New: Weekly Weekend Picks in the Hood

Borderstan welcomes Laura Herman, who will be contributing local weekend picks and profiling different events, happy hours, and neighborhood spots each week. Laura is a healthcare consultant by day but a D.C. nightlife, food and drink enthusiast by night. Originally from New Jersey, she moved to town from Boston after graduation. Laura has lived in Borderstan (the Dupont part) since June 2009 and hangs out a lot in the Dupont, U Street and 14th Street areas. She enjoys sitting at the 17th Street dog park on weekends, wishing that she had a dog (which she admits creeps out the actual dog owners). Follow Laura on Twitter @Lmhhabs or send her an email.

The weekend at the end of a four-day workweek always feels like it can’t come soon enough. Even though this week was short, I found myself dreaming about Friday night while I was walking to work on Tuesday morning.

Well, good news — the weekend’s almost here! And even though we’re now in the middle of winter, there’s no shortage of fun things going on in the Borderstan ‘hood this weekend. Here are my picks for this weekend:

Weekends can start on Thursday if you’re lucky or just… motivated. Check out a new happy hour venue this Thursday night while hoping that the forecast of possible evening snow actually comes true. If you haven’t already been, I really like Veritas for a low key drink and conversation.

Veritas is a really good spot for a date or to catch up with friend (I’ve found that it doesn’t get as rowdy as other tried and true HH spots in the Dupont Circle area, though everything has a time and a place). Plus, the happy hour deal is a great way to try out new wines: all bottles that are also served by the glass are 20 percent off between the hours of five and eight. Get to work, wine connoisseur…

I’m really excited to check out the Little Dragon show at Black Cat this Saturday night. Test drive one of my fave songs here and you can see why this show should be great. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. I’ll be the one dancing around wildly…

If you went to the Phillips Collection’s 90th birthday celebration last weekend (or even if you didn’t), you’re probably in the mood for some more culture this weekend. Plus, spending a few hours at a museum is the perfect post-brunch, pre-football Sunday activity.

Make sure to check out the Spencer Finch “My Business, with the Cloud” exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art because it ends this Sunday. Finch uses industrial materials to explore the subject of clouds, drawing inspiration from the local environment and DC history. All in all, some pretty cool modern art. The exhibit runs all weekend at the Corcoran, but closes on January 23. Admission is $8 to $10.

Also on my list for the rest of the week/ weekend: checking out “H St Eats,” H Street’s own take on restaurant week (ok, it’s not technically in Borderstan but we all need to get out sometimes…), taking some classes at Bikram Yoga Dupont, and trying out the recently opened American Ice Co. just off U Street at 9th and V NW.

Look for my review and more weekend picks next week! In the meantime, follow me and my adventures in Borderstan on Twitter @Lmhhabs. Or send me an email at [email protected]