Hyattsville will soon incorporate “living canopies” to its new bus shelters.

This summer, the city will add 10 new stations with solar panels and living vegetation from Cool Green Shelters, an offshoot of the local business Living Canopies.

You may have seen one of the company’s other products, a vegetation-laced umbrella stand, at the Vigilante Coffee in College Park.

University of Maryland professor David Tilley designed the aluminum umbrella stands, which incorporated four pots and a solar-powered standalone watering system.

But the company had to halt production during the coronavirus pandemic, which led Tilley to start noodling around with an old idea to create a greener shelter to help people waiting in the sun and the rain for a bus.

The bus shelters use hardy native plants on top to cut down on heat and direct rain water into a reservoir, while solar panels provide power for USB charging stations and LED lighting, allowing them to be self-sufficient.

He plans to add temperature gauges and other measurement tools to future versions of the shelter.

The shelters cost around $30,000 each, which Hyattsville paid for with grants.

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Three Route 1 restaurants have been nominated for a prestigious industry award.

The 41st annual Rammy awards from the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington recognize the top eateries in a number of categories at a gala on July 9 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

This year’s nominee’s include:

Era Wine Bar: The popular Mount Rainier wine bar was nominated for the “quality, diversity, clarity and value of its wine program.” It faces Lulu’s Wine Garden, Primrose, Reveler’s Hour and St. Anselm.

Pennyroyal Station: Located next door in Mount Rainier, the popular restaurant was nominated for its “dedication to dining excellence, service, and value in a casual environment.” It faces Bammy’s, Destino, Maketto and Tonari.

Spice Kitchen West African Grill: Located inside the miXt Food Hall in Brentwood, the West African street food place was nominated for “favorite fast bites.” It faces competition from Chef Skip 202, Rasa, Roaming Rooster and Stellina Pizzeria.

Nominees were chosen by an anonymous panel of food and media professionals. You can vote for the three restaurants on the Rammy Awards page on NBC Washington’s website. Voting begins today and ends May 31.

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A Mount Rainier resident runs a small-batch coffee roastery from his home.

Christopher Lowe named his small business Quality Hill Coffee after the name of the area in Mount Rainier where he moved in 2006.

A wine seller at Balducci’s, Lowe got into coffee when his wife bought him a small roaster and began experimenting with different beans and methods.

“The same qualities that I appreciate that go into wine are not that different from the way we assess coffee — things like the quality of the land, soil, humidity, the seasons,” he told the Hyattsville Wire.

Lowe works with an importer in Baltimore to get the green coffee beans, then roasts them in a rotisserie in a shed in his backyard, listening for the cracks that mean they are done. Although not as efficient as a commercial roaster, Lowe said it allows him to make custom batches and stay closer to the roasting process.

He sells his beans by mail order, on his website and on Etsy and to local customers who pick them up at his house or, if they live nearby, get via delivery. You can also purchase his coffee at the nearby neighborhood Era Wine Bar, which carries it.

Lowe sometimes packs the beans in jars to cut down on packaging and likes to include details about the farmers with the order.

While small-batch roasters like Vigilante Coffee have opened cafes, Lowe expect he’ll continue to sell beans as a side hustle, although he says he’d love to partner with a local business such as a bookstore to sell his coffee.

Route 1 residents interested in buying coffee from Quality Hill can email Lowe at QualityHillCoffee@mail.com or text him at 202-460-5260 to learn more.

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You can now regularly spot bald eagles at the Bladensburg Waterfront Park.

Hyattsville birdwatcher Harry Yeide, a retired federal intelligence officer, has been going to the park every morning for the last six years and he said in a recent profile that he now sees them most mornings.

“When I started walking, seeing a bald eagle was rare,” he told the Washington Post.

Yeide now regularly spots three separate pairs of eagles — which he’s named Thelma and Louis, Karina and Notch, and Fred and Ginger — as well as great blue herons, snowy egrets, red-tailed hawks, cormorants, osprey and other birds.

The eagles are particularly fond of a tall radio tower near the park.

In the 1990s, there were no nesting eagles along the Anacostia River. A local environmental group called Earth Conservation Corps brought some eagle chicks from Wisconsin, raised them in an artificial nest and released them into the wild as adults.

Meanwhile, the Anacostia Watershed Society has also gotten photos of beavers and river otters returning to the Bladensburg waterfront amid a years-long effort to clean up the Anacostia River, while volunteers are looking to reintroduce mussels to clean the river.

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ECO City Farms has some colorful new murals of farming and nature scenes thanks to a group of students from the Rhode Island School of Design, a nationally known art and design school, who recently visited as part of an Alternative Spring Break program.

The students painted several farm-themed scenes on metal shipping containers at the community-supported agriculture nonprofit’s location at 4913 Crittenden St. in Edmonston.

Designed by student Simone Nemes, the murals include a garden scene showing carrots, rhubarbs and beets; butterflies visiting Black-eyed Susans, the state flower; and farmers working inside a greenhouse.

ECO City, which was recently named the best CSA on Route 1 in the annual reader’s poll, will begin offering its spring and summer farm share May 4.

It also offers school programs, apprenticeships for people who want to learn about farming and classes on things like composting and growing microgreens.

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College Park favorite Taqueria Habanero has expanded to a new D.C. food hall just off Rhode Island Avenue.

Located at 670 Rhode Island Ave. NE, near the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the new location at the Bryant Street Market serves a slimmed-down but similar menu as their popular sit-down restaurants including a location in Columbia Heights.

The new location is managed by Yicela Alvarado, the oldest daughter of owners Dionicio Montero and Mirna Montero-Alvarado, who moved from Puebla and El Salvador to D.C., where they first started the taqueria. Its College Park location was recently named the Best Latin American Restaurant in the Hyattsville Wire’s annual reader’s poll.

She said the food hall is part of the next step for the family-run business.

“We want to maintain that traditional aspect, but we’re the first generation born here in America, so not everything has to be traditional,” she said recently.

The Bryant food hall, which first opened in March, includes Bar Alegria, which is also brought to you by the Montero family, along with a poke bowl stand, a dumpling place and a bubble tea spot.

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Longtime Riverdale Park hangout Dumm’s Pizza and Subs will close on Friday, March 31.

Fernando and Debby Gonzalez, who took over the pizza place in 2019 earning praise for refreshing the menu, told the Hyattsville Wire they are closing the pizzeria so they can expand 2Fifty Texas BBQ next door, which has been running short on space given its significant growth in popularity since opening in 2020.

“The dining area was filled up pretty quickly resulting in us not being able to accommodate customers who have traveled an hour-plus to visit 2fifty or turn them down or only offer takeout, specially if there is bad weather due to outdoor seating not being available,” said Debby Gonzalez.

She said the expansion will allow 2Fifty to update its dining room to modern building codes and make it safer, improve wheelchair accessibility and emergency exits and allow for better access for bikes and parking.

The barbecue joint will also be able to expand its range of side dishes using the kitchen at Dumm’s, including some of the menu items from the pizzeria, with 2Fifty’s own spin. Expanding to next door will also allow them to be open six days a week (closing only on Tuesdays).

It will take less than a month for 2Fifty to expand into the new space and they aren’t planning anything “too invasive” so they plan to keep the 1930s-era building they are occupying looking the same as it always has.

Debby Gonzalez told the Wire that 2Fifty will remain locally and independently owned and that they will expand their services for the community, such as fundraising efforts to benefit local schools and continue working with the Central Kenilworth Avenue Revitalization Community Development (CKAR CDC) to fight food insecurity.

A few framed articles about Dumm’s will remain on display after Friday’s closing while special merchandise will be given out for free to patrons visiting the pizzeria through the end of the week or until they run out.

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