By Eliza Berkon, Winn Duvall, Stefanie Gans, Beth Kellmurray and Lynn Norusis
This week, Northern Virginia Magazine editors are looking forward to The Conche’s chocolate-making summer camp and hitting up NoVA happy hours, plus what we’re listening to and watching right now.
Sweet Escape Summer Confection Camp for Kids at The Conche
July 11-Aug. 24
Maybe I’m not personally looking forward to this kiddie camp, but I’m very excited about it nonetheless. My only real goal as a parent is to make my almost 2-year-old daughter an appreciative and adventurous eater, and I just can’t wait until she’s old enough to attend cooking camp. (She already loves helping in the kitchen and can sit through 75 percent of a restaurant meal.) The Conche, the new chocolate-themed restaurant in Leesburg, just announced four three-day sessions starting this week covering chocolate-making, desserts and chocolate sculpture. –SG // The Conche: 1605 Village Market Blvd., Suite 108, Leesburg; email or call 703-779-1800 to register ($250 for ages 8-16)
Tunes and thrones
Out in the Storm & Soft Sounds out July 14 & Game of Thrones premieres July 16
Three unrelated releases happen this week, but I’m equally excited for all. First up on Friday, Waxahatchee and Japanese Breakfast (aka singer-songwriters Katie Crutchfield and Michelle Zauner, respectively) both return with new albums. Waxahatchee’s Out in the Storm follows her lauded third album, 2015’s Ivy Tripp, and bears driving-with-the-windows-down material in “Never Been Wrong.” Japanese Breakfast’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet arrives just a year after Zauner’s dreamy debut effort, Psychopomp, and it has a new version of her Little Big League track, “Boyish,” that’s been refurbished into a sweeping, cinematic ballad. Then on Sunday, I will tune in to the highly anticipated premiere of the seventh season of Game of Thrones. What is Jon’s real identity? Will Cersei come completely unhinged? Is winter finally here? And, of course, who will win the big game? –BK
I’m enlisting as sister No. 4 once my hair is long
Haim’s sophomore album, Something to Tell You, just dropped, and I may take the whole week to absorb it. The lithe sister trio strikes the perfect balance of synth-pop and rock, enhanced by lead singer Danielle Haim’s oaky vocals. And the music video to their lead single “Want You Back,” with its exuberant surprise choreography, is hands down the best video of 2017 to date. –EB
Kid-free respite
Yesterday I dropped off both of my boys at Camp Varsity, a summer camp that is all too reminiscent of summer camps of the past—cabins with bunks lining the walls and no A/C, games where cabins compete against other cabins, pen pals, a Friday night dance and cafeteria food that has its own legacy. My boys love it, so much so they don’t even balk at the no-electronics rule. While they are away, my husband and I are taking advantage of it only being the two of us. Each year we schedule out where to hit up happy hours after work and, of course, use Stefanie Gans’ suggestions of where to eat, both new spots we haven’t yet tried and legacies we want to return to—sans kids. –LN
Beach retreat
So far, July is treating me very well—this weekend, I’m heading home to the Gulf Coast for a relaxing stay in Perdido Key, Florida. I plan to enjoy the sun and sand as much as possible, but with a forecast of rain for the entirety of my visit, time spent on the condo balcony with a good read will make a pretty great alternative. –WD
