Creature of habit

Posted on November 8, 2010 by

This one is for the ladies…

I am a creature of habit. Once I find a product that works for me and is convenient to acquire, I don’t often change my buying habit. Bras are a great example. For years I have purchased the same bra in various colors from Macy’s. Shopping for bras has to be at the top of a very short list of things I hate shopping for. Right next to bathing suits and mattresses. Bra shopping at a big box store is particularly horrible, but once I knew what size and brand worked for me, I would simply run in and grab what I needed and run back out. Luckily, since moving to Old Town, my bra shopping experience has changed. I’ll be honest, I am a tiny lady. Support is not what I am after so much as “enhancement.” Last week, I stopped into Bloomers on my way to Mishas for coffee, of course, and was delighted with what I found. For full bra fittings, Bloomers will suggest that you hit the Full Cup (a shop whose name implies that I might not find too many options, although I plan to check it out). But Bloomers’ incredibly helpful staffperson had me put on a couple of bras so that she could check the fit and help me figure out exactly what size I am. The shop has two companies in particular that are great for the “wee ladies:” Wacoal and Itty Bitty Bra. They both offer “enhancement” and make a nice looking bra with cute little lace accents or a smoother model for wear under sheer fabrics.

I have to say that the customer service alone was enough to get me to change my shopping habits. When was the last time that I had someone help me find the right bra size while shopping at the mall? It is amazing how fast and convenient shopping at a boutique is when you can get some help with your selection! I was also excited to find new brands that I haven’t seen before.  All in all, I spent a total of 10 minutes in the shop and had found a new bra line and figured out my real bra size and purchased one bra and ordered two more in another color. Not too bad for a coffee break…

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There’s No Place Like Old Town for Halloween

Posted on October 29, 2010 by

By Laura Gosse

For as long as I can remember, Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I love the costumes, the parties, the decorations and the pageantry of Halloween.  I remember as a child, the excitement of the approaching night, the crisp night air of New England in late October and the utter impatience for dinner to be over and to get on with the trick-or-treating.  I’m a mother of two now and have spread the joy of Halloween to the whole family, including the dog!  We don’t limit our celebrations to October 31; we celebrate all month long.  So it is my great fortune that nearby Old Town Alexandria cherishes the day as much as I do. 

Old Town is full of ghost stories. Mind you, I am not a horror movie fan, but I do love a good mystery, and Alexandria Colonial Tours comes through with some spooky ghost and graveyard tours in Old Town into November and some special tours on Halloween weekend.  

Mason and the girls out front of GRAPE + BEANEven the dogs get to celebrate Halloween in Old Town. This past weekend, the town was overrun by costumed canine for Trick, Treat or Howl.  The event was organized by Chateau Animeaux and a slew of Old Town businesses participated, handing out treats to the dogs.  My daughters and I decked out our dog Mason (see photo left) as a bunch of grapes (much to his chagrine).  Given his vintage costume, we thought it only appropriate to pay a visit to GRAPE + BEAN for some refreshments.  

We had so much fun watching the parade of clever costumes.  A few of my favorite……

Cute pooch   superhero dog!   veggie dogs!

For many years, we’ve hosted a chili dinner at our house for the neighbors after trick-or-treating.  As we live on a small cul-de-sac, with few houses, trick-or-treating, particularly as the kids are young, is over and done with in about a half hour.  Our annual dinner helps to stretch out the fun into the evening, especially for us grown-ups.  My husband’s in charge of the chili so I get to have fun with the appetizers and desserts.  I wandered into La Cuisine on Tuesday for other reasons, but quickly got caught up in the Halloween-themed cookbooks and bought two (and some marzipan).  My copy of Ghoulish Goodies is now completely dog-earred some three days later and we’ve been cooking up a storm: bat cookies, white and chocolate chocolate bones as well as jiggly eyes.  We still have the finger and eyeball appetizers to make!

But before either the party or trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, we’re heading back to Old Town on Saturday for Trick-or-Treating with the Boutiques, sponsored by the Old Town Boutique District.  This is a good chance for us to test drive the costumes; Lily’s a devil cheerleader and Emma’s a vampire.  But this event is not just for the kids — it is for trick-or-treaters of ALL ages!  The 28 boutique members are handing out tricks and/or treats for both kids and adults alike.  Red Barn Mercantile is giving out $5 gift cards!  Now that’s my kind of candy!  See you there and Happy Halloween everyone!

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Wake Up & Smell The Coffee

Posted on October 11, 2010 by

By Danielle Romanetti, owner of fibrespace

Misha's Coffee CupI am only at South Henry Street and I can already smell it. It is 10 am and I need a mocha…badly. I am a decaf iced whole milk mocha girl. I drink something with so many modifiers that it could only have been invented at a Starbucks by an incredibly particular customer. Yup, that’s me. While I have a perfectly useable espresso machine in my shop, as well as chocolate, I can’t seem to resist a daily walk up to Misha’s, where my decaf iced whole milk mocha is lovingly prepared by one of several casually dressed hipster baristas – not that you would ever hear them refer to themselves as a barista. This coffee joint does not have to use fancy words, well designed signs or even place ads in the local paper. What they do is make amazing fresh roasted coffee on site and then serve it up in an amazingly orange cup. Who needs advertising when you can smell the place for blocks and spot its bright orange cups all over town?      

Refrigerators at Misha'sFor me, part of the charm of Misha’s is the atmosphere. I spent my college days in Pittsburgh, locked inside of smoke filled coffee shops, huddled over a cup of jo and a laptop. There is something to be said for a no frill coffee shop, where the focus is on the actual coffee rather than the fancy artwork. The Misha-sphere is created in part by the plastic letter magnets that make up the “menu” above the counter, the regulars sitting out front, the Patent office employees camped out in the roasting room, and the vintage fridges that are tucked throughout. And what is in those fridges anyway? Today folks, I reveal this highly kept secret to you all! Milk and cream. There is milk and cream in this here fridge. The Misha-sphere is also about the service. While your large chain has a cashier, one barista for blender drinks and brewed items and another at the espresso machine, ordering and paying at Misha’s is back to the basics. I have often wondered if large corporations end up with incredibly inefficient processes that don’t make sense because they have well paid staff who have to come up with something new all the time. At the chain down the street, my order is passed from one person to the next and almost never comes out right on the other end. At Misha’s, my order is given to the person who both makes my drink and charges me for it – makes sense, right?! And honestly, I don’t usually have to give them the order because they already know what I drink.

Misha'sAlexandria is incredibly lucky to have an independent coffee shop in town, one that has survived the chain coffee shop invasion of the late 90’s, serving up exactly what you want when you go to a coffee shop – good darn cup of coffee.

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Old Town Boutique Week

Posted on October 9, 2010 by

Boutique BagsShhh…. Don’t tell my husband, but next week is Boutique Week in Old Town Alexandria. Participating retailers have joined together to offer shoppers a week of discounts, deals, and events. Shoppers also can qualify to win a $1,000 shopping package, including one night at the fabulously chic Morrison House hotel and a shopping spree in Alexandria. All you need to do is download the Boutique Week Shopping Guide and the Boutique Week Entry Form.

I’m too scared to divulge the news about Boutique Week to my husband. You see, I brutally failed with the Old Town Scavenger Hunt a few weeks ago. Actually, I successfully completed the Scavenger Hunt, dragging my poor husband around Old Town in 90 degree temps for two days. Yet, I subsequently forgot to mail in my completed entry form, became inundated with work, and, to add insult to injury, ran out of time to even write about my Scavenger Hunt adventures for this blog.

In a word, the Scavenger Hunt itself was definitely an adventure. For what seems like a quiet colonial town, Old Town suddenly became like a sports arena between battling the heat, other slightly crazed shoppers who were treating it like the Amazing Race, and trying not to take advantage of every single great deal I found.

As the picture of my shopping spoils reveals, I wasn’t too successful with avoiding the amazing sales. It was really the blue-and-green Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress at Treat that undid my otherwise steely reserve. All I did was walk in the door. There it was on the mannequin in my size. How is a girl supposed to resist a perfect fitting dress?

As an entrepreneur, I’m big on brand strategy. In a nutshell, brand strategy is all about a company or store understanding the best way to promote its products to its target consumer. Perhaps to the detriment of my bank account, the shops in Alexandria have mastered this art. The incredible range of shops and services in Alexandria really does offer something for everyone.

This quality guarantee, to go with a cliché, is the advantage of shopping local. You not only can get ahold of amazing, cutting-edge products and services, but also you receive personalized attention in the form of educated shop owners and salespeople who are there, in person, to answer your questions and remember you the next time you come in.

So, Happy Shopping next week!

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Put the Brakes on Parking Rates

Posted on October 3, 2010 by

As you know from this blog or your own personal parking experience, metered parking rates in Old Town were raised from $1 to $1.75 per hour in August.  Small businesses in Old Town have already started to feel the impact of these increased rates in decreased foot traffic into their stores and restaurants.  Who carries that many quarters?  Alternative means to pay the meters — via credit card, cellphone — should have been studied and instituted before this 75% rate hike.

To add insult to injury, the city is now poised to expand the hours of operations of the parking meters to 10PM!!!  The economic impact of such a move could be devastating for business in Old Town.  This will certainly have a spillover effect into residential neighborhoods as customers look for free street parking displacing our neighbors.  What to do? 

Well, we are asking people to support the Old Town Boutique District’s efforts to educate the Mayor and City Council about the economic impact these seemingly minor changes have on our businesses and our community, and to urge the City to reverse this change until the proper infrastructure is installed. 

We urge you to sign our petition and join us for a demonstration at City Hall on Tuesday, October 12 at 6:30PM.   Thanks and meanwhile, can you spare 14 quarters?!

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Old Town Scavenger Hunt, Part One: The Plan

Posted on September 17, 2010 by

Beginning tomorrow, I am a girl on a mission. It’s the 3rd Annual Old Town Boutique District Scavenger Hunt. I have three days to hit 28 stores. Last year, I brutally failed to meet the challenge due to poor planning on Day 2. But, this year, I’ve got a plan.

For those who are new or unfamiliar with the event, the Old Town Boutique District Scavenger Hunt is a three-day treasure mapping of Old Town Alexandria, if you will, wherein you aim to visit as many boutiques in possible in hopes of being eligible for the grand prize $2,800 shopping spree (or one of the 28 $100 prizes). No purchase is necessary for the Hunt, but you do get a cool gift from every store that you visit.

The first thing you need to do is to visit the Old Town Boutique District website to print out your scavenger hunt card and map. Otherwise, you’ll be an explorer without a flashlight. Then, like me, you need to determine an appropriate strategy and plan.

When devising your plan of attack, it is essential to keep two factors in mind at all times: time and distraction.

It is easy to overlook how spread out the Old Town Boutique District actually is. It’s important to allot enough time to travel between locations, either on foot or by car. You also need to figure out the order in which you want to hit the stores. You can approach it geographically, by store type (i.e. clothing shop v. arts store), or even by theme (i.e. cooking, jewelry, shoes).

Next, perhaps more critically, you must permit yourself adequate time to explore the stores once you get there, which is where the distraction factor comes in. The 28 shops that make up the Boutique District are all unique, which means that they have the side effect of alluring one into wandering around perusing delights and delicacies for much longer than intended.

Last year, I failed in both dimensions. I didn’t realize how much area the boutiques covered and spent way too long in some stores and therefore wasn’t able to make it to others.

So, here’s my plan for this year:

  • Phase One: Visit the stores west of Alfred St;
  • Phase Two: Visit the stores east of Alfred St but west of Royal St, yet including Mint Condition and GRAPE + BEAN (which are on Royal St across from the Stanton Gallery and Lawrence Miller & Co.); and
  • Phase Three: Visit the stores between Royal and the Alexandria Waterfront.

Since I, like most people, have to work tomorrow, I’m going to try to hit a few of the stores in Phase One tomorrow night and then approach the Hunt in earnest starting Saturday.

Remember, many stores open at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow and Saturday but not until around noon on Sunday.

Happy Hunting! Check back next week to see how successfully I follow through on my plan!

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Cast Your Ballot for Local!

Posted on September 6, 2010 by

express best of 2010
The polls have opened and there are lots of Old Town independent stores on the ballot for Washington Express’ 2010 “Best of” awards.   And the nominees include….

  • Best Boutique Gym: Fitness on the Run
  • Best Fitness Instructor: Adrien Cotton of Fitness on the Run
  • Best Consignment Store: Mint Condition
  • Best Gift Shop: Little Monogram Shop
  • Best Local Home Store: Red Barn Mercantile
  • Best Local Shoe Store: The Shoe Hive
  • Best Local Women’s Boutique: The Full Cup
  • Best Local Women’s Boutique: Treat
  • Best Mani/Pedi & Best Spa: Sugarhouse Day Spa
  • Best Highlights/Color &Best Women’s Haircut: Anne Welsh Salon
  • Best Bar Food & Best Cocktail Menu: PS 7′s Restaurant
  • Best Bakery:  Buzz Bakery
  • Best Burger: BGR the Burger Joint
  • Best Local Coffee Shop: Misha’s Coffee House
  • Best Pet-Friendly Dining: Jackson 20
  • Best Wings: Hard Times Cafe
  • Best Florist: Helen Olivia Flowers
  • Best Running Store: Pacer’s
  • Best Chef: Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve, Eamon’s and Majestic

Cast your votes now through September 30 for your favorite!

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