Last night, I went to my very first D.C. yoga studio! I had plans to meet the lovely Gena for dinner at 7 — she came on gchat around 4:30 and asked if we could meet a little earlier since she wanted to go to a yoga class right nearby that let out at 6:30. Even better — I’ll just join you for the yoga class, too! 30 minutes later I was downtown. Spontaneity is the spice of life 🙂
When I lived here, I used to take yoga classes at my Gold’s Gym — they were included for free in the membership and I really liked the instructors, so I never ended up exploring any of the many D.C. yoga studios! I was excited to try one last night 🙂 We went to Tranquil Space in Dupont Circle area (17th & R) for their 5:30 “On the Go” one hour yoga flow class.
I liked the environment in the studio — when you walk in, there’s a nice area with a little yoga clothing/accessory shop, tea and cookies, and they have 3 different studios — crazy! The one we were in was on the smaller side, but it had a nice skylight, and this text on the wall:
It was a good class — nice flow and worked up a decent sweat, too. I didn’t love the instructor as much as the ones at my studio in Chapel Hill, but I still enjoyed it, and I liked that she came around to gently help us move deeper into the poses.
The only thing that was super lame about the studio? There’s no “first class free” type offer for people that want to try the studio for the first time. Drop in classes are $14 (yikes), or $11 for students/”starving artists.” It drives me crazy how expensive yoga studios are!
After yoga, Gena and I were starving and quickly changed and hightailed it over to Cafe Green, right down the street, for dinner!
I love how the building is actually green — beautiful ivy, too! Cafe Green is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant; I’ve only been here once before with my friend Ashley and was excited to try it again.
I started with a glass of the “Live Green Organic Live Juice” — apparently they really wanted to drive the point across that it’s live, lol.
It included kale, spinach, apple, banana, and lemon juice. Yum! Very refreshing after a sweaty yoga class. My favorite juices always include beets and ginger, though 😉
Next up — Gena and I shared a raw pizza appetizer!
I love ordering things at restaurants that I’m too intimidated to make at home — and this was definitely in that category! The crust was made from sunflower, flax, and quinoa, topped with cashew cheese, roma tomato spread, fresh guacamole, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, and basil! This was really delicious — I loved the healthy, hearty crust and the flavors went really well together, too. Who knew you could make raw pizza?! Maybe someday I’ll try to recreate this at home. 🙂
Gena approved, too!
For my entree, I ordered the “Yellow Curry Road to Bali” — aka yellow daal, potato, bell peppers, green beans, carrots, and basil sautéed in a yellow coconut curry sauce over brown rice. I also added some tempeh, because I heart it.
This was good but not amazing — Thai places do curry better, let’s be honest 😉 It was very satisfying, though, and I left with half as leftovers.
Miss Gena had the massaged Mango Kale salad:
Don’t worry, I tried some and it was delicious. Mango + kale = yum.
And for her main dish, the Raw Spaghetti Marinara!
Doesn’t it look like normal spaghetti?! It was actually raw zucchini in the shape of noodles. Very sneaky. I also had a bite of this and liked it — though I like anything smothered in tomato sauce 🙂
Such a fun night. Not only was the food good, but I had wonderful company, too. I <3 Gena and it was great to catch up! We basically talked nonstop for 2 hours — one of those dinners where the waitress comes over to take your check and you realize you didn’t even pick it up yet, hehe.
Gena wants to introduce me to another one of her favorite D.C. yoga studios next week — I’m excited! I’ll share a full report, of course 🙂
I’m heading back into downtown D.C. this morning for a fun photo adventure with Matt! He bought a Groupon for us awhile ago for a walking photography class “safari” — it should be really fun 🙂 Here’s hoping the rain holds off!
Have a good one, friends!
