Curvature (Dec. 1, 2012 - Jan. 13, 2013)

MTC is proud to present Curvature, a new show by Marcie Wolf-Hubbard.

Please also be sure to join us in the cafe for a reception on Thursday, Dec. 6; 7-9pm to celebrate Marcie and her art.

"My encaustic paintings can be rugged with the wood support and textural elements, but I retain my focus on the grace of the figure. I have loved re-immersing myself in figure drawing and combining drawing with wax painting adds to my excitement. The effect produced by applying wax to charcoal drawing is that of an image floating on vellum. The “back and forth” of additive collage imagery is married with encaustic’s mysterious depth and transparency. Drawing and carving into the wax with a tool and then applying pigment augments the sense of energy in the brushwork."

For purchasing information, please contact Marcie directly at marcieplusart@gmail.com 

Next Pop-up: Come in your pajamas!

For our next pop-up event to promote our forthcoming coffee bar in Takoma, we'll once again be hosted by the kind and lovely home goods and furnishing store Trohv on Sunday, Dec. 2nd. On this morning, patrons that visit participating stores in Takoma dressed in their pajamas between 7am-10am will receive special discounts on their purchases. There will also be prizes, games, and other goodies. The folks at Main Street Takoma have dubbed this tradition PAJAMARAMA and we hear it's quite the event!

We'll be there starting at 7:00 to serve coffee and compliment you awkwardly on your pajamas.

For those of you that came to the last event, you know it was crowded and the pourovers couldn't come out fast enough for the demand. This time, in addition to the individual pourovers, we'll be offering an alternative, quicker method of coffee brewing a la the French press, for those of you that still want freshly made coffee but don't need to geek out for ten minutes over the pourover stand with your barista.

Pop-up Coffee and Pajamarama at Trohv
w/ Modern Times Coffeehouse and la mano coffee co.
232 Carroll St NW
Sunday, Dec. 2nd
7:00am - 10:00am

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates and info about Pajamarama participating stores, specials, and what kinds of coffees we'll be serving that day.

SILVER SPRING: Another pop-up with la mano!

Thanks to the eager and patient people of Takoma, Silver Spring, (and to our dedicated friends that came from Virginia and Baltimore!) the pop-up on Sunday at Trohv for our new coffee venture, la mano coffee bar, was a success.

We're pleased to host another pop-up as well as sponsor a local nonprofit event on Thursday, the Silver Spring Stories Festival, sponsored by Docs in Progress. We have co-hosted Documentary Appreciation Salons with DIP in the past, and we can't encourage you enough to support documentary filmmaking and especially local film organizations and filmmakers.

This mini film festival showcases short documentaries made by first-time filmmakers in the teen and adult documentary production classes offered by Docs in Progress. All the subjects of the films are people and places in Silver Spring or Takoma Park.

Modern Times Coffeehouse and la mano coffee bar will be serving our signature made-from-scratch hot chocolate and housemade chai, as well as Pollystyle cookies at the pre-screening reception.

The reception and screening will take place Thursday, Nov. 15th at 6:30pm at the Silver Spring Civic Building in downtown Silver Spring (near the Whole Foods).

For a description of the films and directions to the event, click here.

Please stop by and chat, then go see some films made by, for, and about our community!

Come to Trohv for a special coffee event!

Most of you know from our quiet announcement last month that the ownership of Modern Times Coffeehouse is planning to open a new coffee bar in the Takoma Park neighborhood. We have secured a lease and are working with an excellent team of local architects, designers, and builders to create what we hope will be a dynamic and much-needed addition to the growing crop of small businesses that are helping make the neighborhood more livable and sustainable.

As we wait for permits, pick out materials, and design the menu, we are also going to spend some time introducing ourselves to the neighborhood the best way we know how-- through coffee.

Starting November 11th, we will be hosting appearances throughout the next few months at various locations in the Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County area. At these pop-up events, you'll get to meet us, find out about the progress of the new store, and most importantly, get to try some of the stellar coffee being roasted by Ceremony Coffee, our featured provider. We will be setting up a mobile coffee brewing station including Hario brand drippers, Chemex flask brewers, and pourover stands (pictured below) designed and made by our good friends at Square Form right over in their studio in Columbia Heights. At these events you'll have the chance to try special products-- most notably a series of single origin coffee varietals both rare and experimental, AND get an experience that we don't currently offer at Modern Times-- a hand-poured, single cup of coffee.

Our first event will be held at TROHV, a home goods and gift store on Carroll St. NW, just steps from our future home and the Takoma Metro. We are delighted to partner with Ben and the folks over at TROHV to be able to make and serve coffee in their big, beautiful store. They feature items large and small, out of the ordinary and attention-grabbing, and we challenge you to try and leave the store without finding some ridiculously cool object that you never knew existed but now must have. Plus, if you come out on this day, you'll be among the first people to know the name of the new shop and see the location! (If you stick around long enough, maybe even get a peek inside).

Pop-Up Coffee Shop @ TROHV with MTC (D.C/Takoma Park location)
232 Carroll St. NW
Sunday, Nov. 11th
11am-2pm

Check back on this blog, Facebook, and Twitter for more upcoming events and help us spread the word to your friends in Takoma and elsewhere about the event. Additionally, if you'd like to feature our pop-up coffee bar services at your next event or party, please get in touch and we'll see how we can help.

Javier Rivas                                          
javier at moderntimescoffeehouse.com

Anna Petrillo
anna at moderntimescoffeehouse.com

Washington Animal Rescue League at Politics and Prose

Tomorrow, Friday, November 9th, you can choose to donate 20% of your Politics and Prose Bookstore purchases to the Washington Animal Rescue League's Humane Education Program. 
Also, puppies and kitties will be looking for forever homes between 230 and 430p.

New Art - Amy Jackson

Come check out our newest installation, Early Paintings by Amy Jackson, which will be showing from Oct. 16th-Nov. 29th.

Be sure to check out Amy's website (www.amyjackson.cc), and to purchase any of the works, contact her directly at amyjacksoncc@aol.com. 

Coffee Review: Heart Roasters, Ethiopia Yukro

Background: Ethiopian coffees vary from region to region, lot to lot, and by the processing methods of how the beans are washed and dried. They are most well known for being fruity and vibrant coffees.

Flavor: Brewed in a Chemex pot, the lightly roasted beans produced a citrusy brew with walnut aroma that tasted very much like tea. I didn't want to believe the tasting notes on the label when it said "lemonade and strawberries", but as this coffee cooled down it did indeed taste like drinking an Arnold Palmer after taking a bite of a strawberry!

Source: Heart opened in 2009 in Portland and is a "micro-roaster" focused on producing small batches of a small selection of single origin coffees from Latin America and Africa. They document the lives of their coffees on their website-- describing how the cherries are picked and processed, as well as photos of the factories and the names of the farmers.

Rating: This isn't the type of coffee you should add milk to, as it would mask the bright, citrus flavor and tart mouthfeel. There are many a times that call for a comforting milky coffee beverage, but this is not one of them. If you are willing to give a little extra attention and time into preparing this coffee as a pourover, you will be rewarded with a crisp, aromatic brew that actually gets sweeter, not bitter, as it cools. I appreciate Heart for breaking out the tasting notes of their coffees into flavors that we can all relate to: cranberry, watermelon, brown sugar, and red wine are much more familiar than "damp alfalfa" and "marron glacé" (yes, Blue Bottle, I'm talking about you).