A restaurant just off Route 1 is getting noticed for its highly-rated homestyle cuisine from Eritrea, a country in the Horn of Africa next to Ethiopia.

Located at 2910 Bladensburg Rd. NE, just south of Bladensburg, Eden’s Kitchen uses 100 percent teff flour to make its injera, a spongy flatbread that is a staple of Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine.

The traditional injera recipe gives it a more intense flavor and makes it gluten-free. Vegetarian and vegan dishes are also available.

The menu includes breakfast options such as shahan ful, a traditional Eritrean breakfast with slow-cooked fava beans and yogurt, and fit-fit, made with shredded injera and berbere spice mix.

Dinner items include vegan kitfo dilot, made with minced tofu; bamya, a slow-cooked okra dish; spris made with cubes of sautéed beef; and lemon garlic tilapia. Kids and less adventurous diners can also have spaghetti with tomato sauce.

The restaurant has attracted more attention this summer with an outdoor concert in late July on its patio hosted by DC Squared.

Eden’s Kitchen is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, with carryout until 8:30 p.m. You can also order online on UberEats, DoorDash or their website.

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The city of Mount Rainier is fixing up the sidewalks and streets around Pennyroyal Station and Era Wine Bar.

In late July, contractors with Usource Construction began a $1.1 million project to demolish existing walkways and landscaping to make way for a refurbished streetscape in the 3300 block of Rhode Island Avenue, next to the roundabout.

The new, modern design will feature special sloped landscaping designed to reduce storm runoff as well as a “nature play area,” new benches, in-ground solar-powered LED lighting and repaved sidewalks.

Large new planters with small ornamental trees will also make the sidewalk feel safer from nearby traffic, which should help improve outdoor seating for customers at Pennyroyal and nearby Era Wine Bar.

The bulk of the money comes from a $1 million grant from the Covid-19 stimulus bill signed by President Joe Biden in 2021. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and the Maryland Historical Trust also contributed money.

Last year, the city of Mount Rainier also spent money improving the facades of businesses in the same area, which is essentially the southern gateway to the Maryland portion of the Route 1 corridor.

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Another Lidl discount grocery store is coming to the Route 1 corridor.

The German chain has signed a lease for the former Price Rite location at 3104 Queens Chapel Rd. in the Avondale community of Chillum in an unincorporated area of Prince George’s County close to Hyattsville and Mount Rainier, next to Mid Atlantic Seafood. It joins a Lidl in College Park that opened in 2019 on Baltimore Avenue.

Located down the road from the West Hyattsville location of Aldi, a major Lidl competitor, the future space comprises 33,000-square-feet and takes up about half of the strip mall.

The new store will replace another Prince George’s location that Lidl recently closed in Oxon Hill which was underperforming.

The Price Rite location was previously a Giant supermarket, famous as the location of a visit from the late Queen Elizabeth II during a 1957 trip to the United States.

Lidl, a popular discount grocery chain, has been expanding along the East Coast in recent years.

Other locations around D.C. include Columbia Heights, Takoma Park and Wheaton.

The expansion is part of a boom in grocery store openings that has been taking place along the Route 1 corridor in recent years.

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Four Metro stations on the Route 1 corridor are closed for the next six weeks.

The West Hyattsville, Hyattsville Crossing (previously known as Prince George’s Plaza), College Park and Greenbelt stations will be closed until Sept. 4.

The stations are closing so that Metro crews can install fiber optic cables, which will be used to run security cameras in the station and improve the radio system.

The cables run between the tracks, which is why the stations have to be shut down entirely.

Work crews will also use the shutdown for regular renewal and maintenance, such as cleaning the track bed, removing weeds and replacing cables.

During the closure, there will be shuttles running every five to 10 minutes which go between the four stations and Fort Totten, where riders can take a Green or Red Line train downtown.

Due to traffic, you should allow 20 minutes to a half hour to your usual travel time for the shuttle service.

Alternately, you can use regular buses from any of the stations.

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You can take a free boat tour of the Anacostia River throughout the year and learn about the work that’s being done to make it more fishable and swimmable.

With grant money from D.C.’s five-cent bag tax, the Anacostia Riverkeeper holds regular tours that start at the Yards Marina and head upriver to the Anacostia railroad bridge.

On a recent tour, Riverkeeper Trey Sherard explained how the river has been cleaned up since the 1970s thanks to a new sewage treatment tunnel, but continues to have issues with so-called “forever chemicals” that remain in the sediment at the river’s bottom.

Passengers see how the river is shallower and narrower than it used to be, losing about a centimeter of depth each year due to soil erosion and other runoff.

In fact, the Riverkeeper recently had to cancel a long-awaited swimming event in the Anacostia, which has now been postponed until September with a date TBD, due to stormwater stirring up the river bottom.

But the tour balances the environmental message with signs of life on the river, including ospreys, cormorants, and three-toad box turtles, as well as paddlers in outrigger canoes, a group of young athletes sculling and a handful of fishermen, although Sherard said the river’s fish continue to have high concentrations of forever chemicals.

He also shared the rich history of the riverfront, pointing out the Seafarers Yacht Club, one of the oldest Black yacht clubs in the U.S., among other sites of interest.

To sign up for the one-hour free boat tour, look for “Anacostia River Explorers Public Tour at Yards Marina” on their Eventbrite page. Among other events, you can also sign up for their longer birding and boat ride, which is out of Anacostia Park, and includes a walk followed by tour on the river.

Anacostia Riverkeeper is a nonprofit which works to protect and restore the Anacostia River including mitigating trash in the river as well as stormwater to help improve water quality.

To support the efforts of the Anacostia Riverkeeper, make make a donation here.

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A new Hyattsville running club, which got its start earlier this year, meets each week for a run welcoming anyone who wants to join.

Since Mike Cemprola, Randelle Ripton and David Rease started the group in January, RunnersHy, as its called, has met at 9 a.m. on Sundays at Vigilante Coffee in Hyattsville for a three- or four-mile run on local trails.

There is no set pace and runners of all skill levels are invited to join the group, which takes a different route each week, going up to College Park through the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail or heading south toward Bladensburg Waterfront Park.

The runners all have different motivations and experiences. Cemprola began running to lose weight in 2005 and ended up doing marathons and even a 50-miler before dialing back due to an injury. Ripton began running outside during the pandemic.

Member Chelsea Champlin told the Hyattsville Wire that the running group, which has been as few as five and as many as 18, has become a community of its own.

“It’s been really great to celebrate birthdays, meet members’ new babies, and cheer on and congratulate runners in their races,” she said.

After the run, the group of about a dozen runners often stops for coffee and pastries at Vigilante, and always posting a group photo on its Instagram page afterward with a map of that week’s run. They’re even planning to print up matching T-shirts.

Runners on the Route 1 corridor can also join College Park Parkrun, which meets every Saturday at 9 a.m. on the Paint Branch Trail at 4289 Metzerott Rd.

Further, the Prince George’s Running Club holds regular runs around the area.

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Water lilies and lotus plants are in bloom at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, which is holding its annual festival to mark the occasion.

Located at 1550 Anacostia Ave. NE, just minutes from the Route 1 corridor, the 70-acre marsh is home to a variety of water plants and popular with everything from ospreys and herons to the occasional roseate spoonbird or wild turkey.

But it’s the water lilies and lotus plants that are the park’s highlights, drawing comparisons  to the cherry blossoms found in downtown D.C.

The park’s annual Lotus and Lily Festival kicked off July 15 and runs through Saturday, July 22. Events include everything from tours with park rangers to scavenger hunts, painting classes and lessons on foraging.

The theme for Sunday, July 16, is Asian cultures and the Lotus, with Buddhist chanting, Thai music and dancing, the Chinese Lotus Dance, and classical Indian and Bollywood-inspired dancing. The events will be held rain or shine.

The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, but it will stay open until 5 p.m. this Sunday.

Visitors hoping to get the full experience might want to go first thing in the morning, when the lotuses and lilies are open, as the flowers tend to close as the sun gets brighter.

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