Welcome to neighborhood favorites.

My name is George Worrell, and I am your host.

I've lived in Washington, D.C. for the past 30 years.

I've had the privilege of working as an event planner and a fashion stylist.

That has enabled me to meet some of the most wonderful people here in this rich city.

We today are going to be visiting Union Market, a staple here in Washington, D.C.. We're going to be visiting wonderful restaurants, recor shops, candle making facilities.

It's going to be great.

So come on, let's see what's here.

Upbeat music Upbeat music Upbeat music On our first stop on our journey through Union Market, we are stopping at Phowheel.

Phowheel has landed at Union Market there going to be some wonderful, wonderful food that he has for us today.

It's a family owned business and we're going to start with twine.

Twine.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us and having some food.

It all looks amazing.

Tell us a little bit how you guys started.

So far, us started with my business partner.

We, he opened a business up in 2012.

I was one of the few followers he had, like, 200 followers, but, it came across my Instagram feed and I was like, whoa.

Like a spot on a truck.

Let me go check it out.

So I went out there and, I followed him all over the place just to support him.

And I met the owner and I said, hey, man, you got a good thing going on, I support you.

I want to push this thing with you and, like, you know, keep, keep this thing alive.

And, you know, 2008, 2017 came along and he presented me the opportunity to take over the truck with my family.

And I took the opportunity and ran with it.

partnered up with my mom, who's a very, very great cook, and I was the one who was going out on a truck, but my mom was the one cooking everything in the kitchen.

So did you guys come up with the menus yourself, or you kind of tweaked the what did you model and.

We went ahead and got, menu for my business partner.

But my mom put her love in.

Her head, so.

She put her love into it.

she played with the recipes.

So this is, something, you know, we, we dedicate this to my mom.

Oh, I love it, I love it.

Well, you have any background in any of the delicacies?

Because it looks like you guys have modernized the Vietnamese cuisine.

So tell us a little bit about what we have here because this looks oh so good.

Let's start.

Actually bring.

On the end of what we have here.

Describe what we have it.

Because it looks so good.

Right her we have the oxtail cheesesteak.

it's after that been simmered in, 18 hour broth.

And what we do is we take out the osso, we shred it off the bone and put it inside, by me.

Then we put garlic all in and top it off with, mozzarella cheese.

Okay.

And cheese with onions, garlic, cilantro, and give you an 18 hour bath on the side to dip the sandwich in.

It's like a wow, wow ranch dip.

I love it, I love it, I love it.

And what do we have here?

This right here is the oxtail.

same thing here that I said have been simmer for 18 hours.

And what we do is we put it over, rice noodles with soup and broth.

Top it up with scallions, cilantro based on onions.

And, yeah, it's very hearty and healthy.

And and you can eat this all year round and so.

Good, good, good.

And what is this we have this is.

One of our, if not our most popular dish.

this is pork belly tacos.

You can chase us al over the country for this thing.

What it is, is, it's a roti kanai is a Malaysian flatbread which is separate us from all tacos.

Everybody who's calling into tears.

But we use, roti.

And what it is, is we pu the glucose and in a pork belly and, top it off with soy glaze, spicy mayo, cilantro, and an optional double fried egg on it.

And we just want to put a fried egg on there because egg is good on everything here.

How rewarding has it bee to have a family owned business?

You know what I mean?

And you said your mom immigrated here from Vietnam.

Yeah.

And to see that vision and that the whole family can take a part of it, what does that mean to you?

It means everything to me.

Because me and my mom's relationship wasn't that much.

it wasn't that great.

But since we jumped into busines became really, really good business partners.

Our relationship began to grow, and that's priceless.

Oh.

The food.

Yeah.

Like this.

In the end, like us, going out and making people's day and making people's day better and making them happy when they enjoy our food.

And it's it's priceless to me, you know.

So being here at Union Station in the union market and seeing all of these great, you know, businesses and everybody's coming together, how did you guys modernize?

a traditional dish.

How did you, like, put your spin on it?

So how we put our spin on it is there's no such thing as oxtail.

Excuse me?

I like a Vietnamese style.

You know what I mean?

we we just, you know, take our American heritage.

And I was born in America.

My mom was born in Vietnam.

But we just took the two ideas and, just made some something great out of it, you know what I mean?

have you tried this also?

Cheesesteak?

Is this going to be, like, mind blowing tacos?

my business partner is from Texas.

My wife is Mexican, so.

Okay.

It just it goes.

Wow.

Very well there.

Yeah.

Now, see the beverages that we have here?

What do we have here?

I have the Vietnamese iced coffee.

The song.

Morning.

tea.

It comes with, slogan pineapple and jackfruit.

Very refreshing.

And Thai tea, which is black tea.

Haven't had.

No.

And, really good.

hazelnut milk too.

So what do you want to where can people expect when they come and have some of these dishes?

inside the consistency.

What do you want?

the people that are eating and patronizing, would you want them to leave with when.

I want them?

I want them to leave happy.

And.

No, like, they want to come back.

You know, we thrive on consistency and we want people to understand, like, there's a lot of love that goes into this food.

we really enjoy what we do.

And like I said, like, what makes us happy is if we can make other people happy to help food banks, everyone together.

This is fabulous.

Thank you for your time.

And thank you for, making all of this.

It looks so good.

I'm not sure of where to start, but I'm going to start with everything.

I would say start with the oxtail.

okay.

this is our 18 hour.

Simmer down.

Oxtail and the noodles.

Oh, my God, I've not seen by such.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's good.

Yep.

You know, in all of my years of on this earth I've never had oxtail.

What.

No.

But we just changed your life.

Wow.

That's really good.

It's really tender.

Yes.

It is.

Like my grandmother would say.

It's falling off the bone.

Exactly.

This is good.

Wow.

This is good.

Oh my God.

I'm taking this with me as you crazy.

Thank you my friend Thank you.

Appreciate you guys.

Thank you for the next meal.

Yo.

Best meal.

We are on to our next stop here in Union Market, the famous Pudding.

And we're going to be talking with our friend Tori in owner and chef.

How are you, my sweet?

I'm wonderful.

Well, thank you for having me.

Look at all of this.

This is what I love about these shows.

When we're doing food, it's all of this wonderful layout.

So this is tell me a little bit about.

We met sometime ago, and I got a chance to taste some of your delicious pudding, but I didn't know that you had all of these other delicacies.

So tell us how this all starte and what is the concept of it?

Yeah, so I started in 2010 as an Eastern Market food vendor.

Okay.

So popping up with the tent, with my pots, all of that good stuff.

and slowly kind of made my way to food trucks and then to beautiful Union market.

So here we are.

Okay.

Yeah.

How do you like it?

How do you like being in a space like this?

I love being in a space like this, that we share so much energy.

All the businesses that are in this space, you know, and I was very small business.

it was good to be here next to other businesses that people recognize.

Sometimes people would come here for one business and they'd happen upon me.

And then I have a new customer as well.

So the synergy that shared within the market is awesome.

I love the name.

My grandmother used to call me Pat.

Everybody.

Yeah.

So ho did you come up with that name?

How did.

You.

So I actually the first item that I was selling was the brown butter bourbon bread pudding.

And I became pudding.

I became that my nickname at the market became, you know.

So the pudding really is, our best selling item on the menu.

Okay.

And, you know, a lot of people that hate bread pudding, they try ours and say they're a believer.

Yeah, I believe.

That people have a.

So tell us this.

Describe some of the thing that you have here.

Absolutely.

So this is our chicken and beef sausage gumbo.

It's made with whole okra as you can see on top.

And then large shrimp.

It's amazing.

It's also one of one o the first dishes that I created.

Okay.

it has a lot of African roots in it as well.

So it's an okra and sassafras based stew.

we actually don't use a roux in our gumbo, so it's, it happens to be gluten free.

We weren't trying to be cool, but, you know, it happens to be gluten free.

It's great for people that, can't tolerate spicy.

It's got a kick.

It's savory and meaty.

This is our, to fe.

It's also a bit spicy, too.

Okay.

wonderful.

Served over rice with, again, very large shrimp.

if you like, a kind of creamy seafood type stew.

That's awesome.

Free.

Okay so our classic shrimp and grits with parmesan cheese grits, tomato butter sauce.

So very not spicy at all, but very creamy.

Rich, velvety.

Wonderful.

Okay.

This is our red beans and rice.

One of my favorite is that smoked turkey and beef sausage in it.

awesome.

Awesome.

And then this is our, this is our game changer right here.

I feel like everybody has t try.

This is our seasonal item.

It's our fried shrimp and watermelon salad.

Wow.

celery vinaigrette.

It's.

It really is to me, the star of the show.

It's great.

Well, you know, the bread pudding.

Is just so.

So.

Yeah.

So what are you.

So.

Because my mother loves fried shrimp.

So this is seasonal.

So you'll have this, like, in the summer months.

Spring.

Summer.

Exactly.

Wow.

While watermelon is.

Into the season.

Right up until about Labor Day.

And then that's about it.

Okay.

And then over her we have our fried shrimp po'boy.

So it's fried shrimp on a sub roll with remoulade, which is like a spicy Cajun mayo and then a vinegar based on top.

It is, it is to die for.

Wow.

Yeah.

So how do you spend your time?

Well, how do you are you able to manage all of this and make sure that everything is consistent and yummy and fresh.

How do you do that?

So we actually have our own 3000 square foot company owned facility in Capital Heights, Maryland, where we produce all of our products.

We also are in process of getting an FDA licens to actually package everything.

So right now we're packaging all of our food, keeps it very consistent.

you know, and we're making our product every single day.

So, you know, it's it's not easy being a small business.

But, you know, we work on things daily.

So let me just ask you this.

What was the dream?

Because we don't jus kind of happenstance on things.

Yeah.

You know, I'm a small business owner.

We're targeting businesses in here in the District of Columbia and small businesses.

Yeah.

What was it that said that?

I'm going to take a chance and I'm going to I know that my product is good, that I can sell.

What was that for you?

So I think that the bottom line is great parents, right?

My mom always encouraged me to get in the kitchen and experiment, which is what I love to do.

So I had that foundation already, and so I always ha the confidence to get out there and just try it on my own.

So when I after I finished grad school and I realized I don't really like public finance that much, and I decided you know what?

Let's give this let's give this farmer's market thing a try.

And I just went for it.

And that's the thing.

You have to do it right.

You know, you can dream all, all night long, all day if you want to.

But you have to start actually doing doing it.

Yeah.

So just, you know, putting yourself out there and just doing it.

What is it about everybody that I've interviewed and met for the most part, are not in their field that they probably went to school for or thought, yeah.

So was this your passion?

Like, I know the finance was good, but was this the root of your passion?

And it just this was for you.

Yeah.

Food has always been there.

You know, even when I was i undergrad I used to I sell sweet potato pies to be boys, to sel rib dinners to other students.

Okay, so I was always cooking.

I like that word sell.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Yeah.

So for example, it wasn't for I love it.

I love to not have nonprofit profit.

Okay, I love it.

You know, it was always there.

It was always something that, you know, kept to me.

it gave me.

It gave me energy, you know, gave me a lot of energy when I was working around food and and selling people.

And then when they loved it, you know, that even gave me more energy to continue on.

So, you know, I think starting out small at a farmer's market and having a proof of concept where your customer comes up to you and says, hey, I don't think this is that great, or I think this is awesome or you get feedback immediately, really helps as well.

You need that.

You need to interface with your customers, the good, bad and the ugly.

Yeah.

So that you know what's going on with your business is how to improve it.

Yes.

Yeah, I love it.

Do you mind if I try the beets?

I want to try thi because this smells so, so good.

This is the best part about this job.

I'm just.

You all feed me.

And I'm not just saying that like I, I love it because sometimes it can be overly spicy.

But I can taste all of the herbs and all of the spices that are in it.

Yeah.

And it's not overpowering.

It like you like it.

I love it.

This is so good.

Thank you for having it.

It's a good thing, but I think it's a really.

we are now at District Candle Lab.

That fear is on.

Thank you for having us.

You're the owner here.

This is a beautiful space.

Tell us a little bit about how it all started.

But first we want to talk about that.

This is no what you started to do in life.

Tell us what you used to do.

Right, right.

So I was.

Bor and raised in Istanbul, Turkey.

I moved to the States 20 years ago for graduate school.

I'm a space physicist.

I worked at NASA for about ten years.

Wow.

Being an instrument project manage on various spacecraft missions.

But I wanted to follow m passion and own my own business.

And I started all of that.

That's out of Kensington, Maryland home and gift shop.

Okay.

And so what was the premise of the passion for fragrances and jewelry?

So at all of then we made our own candles and at the store we dedicated the back half of the store to our manufacturing and customers could see us.

It was more this like open kitchen restaurant concept.

Yeah.

I just wanted customers to be able to see how their products were being made.

But we would get questions every day.

Can I make my candle?

Can I be my girlfriend?

I'd have a day, day or night, you know.

Do you do bridal shower?

So that made me think.

There's a need for an experiential retail concept where people want to be hands on and create their own product.

Yeah, well that's wonderful.

So they can create their own jewelry.

And we're going to do is create a candle.

So I understand two when we do our candle there's a small like but after you do it it's like what two hours to wait so people can go shopping.

They can have a meal and then come back before they leave.

And they I.

Think we when we started this concept, we we thought, what is a best location for this concept because of that wait time mostly.

And you know, markups stood out.

There's so many options here for shopping, for retail for, for that where you can make your candles or have brunch with your friends, come back, pick up your candle before you go home.

Yeah.

I've been feeling such a sense of community.

Do you feel that here with your blog.

Some amazing neighbors, the whole community, the customers, the neighbors.

It's just like we feel very welcome.

We've only been here for a month, you know?

And, it just feels like this was meant to be for us.

This is amazing.

I am looking forward to making my candle.

So, George, on the menu, we sent you a sentence wall first, and then on the menu, we asked you to pick up the ten fragrances we did.

And then we paired those to these three, which were your top selection?

Yes.

So now what we're going to do is we're going to take the warning label off and put it at the bottom of your candle please.

Okay.

You should use that.

Next up.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

Safety first.

Safety first.

Okay.

So now we're goin to put the work in your in your.

Room is.

This you're making this making the candle.

Take the wick.

Okay.

And this is a glue stick.

Okay.

Peel the other end and put it at the center of your vessel, please.

Okay.

Do you put it in the middle?

In the middle, as middle as you ca so your candle can burn easily.

Okay.

Okay.

And this fragrance is that we picked.

We're trying to creat a very cozy, fragrance with you.

So these are twist caps.

Okay.

I want you to feel ten milliliter, ten milliliter, 20 and 30 with each fragrance So you're just going to squeeze?

These are squeeze bottles.

Okay.

I'm going to go with the first 1 to 10.

Okay.

Now you can go with the second one up to 20.

Okay.

And tell me when to start.

A little bit more to go.

I think that's good.

Okay.

Now let's do the third one.

Oh, great.

Look, man, no hands held firm.

Go go go.

Okay, I got it.

I think you're good.

Okay, so now go ahead and pou your fragrance into your vessel.

Okay.

And I'm going to pour in the wax.

This is the tricky part.

This is hot wax.

So we tell all our customers to be very careful when reporting Bow Wow.

Okay.

And now just gently stir it with the stick.

Okay.

Oh, my God, it smells so amazing.

Oh it.

Does.

Wow.

You're happy?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

And this is our wick holder.

Okay.

You make the wick go through the middle hole.

Okay.

And set it in the middle of your vessel.

Just like.

That.

Okay.

Just like that.

Now, this is ready to set for two hours, which you can just go enjoy the rest of your day market and come pick it u I am so amazed with all of this.

This has been so great.

Thank you for having me.

And thank you for doing this.

Thank you for coming.

We are on our next stop of our tour of Union market.

Something that's bringing me back to my childhood.

Vinyl records.

Birdland, which is the premier spot for vinyl records.

Come on in.

Hello?

Hello.

Hello.

How are you?

Thank you so much for having us.

I am looking forward to our tour with Alicia Edmondson, who is the co-owner here at Birdland.

I'm excited because this takes me back to my childhood.

I used to go on Saturday mornings and get my latest album.

So let's go on a tour.

Tell me what you have here.

There's so much.

You know, it takes me back to my childhood, too.

I was a big record fan.

Okay.

so over here, we have all the rock.

So rock is a general term.

It's indie.

It's, you know, shoegaze.

It's kind of anything that's rock.

All right.

here, we've got Record Store Day records, which is a special thing that happens twice a year and limited edition runs of records sometimes never been pressed.

Okay.

really interesting stuff.

Yeah.

here.

All.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, And what do we have here?

this is still rock.

Okay so bigger section for rock.

Wow.

A lot of records get pressed.

Yeah.

So when you say press.

Yeah.

Tell me what that means is enough.

Because when I go, I just buy it.

So what is pressed me?

Yeah.

So in simple terms, viny starts out is just a vinyl POC.

But then a big machine comes and presses it and creates the grooves.

That allows you to listen to music.

yeah.

Okay.

So it's the actual act of press pressing.

Okay.

This has been wonderful seeing the owls, but there's something that's been catching my eye.

And this is.

Record your own voice.

Tell me about this wonderful piece.

this is from 1947.

Okay.

You actually.

Yeah.

You can open it.

It's a lathe cutter.

Okay.

so these were built in the 40s.

This is, I think the 14th made or something like that.

And you used to record your voice usually actually just like.

Hi, mom, I've moved to New York.

Everything's great.

These would be in train stations.

And you say like you send.

These pieces.

Okay.

And you would send it to your family because think of it, peopl don't have an answering machine.

So a lot of people don't have.

But so there's answering machine.

Yes.

Okay.

And, We also do in stores in the back.

Okay.

A lot of listening parties.

So labels will send us something before it gets released.

Okay.

And we'll have a big party where everyone get to come in here and listen to it People just come in from the union market, usually with some foo and some soda or something, and sit down and listen, and it's fun.

I wanted to get your thoughts about being in the community and opening up to music.

those kinds of things.

What are your feelings about it?

I know they're strong about being community based.

I love it.

I mean, we have such a dynamic community in DC.

I have learned so much more about music by being here and getting to take input from, the people around us.

So a lot of times someone will be like, do you have this album?

Never heard of it.

Some obscure band from the U.S. or abroad.

And we'll look it up and we actually do special orders for people and it's a really cool way for us to learn about new music and expand our horizons.

What are your thoughts about someone that says, hey, you know, I may want to open the business, I love music.

What would be your thoughts to tell them about going forward?

so that's a hard question to answer.

I think usually because we do get people that are like, I want to have a record store.

And I'm always like, just make sure it's your total passion that you're ready to work seven days a week and have good partners.

You know, I'm so lucky that I have Joe and I'm so lucky that we have Jonathan.

He was our first hire back in 2015, and he's been with us ever since.

So just creating a really, really good team and having partners that, you know, I love that Joe loves hip hop.

Jonathan is a soul and I grew up, like Latin and rock.

So when you have this big breadth of knowledge between you and your partners, it really can expand your like genre and horizons.

And so I always recommend that you find someone that you really get along with and that you can argue with.

I hire your point.

It's been so much fun showing you the front, but let's go in the back.

I'll introduce you to my partner.

It has.

Been.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Joe, I heard a lot about you.

Thank you for taking the time to sit down and talk about the concept.

Joe lapin.

Yeah.

Co-owner.

Here.

Tell us about this fabulous place.

Now, I grew up around albums and LPs and all of that and speakers and stuff like that, and it's so good to see that this is here in the District of Columbia.

So tell us the concept and how you landed here.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for thanks for doing this.

you know, and we get that story, you know, a lot with a smile on people's face.

All the.

People.

Yeah.

Like, oh, all types of people.

But people that grew up with vinyl and physical music and recorded music and things that you can touch and things that look cool and things that sound good.

So, you know, we get to see that sort of moment of joy and smiles on people's faces.

we opened Birdland Records here in the Union Market neighborhood in 2020, actually, but it's an outgrowth of Songbird Music House, which started in Adams Morgan in 2015.

Okay.

where we had sort of a joined music venue, slash bar slash record space.

we always wanted to do kind of a, you know, 18 hour, all day long music space, right?

where people could come i the morning or in the afternoon.

And we always wanted, you know, physical music and the retailing of physical music and the community that that brings to kind of be a part of the overall experience.

So was that the passion at the beginning of it, of saying this is something that I feel good about and I want other people to feel good about it and connect with it as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, we do feel good about it.

And I mean, it's music.

sometimes I like to say, I feel that, you know, music is one of, if not our highest art form, that brings people together that, you know, expresses different cultures, that makes you, you know, move your feet and move your neck.

So, like, there's almost nothing more, more joyful, you know, everybody has some connection to it.

So, yeah, it's something that, that we can feel really good about.

And then, you know, all the challenges and opportunitie over the last ten years of, of, you know, actually making a business out of it, actually making a brick and mortar business out of it.

But I think that when you have a passion, that the things that happen that are not so good and you are able to overcome them, you know, that that' what you were meant to do, Yeah.

thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.

Well, thank you about all of this.

And welcoming us to this place that I think I'm going to move into.

Well.

That's it.

Yeah.

We should, record stores.

We should start Airbnb.

Yeah.

Yeah, I would do it.

Definitely.

Well, it's a wrap of this episode of Neighborhood Favorites.

Thank you for joining us on this tour of Union Market.

We've experience and tasted such wonderful food.

We've made candles and we visited a wonderful record shop.

Remember to go out and discover your neighborhood.

We look forwar to being in your area very soon.

This is George Worrell.

We'll see you next time.