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Poca Madre, chef Victor Albisu s modern Mexican restaurant. Photography by Greg Powers, courtesy of Poca Madre.
Restaurants are commercial entities, but they’re also intensely personal. Some, you become so close to that it feels like family. Thus, during this year of so many sad closures, everyone’s list of the places they miss the most will be different. Here’s mine.
Breadline
The
Washingtonian offices were about a ten minute walk to this bakery/sandwich/salad spot, which was founded by Mark Furstenberg in 1997. The bread master sold it long ago, but the blueprint remained and it was always jam-packed. And there was something so uplifting about getting a freshly fried fish sandwich or a prosciutto flatbread for a desk lunch, instead of a boring Cobb. Not surprisingly, as downtown has cleared out, it’s closed for “the foreseeable future.”
In Memoriam: 15 People, Places, and Things Washington Said Goodbye to in 2020
A trailblazing justice, a basketball coach, an elephant, a dive bar, an NFL name and what they meant to our city.
December 22, 2020 Share
In a grim year, it’s hard to keep track of the people and places we lost much less remember the quirky reasons we loved so many of them. Here’s a sampling of farewells worth remembering.
Ambika the Elephant
born c 1948
She’d lived at the National Zoo since 1961 a pachyderm pal for generations of elephant-loving Washingtonians. Ambika was fascinating to watch, whether swinging her trunk around the yard, giving herself a mud bath, or hanging with Mr. Rogers. She was estimated to be 72 quite old for an Asian elephant in captivity and finally had to be euthanized in March.-