Georgetown packs colonial history, canal-side walking paths, serious food, and live jazz into one compact neighborhood. Start with coffee on M Street, walk the C&O Canal towpath, stop at the 1765 Old Stone House, browse Wisconsin Avenue, eat well, and finish the night at Blues Alley.
In brief
Georgetown packs colonial history, canal-side walking paths, serious food, and live jazz into one compact neighborhood. Start with coffee on M Street, walk the C&O Canal towpath, stop at the 1765 Old Stone House, browse Wisconsin Avenue, eat well, and finish the night at Blues Alley. A full day here is easy to fill without a car.
Getting there
Georgetown has no Metro stop. Take the Blue, Orange, or Silver line to Foggy Bottom-GWU and walk about 20 minutes to reach the cobblestone streets. The DC Circulator bus is the other fast option, and it drops you on M Street directly.
Morning: coffee and the canal
Baked & Wired regularly tops Georgetown coffee lists, with reviewers calling it "coffee shop of your dreams" for its baked goods and carefully prepared coffee. It sits on Thomas Jefferson Street NW, steps from the water. Yellow The Cafe on the same stretch has a 4.5-star Yelp rating across more than 600 reviews and is known for Levantine-inspired food alongside strong lattes.
After coffee, head to the canal. The C&O Canal has 184.5 miles of towpath, and the gravel path is mostly level and good for walkers and cyclists of all abilities. There are no entry fees for walking or biking the towpath. Thompson Boat Center, right at mile marker 0 in Georgetown, offers kayak, canoe, and rowing rentals if you want to get on the water instead of walking the bank.
Mid-morning: the Old Stone House
The Old Stone House, built in 1765 at 3051 M St NW, is DC's oldest structure still on its original foundation. It predates the Declaration of Independence by ten years and was built of locally quarried stone by a cabinetmaker named Christopher Layman as both his home and shop. By 1953 the building had become a car dealership; the National Park Service purchased it that year and has since restored it to an 18th-century appearance. It is free to enter.
Afternoon: Dumbarton Oaks and Wisconsin Avenue
One block off Wisconsin Avenue in upper Georgetown, Dumbarton Oaks is an estate with a museum devoted to Byzantine and pre-Columbian art, a research library, and 10 acres of formal and informal gardens. The house and gardens sat at the highest point of Georgetown and belonged to Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, who built the collections in the first half of the 20th century.
The gardens are open Tuesday to Sunday from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. during the regular season, March through October. Standard adult admission is $15 during that period. Garden tickets are not sold on site, so book at doaks.org before you go. The museum itself, at 1703 32nd Street NW, is free and open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
After Dumbarton Oaks, walk back down to Wisconsin Avenue. Georgetown is DC's self-declared cupcake corridor, with Baked & Wired, Georgetown Cupcake, and Sprinkles all within walking distance of each other. Wisconsin Avenue also has a solid stretch of independent boutiques alongside larger retailers if you want to shop.
Dinner
Georgetown has options at every price point. Current Yelp top picks include La Bonne Vache, Georgetown Seafood, The Oak Room, Lutece, il Canale, and Yellow The Cafe. La Bonne Vache, a French spot, draws reviewers who say it "takes you to Paris before you walk in the door." For something more casual, il Canale is a family-owned Italian place open until 10:30 p.m. where the lasagna and calzone get consistent praise.
Evening: Blues Alley
Blues Alley, founded in 1965, is a jazz nightclub in Georgetown and the oldest continuously operating jazz supper club in the United States. It sits in an 18th-century red brick carriage house at 1073 Wisconsin Avenue NW and holds about 125 people. The club has hosted Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Sonny Rollins, Tony Bennett, and Eva Cassidy. Blues Alley is open seven days a week and serves Creole cuisine starting at 6:00 p.m. Check the schedule at bluesalley.com; shows sell out on weekends.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
