1700 block of Wisconsin Ave.
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Why There Are No New Hip Restaurants in Georgetown
Photo by M.V. Jantzen.
The other night, a panel hosted by the Georgetown Business Association addressed the question of the moribund state of Georgetown’s nightlife. GM wasn’t there, but the City Paper’s Lydia DePillis had it covered.
The forum’s speakers lamented the fact that no new and hip restaurants have moved into Georgetown in a while. Acording to DePillis, their explanations fall into three categories:
Theory number one: Georgetowners themselves wouldn’t be terribly excited about new offerings. Linda Greenan, vice president of communications for Georgetown University, noticed that the newly vibrant corridors of 14th Street and Penn Quarter are filled with people from the neighborhood, while Georgetown’s restaurants are more often filled with tourists…
Theory number two: Georgetown makes it too hard to open a business, with all its layers of review and resistance…
Theory number three: It’s the landlords’ fault!
[but most of all] Georgetown just seems too far away, too crusty, and too expensive for the younger set that’s flocking everywhere else.
GM thinks these are all pretty spot on. You could also throw in to the mix the liquor license moratorium. By some estimates, it costs $70,000 to buy a Georgetown liquor license on the open market. That’s a pretty steep disincentive. But GM doubts that’s really the crucial element. When ABRA released seven new licenses, none ended up in the hands of any “hip and new” restaurant. (Hell, half of them ended up with restaurants that weren’t even new).
When did it go wrong? The last restaurant to open in Georgetown with any sort of buzz was Hook, and that was almost four years ago. Before that, Mei N Yu is about the only other buzzy restaurant that opened in the last ten years. (You could possibly throw in L2 and George, but they both have restrictive guest lists and neither has much name recognition beyond those actually on said lists). Continue reading
Filed under Restaurants
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by M.V. Jantzen.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Do we need the Old Georgetown Board?
- For sale: lots of floors, and perhaps a musical frog.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Keep Watering Those Trees!
Photo by Jon Hayes Photography.
In these dog days of summer, the need to keep our street trees watered is great. While we’ve had a couple strong rain systems roll through the area over the past couple days, they are the normal summer type of storm where the rain comes fast and hard. This is a great way to take the edge off the heat, but it’s not a great way to keep the trees watered since the rain comes so hard that most of it simply washed down the drain.
So even with the occasional summer afternoon squall, we still need to regularly water our street trees, at least the young ones. Casey Trees issues guidance called “25 to Stay Alive”, which GM links to up on the right. That guidance is as follows:
Trees are living things and need water to survive. 25 to Stay Alive is an easy way to remember that trees require 25 gallons of water – approximately 1.5 inches of rainfall – per week to stay healthy.
Apply water slowly. This prevents wasteful runoff and allows for the soil and roots to absorb the water.
Watering trees is easy. To make watering even easier, use one of the following techniques:
- Turn on a hose on low for a 1/2 hour at the base of the tree.
- Place a 5-gallon bucket with holes in the bottom at the base of your tree. Fill the bucket up five days a week.
- Add a 25-gallon slow release watering bag (such as an Ooze Tube or Gator Bag) to the base of your tree. Fill it up just once a week. Continue reading
Filed under Trees
Le Matin Metropolitan
Photo by M.V. Jantzen.
Bonjour Georgetown, et joyeux 14 Juillet! Voici les nouvelles:
- Too late now, but apparently the Safeway hosted a beer tasting yesterday. Hopefully they’ll do that again in the future (and give us a little more heads up).
- Tacklebox will be open in a few months, Hook should take a lot longer.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Safeway Moving Forward With New Development
Yesterday a reader alerted GM to the fact that Einstein’s Bagels closed down. GM was expecting this, but not that soon. The building it occupied is owned by Safeway and they plan to tear it down and build a new own (plus another smaller building on the green space between this building and Safeway).
GM went over the initial plans last year. They were pretty tacky and completely out of place in Georgetown. Safeway changed architects and came back with revised designs. The ANC saw that they were on the right course and left the final call to the OGB. Since GM doesn’t attend OGB meetings (they’re during the work day) he didn’t notice that the plans were approved in February.
The pawn shop moved out (and basically across the street) shortly thereafter and now Einstein’s is gone. GM can’t say Einstein’s was his favorite bagel shop. The bagels were ok, and the coffee decent (and incredibly hot for some reason), but the service was incredibly slow. If there was a line of more than two to three people when you walked in, you expected at least a ten minute delay. Nonetheless, it was a relatively cheap option for take-out breakfast, which there’s not much of in north Georgetown. Continue reading
Filed under Development
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by M.V. Jantzen.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Fascinating story from a Fourth of July in Georgetown, a long, long time ago.
- Don’t forget the Rose Park farmers market today.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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