No.68 Project

Katie Nelson works at the Columbia Room, consistently ranked as one of the top cocktail bars in the country, as Lead Bartender and Service Manager. She graduated Cum Laude from Mary Baldwin College with a B.A. in Music and International Relations. Katie has lived in Saudi Arabia, France, and Oregon, grew up in North Carolina, and is fluent in French. She is a member of the DC Craft Bartenders Guild and has passed the BarSmarts Advanced spirits and mixology course. Katie is also a member of the Guild of Sommeliers and was recently certified by the Center for Wine Origins as a Wine Location Specialist for champagne and port.

At 32 years old, this Orlando, Florida native has opened a cozy, yet refined eatery just off Dupont Circle. With a continuously changing menu that showcases the best of local and sustainable ingredients, Eola has garnered critical acclaim in the culinary community, including 2½ stars by restaurant critic Todd Kliman of Washingtonian magazine, citing Singhofen as “a young talent who can make good on his promises … producing imaginative, intensely flavored dishes that hint at big things to come.”

Despite being more than three-quarters of the way through a Bachelors degree in English from the University of Florida, Singhofen found himself constantly drawn back to the kitchen. Discovering his passion, Singhofen enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York, where he learned the fundamentals of the craft. While at the CIA, Singhofen worked in the kitchen of Gigi Trattoria, to which he accredits “really learning how to cook.” Under the tutelage of Chef Gianni Scappin and peer mentor Jessie Frederick, Singhofen gained his deep appreciation for local and seasonal ingredients as well as developing his own individual style. After graduating from CIA, Singhofen returned to Florida to continue honing his craft at The Ritz-Carlton in Naples and K Restaurant & Wine Bar in Orlando before moving to the Nation’s Capitol to open his own project: Eola.

Kokayi (Carl Walker) is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, emcee, producer and educator. Pronounced ‘Ko-Kah-Yee’ (or KOKE for short), this Washington D.C. native takes his name from the Swahili word meaning ‘to summon the people’. Musically self-sufficient and versatile in ways that are reserved for upper-echelon talents, he produces his own music, writes his own rhymes, sings from the gut, and is self-taught on several instruments.

On his own, Kokayi has already independently released his debut album Mass Instructions (2007), toured the world and snagged the aforementioned 2009 Grammy-nod for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for his work as a vocalist and co-producer on ‘Lovin’ You (Music)’ by Ethiopian singer Wayna. He also produced Wayna’s ‘Moonlight Rendezvous’ which spent 7 consecutive weeks on Billboard’s Top 10 R&B/Hip Hop Singles; 100 Hot Singles Sales charts, peaking at #3 and #12 respectively. Read More…

Everyone knows the only thing more painful than relationships is not having them–or is it the other way around? Whatever, says author and cartoonist and Nick Galifianakis. In his first book, If You Loved Me, You’d Think This Was Cute: Uncomfortably True Cartoons About You, he makes the case that either way, the only recourse is to embrace our frailties and laugh.

Taken from Carolyn Hax’s nationally syndicated advice column, this collection of illustrations spins the pain of dating, mothers-in-law, “beneficial” friends, and more into humor we all can use, whether we like it or not. With searing and astute observations on life, love, relationships, and pet camaraderie, If You Loved Me, You’d Think This Was Cute features Nick Galifianakis’ intricate black-and-white drawings paired with his biting wit and a pointed message: If we can’t laugh at ourselves, he’ll do it for us. These are uncomfortable, but true, cartoons about you.

Nick Galifianakis is an American cartoonist whose work is nationally recognized alongside the syndicated, must-read advice column by Carolyn Hax. The column appears in hundreds of newspapers and is one of the most popular features on washingtonpost.com. It also was named by Time magazine as America’s best advice column.

Marie Tillman is a writer, advocate and co-founder of the Pat Tillman Foundation, a nonprofit organization that invests in veterans and their families.

The Pat Tillman Foundation is a national leader in providing resources and educational scholarship support to veterans, active service members and their dependents. The Tillman Military Scholars program aids all veterans, specifically the ever-growing population of veterans and dependents of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

Dan, a native of the Washington, DC metropolitan area, discovered his destiny as a professional host at the Pharmacy Bar in 1998. During his five years there he also honed his knowledge and skills at organic fusion restaurant Asia Nora. In 2004 Searing was tapped to be the opening bar manager at Jose Andres’ Mexican concept Oyamel. He then opened Temperance Hall in 2006, a prohibition era-themed neighborhood bar with killer rye selection and a classic cocktail list. He is currently working with his partners at Room 11, a small neighborhood wine bar that opened in late 2008.

Binghamton, New York native Ed Witt is quickly establishing himself as one of the foremost champions of small, family farms. Raised on frozen vegetables and crock-pot dinners, Witt is now deeply committed to sourcing ingredients and places extraordinary value on determining the provenance and methods by which his meat, fish, poultry and produce are brought to market. A former resident of the Washington area by way of Damascus High School and later the University of Maryland, Witt brings his meticulous approach and attention to detail to back to Washington at 701 Restaurant, where the menu reflects an inventive approach to contemporary continental cuisine.

Ed Witt attended the Culinary Institute of America and began his culinary career as an extern at San Francisco’s Rubicon. He stayed to work with Chef Tracy Des Jardins. During his time in San Francisco, Witt learned a new, hands-on appreciation for the impact remarkably fresh ingredients have in a restaurant kitchen. Witt was later hired by Jardins to help open her restaurant, Jardinière, before moving on to San Francisco’s mc². Read More…

Martha Raddatz currently serves as the Chief Foreign Correspondent for ABC News. She reports for ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, Nightline, and other network broadcasts. In addition to her work for ABC News, Raddatz has written for The New Republic and is a frequent guest on PBS’s Washington Week.

Raddatz began her tenure at ABC News in 1999 as the network’s State Department correspondent and became ABC’s senior national security correspondent in May 2003, reporting extensively from Iraq. From 1993 to 1998, Raddatz covered the Pentagon for National Public Radio. Prior to joining NPR in 1993, Raddatz was the chief correspondent at the ABC News Boston affiliate WCVB-TV.

She is also the author of the New York Times bestseller The Long Road Home, a book about the war in Sadr City, Iraq.

Nick Wiseman is the Co-Founder of Roadside Organics and a lifelong Washingtonian.

After several years in the professional kitchen under the guidance of Todd Gray, Fabio Trabocchi, and Michael White, Nick left with a vision to help rewrite a new food system. He wanted to give a platform to the unsung heroes of the food movement.

Along with his partners Seth Teicher and David Wiseman, Nick recently launched Roadside Organics to bring food concepts to life. The company is an incubator for innovative food projects that provides strategic consulting on concept development and execution.

Smith “officially” began his culinary career at the Country Club of Fairfax in Virginia, at the age of 14. After three years, Smith moved to Pino’s, one of the top Italian restaurants in the area. Here, he expanded upon his experience, participating in menu planning, purchasing, preparation, catering and supervision of the kitchen staff. From Pino’s, Smith simultaneously worked at the Carlyle Grand Café restaurant in the neighborhood village of Shirlington, Virginia, while attending culinary school at L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Maryland, under classically Swiss-trained Chef Francois Dionot. Following graduation, Smith took an externship at the Occidental restaurant in Washington, DC, where he met Chef Jeffrey Buben. Buben saw promise in Smith and the two formed a strong working relationship. When Buben left the Occidental in 1993 to open Vidalia restaurant, Buben invited Smith to join him. An invaluable asset to the Vidalia team, Buben named Smith Executive Chef after five years, at the age of 28. Jeffrey Buben and Vidalia received both local and national praise under Smith’s direction in the kitchen, including a James Beard Award in 1999. Read More…