Dear NFT User,

Ah, Washington. You know you’re an insider when you start using the word “insider” and calling the nation’s capital “Washington” or “The District” and not “D.C.”; when you begin to refer to lobbyists as “K Street,” Congress as “The Hill” and get excited over the Senate vote on C-Span at happy hour. You find yourself ordering steak rare and snacking on crabcakes like potato chips. You always walk on the left but stand on the right, and huff with annoyance when a tourist does not. A celebrity sighting is seeing the Surgeon General in a restaurant. Your wardrobe starts to fill with pieces from Brooks Brothers, and you probably contemplated law school at one point. If you haven’t yet moved to Maryland or Virginia, you might even start the battle cry etched on Washington license plates: No Taxation Without Representation!

Washington may seem dominated by politics like Los Angeles is by Hollywood, but it’s really so much more. However, unlike Hollywood, Washington just never earned a “cool” vibe. But people don’t come here to be cool. They come to change the world and perhaps to wear a bowtie or pearls. But that’s okay, because Not For Tourists is designed to help change the world as well. Made with paper and ink and written for locals, by locals, NFT brings you the latest and greatest that Washington has to offer. Find everything—bowling alleys, museums, coffeeshops, bookstores, movie theaters and more. Discover parks to stroll with your dog, farmers markets to aid your farm-to-stomach efforts, local bars to cheer on the Nats or Redskins, or even one of those historic steak-and-mahogany institutions where President so-and-so once wrote a famous speech on a napkin. And believe it or not, Washington can be hip: once unlikely streets have become popular up-and-coming epicenters for bars, shops and edgy restaurants opened by Top Chef contestants. Even several ‘burbs are flourishing as those residents grow up and move their over-educated families and organic tote bags into three-bedroom Craftsman bungalows. We got you covered.

The guidebook also works in tandem with the website and clever geo-targeted Smartphone App that keeps you up-to-date while on-the-go around the Beltway—whether by foot, metro, bus, car or bike (and if you’re really an insider, a Capital Bikeshare bike). Our constantly updated website also lets you create a profile, write reviews, upload photos, make maps and submit new listings. So please, feel free to join the NFT crowd and voice your opinion. After all, this is Washington.

Didn’t we say we wanted to help change the world? We’re starting by changing yours.

Happy navigating!

—Jane, Scott, Pamela, et al.