Astoria

Un'ottima occasione per parlare in Italiano con persone di madre lingua. Aperto a tutti i livelli di conoscenza dell'Italiano. Specialmente gustando una buonissima pinza. A presto. Please consider donating to us via the Pledge widget on this page to help us defray the costs of running a Meetup group. **Note: This event occurs on the first Wednesday of every month at Via Roma**

http://toastedbyproxy.toastmastersclubs.org/ Toasted By Proxy Toastmasters Club #899228 is a unique group dedicated to achieving individual professional and personal communication and leadership goals. We are an open club and welcomes all to join us! Every LUNCH MEETING IS AN OPEN HOUSE! Updates: We meet regularly from 12:00 to 1:00 PM on the 2nd and4th Wednesday of the month at the Universities at Shady Grove, Building III, Room 4203, 9636 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD 20850. See our "Meeting Information / Directions" page for a detailed map. (http://toastedbyproxy.toastmastersclubs.org/directions.html)

We are a President's Distinguished Club and welcome new guests! Meeting is every Wednesday.

Grab the mic and sing your heart out! This is not a hosted meetup. Own your journey making new friends during the event. **Mention Electric Events for 15% off your first house cocktail!** It's karaoke night at Pikio Taco — whether you're a shower singer or a seasoned performer, the stage is yours. Pick your song, grab the mic, and let it rip. No judgment, just good vibes and a crowd that's here for a good time. Come solo or bring your crew. Sing a classic, try something new, or just sit back and cheer everyone on. Search for your favorite songs ahead of time on https://www.karafun.com/karaoke/ 18+. Full food and drink menu available! \-\-\- **About the Venue** Pikio Taco is a vibrant social taqueria inside Generator Washington DC, featuring stunning Mexican murals, hanging greenery, and moody purple lighting. Plus craft margaritas and authentic Mexican cuisine. **Location** 1900 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009 (Inside Generator hostel, Dupont Circle) **Getting There** * Metro: Dupont Circle (Red Line) — just three blocks away * Parking: Available at Generator hostel * Rideshare: Drop off at 1900 Connecticut Ave NW **Food & Drinks** Tacos, burritos, margaritas, Mexican beers — grab dinner while you enjoy the show! **Links** * Venue: pikiotaco.com/washington See you there!

Looking for a new skill? Want to seem mysterious when people ask about your hobbies? Enjoy puzzles? Lock picking might be right for you! Is this legal? Yes! Is it fun? Yes! The meeting is very casual, come and go as you please. We meet in the upstairs area of Board Room. No payment, skills, tools, or RSVP necessary. If you can make small precise movements with your hands, you can learn to pick locks. Introductory talk at 7pm. All are welcome. We meet in a bar but minors are allowed to attend. We are not in a private room; parental discretion advised. If you are a minor or are responsible for one who's attending, please email the organizer in advance at chapter-DC@toool.us Open invite; bring friends! We are the DC chapter of TOOOL. More information here: http://toool.us/

Business Oriented Toastmasters (BOTM) is an exceptionally strong Toastmasters club in Rockville, MD. Our club has earned President's Distinguished Club status for the last thirteen years in a row. We are dedicated to helping each of our members achieve their personal public speaking and leadership goals in a friendly, supportive environment. We pride ourselves on having organized, professional meetings with strong evaluations, while having fun at the same time. Guests are always welcome and no notice is necessary. Just show up and plan to have fun. See how BOTM can help you achieve your goals. We are a diverse club with both seasoned and new Toastmasters, and all ethnic and professional backgrounds. For more information, please visit our website at botm.toastmastersclubs.org or contact us at contact-2279@toastmastersclubs.org Meeting locations 1st Wednesday of every month in person at Faith United Methodist Church, 6810 Montrose Road, Rockville, MD 3rd Wednesday of every month via Zoom

Come join us for bingo at Atlas Brew Works in Alexandria. It's free to play. Win prizes on every round, and the winner of the final round gets a $50 Atlas Brew Works gift card for your next visit! More information: https://atlasbrewworks.com/pages/events#calendar-c3cfc1a3-4344-434e-a1b2-fb876f819883 Parking: Wegmans has a parking garage (via the Stovall St entrance) and is next to Atlas Metro: Eisenhower Ave (yellow line)

Shilohites Toastmasters meets every 2nd and 4th Sundays. Meetings start at 4:00 pm, and last one hour. We are a community club open to all. Parking is free. We focus on personal goals for professional development.

Our NEIGHBORHOOD GEMS series features emblematic meals from around the world. This series shines a light on local restaurants and is designed to bring together inquisitive foodies and dishes that are unique and oh so worth a trip on roads less traveled! Join us for a Puerto Rican Party at **Qui Qui DC** ! Look in their FAQ's and you'll see: "Do you have mofongo y mayoketchup\*? " Response is.......YESSS! \*A quintessential Puerto Rican "pink sauce" combining ketchup and mayonnaise, frequently seasoned with extra garlic, lime juice, or spices like adobo. It is used on fried foods, rice, and, famously, as a pairing for mofongo. **Washington Post** Did I mention the food is fantastic? Mendez, 50, serves Caribbean comfort food with a flair befitting his fine-dining chops; the New Jersey native, with a Mexican mother and Puerto Rican father, studied at L'Academie de Cuisine before cooking at coastal Italian hot spot Masseria, working at the locavore kitchen A Rake’s Progress inside the Line hotel and helping open South American-themed Mercy Me in the West End. The sazón[ ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/sazon-and-struggle-in-puerto-rico-and-cuba-food-is-a-marker-of-resilience-and-creativity/2018/06/29/b8d63b56-7af7-11e8-93cc-6d3beccdd7a3_story.html)is strong with this one: Mendez’s kitchen exhibits a powerful (but never overbearing) hand with salt, fat and acid. Progressing from passion fruit margaritas to fried bites of blood sausage to a flan draped in burnt caramel guava sauce, every section of the frequently changing menu deserves a taste. You’ll want to make room for it all. Exhibit A: the chuleta kan kan, a two-pound pork chop-chicharrón hybrid claimed to have been invented in the late 1950s by La Guardarraya, a criollo restaurant in southwest Puerto Rico. This beautiful beast includes three sections of pig: A skin-on, bone-in loin chop remains attached to the rib and pork belly. Much of the white pork fat that often gets trimmed away is scored into square blocks, giving the specialty its distinctive “mohawk.” Mendez’s team marinates the hunks of meat for three days, then deep-fries them to order and serves them on a curvy white platter with smashed, fried plantains and a small metal caldera of white rice and pink beans. If you’re sitting at a narrow high-top for two, you’ll need a bigger table. Sourced from a small farm in Virginia, the generous portion of pork is a study in contrasts. The skin on the edge of the chop’s haircut resists your molars with an audible crunch, but there’s plenty of give in the loin, and cubes of belly practically melt in your mouth. Counteracting all that fat is an aji criollo, a thick green sauce of garlic, peppers and herbs that thrums with lime juice and vinegar. Coupled with pickled red onions and scattered cilantro leaves, the aji lifts your palate up. In search of another puckering presence to stand up to fried pork? Go for the Parchita cocktail, a blend of tequila, lime juice and passion fruit liqueur with a tangy Tajin rim. The Mexican-Borinquen theme repeats in a passion fruit tres leches cake that turns cuatro with the addition of coconut milk. While the restaurant’s name is an onomatopoeic reference to pigs — Qui Qui was also a shared nickname between Mendez and a late cousin — the chef knows his cosmopolitan audience hungers for meat-free dishes. I’m shocked to learn his soulful stewed beans are vegan. You can thank the foundation of most dishes here **—** a sofrito built on garlic, cilantro, culantro and aji dulce peppers grown by Moon Valley Farm in Woodsboro, Md. There’s no Goya sofrito here; the kitchen prepares around 32 quarts of the fresh stuff a week. If you feel like tapping your watch while waiting for the next course to come out, keep that type of effort in mind. More good news for vegetarians: Qui Qui offers the expected roast pork pernil, but also a jackfruit version. The mofongo, a molded mash of pounded plantains, also starts out plant-based, so you can order it plain if you prefer. Pescatarians should opt for the shrimp version. Shellfish propped up on the plantain mash are surrounded by herbs and a heady broth dotted with green oil. The essence of shrimp is further concentrated in an asopao, traditionally a soup but here more of a brothy rice. **Check out the menu** [here ](https://www.quiquidc.com/menu) Separate checks will be arranged in advance. All diners will settle their own tabs. We ask that ALL folks honor their RSVP. If you are unable to attend after sending in a YES, please update your status so that others may join and help us support local businesses. In the event our group incurs a fee for no-shows / late cancellations, your ability to RSVP for future events will be restricted. Thank you in advance for your understanding. To enhance the opportunity for great conversation, we will continue to limit the group size. Please feel free to sign-up to meet us along with up to 2 friends. **\*\*** **WAITLIST:** Meetup does not allow waitlists for paid events. *If this event fills and you would like to be added to the waitlist, please send a note to the host through the Meetup app. **\*\**** In the future, we will vary the days of the week and the types of restaurants to keep events interesting. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE COMMITTED TO GO WHEN YOU RSVP FOR THIS EVENT. Feel free to make suggestions for future meet locations. \*\* The small non-refundable registration fee helps us share the cost associated with the Meet-Up platform ($360/yr) and reduces the likelihood of no-shows, allowing us to better plan our events and accommodate all participants. Meetup charges $0.51 and Paypal charges $0.53 on the $2 registration fee. Thanks in advance for your understanding!\*\* If you are unable to join us in March, we hope you'll stay interested and join us for a meal in the future. Looking forward to catching up with you for a delightful dinner at Qui Qui DC!

The topic for March is "Our Bodies, Ourselves" Speak Easy: true stories, told live. The idea is simple: an audience, an open microphone, and great stories. Hilarious, gripping, poignant- it's up to you. Audiences are invited to come to listen or come to tell as folks from all corners of Columbus offer their stories live on stage! Held at Wild Goose Creative's warm, intimate space, this night of tales occurs on the 3rd Thursday of every month. Doors open at 6:30 pm, show starts at 7:00 pm. Please arrive early if you want to tell, as we generally only have room for a limited number of tellers, and the sign-up sheet has a tendency to fill up fast. Formed around the idea that people need stories--they're what hold and draw us together--SpeakEasy celebrates the strangeness and commonness of being human. And in a world of smartphones, Facebook, Twitter, and more . . . it gives people a real, breathing, in-person way to connect. The night is geared for true stories of all kinds, taking the best tales told around kitchen tables, in darkened pubs, on the street corner, and at late-night parties and giving them an audience. Speak Easy is also a great outlet for performers, writers, and artists looking to share their favorite stories and perfect their skills. We strongly encourage tellers to please tell the story rather than read it so we keep within the spirit of good storytelling and stay engaged with the audience. All are welcome. Hang around after the show for a drink and build community!

Join the CONNECTED Westerville Mastermind Group for a dynamic afternoon of B2B networking! This event is perfect for professionals looking to expand their business connections, share insights, and foster collaboration within the community. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, this event offers a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas, build relationships, and grow your network in a supportive environment. Connect with like-minded individuals, explore potential partnerships, and discover new opportunities for professional growth. Don't miss out on this chance to enhance your business network and take your career to the next level with CONNECTED Westerville Mastermind Group! We meet the 4th Monday of every month from 11am-1pm. Welcome and general networking from 11am - 11:30am with core meeting 11;30 - 12:30 and a final round of networking from 12:30 - 1pm.

Join us as we get together to see SIRAT, an Oscar-nominated Best International Film from Spain that follows a father, accompanied by his son, goes looking for his missing daughter in North Africa. Here’s a description, trailer and our plan for this event: DESCRIPTION: A father, accompanied by his son arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco while searching for his daughter who vanished months ago at one of these endless, sleepless parties. As their search continues, the journey forces them to confront their own limits. The film is directed by Oliver Laxe and stars Sergi Lopez, Bruno Nunez Arjona and Richard Bellamy. TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww-IXHXvS70 BUZZ & ACCLAIM: SIRAT has already won numerous awards, including 4 at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, along with the Chicago, Montclair and Toronto International Film Festivals! It also earned a whopping 11 nominations at the 40th Goya Awards, including Best Film and Director, and was nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Sound at this year’s Academy Awards. The film is earning a stellar 92% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes which calls it “an unforgettable exercise in tension” and “a brutal reminder that the journey can be more important than the destination.” PLAN: Please purchase your ticket for the 7:00pm showing and we’ll meet inside the upstairs lobby between 6:40 and 6:50pm. Super Tuesday ticket price is just $6.50 (including online fee)! Advance ticket purchase is advised (via Gateway website preferred). Once you have yours, please list your seat number in the Comments section of this event! This one will be a “movie only” event. PARKING: Close, convenient parking is available in the nearby garage (located between 9th and 11th, just off High St). Bring your ticket with you and have it validated at the theater and for $2, you’re covered for the night! Look forward to seeing you there, Dan

Bring your Raspberry Pi, Arduino, microcontroller, or any other electronic project and join fellow electronics makers for a night of creativity and collaboration! This session is open forum to share your current projects—whether complete or in progress, it’s all interesting! Whether you’re deep into embedded systems, exploring new ideas, or just getting started, you’ll find a welcoming space to collaborate, share, and get inspired. **New to electronics or curious about tinkering?** You’re absolutely welcome. If you’re a beginner and want to experiment, I’ll have a couple of starter kits available so you can try things out—whether that’s blinking your first LED, putting something on a display, or experimenting with simple sensors. No pressure and no experience required—just an interest in learning and building. While we continue to pursue a more permanent venue for this Meetup, we’ll be using public library facilities based on availability. This session will be at the Worthington Park Library in the Olentangy Meeting Room.

Join us as we get together for a CMG-favorite event, the OSCAR PARTY AND RED CARPET BASH at the Drexel Theatre! The highlight of the movie year live on the big screen always makes for a fun and memorable evening! Here are details for this event: WHAT TO EXPECT: This year’s ceremony will be hosted once again by Conan O’Brien. In addition to the Oscars on the big screen, your ticket includes a Meal Deal from the Drexel’s new food partner Newfangled Kitchen (I’m checking on vegetarian/vegan options) along with unlimited popcorn and sodas, a free box of candy, and your first beer, wine or specialty drink on the house! Also included: Oscar-themed trivia with prizes from local businesses, on-site paparazzi, and the Drexel's Oscar ballot contest with a chance to win a year of free Drexel movies! Plus, the BEST and most FUN way to watch the Oscars with fellow film fans and your CMG friends! ADVANCE TICKETS: General public tickets are $45 but Movie Group Members and their guests get in for just $35! Here’s how to purchase your tickets: \* Option 1 – In Person: You can purchase at the ticket counter anytime during operating hours. Just mention you are with the Columbus Movie Group for the discounted rate. \* Option 2 – Online: If you prefer to purchase online, you can do so by going to the link below and following these instructions: 1. Click the link below. 2. Click the little TICKETS box then click BUY TICKETS. 3. If you are a Drexel Member, you can log in here to receive the Member/Group rate, which is the same. If you are not a Drexel member, click “No” and the $40 Rate will pop up. But, don’t fret. It’s a little hard to find but there’s a “Promotion Code” section on the screen. Click the “Know a Promotion Code?” box, enter “CMG2026” (case sensitive) and submit. Select the appropriate number of tickets in the Discount Rate section and click “Add.” Next “Proceed to Checkout” then “Checkout” and enter your credit card info. There’s a $1.50 online service fee but it’ll save you a trip to the Drexel. (If you don’t already have one, you will need to sign in or create an account first.) Sellout possible so please purchase yours as soon as possible in advance! LINK FOR TICKETS (See Above Instructions): https://prod1.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=373546\~e2e0a350-c626-4e33-bc63-27e983f4aecf&epguid=ab0b2f82-403c-4972-9998-5475e7dcfa0e&mdy=3/15/2026& DRESS: Dressing up for the occasion art of part of the fun! Dress up as much as you like – there will be everything from casual to formal at the event! Or you can go in character as one of this year’s nominated films! ARRIVAL: Doors open for CMG at 5:30pm so that’s when we’ll plan to meet! That’ll give us plenty of time to fill out our Oscar Ballots, pick up some free popcorn, candy, and something to drink, mix, mingle, take some photos, pick up your Newfangled Kitchen Meal Deal, grab a seat in our CMG Reserved Section, then settle in to enjoy the Academy Awards on the Big Screen! PICTURES: We’ll take pics throughout the evening and the Drexel Paparazzi will be on hand as well. We’ll also take a big group photo around 6:40 near the entrance before the show begins. If you happen to take some good shots yourself, be sure to upload them on the Oscar Party Meetup event! RESERVED SEATING: As you enter the theater, the roped off section to the right marked “Reserved” is reserved for you, your guest(s) and the Columbus Movie Group! VEGAN MEALS: As previously mentioned, the food vendor does NOT have a vegan option at this year’s Oscar Party. However, we DO have a solution! I have reached out to several individuals who are affected. If you are a vegan, plan to attend the Oscar Party and did not receive an e-mail from me, please reach out via private message post a note below. I’ll provide details off-line. And while there won’t be a vegan meal option this year, I think we do have a workable solution. And, all other plans are usiness-as-usual: popcorn, sodas, candy, on-site paparazzi, decorations, bar drinks (including your first drink on the house), the Drexel’s Annual Oscar ballot contest, along with the Big Show on the Big Screen and a fun group of Movie Group friends to watch ‘em with! BONUS LINKS: \* COMPLETE LIST OF NOMINEES: https://deadline.com/lists/2026-oscar-nominations-list/ \* INTERESTING ARTICLE ON RECORDS BROKEN, SUPRISING FACTS AND OSCAR FIRSTS: https://abc7.com/post/oscar-nominations-2026-surprising-facts-nominees-98th-oscars/18448908/ \* SHORT VIDEO MONTAGE OF THIS YEAR’S BEST PICTURE NOMINEES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3abMnrsaUA \* FUN VIDEO OF OSCAR NOMINEES HEARING THEIR NOMINATIONS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6eY1yGQ2aU PARKING: Parking is available along Main Street in front of the theater, on Drexel Avenue, and other nearby side streets. Additional parking is available at the Bexley Municipal Parking Lot (two driveways west of the theatre). LINK: Should be a fun & festive evening and a terrific way to celebrate a great year of movies together! Look forward to seeing you there, Dan