We're halfway through the first round of the Curbed Cup. Yesterday's polls have closed but we've got two truly exciting matchups today so let's get to voting! As always, the polls are only open for 24 hours, so get the word out! Up first, a quietly trending neighborhood with a lot of nominations goes up against our 2011 Curbed Cup champion!



It seems like overnight Brookland went from just being the neighborhood whose graffiti you may have enjoyed from inside the metro car (or whose basilica you may have marveled from afar) to a destination. Monroe Street Market is up and leasing and they even drew some of the high end art crowd when they brought in The Sartorialist for a grand opening event. Furthermore, they opened up popular pizza place Menomalé and will see a Busboys & Poets (among other great bars and restaurants) opening in 2014.

This has been a quieter year for the inaugural Curbed Cup champion Capitol Hill unless we count the excitement that happened at the actual Capitol building. First a bored (and probably furloughed) Craigslist poster left a snarky post announcing that the Capitol building was for rent and now there will be scaffolding to repair the dome. However, there's still been some excitement outside of the government world. Bearnaise has expanded their menu, Kennedy Row opened up near RFK Stadium and Rose's Luxury has been deemed one of the best new restaurants nationwide.