Hit me with your best TOT

What's more absurd than a grown man eating a pile of tater tots? Well, you could add one skin-tight yellow shirt, a homemade potato-emblemized headband and a pair of bracelets fashioned from empty boxes of McDonald's french fries. Oh, and don't forget the nametag, which appropriately reads "Spudley Do-Right."

For the second consecutive year, curious Washingtonians gathered at Chinatown's Bar Louie to celebrate a few of America's favorite pastimes: deep-fried shredded potatoes, competitive gluttony, unnecessarily intricate costume designs and - of course - ridiculous nicknames based loosely on food puns and obscure pop culture references. This year's "Rock the Tot" included four six-minute heats of tater tot gorging, in which contestants crammed as many of the crispy treats into their pie holes as possible while a crowd of their peers tried to hold back their stares of disgust.

God Bless America.

In the end, it took a whopping 2.8 pounds of tot (a new Washington D.C. record) to take home the coveted Mr. Potato Head Trophy and a $250 Bar Louie gift certificate. That's almost half a pound of deep-fried potatoes per minute. What an amazing display of athleticism.

http://dc.metromix.com/events/article/hit-me-with-your/1123656/content

Shaken by the economy? Not Stir. (Stir Lounge review)

In yet another sign of the District's apparent immunity to the global recession, our city has seen an unexpected influx of upscale resto-lounges (gourmet restaurant by day, posh nightclub by night) in recent months. The Penn Quarter’s new Stir Lounge deviates a bit from the winning formula developed in New York and Miami, noticeably distinguishing itself from its well-known parent restaurant, Indebleu. In fact, the lounge doesn’t actually serve food - and it has and entirely separate entrance - so its connection to Indbleu is more a matter of publicity than anything else.

Stir instills some much-needed energy into a neighborhood dominated by sports bars, stodgy restaurants and corporate retail establishments. After the luke-warm reception of the former Tantra Lounge, Stir intelligently concentrates on VIP service and exclusivity. The lounge foregoes the silly thrills and nighly specials of many other "upscale" clubs in the city, appealing to Washingtonians that take pride in their appearance and are willing to spend a pretty penny for a memorable downtown club experience.

Sure, there's something to be said about any club that has to openly publicize its exclusivity (a tad counterintuitive, no?). But at the very least, Stir serves an elusive niche in today's D.C. club scene: a simple, elegant and service-oriented nightspot for those who can somehow still afford a VIP table and $200 bottles of Grey Goose.

http://dc.metromix.com/bars-and-clubs/bar_review/shaken-by-the-economy/1077723/content