Books and Drinks

📚 Do you love reading, but wish you had a structure and a community to share your insights with? Join our small circle of curious minds (just 4 members per gathering) as we come together for an hour of focused reading—in the calm setting of a library or the cozy atmosphere of a café. Here’s how it works: First part: Quiet reading on your own—bring a book you’re exploring, whether it’s philosophy, history, psychology, literature, or anything meaningful to you. Second part: We regroup and each person shares key takeaways, insights, or questions sparked by their reading. This sparks a structured yet free-flowing conversation around ideas, perspectives, and personal reflections. Why join? Add structure to your reading habit. Discover new books, authors, and ideas through others’ choices. Build real connections by sharing and listening deeply. Socialize around something meaningful instead of small talk.

If you have a travel chess set and/or clock, please bring them so we can be sure to accommodate everyone. If not, feel free to come anyway!

**\*\* Tickets are $167.03, ($125 + tax, gratuities, and fees), and can be purchased [here](https://www.thelibertytavern.com/event/e-pira-chiara-boschis-wine-dinner/). \*\*** The Piedmont region of Italy is renowned for Barolo, one of my favorite wines. Please join us at Liberty Tavern on Tuesday, June 16, at 6:00 PM for a five-course Barolo wine dinner featuring the wines of celebrated winemaker Chiara Boschis. **MENU** **1st Course** **Risotto ai Fungi -** porcini, castelmagno, white truffle *Pairing: E Pira Chiara Boschis Dolcetto d' Alba 2024* **2nd Course** **Agnolotti -** candied walnut, spring pea, sage, besciamella *Pairing: E Pira Chiara Boschis Barbera d' Alba Superiore 2025* **3rd Course** **Brasato al Barolo -** polenta concia, caramelized heirloom carrots *Pairing: E Pira Chiara Boschis Barolo "Via Nuova" 2021* **4th Course** **Hazelnut Crusted Venison Loin -** chestnut puree, braised radicchio, crispy sunchoke *Pairing: E Pira Chiara Boschis Barolo "Mosconi" 2022* **5th Course** **Coconut Cream Maritozzo -** pineapple, basil, brioche Pairing: *La Spinetta Moscato d'Asti "Bricco Quaglia" 2024*

If you love A Cappella Singing come check out the Harmonizers and Metro Voices...The lower voice and treble voice choruses- both part of the Alexandria A Cappella Collective. If you love 4-part harmony you'll want to visit us! We will be rehearsing on June 16th at Beth El located at 3830 Seminary Rd, Alexandria, VA 22304. We pride ourselves on providing opportunities for everyone to sing. We welcome everyone to visit our rehearsal and enjoy the singing while learning more about us!

Join us for modern island-inspired dishes at **Isla DC**! If it's good enough to attract the Obama's, I think we should give it a try too (they visited within weeks of its opening). **NOTE: This restaurant will NOT split the tab so please come prepared to cover your portion with Paypal, Venmo or Zelle. Thank you in advance for your understanding.** ***Washington Post:*** Beyond the shimmer, Isla is an ambitious Caribbean destination with a lot to say. Dinner at Isla does not end in the dining room. Chic customers filter back into the moodily lit entryway in twos and fours, where they put their to-go bags and fur coats to the side. They find their best light in a dramatic archway framed with mirrors. They strut a little strip of red carpet. As I duck inside, I always seem to land smack in the middle of Washington’s most fabulous photo shoot. Sorry! Isla opened in the shimmering Midtown Center in late October, and it already feels like a destination. A place to celebrate birthdays, to get engaged, to spend an inordinate amount of money on a company credit card, to see and be seen (and, maybe, to see the Obamas on date night). Past the entryway is the even grander dining room roaring with life, illuminated by a chandelier shaped like a beehive and dripping light off hundreds of delicate glass petals. Through and through, this is a power restaurant, the kind of place people go as much for form — the glam of it all — as function. (You know, the food.) A plate of lamb tartare was my first clue that Isla isn’t all window dressing. It arrives as a neat column, painted with a ticklingly spicy sweet potato and habanero cream and covered with a fine layer of chopped chives. Mixed almost imperceptibly in with the dark red cubes are bits of pickled shrimp, their slight chew giving way to waves of salinity. Instead of attempting to wrestle the gamy meat into submission, chef Lonie Murdock accentuates its undeniable intensity, breathing new life into a dish that tends to be more or less interchangeable from one glitzy restaurant to the next. Murdock is new to D.C., but Canadian expats and visitors might know her from Miss Likklemore's, the restaurant she and husband Darren Hinds opened in Toronto in 2022. There, Murdock says, she felt more beholden to tradition, honoring the substantial Caribbean population that calls Toronto home by serving faithful renditions of classics such as slow-cooked oxtails and the handheld chickpea wrap called doubles. At Isla, she wanted to step “outside of that comfort zone.” She brings her vision for a sprawling, globally inspired restaurant to Washington at an exciting moment for Caribbean cooking in the United States. In New York, chef Paul Carmichael opened Kabawa in early 2025, a sleek tasting counter where he exalts plantains with shaved salt cod and caviar, treating the sticky sweet fruit as a luxury ingredient. At Kann in Portland, Oregon, chef Gregory Gourdet rubs whole cauliflowers in jerk seasoning and brings them to life in his restaurant’s open hearth, his cooking a glorious collision of Haitian technique and Pacific Northwest produce. D.C. has played its part, too. Chef Kwame Onwuachi's Dogon is a destination restaurant built around coco bread and brown stew snapper. At St. James on 14th Street NW, paratha is served as a centerpiece dish, surrounded by an ornate spread of meat and vegetable curries. Where does Isla fit in? The restaurant’s most interesting dishes emerge when Murdock treats “Caribbean” less as a prescription than a loose framework. “For me, it was more important just to kind of highlight the beauty and the bounty of Caribbean ingredients, and not necessarily focus on a traditional dish hitting the plate,” she says. Take flaky patties. There are familiar fillings, like supple oxtail that melts into each bite of buttery pastry, but more thrilling are ones densely packed with crab cooked in a fragrant panang curry. Murdock, whose mother is Jamaican, is a quick study in the American palate: A particularly decadent patty features processed cheese and ground beef. Small plates and creative side dishes tend to outshine the bigger, spendier ones, but you can piece together a meat-and-starch dinner if that’s your thing. The showiest entrée on the menu (under a section called “feast & fire”) is a snapper whose meat has been separated from its bones and turned into fried nuggets. These morsels are then reunited with the fried skeleton, which wraps around the plate as if standing guard. For all the fun of the presentation, I found the fish disappointingly mild and craved a creamy sauce to dip into. For something substantial, I prefer the pork chop, lovingly charred and served in a deep, dark, puckering reduction made with pork bones and the Trinidadian green mango condiment kuchella. A pat of crab butter slowly melts into the chop and amplifies its meaty richness, and a few spears of grilled mango radiate like glimmers of sunlight. Whatever feast and fire you choose, pair it with a grilled plantain. “It is such a beautiful ingredient,” Murdock says. “I just didn’t want to see it hit the plate in any kind of way that I’d ever seen it before.” She roasts a sweet plantain until its skin is charred and the insides are beginning to soften, then slices it open and finishes it with butter infused with more bracing kuchella. The starchy fruit has all the heft of a baked potato, but so much more depth and curiosity. I like to double up with a side of mac pie. Murdock bridges the traditional Caribbean dish — a dense casserole — and ooey-gooey American mac and cheese. Her version is a brick of pasta almost caramelized around the edges, cheese lightly coating each noodle, all drenched in a devilishly rich Mornay. I’ve yet to leave Isla short of stuffed, but someday I’ll build a light dinner around bara, the springy Trinidadian flatbread used to make doubles. Here, the dish is deconstructed, the bread served on a glass pedestal, the fillings served separately for swiping and layering. I like a version featuring tender oxtails blanketed dramatically in a creamy butter bean foam, but my favorite of these dishes nods to tradition. A bowl of well-spiced chickpeas, surrounded by labneh and dotted with a sweet-sour tamarind achar, is comfort food dressed up with a bow tie. The leather booths are deep and cozy, and the cocktails, which favor rum and lean light and tropical, are lots of fun. A daiquiri stained blue with butterfly pea flowers is a refreshing start to the night, and Isla’s rendition of an espresso martini, coined the Style and Grace, balances jittery cold brew with sweet, milky peanut punch. Here, the classic cocktail becomes something rich and grown-up, almost devoid of its typical oversaturation. ***Check out the menu [here](https://isladc.com/menu/)*** 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. 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. **WAITLIST:** Meetup does not allow a waitlist for paid events. If this event fills and you are interested in adding your name to the waitlist, please send host a message through the app. In the future, we will vary the days of the week and the types of restaurants so that we can attract many different types of diners. Feel free to make suggestions for future meet locations. All diners will pay their own tab. before departing the event. If you are unable to join us in June we hope you'll stay interested and join us for a meal in the future. Looking forward to catching up with you for a fantastic dinner at Isla DC!

Sorry for the late notice on this one, but I still want to knit in public even though I had to cancel the official KIP after-party. I hope you can meet me at Aslin Taproom for some social stitching. Aslin has a wide selection of craft beers and soft drinks, as well as a full menu of pub food. The music tends toward early 2000s alt rock, but not so loud that we can't have a great chat. Hope to see you there!

Ready to tackle those classic books you’ve always meant to read (or reread)? Join DC Explorers and the I Should Read That, book club. We are launching a new, open book club dedicated to the classics, and everyone is welcome—whether you read these decades ago or are diving in for the very first time! Our first meetup is Friday, June 19th to discuss **Jules Verne’s** timeless adventure, **Journey to the Centre of the Earth.** We are **ONLY** discussing **chapters 1-15**. So no spoilers please. We'll always keep a relaxed pace of about 70–100 pages per week so there is plenty of time to enjoy the story before we gather over coffee, tea, or wine. **Location:** Busboys and Poets, 235 Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park **RSVP Deadline:** Wednesday, June 17th (so we can give the venue an accurate headcount) Logistics for the Meetup **Venue courtesy:** Please start a tab at the bar for any food or refreshments. We kindly ask that everyone purchase at least one beverage (coffee, smoothie, wine, etc.) to thank our hosts for providing the meeting space. **The Book Edition:** Warning: Because there are many heavily altered translations of this book, we highly recommend purchasing the Oxford World's Classics edition. It features the complete 45 chapters so we can all stay on the same page! You can order the book from our host Busboys and Poets [at this link.](https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-extraordinary-journeys-journey-to-the-centre-of-the-earth-jules-verne/1aafdcac17641bfe?ean=9780199538072&next=t) RSVP to reserve your spot, and feel free to ask questions. Your RSVP helps our host plan for space to accommodate everyone. Can't wait to read with you!

**Ever wish you had a good excuse to just... read?** That's exactly what the Bring Your Own Book (BYOB): Silent Club is for. No assigned reading, no quizzes, no pressure to finish anything. Just bring whatever book you're into, grab a drink, look for our QR cubes, and find a comfy spot, then read quietly alongside other people who get it. Optional chatting before and after, and plenty of coffee shop ambiance in between. **What's this all about?** Think of it as permission to slow down, dig into your book, and possibly meet some cool people, all without the homework vibes of a regular book club or the pressure to socialize if you don't want to. We're big believers in third spaces: those spots that aren't home and aren't work, where you can just be among other people. Just enjoy the magic of your new favorite third space. **Who's this for?** You! The lifelong bookworm, someone trying to read more but life keeps getting in the way, or the introvert who loves good company in peace and quiet. Anyone who wants to decompress after a long workday, or the work-from-home crowd who just needs to be somewhere that isn't the same four walls. **What happens when we meet up?** Just bring whatever book you're into, grab a drink, look for our QR cubes (check in with a scan for club updates, our chatroom, upcoming events, all the good stuff), and find a comfy spot, then read quietly alongside other people. Optional socializing before and after. We usually settle in for about an hour of blissful, mostly uninterrupted pages, and afterward you're welcome to hang out, swap recommendations, and talk books if the mood strikes. Since this is an open event in a live public space, it won't be totally silent—we often meet at cafés where there's a bit of background ambiance and murmur. Gentle hum rather than dead quiet. *This is a space for everyone. We're proud to be inclusive and welcoming to people of all backgrounds, identities, and walks of life. Bigotry, harassment, and hate have no place here. Just bring your book and your good vibes.*

We will meet outside as long as the weather is nice. If not, we will move inside. Look out for a comment the morning of each meeting with our exact location. As we are meeting in person, please remember to bring something to read as we usually spend some time sharing our current reads and/or reading when meeting in person. As a reminder, there is no assigned reading; please bring whatever you are currently working on. This group is super casual, sometimes we read and sometimes we talk the whole time. **** NO SHOW POLICY: Due to the high number of members on the waitlist recently we are having to reinstate our no-show policy. If you sign up and no-show to 2 events you will be removed from the group. Reminders are provided weekly to change your RSVP to allow those on the waitlist a chance to come to the meet-up, no 3rd chances with be given. Please be considerate to your fellow members. Thank you! I look forward to reading you!

Please join us for the June Romance Book Discussion Club! Location is at my apartment in Dupont. Address and details will be provided to attendees closer to the meeting. Also, please update your RSVP by 6pm the day before, if you're unable to come. That will allow people on the waitlist to have enough time to consider coming, as well. Looking forward to discussing romance books with you all! **Information for New Members:** Each month we will vote on a subgenre and trope to guide our reading choices. There will be a voting link shared in the discussion board with 1 week to vote on your top choices. I'll then post the votes for that month and people can share recommendations. These are just for inspiration and as general themes. There is no set book - you're welcome to read whatever you like, although many members find it fun to explore new subgenres or tropes and see what you may like or hate. This is a book club for mood readers :) You're welcome to read whatever you fancy and come discuss it. Hopefully you'll leave with some new recommendations - or books you know are not your cup of tea. Please feel free to post below or message me with any questions.

Eleanor Oliphant is a smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey . . . She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza and phone chats with Mummy. Wryly funny, Reminiscent of A Man Called Ove with so much more depth and compassion. Soon a major motion picture. Skip the summary to enjoy the story's jokes, twists & turns.

Let’s kick things off with Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross! For our first meeting, we’ll be trying out The Square as a gathering spot. I’ll plan to get there a little early to grab a table. Synopsis: *Dear Matilda,* **I wrote.** I let the words flow for her. And when the ink dried, I gave my very heart **to the fire.** Born in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic she uses to carry words and letters through the realms. But the gods will kill for power, and Matilda holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest allies. And there is a mortal who dreams of her, though they have never met in the waking world. Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life—begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. His request went unanswered, and Vincent became a hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda . . . until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him. Matilda and Vincent were fated to find each other beyond dreams. But to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, Matilda will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: finally allowing herself to be loved.