The Hyattsville public library has a new kiosk that dispenses famous short stories and poems for free.

Designed by French publisher Short Édition, the small kiosk prints out a story on a narrow strip of paper that resembles a receipt, but is thicker.

Visitors to the Hyattsville library can choose from one-, three-, or five-minute reads. The selections include famous poems and short stories in the public domain as well as works from Short Édition’s own catalog, and the authors receive royalties for their pieces.

The selection includes some 13 million works by 6,800 authors — broad enough that visitors are unlikely ever to receive the same story twice.

Over 300 kiosks have been installed worldwide in libraries, museums, airports, and train stations. In the D.C. area, you can find them at the Planet Word museum and the Alexandria public library.

The kiosks require a one-time cost of a few thousand dollars, in addition to an annual subscription fee for the published works.

You can find the Hyattsville library kiosk at the main entrance near the check-out and return desk.

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The Dog Haus Biergarten will open in College Park on Sunday, Feb. 4.

Located inside the new City Hall complex at 7401 Baltimore Ave., the outpost of the California-based chain specializes in gourmet hot dogs, sausages and burgers made with hormone- and antibiotic-free Angus beef and served on King’s Hawaiian rolls.

The main offerings come with toppings like smoked bacon, pickled jalapeños, and sauerkraut, but the menu also includes chicken sandwiches, Impossible burgers and breakfast burritos, and side options like chili cheese fries, onion rings and tater tots.

Dog Haus also partners with local craft brewers to feature different beers on tap at each location, and it has a cocktail menu as well.

The eatery joins a busy stretch of casual restaurants in the area, including Taim Mediterranean Kitchen, Ledo Pizza, Nando’s and Marathon Deli.

In the D.C. area, Doghaus already had locations in Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, Bethesda and Dupont Circle. Local franchisees Faizan and Adila Khan plan 15 more around Maryland in the next few years.

The chain first opened in Pasadena, Calif., in 2010 and began offering franchises in 2013.

The College Park location will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

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In the 1950s, country music legend Charlie Daniels got his start playing at clubs in the greater D.C. area, including along Route 1 where he played a regular gig for an entire year.

The North Carolina native moved to D.C. along with members of his band after their summer gigs ended, joining a circuit of local bars and clubs that were hotspots for everything from country to rock ‘n’ roll and jazz.

In his 2017 memoir “Never Look at the Empty Seats,” the musician behind songs such as “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” reminisced about his time on the local music scene.

“Washington had a lot of clubs, and once you broke into the circuit, there were plenty of places to work,” he wrote. “We joined a nucleus of other bands that moved from club to club, playing six nights a week and staying for two weeks or longer. Once we stayed at the Dixie Pig in Bladensburg, Maryland, for a whole year.”

According to a history by journalist Mark Opsasnick, the Dixie Pig opened in 1927 as a roadhouse saloon at 4500 Annapolis Rd. in Bladensburg, the site of a saloon that dated back to the 1800s. After it burned down in 1952, the Dixie Pig reopened in 1953 at 3804 Bladensburg Rd., quickly becoming one of the area’s most popular country and western clubs, hosting acts like Roy Clark, Jimmy Dean and Patsy Cline.

At the time, the area around Route 1 had a vibrant live music scene that included places such as Jimmy Comber’s Supper Club, Waldrop’s and the 4400 Club.

The time spent on this circuit was a formative period for Daniels and his rockabilly band, during which they added new influences and released their first records.

In a 2017 interview, he said he played at the Dixie Pig nearly every night for a year.

“It was a great time,” he said. “The Dixie Pig was a great club. It had its own culture. Clubs used to do that. They had their regulars and a culture grew up around it and the people who were the regular ones, gave it personality.”

Still, he said it was “rough,” noting that “there were fights every night at that place.”

Daniels died in 2020 in Tennessee where he lived.

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Renowned Route 1 jazz pianist Daniel Weatherspoon, a Grammy- and Dove Award-winning composer, producer, and recording artist who has worked with various popular artists, including Beyoncé, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Mary Mary, will perform two shows at the Carlyle Room in D.C. in March. Weatherspoon is also promoting his third studio album, which will be released mid-April.

He and his wife moved to Hyattsville last year after spending a lot of time visiting family in the area, including shooting portions of his “Lights Out” video at Hyattsville’s Vigilante Coffee and around Franklins back in 2020.

Weatherspoon began playing music as a creative outlet at a young age and performed professionally starting at the age of 16. As a keyboardist, he’s supported musicians in all kinds of genres but prefers jazz for his own compositions.

“I’ve touched everything from house music to R&B to gospel to reggae,” he told the Hyattsville Wire. “Jazz feels like home to me as the freedom of expression isn’t bound by mainstream formats. Jazz and classical are two of the few genres where internal emotion paints the picture, versus the marketplace painting it for you.”

One of his most unique performances was held at the Nasdaq stock exchange in Times Square where he promoted his first album, “The Langley Park Project,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart for Contemporary Jazz. His performance at Nasdaq also led to the Nord Keyboards company naming him an official ambassador.

“Let it be known, there is absolutely nothing like an acoustic piano,” he told the Wire. “The touch, the tone and personality are unmatched. Ive played hundreds of keyboards over the years. The Nord keyboards are hands down closest to the real thing.”

His most memorable concert, however, was a performance with Beyoncé in Capetown, South Africa, hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Bono in honor of the late president Nelson Mandela, with more than 700,000 in attendance.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that prior or since,” he said. “Emotionally, my very first show as an artist. The pure love of those in the audience clapping and appreciating my musical stories will never be outdone.”

Weatherspoon released his second album “Journey,” in 2020. In addition to “Lights Out,” he also released a new single last year, “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” featuring Mark Kibble and Hamilton Hardin.

Weathersoon’s upcoming Mar. 30 performance at the Carlyle Room is already sold out, following a sold-out show in November. Tickets for his March 29 performance are still available here for $35, but going fast.

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Two hotspots on Route 1 were named among the “100 very best” restaurants in the D.C. area in a special annual feature in Washingtonian magazine’s latest issue.

In a special annual feature in Washingtonian magazine, Riverdale Park’s 2Fifty Texas BBQ, which recently opened another location in Mount Vernon Square, was ranked No. 10 — one of only four in the top 25 that were also rated as inexpensive.

That was up 12 spots from its previous ranking on the list in 2023.

In a capsule review, the magazine noted that its Texas-style barbecue “fast became an area obsession,” argued that the spare ribs and pulled pork deserve just “as much praise” and noted that it recently expanded to Mount Vernon Triangle.

Another perennial favorite, College Park’s Northwest Chinese Food, was also highlighted on the unranked portion of the top 100 list, as it has several times before.

“Hot and hotter may well be the mantra of this chili-stoked cafe where the walls are a collage of color and texture,” the magazine wrote. “Ideally, we’d have one of everything, but usually we home in on nibbles such as pungent black-vinegar pea­nuts, cuminy lamb sandwiches on flaky flatbread, and a chili-doused, egg-wrapped sausage on a stick, dubbed a ‘sausage eggy.”’

Unlike the Washingtonian’s annual “Cheap Eats” feature, this list includes all kinds of restaurants, meaning both 2Fifty and Northwest Chinese were competing against some of the fanciest restaurants in the greater Washington area.

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Four years ago this week, an eight-page neighborhood guide on Hyattsville, Riverdale Park and College Park was published in Washingtonian’s February 2020 issue, which hit newsstands around the D.C. area.

The Hyattsville Wire was honored to be asked to author the magazine’s first-ever guide to the Route 1 corridor and the spread included our one-on-one interview with College Park tennis star Frances Tiafoe.

Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic hit just weeks after the guide was published, and it didn’t bring the Route 1 corridor the attention it deserved.

But four years later, the guide still holds up. Only Banana Blossom Bistro, Cafe Azul and the pinball room at Mom’s Organic Market have closed, and the previously threatened Marathon Deli managed to survive and return.

The guide is, thankfully, not a time capsule of a bygone era, but more a look at a moment that was interrupted and has since mostly returned. And you can still read the guide online on Washingtonian here.

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Prince George’s County will consider using impact fees to discourage sprawl and encourage more apartments near Metro stations.

At a recent briefing on long-term goals, planners with the county and the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission said they will be looking into raising fees on developers when they build farther out in the county and lowering them in areas around transit stations.

That could have a huge impact on the Route 1 corridor, as it would supercharge already strong growth around the West Hyattsville and Hyattsville Crossing Metro stations as well as future Purple Line stations in Riverdale Park and College Park.

According to WTOP, Derick Berlage with the MNCPPC said at the meeting that the shift in impact fees would ensure that builders are helping offset the costs of things like new roads, water and sewer lines needed for sprawling new developments.

“We think there should be a conversation about that, to make sure that development, especially development outside the Beltway is actually paying its appropriate share,” he said.

Any change in impact fees would require county officials to approve it and possibly the state legislature as well.

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