Hyattsville is using new motion-sensor cameras to monitor free parking spaces.

The city recently installed the cameras to monitor parking spaces on Gallatin Street near Vigilante Coffee and the post office which are free to use for 15 minutes.

Manufactured by Municipal Parking Services, the solar-powered SafetySticks use motion sensors similar to a red-light camera to take a photo when a car has pulled into a free parking space and when it leaves.

If the photos are more than 15 minutes apart, the owner of the car is sent a $35 fine through the mail. The city is sending warnings instead of fines through March 20, however.

The cameras currently monitor six spaces in the 4300 block of Gallatin Street as part of a pilot project, but it could add more later.

The parking spaces are also in the same area that the city recently added a series of colorful murals to help make the road safer for pedestrians.

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College Park is getting a Shake Shack.

The popular New York-based burger chain plans to open a location at the upcoming Union on Knox student apartments at 4350 Knox Rd. later this year.

Ken Ulman, the chief strategy officer for economic development at the University of Maryland, said that landing a Shake Shack was a “real testament to the project.”

When construction is finished, the $140 million building, located at the old site of the 7-Eleven, will also be home to a Chopt salad chain and studio, one-, two- and four-bedroom apartments to house nearly 800 students.

Since its founding in 2004, Shake Shack has grown slowly to over 400 locations and has something of a cult-like following for its premium burgers, crinkle-cut fries, and shakes.

It’s on par with the current strategy to make College Park a top college town, in part by attracting national chains to the area.

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On Monday, Mar. 4, WETA’s “Signature Dish” TV show will feature one of the newest vendors at the miXt Food Hall in Brentwood.

In an episode on “Food Hall Finds,” host Seth Tillman will have a mushroom burger from vegan vendor Mush DC at the popular food hall.

The eatery, which opened in 2022, uses mushrooms as an alternative to meat for vegan meals that are all organic and soy free, including vegan versions of a chicken sandwich, a Vietnamese bánh mì, a jerk barbecue sandwich and a steak-and-cheese version.

Chef Tarik Frazier and business partner Alex Hamilton told the Hyattsville Wire that they started the restaurant to show there were meat alternatives aside from opti0ns such as the lab-created Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers.

Frazier previously ran a private chef service and worked at Kith/Kin and American Son,

Previous episodes of “Signature Dish” have featured Route 1 restaurants: Hyattsville’s Chez Dior, Riverdale Park’s 2Fifty Texas BBQ and Mount Rainier’s Pennyroyal Station.

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A short drive from the Route 1 corridor in Upper Marlboro lies a haunting reminder during Black History Month: a long stone block once used to exhibit enslaved people at auction.

Though there was slavery throughout the county, the heaviest concentration was in the eastern part of the county due to the number of tobacco farms there which depended on their unpaid labor.

Legendary bluesman Archie Edwards ran a barbershop for decades just outside Mount Rainier, where he held regular jam sessions starting in the 1950s with everyone from amateurs to blues greats.

Located at 2007 Bunker Hill Rd. NE, the Alpha Tonsorial Palace, was a hotspot from the late 1950s through the 1990s. On Saturday afternoons, musicians of all ages, races, and experience levels would gather to play the blues.

Born in Eastern Virginia in 1918, Edwards learned to play guitar from his father, a sharecropper who played harmonica, banjo, and slide guitar and hosted similar jam sessions at his home.

Edwards learned to play what is generally called Piedmont blues, which uses a more fingerpicking style that was influenced by ragtime and string bands.

After serving in World War II, Edwards worked odd jobs in the D.C. area before opening the barbershop in 1959. A chance meeting with his childhood idol, bluesman Mississippi John Hurt, led to a close friendship as the two played local venues as well as concerts and festivals.

Edwards regularly played with a loose group of musicians he called the Travelling Blues Workshop and began hosting the sessions at his barbershop. After one session, a German talent scout signed him to record his first album, “Living Country Blues Vol. 6: The Road is Rough and Rocky,” released in 1982.

A longtime advocate for blues history, Edwards co-founded the D.C. Blues Society in 1987 to promote traditional music, holding the first meetings in his barbershop.

He then toured the U.S., Canada and Europe, including regular appearances at a music festival at Prince George’s Community College, and recorded two more albums, “Blues ‘N Bones” and “The Toronto Sessions,” which was released posthumously.

Edwards died of cancer in 1998 and was buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood.

His friends established the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation in his memory, holding regular jam sessions at the barbershop until it was sold in 2008. It then moved to a space in Riverdale Park until 2019 and now meets at 4502 Hamilton St. in Hyattsville’s Arts District.

Still standing, the original Alpha Tonsorial Palace was recently included on a list of 300 Black history sites around D.C. released to mark Black History Month by the city’s Historic Preservation Office.

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Chef Chris Van Jura is bringing some New Jersey to the Route 1 corridor.

Van Jura, who hails from the Garden State, makes Jersey-style hot dogs and other staples, such as disco fries with brown gravy, inspired by the state’s diner culture. In fact, New Jersey boasts more diners than any other state in the country.

After starting Catalyst Hot Dogs in 2020 as a food truck, which can be found at its own concession stand at the University of Maryland Xfinity Center and all over Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, Van Jura partnered with Denizens Brewing Co. at the Station at Riverdale Park over a year ago.

Located at 4550 Van Buren St., the brewery now features a menu by Catalyst with options like a Hanks hot dog in the style of a New Jersey eatery; the deep-fried A La Rutts, named for another iconic New Jersey hot dog place; and the Capital, made with mambo sauce. On weekends, from noon to 3 p.m., it offers Taylor ham, egg and cheese on a Kaiser roll and a secret menu item that you can ask about.

Van Jura says that not everyone who comes into Denizens recognizes the references, but he can always spot the New Jersey natives who do.

All of the hot dogs are made with black Angus, dry-aged beef from Roseda, a farm in Monkton, Md., which Van Jura says makes them much higher quality than other hot dog places. The chili and relish are both made from scratch.

Apart from the hot dogs and diner fries, Denizens’ Catalyst menu also features other classics like the big pretzel with spicy brown mustard and beer, cheese garlic knots, and jumbo wings. For something sweeter, you can order funnel cake fries and chocolate-chip cannolis — think New Jersey by way of Wildwood, a Mets game, and Coney Island.

While hot dogs originated in Europe, New Jersey-style hot dogs had their origin in the 1930s and typically feature an Italian roll and toppings such as bell peppers, onions and potatoes.

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A burger praised as one of the D.C. area’s best has come to miXt Food Hall in Brentwood.

In 2023, then-Washington Post critic Tim Carman highlighted chef-owner Ismael Montero’s prime Angus burger from his Eat Well MD food truck as a runner-up on a list of the area’s “10 best burgers.”

Now, Montero has built on the success of his burger food truck and recently opened The Burger Shop at miXt, located at 3809 Rhode Island Ave.

Montero told the Hyattsville Wire he decided to start making burgers because so many food trucks feature tacos.

“I wanted to do something different,” he said.

The most popular items at The Burger Shop are its acclaimed Angus burger and lamb and chicken sandwiches, with vegetarian options such as the Impossible burger and portobello mushroom sandwich.

Montero told the Wire he likes the miXt Food Hall because it provides an “opportunity to grow,” especially given “the progress that has been happening” on the Route 1 corridor.

Meanwhile, the burger food truck is still in operation, regularly parked at Streetcar 82 Brewing Co. in Hyattsville and Atlas Brew Works and Lost Generation in D.C. Montero said the truck is also available for private parties and catering community events.

Throughout his career, Ismael Montero has worked with many notable chefs, such as José Andrés, Scott Drewno, Michael Herr, and Andrea Skala. He opened La Michoacán with his brother Lucio Montero and has worked as a sous chef at Little Miner Taco. The Burger Shop is his newest culinary endeavor.

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