The Georgetown Metropolitan

A new tavern has been proposed for the building that previously hosted the Irish bar, Ri Ra, and Mei N Yu before that. (And Georgetown Station before that). As a tavern licensee, the establishment would not need to serve food (i.e. it can just be a straight bar). The details are fairly sparse in the placard:

NATURE OF OPERATION
New Retailer’s Class “C” Tavern with a Seating Capacity of 105 and a Total Occupancy Load of 140

The Licensee is also requesting an Entertainment Endorsement and the Holiday Extension of
Hours Endorsement.
HOURS OF OPERATION, HOURS OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE SALES, SERVICE,
AND CONSUMPTION, AND HOURS OF LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
Sunday through Thursday 6am – 2am, Friday and Saturday 6am – 3am

I’ve also learned that the aim is to house this establishment on the second story only, which is a little odd since only half the space even appears to have a second story (it’s two buildings combined). And fitting 140 people in such a small space seems unwise.

But we’ll learn more as the plan moves forward!

This space has been empty since early 2020, one of the last establishments to close before it could be blamed on Covid. It was a shame to lose the place, sure it was a chain Irish bar, but it was well executed. A sports betting parlor was long planned to move in. But I suspect once the awful DC sports betting app was replaced with the likes of Draft Kings, the demand for brick-and-mortar betting parlors collapsed. Can’t say I’m disappointed about that. Although who knows, maybe it’s still planning to move into the first floor? Who wants to make a wager over it?

This week on the podcast I’m exploring Georgetown’s annual rites of spring. Listen here or at Apple podcasts or Spotify.

This week I’m talking Visitors Parking Permits and more.

Here’s a link to Park DC.

Here’s the link for the local baker selling bread straight to your door.

Here’s a link to the Georgetowner’s piece on Davis Kennedy.

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m checking out an absolutely adorable little red bus. The photo comes from the DC Historical Society and it shows an early iteration of the GUTS Bus.

GUTS is the Georgetown jitney bus. I would have guessed that it stood for Georgetown University Transportation System, but no. The ‘S’ stands for “Society”. Which is way fancier.

This photo is from 1979. The bus system dates to 1974. This page offers a great history of the bus to mark its 50 anniversary in 2024. One interesting fact, the august descriptor “society” was specifically chosen to “evoke a feeling of community and connote a cooperative University organization.”

It actually replaced a short-lived shuttle system that was offered by the student-run CORP. That shuttle was a good proof of concept but ran at such a deficit that the CORP couldn’t maintain it long. The GUTS bus was sufficiently funded to stay open. Here’s a flyer from the GU archives touting the new bus:

That Benz looks to be the same from the top picture. It’s unclear how long it ran before needing to be replaced. There’s a photo in the GU archives of one of them in 1984, looking only a bit worse for wear. Any 80s Hoya alums remember when they were finally replaced?

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly news round-up:

• A Georgetown woman started making and selling tasty sourdough bread loafs (with delivery). We bought one and it was great. Check it out.
• Crumbs and Whiskers unionizes.
• Davis Kennedy, longtime owner and chief of the Current Newspapers, passes away. I still frequently lament the loss of the Georgetown Current.

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m checking out a shot that may be a little more relevant to today than it may seem at first. It is a photo from 1974 and it comes from the DC Historical Society.

The scene is of the service station that still stands at the northeast corner of Wisconsin and Q St. It’s an Exxon now, but back then it was a Gulf Station. Other than the lack of a canopy, it looks pretty similar to present day.

What is notable about this shot is the “No Gas” sign. The photo was taken during the tail end of the 1973 oil crisis. This was caused by an embargo by OAPEC against countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War. This caused wise spread gas shortages around the United States, and scenes like this of gas stations out of gas were common.

Will another violent war in the Middle East produce scenes like this again? Time will tell.

The 1973 embargo came to an end in March 1974, although high gas prices continued for a while after. The prices didn’t return to the pre-embargo rates until the mid-80s.

Gulf stations disappeared around then too. The oil company merged with Standard Oil of California and became Chevron in 1985. You occasionally see the Gulf name on gas stations around the country, but those are just the result of IP licensing deals with local stations. There’s no Gulf Oil company anymore.

This week on the podcast I’m exploring Georgetown’s annual rites of spring. Listen here or at Apple podcasts or Spotify. Here are the events/guides I discussed:

Garden Tour: https://www.georgetowngardenclubdc.org/tickets

House Tour:

Tudor Place: https://tudorplace.org/calendar/

Spring at Dumbarton Oaks: https://georgetownmetropolitan.com/2025/03/20/users-guide-to-dumbarton-oaks-in-the-spring-3/

Hello and welcome to your March Northwest Georgetown ANC update! It’s going to be 70 degrees at some point this week! Baseball’s getting played in Florida! Spring is coming!

There are lots of things going on with the ANC right now that I want to keep you up to date with. Here are the highlights:

Resident Only Parking

We are continuing to move towards making a formal request to the city to evaluate Georgetown for resident only parking (ROP). (I think most people are familiar with that system by now, but if not, here is a primer). We are scheduled to consider a resolution on the topic Monday night.1 As I write this (Saturday morning), I am anticipating this resolution being a statement of intent for the ANC that it is resolved to continue the process of evaluation and, where appropriate, implementation of ROP. Recent discussions with DDOT indicate that we need to do a little more work before the formal request to kick off the official DDOT evaluation process can be submitted.

In particular, DDOT is requesting that the ANC create a map of all the blocks that it wants considered for ROP. They want to work with us on what would even be possible, so a few draft may have to go back and forth. Once we settle on a map then we will formally submit it for consideration.

To be clear, this map would not be a guarantee that all the blocks flagged for ROP analysis will in fact get ROP in the end. But it does mean that if a block is not flagged for ROP analysis, it will not be evaluated for ROP and won’t get ROP.

I anticipate submitting my entire district for ROP consideration. We are squeezed between Wisconsin Ave. on one side and Georgetown University on the other, two major drivers of parking demand. I also have a small part east of Wisconsin Ave. that is similarly impacted. Just as a reminder, here are the contours of my district:

If you live within that blue box and you don’t want your block considered for ROP, let me know! If you live in other parts of Georgetown and want to express your preference to your commissioner, let them know. If you don’t know who your commissioner is, go here.

Lobby Bar Protest

The ANC is involved in a liquor license renewal protest against the Lobby Bar, which opened up at 1660 33rd St. last year. As many living around there know, even since it opened it has been operating its rear patio in an unacceptable manner. It stays open way past its permitted time frame and when it is open it is excessively loud.

Its license came up for renewal last year2 and the ANC protested its renewal based on the impact the bar’s violative behavior is having on the nearby residents. The Citizens Association and two abutting neighbors also protested. We were scheduled to hold the protest hearing on February 25th. Unfortunately the ABC Board had too full an agenda to fit it in, so it has been postponed. A new date has not yet been set.

I will keep you informed as the hearing is set and we proceed to the resolution.

Podcast

I started a podcast for Georgetown. It’s called Wisconsin and M and you can subscribe through Apple or Spotify. I will also be posting each episode through this newsletter. But if people find the extra emails annoying, please let me know!

I’m aiming for an episode every week or two covering topics from around the neighborhood. The episodes will be nice and short, 5-10 minutes. Although if it goes well, I may look into occasionally doing a slightly longer format with interviews or other deeper dives. We’ll see!

I’ve got a new episode on the annual spring events around Georgetown coming up next week. Stay tuned!

1

A complete draft agenda for Monday’s ANC meeting can be found here.

2

You may ask why a brand new bar would have its license come up for renewal so fast, but that is because the city renews all licenses at the same time, regardless of how long any particular license has been outstanding.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly news round-up:

• The story behind the African American history plaques around Georgetown.
• Citizens Association of Georgetown hosting a community discussion tonight at 6:00 pm. I’ll be speaking but don’t let that keep you away!
• Business ins and outs.

The ANC will be meeting for our March session next Monday night at Visitation at 6:30 pm. A draft agenda is below.

The big ticket item of the evening will be our consideration of a request to DDOT to evaluate the introduction of Resident Only Parking and introduce it where appropriate in the neighborhood. For my part, I’ve heard fairly enthusiastic support for the idea from my constituents, so I look forward to pushing the idea forward. Come on out to let us know your thoughts!

Here is the full agenda:

Who needs another podcast? Nobody of course! But I’m going to do it anyway. I’ve been thinking about putting out a regular short (5-10 minute) podcast that covers news you should know as a Georgetown resident. My first podcast is about the state of the Potomac River and the Resident Only Parking proposal. Future episodes might cover fun history, short interviews, and other bits of info that make living here so great (or not so great, sometimes).

Listen to the first episode here!

The podcast will publish through the newsletter but I’m also going to make it available on all the usual platforms, if you want to get it there. Here is the RSS feed.

And let me know what you think! Even if you hate it! Maybe especially so! But also if you like it!