Episode I: RedRocks Firebricks Pizzeria

Welcome! Even though JR (the ‘stage’ part of the blog) had to drag me into writing this, I’m honestly excited about sharing all the food adventures that we have with all you foodies in the District. As we all foodies search for the perfect combination of food and drinks in our gastronomical indulgences, this blog will explore the perfect matching of food and performance art. Great food, great drinks, and great Art – what is more to ask for? I love DC!

To be honest, location was a very big factor in choosing our first venue of dining. I went for RedRocks Pizzeria because it was strategically close to Tivoli Theatre where we planned on seeing a GALA Theatre production that night. That said, RedRocks rocked!...and it brought my appreciation for the food scene in the Columbia Heights neighborhood to another level!

I really wanted to take advantage of the location of the theatre performance and indulge in good Latino cuisine, but a couple of Latino foodie friends, who went to the performance earlier that week didn’t have names to recommend for savory food from back home. They did recommend another pizzeria in the area for a quick bite before the show but I opted for RedRocks because the ‘Neapolitan-Style Pizza’ was so tempting…well, that and because they had a picture of people eating outside the restaurant, which if this blog survives till Spring/Summer, is a weak spot for me. I love and absolutely cannot resist outside seating!

We got to RedRocks and the first reaction we had was “why haven’t I’ve seen this place before?”. JR had an intellectual explanation that one doesn’t notice things they are not looking for but I just went for the “maybe that big commercial banner repelled my eyes from looking at the place long enough to notice it” explanation. Despite the unattractive commercially banner/post that had the restaurant’s name written in big fonts, I think that one of the biggest reasons why neither of us have noticed the restaurant was because it blended in well with the beautiful row houses that decorate the neighborhood. As we approached the restaurant I suddenly had a déjà vu of stepping into a house party a friend invited me to in Columbia Heights a while ago. There was a very homey vibe about walking into RedRocks.

It was also pleasant inside. It was actually better than what I expected – Red bricks, dark brown wood, candle light, and delicious smells that lured me into the restaurant further. Definitely a great date spot. The waitress led us to the second floor, which was potentially perfect until the noisy “group of twelve”, or something, walked in. Our waitress was nice though and the good food made up for the loud noise which the group made on the second floor. So piece of advice, if you are on a date and/or want to have more of a quiet and intimate conversation go for a corner on the first floor or make sure that no crowds are, or will be coming in for dinner on the second floor.

We came in time for happy hour and even though I was in the mood for beer (apparently they have a good beer selection) JR suggested wine…and I can never turn down wine! We both got the house wine, San Lorenzo Montepulciano, which went really well with what we ordered. I already knew that I wanted the Insalata Caprese for an antipasto and two pizzas: a pizza rossa and a bianca. We ordered the Salsiccia (sausage) for the tomato sauce based red pizza, and the Funghi (mushrooms) for our white pizza option. Mmm!


The Insalata Caprese went really well with the red wine but I wished that they were more generous on the olive oil and had normal tomatoes instead on cherry tomatoes. That said, the antipasto hit the spot, especially with the freshness of the mozzarella. Again, the antipasto went really well with the house wine that by the time we were done with our appetizer, I was already thinking of getting another glass. The pizze came and they were larger than what I expected. I have a respect for non-petite food proportions, especially if the cuisine of choice was Italian. I went for the Salsiccia and JR took a piece of the Funghi. We like. The sausage in the Salsiccia Pizza was savory and it had a sweet after taste that invited you to eat more. I also love mushrooms so I knew that I would like the Funghi Pizza. Luckily, the chef that night at RedRocks might have been in a good mood and added more mushrooms to the pizza! The result: hearty, juicy, and satisfying – not what one would expect from thin crust pizza. For the most part, RedRocks did not disappoint with their pizza, but I must say, as a crust-lover, that there was more potential to enjoy the crust. It was just fine.

I would definitely go back to RedRocks and I actually envy those Columbia Heights hipsters for having such a nice neighborhood pizzeria so close. But no time for envy…it was nearly 7:45 and we only had 15 minutes to run to our 8:00 PM show at GALA/Tivoli. The proximity of RedRocks to the theatre is another advantage of choosing the venue for a night out in town that combines good food and art.

Episode I: Beauty of the Father

Hey there,

Welcome to our blog, although I had to drag Sam (the 'plate' portion of this blog) kicking and screaming, a bit, into the blogosphere. Hope you enjoy our escapades throughout DC.

After dining at RedRocks Firebrick Pizzeria, our first adventure took us to see a production of Beauty of the Father / La belleza del padre by Nilo Cruz, at the GALA Hispanic Theatre, the National Center for Latino Performing Arts. GALA is an acronym which stands for Grupo de Artistas Latino Americanos. It's website is in both English and Spanish. We managed to get there just in time, before the house lights went out and the show started, mostly thanks to the proximity of RedRocks & the theatre.

The Tivoli Theatre is located in Columbia Heights. It's an area that has been a site of revitalization or gentrification, depending on how you want to look at it, and who you are talking to. Either way, the GALA Hispanic Theatre as been a cornerstone in the neighborhood since it made the move to the Tivoli in 2005.

GALA Hispanic Theatre's current Associate Producing Director, Abel Lopez, directed this production of Beauty of the Father / La belleza del padre. He has been a cornerstone in his own right, both as an essential part of the GALA family and the arts and Latino communities at large. In 2001, Americans for the Arts gave him with the Selina Roberts Ottum Award, given annually to recognize "outstanding contributions in the local arts agency field". Among the multiple organizations he has been involved with in various capacities, he currently sits on the board of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture.

Many of GALA's productions are performed in Spanish with English supertitles, but for this production, the languages were reversed. And although I didn't need to, I tried to see how much of the Spanish I learned in high school and college I remembered. The bilingual environment is an essential part of the culture and community GALA has cultivated with its work.

Beauty of the Father / La belleza del padre takes place in Granada, and tells the story of a modern family, a painter who tries to reconnect with his daughter after being separated by time and distance, a daughter who tries to deal with the death of her mother and the father she has never really known, a man who doesn't know what he wants or from whom, and a woman who does what she can to make the ones she loves happy. Oh yeah, and there's a dead guy, García Lorca, who befriends the painter as he wanders among the living, and makes things really interesting in the second act.

Issues of culture, class, race, sexuality, fidelity, and family are all addressed in an engaging tale with Lorca providing a sense of levity and gravity all at the same time. What was wonderful about seeing the production with Sam was that the young man, who is a bit of a sexually confused character as he ends up charming the daughter of his older sometime-lover, is from Morocco and speaks Arabic at times. In general, even with the English vs Spanish translation, it's interesting to see the artistic liberty taken with some of the word choice, but this additional lingual layer and Sam's personal translations in my ear made the experience that much more interesting.

Wonderfully directed and performed, with an excellently selected score and soundtrack, one other wonderful element was the set, designed by Elizabeth McFadden, one of my favorite scenic designers in the area. A simple set portraying a beach which covered the entire down stage, there was a boardwalk which started center stage and, while the beach and the set ended on the sides, went to the upstage wall and curved up until the boards became a depiction of the sky, painted a baby blue with patches of white, and even the outlines of clouds cut into the backdrop. Downstage elements included a well which doubled as a fire pit for part of the second act and two boxes with actual sand which characters dug their feet into in a couple of scenes.

On a side note, Elizabeth McFadden was the DC PAL of the month, November of '09; the DC Performing Arts League, a group I started almost 3 years ago, is merely a means to recognize the work of individual artists, and use Web 2.0 tools to further raise awareness of DC's thriving performing arts scene.

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend this show. The complexity of its characters and the story seems to appeal to multiple communities and people on different levels, from various perspectives. But the theme that I ended up being engaged with, both in the Lorca character, and in dealing with the death of the mother, is really taking a look at how we respect and remember our dead. And how we honor their memory with the lives we live and the people we've become because of their presence in our lives, however long or short that might have been.

That being said, if you're on Facebook and you are engaged by what you've read, become a Fan of GALA Hispanic Theatre, and if you have time check out the show before it closes on Feb 28th.

And small world...when Sam had first moved to DC he stayed with a wonderful, hippy family and the mom's brother was at last night's performance. He ended up introducing me to Victor Shargai, Chairman of the Helen Hayes Awards, and Jaylee Mead, Vice President of the Mead Family Foundation, a staunch supporter of the arts in the area. I was hoping to say hi to Abel Lopez, whom I had met merely hours earlier at a Spring Colloquium that AU's Arts Management Program (which I'm in) hosted on Boards & Governance, but sangria called and the other Arts Management Majors were already gathered in the lobby. A special thanks to Laura, who is in the program and interning at GALA, for organizing the evening and getting the tickets!!

Oh, also check out Michael O'Sullivan's Washington Post review from Feb 5th on the production.

Until next time :-)