The Georgetown Metropolitan

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article this week exploring how across America last year, landlords leased more space to service businesses than to businesses selling stuff. Among the most common service businesses were spas and gyms.

That got me wondering: does Georgetown match this trend? I do an annual(ish) survey of all the stores and businesses in Georgetown. I can figure out how many are service oriented and how many are retail. While I can’t use square-feet leased as a metric the way the WSJ study does, it’s at least a thumbnail stab at the question.

So here goes!

Here’s my most recent chart showing the breakdown of categories of all the stores and businesses in Georgetown:

That might be a bit hard to make out, so here is the summary information:

Among all businesses in Georgetown:

• Non-Service are 78%
• Service are 22%

So Georgetown is nowhere near the same as America writ large, which should probably not come as a surprise.

Out of curiosity I ran the numbers without considering food or drink establishments. This compares strictly stores that sell pure services and stores that sell pure stuff (that you don’t put in your body). The totals were closer to eachother:

• Non-Service are 68%
• Service are 32%

So despite the fact that it seems like there are a million hair salons, and gyms, and yoga studios, and fortune tellers, and tailors, and etc., Georgetown’s still got a whole lot of other types of stuff too.

A new shop that specializes in bikini swimsuits is coming to Wisconsin Ave. The shop, Frankies Bikinis, is set to open at 1240 Wisconsin.

Here is their website if you want to give yourself some body-image issues. They’ve got everything from extremely skimpy swimsuits to extremely skimpy swimsuits that look more like lingerie. What range!

I guess I should’t be too surprised, what with them being pretty upfront about being a bikini shop. Fun fact: nobody is really sure why exactly swimsuits like this are called ‘bikinis’ in the first place. Obviously they’re named after the Bikini Atoll where they (the U.S. Government, not Frankies Bikinis) tested the atom bomb.

But beyond that it’s all speculation as to whether they (the ‘they’ is this case being the French designers that first came up with the style) wanted to evoke the power of 23 kilotons of dynamite or just the vague idea that island girls are just skipping around with barely any clothes on. Neither lacks for a bit of awkwardness by modern sensibilities, but luckily no one thinks about that too much.

The shop was started by a mother-daughter team in Malibu: Mimi and Francesa Aiello. Hence ‘Frankie.’ Although come to think of it, the store is “Frankies” not “Frankie’s”. That makes me wonder where is the other Frankie(s) and what did they do with him, her, or them?

No word on this other Frankie(s) or when the store is going to open.

This week on Wisconsin and M I’m talking about Georgetown’s surprising history as the birthplace of a bunch of big companies. Listen to the episode here, or at Apple podcasts or Spotify.

Photo by Adam Fagan.

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

• New documentary of the 272 enslaved people sold by Georgetown University.
• Cooking school coming to Georgetown.
• GU Republicans embroiled in racist posting controversy.

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/