Glover Park is a bit off the beaten path. Just above "upper Georgetown" and below Cathedral Heights, the neighborhood was first settled in the early 1800s and included a chunk of land called Knave's Disappointment. (I gleaned this fun tidbit from a Brief History of Glover Park for my fellow history geeks.)
GP today remains relatively unaffected by time- perhaps due to the lack of a Metro station. This might be a silver lining considering how much of Washington is raging upscale. The neighborhood still includes the Russian Embassy, a community garden, and good ole Guy Mason Rec Center where the Old Poor House once stood.
Although many of the storefronts have changed, Old Europe and Pearson's are among the living. For those of you who remember blurry nights and a full range of bands from gawdawful to up and coming at "the Grog," the same space is somewhat cleaned up in it's reincarnation as The Mason Inn, where Herschel Hoover will be opening this Saturday for Austin band The Mammoths.
Also on the docket for Saturday, Bill Hanke, local rock connoisseur, tells me it's well worth the drive up to the Music Cafe in Damascus, Maryland. Looking at the stellar line up, I have to agree: Dave Chappell, Anthony Pirog, Jan Zukowski and Pete Ragusa will hit it at 8 p.m. (Get there early - it's a small joint.)
I fondly recall scooping ice cream at Bob's Famous circa 1980-83, sometimes in tandem with bro-in-law Chris O'Toole. One night leaving Bob's after mopping up, we heard on DC-101 that the Cap Center would be putting Stones tickets on sale at 1 a.m. -- in those pre-interwebs days a brick of golden intel. We skedaddled across town to find a mob of hairy fellows being herded by PG's finest atop gigantic horses. We each bought the allotted four and scalped a pair, but neglected to swap tix so that on the appointed evening I and my equally ancient (33) bud wound up sitting next to the jailbait cuties to whom I had sold my ducats in the parking lot at Wagshal's on Mass. Avenue. Ah, youth, or an approximation thereof.
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