| |  | |  | Hello, friends! February is a month for celebration, as we remember and honor the important history of African-Americans during Black History Month. It’s also a time for reflecting, learning, taking action and considering how you can contribute to valuable and necessary change. One important change you can make is supporting Black-owned restaurants and businesses this month and all year long. What’s your favorite Black-Owned restaurant, brand or businesses in DC? Tell us in an email! | | 🗓 Awesome things to do this month. |  | February might be a short month, but there is lots to do! Take part in Black History Month events across DC, enjoy a winter wonderland and Polar Bear Plunge at Ice Yards, try your hand at a craft project and explore the museum at Renwick's Handi-Hour, learn the fine art of lock picking, catch the King Tut immersive exhibit and Ride the Cycle before they're gone, and so much more!
We've curated 70+ awesome things to do this month, so read on and make plans to make the most of your February! | | | 📝 REVIEW: Hole in the Wall Dessert Bar |  | Treat your boo or bae to an unexpected treat for Valentine’s Day—feel the love at Tonari’s dessert pop-up, Hole in the Wall. Don't expect to find anything as ordinary as cheesecake or brownies ala mode at this dessert experience. Inside the Japanese-Italian eatery, you'll be treated to an intimate, seven-course tasting of imaginative and clever treats. You'll find cute and whimsical touches throughout the experience from the decor to the desserts themselves.
The skinny: The menu starts with a refreshing shaved strawberry ice with sake spuma and lycee. The next course builds complexity of flavor with a daring rice pudding topped with caviar that shouldn't work but is one of the most craveable and memorable desserts we've ever had. It ends with petit fours, which includes a bean candy in edible paper. There's even a surprise parting gift in a golden takeout box!
Desserts are paired with clever cocktail like a Japanese beer with matcha topped with a beer foam and a palette cleansing riff on Japanese tea made with Italian limoncello.
Sitting at the open kitchen's bar, you get the pleasure of watching Chef @hi_yah_boom, the Willy Wonka wizard behind the sweet creations, bring each dessert course to life, which adds a special layer to the whole experience, especially if you're a foodie.
Hole in the Wall's dessert bar is decadent, delicious, and innovative, yet totally non-pretentious and approachable. It's an awesome and unique treat for a special occasion (hint, hint) or just to treat yourself.
📍: Tonari, 707 6th St NW
📆: Offered Fridays and Saturdays
🎟: $55 per person | | 👀 Sneak Peek: “Intangible Forms” at ARTECHOUSE. |  |  |  | "Intangible Forms," the latest installation at ARTECHOUSE, will have you seeing red. The "immersive visual experiment” by Japanese artist Shohei Fujimoto incorporates strobe lights, safe lasers, a smoky haze and moving lights as part of the multi-sensory experience.
The skinny: Resembling glowing strands suspended in the dark, they can hang in straight rows like a beaded curtain or lighted cage. Or they can bend and twist like dancers at a rave. An ambient soundscape completes the sense that you've entered another dimension. Watching all the changing laster light patterns is oddly hypnotic.
For visitors who have been ARTECHOUSE before, this installation is more atmospheric and mediative rather than immersive. It's a nod back to the more experimental exhibits the digital art gallery did when it first opened. "Intangible Forms" is a visceral experience that can take the visitor out of the thoughts and concerns of everyday life, even if just for a little while. Warning: Flashing lights and fog may effect some people. Curious Tip: ARTECHOUSE has delicious and interactive cocktails at their XR bar so it’s a super fun option for a group outing or date night (red is the color of love after all!). 📍: 1238 Maryland Ave., SW. It’s a 5-10 minute walk from the Smithsonian and L’Enfant Plaza Metro stops.
📆: Runs until March 5
🎟: $25.00 per person; $20 for DMV locals/students + seniors/military + first responders; $75 for weekday family pack of 2 adults + 2 children; $17 children 4 - 15; free for kids under 4
| | | 📝 REVIEW: Ride the Cyclone Musical at Arena Stage. |  | Arena Stage takes audiences on a wild ride with RIDE THE CYCLONE, a dark musical comedy of epic proportions.
The basic premise is about six teens from the school choir who get thrown from a roller coaster and end up in a purgatory of sorts with the Amazing Karnak — a Zoltar type machine that told their fortunes just before they died. He becomes a celestial game show host and demands each angsty teenager make a case for themselves to go back to the land of the living. Think OUR TOWN meets ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, and you'll get some idea of the insanity.
It's become a cult classic, and we can see why. It's weird yet hilarious and oddly touching, all at the same time. Though it was written 15 years ago, enough modern-day references have been sprinkled in to make it current without sacrificing the heart of the show.
The individual cast performances are simply stellar, particularly Ashlyn Maddox as Jane Doe. We'd see the play again just to see her standout solo number. And in a show full of weird and wacky moments, Matthew Boyd Snyder as Ricky Potts delivers the weirdest and wackiest WTF of them all. You have to see it to believe it and even then, you'll probably still question your sanity. From the set design to the lightning and choreography, the entire creative team has created a visual feast.
RIDE THE CYCLONE is a wonderfully wacky thrill ride that's a story about life, death, and so much more. It's one of most surprising shows we’ve seen in a long time. 📍: Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth Street SW
📆: Runs until Feb 19; post-show convos on select dates
🎟: $66 - 105 with discounts for SW residents/workers on select dates | | | 🎉 Special Offer: Discount Tickets + Anti-Prom at Arena Stage. |  | Need Valentines Day plans? Join Arena Stage for the “Ride the Cyclone” Anti-Prom on Tues, Feb. 14. Whether you’re in love, out of love, or never got to experience love due to your demise in a rollercoaster accident, this event is for you! Use code ANTIPROM for $60 tix to the show!
Included with your discounted ticket to see Ride the Cyclone on Tuesday, February 14, you’ll also receive a night of special snacks, drinks, dancing, and heart-stopping music — all with Arena’s very own (drag) prom queen, Tara Hoot, leading the festivities! The pre-show party gets started at 6:30 p.m., buckle in for the show at 8 p.m., and then they’ll keep the party going after too. And while dressing up is not required, they’d love to see you turn out in your best fits.
Get $60 performance tickets with code ANTIPROM. There’s no additional cost for Anti-Prom; snacks and drinks not included. Concessions will be open as normal. | | | 🔎 Must-See: Smithsonian National Museum of American History: “Entertainment Nation” Exhibit. |  | Prince's guitar, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Star Wars' droids R2D2 and C3PO, and Nipsey Hussle's chains are just some of the 200+ items on display at the new "Entertainment Nation" exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Never-before-on-view objects include a pair of sneakers Fred Rogers wore on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Muhammad Ali's signed boxing robe, and Michelle Yeoh’s Star Trek: Discovery costume. |  |  |  | The skinny: Spanning 100+ years, recognizable and lesser known items covering the worlds of music, theater, sports, television and film take you on a nostalgia trip (well, for some of us anyway!) that highlights how pop culture tells the American story. The exhibit also highlights how pop culture isn't just a frivolous distraction; it can also be a mirror and shape important conversations about society and politics.
The exhibit is also the first long-term bilingual exhibit on the National Mall, with every caption and quote presented in English and Spanish.
The staggering number of items comes from the Smithsonian’s extensive collection of 1.8 million objects. New objects will be rotated into the exhibit to replace current ones every year.
The ‘Entertainment Nation’ exhibition is on the third floor of the museum. 📍: Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Constitution Avenue, NW; Between 12th and 14th Street
📆: Ongoing
🎟: Free | | | | | | | | | 👋🏾Hurry, See It Before It’s Gone: King Tut Immersive Experience. |  | Thanks to the relics found in an unopened tomb 100+ years ago, King Tutankhamun is probably the most well-known of the ancient Egyptian rulers. The key artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb have only toured the world a couple of times, and likely won't anytime soon, so you have to go to Egypt to see them in person.
But you can take a journey into Egypt’s 18th dynasty and experience the story of the boy king that's been 3,000 years in the making at National Geographic Museum’s "Beyond King Tut: The Immersive Experience.” |  |  |  |  | The skinny: The virtual reality exhibit uses video and projections to tell the fascinating tale as you explore nine immersive galleries describing the life, the death, and the journey beyond of Tutankhamun.
It features some impressively set-designed spaces that evoke tombs, caverns, and the pharaoh’s burial chamber, complete with an oversized reproduction of his sarcophagus. While there are no physical artifacts from the tomb in the exhibit, you can experience a recreation of his tomb, as well the vast amount of riches found sealed within, with perfect clarity. We thought the whole experience was educational, entertaining, and incredibly well-done. 📍: National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th St. NW 📆: Ends Feb 6 🎟: $20; students, seniors, military personnel and teachers $16; ages 5-12 $12; under 5 free. | | | |  | Fun fact: There are six public statues dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, in DC. Six!
The Lincoln Memorial, built more than half a century after his death is, of course, what comes to mind when most people think of the former president. May 30 marks the 100th anniversary of the dedication of his memorial.
But, while it’s definitely the biggest, the Lincoln Memorial is actually NOT the original statue that was built in his honor in DC 😲
Click here to discover more about this hidden gem. 📍: Located in front of the old District of Columbia City Hall, now home to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, in the 400 block of Indiana Avenue in D.C.’s Judiciary Square neighborhood | | 🔗 ICYMI: DC Link Roundup. | Arts + Entertainment How to Watch D.C.'s New Major League Pickleball team (Axios) At Abraham Lincoln’s Cottage, Artist Georges Adéagbo Pays Homage to the Great Emancipator (SmithsonianMag) First Lady Jill Biden's Dresses Displayed in Smithsonian (Axios) Twenty-Three Smithsonian Shows to See in 2023 (SmithsonianMag) National Zoo is Requiring Advance Visitor Passes ‘Indefinitely’ (WaPo) Glenstone Museum to Present Ellsworth Kelly at 100, a Major Survey of Kelly’s Career, Opening Spring 2023 (EastCityArt)
Food + Bev DC’s New Over-the-Top Brunch Spot Serves 25 Different Mimosas (Washingtonian) A Breezy Waterfront Wine Bar and Rosé Garden Opens at the Wharf (Washingtonian) First Look: Bronze Restaurant Brings Hub Of Afrofuturism To H Street NE (DCist) D.C.'s James Beard Nominees (Axios)
Around Town | | Whether you’re local or just visiting, your DC adventure awaits. Allons-y! | | | | | |
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