Fun and games and $1 off meal

Rock, paper, scissors, tortilla! California Tortilla is challenging customers to a fierce game of rock, paper, scissors on Wednesday.

The Bethesda restaurant chain is sponsoring an off-the-wall promotion in which customers play the cashiers in a round of the common playground game. If the customer wins, he or she gets $1 off a meal. If the cashier wins, it’s full price.

The game is easy: Both players say, “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot,” and use their hand to form one of the items. Rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper and paper wraps around rock.

“We just really like to have fun with promotions,” said Jessica Ellenbogen, a marketing assistant at California Tortilla. “We like to get customers involved because the more involved they are, the more fun they have and the better promotion it is.”

Think the game is just random chance? Think again.

The World RPS Society — yes, it does exist — says rookie men often use rock in their first play. And professional player Jason Simmons has told National Public Radio that women tend to use scissors first. He said reporters, expectedly, tend to start with paper. More tips are online at worldrps.com.

California Tortilla warns its cashiers will be ready, too.

“If a customer can defeat our highly skilled cashiers, then they definitely deserve a $1 discount,” said Bob Phillips, president of California Tortilla.

The promotion is being offered at all California Tortilla locations, including the 29 restaurants in Maryland, Virginia and the District.

Independent cafe opens

Big Bear Cafe, an independent coffee shop, opened earlier this month. The cafe’s owners, Lana Labermeier and her husband, Stuart Davenport, are hoping to make an independent coffeehouse successful in a city home to many chain stores.

“D.C. doesn’t really have the independent coffee culture of other cities,” Ms. Labermeier said.

They are hoping to change that.

The cafe, at First and R streets Northwest, sells coffee and espresso from Counter Culture Coffee, an organic coffee chain; fair trade and organic teas from Rishi Tea; and treats from Hawthorne Fine Breakfast Pastries in Severna Park, Md.

In other news …

{bullet} The Hospitality High School of Washington DC is slated to move to space in Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School in Northwest.

The school, run by the Hotel Association of Washington D.C.’s Washington Hospitality Foundation, has been looking for new space for years. The new space, which will be remodeled this summer, will allow the class size to grow from 175 to about 250 students.

Hospitality High School, formerly the Marriott Hospitality Public Charter School, focuses on providing education and career opportunities in the hospitality industry to D.C. students. The school graduated its fifth class this month.

{bullet} Patrons of the arts spent about $2.15 billion in the area in 2005, according to a study released last week.

Nonprofit art organizations’ spending was included in the study, which was completed by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

The Smithsonian Institution accounted for about 45 percent of the total spent in 2005.

{bullet} Retail & Hospitality appears Monday. Contact Jen Haberkorn at 202/636-4836 or jhaberkorn@washingtontimes.com.