Eastbanc announced Monday that it will be filling the spot recently vacated by Qdoba at 3303 M St. with Alice and Olivia, a women’s fashion store.
While the announcement was hardly a surprise, it is still worth noting that this is yet another M St. storefront that will officially go from restaurant use to retail use. This is a subject GM has discussed before. It is probably too early to get alarmist about the situation. There are still at least 30 restaurants on M St. But we’re losing a net of several a year, with no end in site.
On one level, it’s hardly surprising Eastbanc was in no hurry to replace Qdoba with another fast food joint. They generally rent to higher-end tenants. But they clearly have taken a holistic approach to greater Cady’s Alley. For instance, they knew they wanted a restaurant at its core, so when they couldn’t find anyone interested in opening one, they simply opened Leopold’s themselves.
Perhaps they feel that one restaurant is all that Cady’s Alley customers need, but GM bets they could have found a restauranteur meeting their standards which would ultimately contribute more to the aggregate experience than yet another women’s fashion store.
Again, the demise of restaurants on M St. is not imminent, but we certainly seem to be heading towards that point.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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