro Weekly that he had nothing to do with the sanction. “Given the fact that I was the vic-