Joyeux Anniversaire Bloody Mary!

The exact origin of the Bloody Mary is disputed, but in one version the Bloody Mary was invented in France so that’s the story I’m sticking to! In this version, the Bloody Mary saw its first day in the early 1920s at Harry’s Bar, a watering hole in the 2nd arrondissement frequented by Hemingway and other American expats in Paris. The bartender, Fernand Petiot, then moved to New York in 1925 and in 1934 became head bartender at the St. Regis Hotel. There, he perfected the recipe for what was initially known as the “Red Snapper,” adding Tabasco, salt and lemon to the vodka and tomato juice cocktail in order to satisfy requests from American customers who wanted a spicier drink. While the name “Red Snapper” didn’t stick, the drink did and eventually became the signature cocktail of the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis in New York.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Bloody Mary as we now know it, the bar where it was born is showcasing the many variations it has inspired. Throughout October, King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel will offer a special anniversary cocktail menu featuring Bloody Mary renditions from some of New York’s top chefs, including Alain Ducasse (who adds Dijon mustard to the recipe), Charlie Palmer (who takes a non-vegetarian spin on the cocktail by mixing in beef broth) and Wylie Dufresne (obviously, there’s a CO2 tank involved in his version).

Not to be left out of the month-long birthday bash, the St. Regis D.C. is also offering a special themed drink menu at the St. Regis bar, with local chefs and restaurants offering their spin on the classic cocktail. On the menu:

• Adour Contemporary Red Snapper
with coriander and chili flakes
• Acadiana Cajun Mary
Tabasco and creole seasoning
• Art and Soul Bloody Mary
with B&B pickle juice and pickled okra as garnish
• Charlie Palmer Bloody Mary
garnished with pepperoncini
• Spike Mendelson Spike'n Mary
tomato pumpkin juice infused with apple and honey
• Todd Gray Skip-Jack-Mary
Heirloom tomato water and cucumber ice cubes
• Dale Degroff Bloody Bull
tomato and orange juice, beef broth and vodka
•Vermilion Bloody Mary
garnished with caper berry

And while the price of the birthday-drinks may be steep, the fact that 25% of the proceeds will go to Share Our Strength might help you “swallow” the tab.

Can’t make it to the bar at St. Regis? Don’t be left out of the celebration… make your own Bloody Mary at home! Below is the original Red Snapper recipe:

1 oz vodka
2 oz tomato juice
1 dash lemon juice
2 dashes salt
2 dashes black pepper
2 dashes cayenne pepper
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

Bottom's up and joyeux anniversaire Bloody Mary!

Better Know The District: The House of the Temple

Call it the Dan Brown effect... Following the success of "The Da Vinci Code" readers flocked to the Louvre and went on organized Da Vinci Code tours of Paris after the book became a bestseller and movie. With Brown's latest book, The Lost Symbol set entirely in Washington, the district's tourism agencies are bracing for the influx of Lost Symbol fans. Destination DC has launched a web page to highlight the various sites and themes expected to receive attention. One such site happens to be located near my office and so I took the opportunity of a long lunch break last week to visit The House of the Temple, before what my tour guide Colin expects to be a 500% increase in visitors.

500% increase?? Why yes, you see The House of the Temple doesn't get very many visitors currently and it is the site of the prologue of the book. Indeed, in the very beginning of the story, villain Mal'akh is initiated into the Masonic rites' higher ranks in the House of the Temple's Temple Room. It's been getting lots of local and national media attention already, like this segment on ABC's Good Morning America or this visit from The Today Show's Matt Lauer. Besides being featured in The Lost Symbol, The House of the Temple is quite an interesting monument. Located on 16th and S, NW, it is the headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction. The building launched the career of its architect, l'Ecole des Beaux Arts trained John Russell Pope, who then went on to design a few other buildings...the National Archives...the Jefferson Memorial...D.A.R. Constitutional Hall...among others ;-)

The House of the Temple, finished in 1915, is an adaptation of the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World". It's a great example of neoclassical architecture, with tall columns, 17-ton sphinxes guarding the entrance and Egyptian hieroglyphic writings in the lobby. Its library was the first public library in D.C. and is still open to the public. It houses some 250,000 titles, most of them on Freemasonry.

In the back of the monument, one can also find a community garden which, unfortunately, has such a long waiting list that it is no longer taking applications for new plots. Sad.

D.C. Film Festivals

They may not have the clout of Sundance or the star power of Cannes but D.C. has a slate of interesting film festivals lined up for the next few months.

D.C. Shorts Film Festival
At 5” tall, I’ve always been a firm believer that good things can come in small packages. Let’s face it, in these days of 140 character tweets, not everyone has the attention span to sit through the 234 minutes of Gone with the Wind. For those people, D.C. Shorts Film Festival offers 100 films, short and sweet, from 16 countries, including two films from France. Now in its 6th year, the festival is expending to two venues: E Street Theater and the US Navy Memorial’s Burke Theater. Films are shown in a showcase format: one $12 admission seating includes a viewing of ten or so short films. The D.C. Shorts Film Festival runs from September 10th to 17th.


D.C. Arabian Sights Film Festival
From October 9 to 18, the 14th Annual D.C. Arabian Sights Film Festival will offer a diverse selection of the newest, most provocative, and inspiring films from today's Arab world. Numerous filmmakers from Algeria, Syria or Morocco will be present to showcase their films at screenings at the Landmark's E Street Cinema and The National Geographic Society. Of interest (at least to me!) is Française a touching French movie about longing for your childhood and the country where you grew up featuring César Award-winner Hafsia Herzi. It will be shown at the Landmark Theater Oct. 10th and 11th.


D.C. APA Film Festival
Celebrating the creative output from Asian Pacific American communities, the APA film festival will open on October 1st with a free screening of 9500 LIBERTY, a documentary examining the political and socio-economic impact of Prince William County’s battle over immigration. The festival will continue until October 10 at various locations including the Smithsonian Institution‘s Freer & Sackler Galleries, the Burke Theatre of the U.S. Navy Memorial, and the Landmark's E Street Cinema. It will showcase 18 feature length films, over 40 short films, and host special events including industry receptions and panels, educational workshops, and a retrospective sample of films from the past ten years of Asian Pacific American independent cinema.


D.C. Labor FilmFest
This film festival is an ode to working class and a labor of love for its director Chris Garlock who helped launch the first festival in 2001, along with his father and Anthony Mazzocchi. The festival shows all genres of films, from documentaries to romantic comedies, as long as they capture what it is like to be a worker. The D.C. Labor FilmFest is set for October 13–19 with the The American Film Institute in Silver Spring as its main venue but also a number of free noontime screenings at the AFL-CIO, Busboys & Poets on 14th street, the JCC and labor union headquarters. It will open on the 13th with Manufactured Landscapes, Jennifer Baichwal’s great documentary on the work of Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky. The screening will coincide with the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s new exhibit of Burtynsky’s photographs. It will also feature Cannes’ 2008 Un Certain Regard winner The Tokyo Sonata on October 17th & 19th.


Reel Affirmations
Reel Affirmation was born 19 years ago out of a desire to bring a positive message about being gay and lesbian to the public through films. This year, Reel Affirmations has become a Resident Program of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, meaning that it will screen its films at D.C.'s newest performing arts venue, the Harman Center for the Arts. Great venue! More than 100 films will be shown over a 10-day period, punctuated with live events including filmmaker panels, receptions and an Opening Night Gala at the Harman Center for the Arts.


Kicking and Screening
After a successful run in New York City, Kicking and Screening is the latest transfer to the team of D.C. film festivals. Entirely devoted to films and events about "the beautiful game," this film festival is showing just four films between October 15th and 18th, starting at the French Embassy with a screening of the excellent documentary Les Yeux Dans Les Bleus which follows the victorious French team during the 1998 World Cup. Score!


Washington Jewish Film Festival
Rounding up the fall film festival season is the Washington Jewish Film Festival, an annual event that promotes the preservation of Jewish culture by showing films with Jewish themes and encouraging a dialogue about a variety of issues. The film festival, sponsored by the Washington, DC Jewish Community Center’s Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year and will feature 46 films, documentaries and shorts from 15 countries. Each screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmakers, actors and scholars. The list of films has yet to be announced but the festival is slated for December 3-13, 2009.

I <3 Colombia

For many French people like myself, coverage of Colombia on the news has been dominated by crime, drugs, the FARC and the kidnapping (then rescuing) of Ingrid Betancourt. The sort of publicity that does not make you want to book your next holiday to the South American nation.

Well, Colombia's Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism Luis Guillermo Plata wants you heart Colombia now. And to help you start feeling the love, he launched "Colombia es pasion," a PR campaign to help you forget about those pesky kidnappings and focus on other aspects of the country like its music, food and culture. To do so, he is dispatching a traveling exhibits of colorful hearts to Washington, D.C. If you live or work in downtown D.C. you may have noticed those 8-foot tall hearts as 40 of them are sprinkled around town. In Union Station, 7 interactive 13-foot hearts target the business traveler, encouraging investment in the country. The hearts will be in D.C. from September 5-15, before heading to New York and Shanghai. Lucky hearts!