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things we dig: paradise springs winery

Paradise-Springs-Logo

Paradise Springs is a young winery located in Clifton VA started by local Entrepreneur Kirk Wiles and his mother Kincheloe. We’ve been drinking Paradise Springs Wines for years now and its become our “go-to” local wine of choice. Their winery is located so close to DC, only about 30 minutes away, so its the perfect destination to visit on a saturday or sunday afternoon. And most important of all, their wine tastes great and is super affordable! Check out their website for more info on where to snag a bottle!

Our Favorite: 2008 Vidal Blanc $24
Blistering with tropical fruits such as banana, melon, and pineapple, this off-dry white wine blend is well balanced with a clean finish.

The winery is located at:
Paradise Springs Winery
13219 Yates Ford Road,
Clifton, VA 20124
703.830.9463

behind the scenes

We had a lot of fun making our bike video for the sweet ride contest.We used some stop motion magic and a bunch of mini HD cams mounted to the bike (and sometimes rider) to get the footage you see. A lot of love and thanks for the guys from Wandering Hat Productions for their awesome work and Laura Tsaggaris for recording the original cover heard in the video. Also a big thanks to Republic Bike for helping out as well along with our very own Dominique for being recruited into being our bike rider! Here’s what went down.

And don’t forget to stop by our Facebook page to enter today!

Dom1Dom2Dom3

roasted baby eggplant salad recipe

Eggplant-1

1 lbs of Baby Eggplant
2 Tblsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tsp of Garlic Salt
1 Tsp of Chili Powder
4 Rosemary Sprigs

Eggplant-2

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Wash eggplant, then slice eggplant in half and layout on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, garlic salt, chili powder. Layout Rosemary sprigs on top.
Roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes or until soft.

Eggplant-3

You can just eat these roasted eggplant as a side dish or snack, But here at sweetgreen, we like to make everything into a salad. Heres the salad we made with them: (serves 2-3 ppl)

1/2 lb of Baby Arugula
1 large Heirloom Tomato, diced
1/2 cup Sprouts
1/2 cup Tofu, chopped
1 Tblsp of Fresh Basil, chopped.
8-10 of the Roasted Baby Eggplant Halves
Lemon Tahini Dressing (You can use any simple lemon vinaigrette.)
Extra fresh squeeze of lemon to top it off.

Eggplant-4

enter the sweet ride contest

http://www.vimeo.com/14403592

We’ve gotten a lot of love and compliments for our custom wasabi green Republic Bikes we often park in front of our stores and we wanted to give you guys the chance to win your very own! This bike is planet friendly, sure to get noticed, and fit for a rockstar.

To enter simply do the following:

(1) Like us on facebook.

(2) Comment or like one (1) of our facebook posts dated between 8/30 and 9/10.

One winner will be randomly selected on Monday, September 13th. Winner* will be announced via our facebook and our sweetlife blog.

And if you are not one for contests and want to grab your own bike now (sans sweetgreen logo of course), you can order one here!

*Winner must be able to pick up their bike at our Dupont Circle location – 1512 Connecticut Ave in Washington, DC.

Bike-Blog

Photo credit: Brian Stansfield. Production credit: Wandering Hat Productions.

music friday cut copy

YouTube Preview Image

This Friday we wanted to share with everyone an awesome new single by Cut Copy. Enjoy the weekend everybody!

things we dig: down dog yoga

Yoga

One of the things I’ve discovered since working at Sweetgreen is that everyone I work with loves Yoga. I’ve never been a believer in yoga, but last night I was convinced give it a try. My co-workers and I went to Down Dog in Georgetown for a Hot Yoga session. I’d consider myself pretty athletic but I’ve never sweated or stretched as much as I did last night. While I was definitely a novice, the instructors were great about making it challenging and pushing me to the next level. When the class was over, not only did my body and muscles feel great, but I was relaxed beyond belief. All the stress of the work week was wiped away and my mind was clear. Even though I’m pretty sore today, I’ve been converted and can’t wait for my next yoga session later this weekend.

- Tim

sweet corn: eat it raw

corn-2

Its that time of the year: sweet corn is abundant at farmers markets. When most people think of eating a good piece of corn on the cob, they immediately imagine hot corn just boiled or grilled and slathered in butter. While there’s nothing wrong with that, next time try it RAW! That’s right, you can eat it directly off the cobb without cooking it. The first bite is completely unexpected as you get a mouthful of super sweet crisp corn. Literally, just shuck it, wash it , and BITE it. So shucking good.

You can also use sweetcorn off the cob, just slice it off and use it in this recipe.

Raw Sweet Corn & Avocado Salad
3 large ear of raw sweet corn
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 large ripe tomato, diced
2 Tblsp. parsley, minced
2 Tblsp. of cilantro, minced
1/4 cup sweet red onion, chopped
2 ripe avocados, cubed.
2 Tblsp of fresh lime juice
2 Tblsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 teaspoon of chili powder

Wash all vegetables, remove kernels of corn from cob and combine with all other ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.

-Nic

corn-1

sweetgreen goes to blue hill stone barns round 3

Even though this is our 3rd sweetgreen blog post on blue hill stone barns, this was our first trip there during the summer growing season. At this “bountiful” time of year, the blue hill farm provides almost 85% of the food for the restaurant. Tomatoes are at the height of their season and we saw them all over the menu. Out of the 10 dishes we had, there was only 1 egg dish and 1 meat dish, the rest were ALL vegetable-centric. This was great to see vegetables really becoming the star of the meal in the summer growing season. We had a great dinner with friends and got to say hi to Dan Barber at the end; truly a “sweetlife” kind of night.

Interested to learn more? Check out the Blue Hill website.

-Nic

Indoor Hoop House garden with automatic temperature controlled roof opening

Indoor Hoop House garden with automatic temperature controlled roof opening

Turkeys: gobble gobble

Turkeys: gobble gobble

Nic, Jon & Nate with blue hill turkeys

Nic, Jon & Nate with blue hill turkeys

Summer sunset over blue hill stonebarns

Summer sunset over blue hill stonebarns

Starter dish: simple delicious tomatoes, heirloom and cherry

Starter dish: simple delicious tomatoes, heirloom and cherry

The famous blue hill egg dish, this time with curry

The famous blue hill egg dish, this time with curry

Jon, Nate and NIck with Erin Zimmer, from SeriousEats.com  & Dan Barber, founder of Blue Hill StoneBarns

Jon, Nate and NIck with Erin Zimmer, from SeriousEats.com & Dan Barber, founder of Blue Hill StoneBarns

sweetgreen first annual team picnic

We had our first annual sweetgreen Company Picnic yesterday and it was great. We traveled up via yellow school bus to Accokeek Farm in Accoceek Maryland directly on the Potomac River. We went on an awesome tour of their “EcoSystem Farm” that grows over 60 varieties of lettuces, vegetables and fruits.

We had awesome food from Fresh Start Catering and Rocklands BBQ. It was a great day where all employees were able to relax, play some games and hang out with the rest of the sweetgreen family. Everyone especially enjoyed the Watermelon Eating Contest!

-Nic

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music friday matthew hemerlein

Hemerlein

This Friday we wanted to share with you an update on Matthew Hemerlein who has been working on some cool new projects. BBC News just did a great piece on Matthew and his philosophy of striving to be a complete musician. This weekend, you can catch Matthew at a Nashville Flood Benefit Showcase (tickets here). And finally, since it is Friday, we leave you with a new track – a remix of Miike Snow’s Animal.

“Animal”(Miike Snow) by Matthew Hemerlein

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