Back to DC – a few great DC hotspots

Spending the week in DC in between performances of FlagBoy at The Capital Fringe Festival was quite daunting because I really didn’t know what I would do. My only plans were to come down and perform the show on the weekends and then head home to NYC during the week. Looking over my budget (yes I got recession heart palpitations) I decided to park it and shack up with friends and family, to avoid spending all my cash on traveling. Well, I realized there was much needed writing and reading I could get caught up on along with checking out new spots for eating, lounging, and cruising (did I say cruising? – Cruising: a popular spot where one goes to check out the alluring and titillating HUMAN landscape).

Here are few spots I ventured to:

Coffee Shop/Lounge:

Sidamo Coffee & Tea – located at 417 H Street NE, it’s the perfect spot for breakfast, lunch, coffee, and tea on the go. They have a huge selection of exotic teas and coffee. This particular day – The Coffee of the Day was Ethiopian Lima and Tanzania. Not on the go? Take some time out, by making yourself comfortable at a private table for one, two, or three. Sit back and enjoy a breakfast sandwich, grilled chicken salad, or a chicken salad sandwich, and more. (Chicken salad sandwich…awesome!) Want to enjoy the sites of H St. and get your cruise on? Just take the storefront window seat located on the inside of the coffee shop. If you just want to work or read make yourself comfortable, no one will pressure you to be on your way, or to turn turntables for new customers. You’re on your time there and the owners of the coffee shop are so welcoming and humble. Oh…don’t forget to bring your laptop…FREE WIFI!!!

This place is very cool! Very community friendly. People greet you and genuinely ask how your day is. Very nice!

Sidamo Coffee & Tea

www.sidamocoffeeandtea.com

417 H St NE

Washington, DC 20002-4335

(202) 548-0081

Restaurant/Bar/Lounge:

Vapiano Pasta | Pizza | Bar – located in Chinatown at 623-625 H Street NW, this is the perfect after-work spot for socializing over cocktails and dinner (light or small). This spot is so reasonably priced and the service is quick. The ambiance gives you the feel of an upscale lounge, with a casual ‘laid-back’ feel. There’s a real food bar where you actually walk to the food counter and place your order with a trendy and clever personable “chip card.” You can also use the “chip card” to order your drinks from the bar. The food preparation takes place right before your eyes, by some extraordinary chefs, in very short minutes. The clientele is very trendy and affluent young to middle aged professionals. And there’s definitely a lot of “eye-candy” for your cruising appetite!

Check out Vapiano…you’ll Love it!

Vapiano Chinatown

623-625 H Street N.W.

Washington, DC 20001

There tons of locations nationally and internationally including two more in the DC Area:

Vapiano Ballston

4401 Wilson Blvd

Arlington, VA 22203

Vapiano M Street

Dupont Circle

1800 M St NW

Washington, DC 20036

Log on to www.vapianointernational.com for a location near you.

Banana Café & Piano Bar – located in Eastern Market at 500 8th Street SE, renowned for its Cuban, Mexican, and Puerto Rican Cuisine it definitely lives up to its name! Banana Café is such a warm and colorful restaurant. It’s no surprise that owner, Jorge Zamorano who is a self-taught artist, chose to design the restaurant with authentic art and colors representing his South American cultural influences from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. It makes this restaurant a stand out in the Eastern Market community. I think you will enjoy the all around ambiance and comfort of the restaurant, whether your sitting inside or outside…you’ll love it. The food is plentiful and delectable. I ate with a friend this day and we shared the Ropa Vieja and the Carnitas Cubanas. Awesome! For drinks – The Black Traveler’s signature: Mojito!!! Yes, Banana Café’s Mojitos get an A. You should also try the Tropical Margarita. Don’t have too many, you may leave in a drunken stupor. Unfortunately I can’t speak much on the Piano Bar because I wasn’t there during those hours, but I’d say it’s worth featuring. However…cruise away because there are definitely some beautiful folk from all walks of life. To add to that, the clientele is quite gay friendly!!!

Definitely check out Banana Café…you may run into me there.

Lesedi Cultural Dance Performance

Interested in the traditional dances of Southern Africa. See highlights of the performances of Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Setswana and Basotho as performed at the Lesedi Cultural Village in South Africa.

Who’s Your Daddy?

Cape Town is a wonderful city filled with beautiful scenery, amazing sites, and luxurious hotel accommodations. As in any metropolitan city, the accommodations selection is diverse with everything from low end hostels to five star hotels. I am a fan of finding unique, but still comfortable, places to stay that provide a different experience than I would get at home. Well the Grand Daddy Hotel has set the bar on “unique experience”.

Picture if you will several airstream silver trailers, each uniquely designed by a South African designer to reflect a different theme, placed together to create a cute little trailer community or neighborhood. Now place them on the roof of a boutique hotel and you have just created the trailer park at the Grand Daddy Hotel. It is a one of a kind experience that visitors to Cape Town should try for atleast one night, just like I did.

The trailer park has its own bar and you feel like you are in your own little world perched above Long Street. You can see the buildings around you and hear the traffic below as you sip on cocktails as the sun sets.

My trailer the Afrofunk’d was designed around an African motif, with Mandela pillows and images of the desert. Beware it is tiny! And I can’t imagine sharing the space with another person. There are other trailers that are larger to fit couples but I wouldn’t imagine that more than two adults would feel comfortable. The small bed and even smaller bathroom make it perfectly cozy for one. The Afrofunk’d trailer came with a small flat screen tv, minibar, shower, and bench style seating.

The rooftop trailer park would be perfect if a group was traveling together and wanted to have a rooftop get together. I can imagine it would be ideal for a bachelor or bachelorette party, family gathering, or wedding party accommodations.

A night at a trailer park not your style? No worries. The hotel also offers suites and regular hotel rooms with luxury amenities. After my night in the tiny trailer I was ready to spread out in the Grand Daddy superior room. With a huge king sized bed and extra large bathroom, it was night and day to my trailer park experience. The bathroom has a large tub and separate shower making it perfect for people traveling together.

The hotel also offered breakfast at a reasonable rate in the hotel restaurant, The Showroom Cafe. It seemed to be popular for others in the neighborhood, as many people came in from the street for breakfast while I was eating. The food was great with a typical continental spread (croissants, yogurt, fruit, bread, tea and coffee) but they also provide eggs cooked to order and bacon. For about $4.75 US it was a great deal.

The hotel also provided me with 2 free drink coupons which I could use in the hotel bar, The Daddy Cool Bar. Of course I had to test their mojitos which did not disappoint. One of the bartenders, Sandla, created a mojito which was really strong but delicious. His secret…a little Captain Morgan’s rum mixed in for a kick. It made it on to my list of Perfect Mojitos! He also is extremely friendly and gave me inside tips into Cape Town nightlife. The bar is a hang out for locals, with a dj playing a dance mix and the beautiful people mingling around. So even if you are not a guest of the hotel it is worth checking it out and having a drink. If Sandla is there definitely try his mojito!

The service in the hotel was great and the staff is extremely friendly.  I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a place to stay in Cape Town especially if they want something a little different!

The Grand Daddy Hotel
38 Long Street
Cape Town
South Africa
http://www.granddaddy.co.za/

New Orleans and Essence Music Festival

The 2009 ESSENCE Music Festival was successful yet again, with sold-out audiences and heavy-hitting performers that included Beyonce, Robin Thicke, Ne-Yo, Lionel Richie, Al Green and Teena Marie. In addition to celebrating its 15th anniversary, this year’s festival was stocked full of tributes, from Bishop T.D. Jakes to Frankie Beverly and Maze and continuous homage to the King of Pop Michael Jackson whose sudden death occurred just one week before the festival opened.

In continued fashion, the City of New Orleans is the best place suited to host this annual event. The hotels line Poydras Street, the festival’s main thoroughfare, which houses the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center just off the Mississippi River on one end, and the Louisiana Superdome on its opposite end, where the nightly concerts are held.
Some of the more popular places to stay in the city for the festival include Harrah’s New Orleans, the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, the W Hotel New Orleans and the Intercontinental New Orleans. Less traveled places of repose for the festival can be found on St. Charles Avenue, with favorites Courtyard by Marriott and Royal St. Charles Hotel.

To continue a party after each night’s concert, you can never go wrong with the city’s famously infamous French Quarter. This area of the city is home to a plethora of night clubs, pubs, restaurants and other after-hours excitement for all levels. A couple of restaurants to try are Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House (www.bourbonhouse.com) and the historic Cafe du Monde, at its original French Quarter location. Make sure to stop by the Cafe for the traditional New Orleans beignets.

A few other culinary favorites around the city include Cafe du Monde’s second location in the Riverwalk Mall next to the convention center, Mother’s Restaurant on Poydras and Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. Make sure to get to Mother’s Restaurant early. During the early lunch hour through mid-afternoon, lines are outside the building with people patiently waiting for a taste of ham-fused breakfast specialties, grits and biscuits, among so many other filling entrees.

During the day, those who want to indulge in the city’s rich culture outside of the festival can visit the French Quarter that is filled with historic homes and town squares. Also, the Riverwalk affords tourists the opportunity to take advantage of boat tours to the swamps, plantation homes and post-Hurricane Katrina sites. All in all, coming to New Orleans is loads of fun during the ESSENCE Music Festival or any time during the year. Just be sure to have good dancing and walking shoes and a camera to capture all the memories.

Reporting from Panama

Its 6am as I write this from Portobelo, Panama and I am sitting out by the water behind the house. It’s an amazing site and it’s so peaceful and quiet. Portobelo has become a part of me now and I am truly going to miss this place. It has been my home for the past 2 weeks and I have created a space here in which I have lived, breathed, and thoroughly enjoyed. As I type to you, tears are rolling down my face for the memories of this place make my soul happy and I feel like a new person. There is a young man here Angelo, his father left his mom when he was 6 months old, when interviewing him, Angelo said to me, “Marcus, when was the last time you saw you dad?” I responded, “It’s been a very long time.” He said, “Well Marcus, I hope he realizes how special you are.” I responded, “Thanks, and I hope your dad realizes he is missing on a great life because you’re an Angel.” Now just two days ago I had to beat his butt for not listening, but this kid reminds me of myself when I was his age. We made a vow to write one another as much as possible and I would like to visit him and have him visit the states.Portobelo reminds me of my home, Halifax, NC, where the people may not have TV, or cars to drive, or running water (I grew up without this for a great portion of my life), but here there is a sense of community, a sense of belonging and greatness. God is present here. You can’t walk just walk to the store and come right back, it takes an hour because you are going to stop and talk to everyone along the way.

The cooks/housestaff here are Dianasessey and Soledad, they are a woman and her daugher-in-law, they are two beautiful spirits. The other morning they taught me how to make this purple salad that has purple cabbage and pineapples in it. Its soooooo good (and I am not a huge salad person). We went into Colon and did some shopping and bought them some gold earrings because neither of them has ever owned a pair of their own and the gold here is cheap. I can’t wait to see their faces when they open the gifts.

On Sunday, I was given a Congo name (which is a tradition here in Portobelo) and my name is Sagano, which means bumblebee. They gave me this name because the people here say I will be on the move from here on out. I am kind of excited. (You will see me with the Congo dancers)

The other artists here are all amazing, Rachel is a sculpture who has lived all around the world and has done some amazing work with the spaces here in Portobelo. Geraldine is a professor of art and she is doing some amazing work with the maps of this town, making them into works of art that are so compelling. Kemi is a poet/chef who is here working in a book of her work. Renee Alexander (who is also a UNC Alum I found out) is writing a novel, she has spent a lot of time here, as a Fulbright scholar and her dissertation is on the people here. Queen Meccasia (that’s her real name) is an African dancer who I am doing some work with about fatherhood. We are performing our piece today to be recorded for a travel station. Howard is a playwright who is writing a play about a black comic superhero. And Oronike is writing a novel as well.

Well, I am going to stop writing now, because I have a few more days to enjoy Panama and then I am back to the states and life there. For now, I want to sit by the water, gather my thoughts, do some writing and begin to say good-bye to the beautiful people of Portobelo.

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