SIP:  I may have found the perfect spot for wine lovers and I've got proof.  In fact the name of the spot is PROOF and it's on G Street in the Penn Quarter section of DC.  Your tasting travels there will take you all over the world from Italy to France, from Germany to Spain, from South Africa to New Zealand and back to the good ole U.S.A.!  Wines from all over the world, over 40 by-the-glass selections and 1,000 different bottling's.  Inside there's a custom French pewter bar, antique Chinese chests, Italian leather seating, exposed brick walls and flat-screen tv's with rotating images of art from the neighboring National Portrait Gallery.  That description alone should at least have you intrigued enough to want to go try out your Sommelier skills.  And yeah they do have food but ya gotta go for a glass or two of wine.  Malbec anyone?

 

EAT:  Have you been to BANGKOK JOE'S yet?  Oh my goodness gracious you need to get over there for some of the best Thai food you're ever going to have.  That's right I'm giving them a ringing endorsement, A-Plus-Plus because it's THAT good.  I frequent this spot to eat because every time, my favorite dish there (chicken basil) tastes exactly like the very first time I ever tasted it - amazing!  The minced chicken is sauteed with onions and scallions and sweet peppers and green beans along with the perfect chile-garlic sauce over jasmine rice.  I LOVE this dish.  And I LOVE Neal the waiter who can't wait to get me seated when I arrive just so he can bring me over a glass of that ginger-lemon iced tea. I go back over and over again because Neal the waiter is so very gracious and pleasant and I go back again and again because for me this is the best Thai place in DC.

 

PLAY:  Well if you're up for some serious scrutiny and you want to be around good-looks and luxury then your grown-folk play spot is THE PARK AT FOURTEENTH.  It's a restaurant, lounge and event space that  is co-owned by some names you might know  - Marc Barnes, Massoud A. and Dirk van Stockum.  The Park occupies four floors overlooking Franklin Square in DC and it's clear that attention to detail was a top priority.  Cocktails are named after 1st ladies (tho I don't remember seeing anything called the Hillary LOL) and they have Chef Lois Spencer to make everything on the menu mouth-watering.  So if you go, make sure you're in your best outfit, take your best and best-looking friends, hope you see somebody you know at the door and hope that you're on the list.

 

SWEAT:  So you promised yourself you'd work out more this year didn't you?  Uh huh and you even bought that trial membership to some gym didn't you?  Yep and you went to Macy's and bought a bunch of workout clothes too right?  Yeah I know what you did and I'm telling you that you need to go see Dimitri at MY BODY MY WAY in Bowie.  Give yourself the gift of getting fit at this private upscale training studio run by a committed and passionate couple, Dimitri and Kristine Louis.  And ladies if you're thinking that you just can't get rid of that baby weight then you haven't checked out Kristine's "body after baby."  See Kristine's after-baby body on their mybodymyway website, it just might blow you away.  It'll at least make you sign up.