Last month, GM ranted that the liquor license moratorium is broken and not needed any more. One of the strongest arguments he offered was that when the licenses are available they have almost always ended up in the hands of speculators with no genuine business plans. For instance, last year four licenses were released and so far no restaurants have opened using them.
One of them went to an entity called MYIA, LLC. This group went as far as to enter into a settlement agreement with the ANC and CAG in order to open a brick oven pizza restaurant at 1419 Wisconsin Ave. Last month, GM noted that that space was vacant and had a For Rent sign with no signs of restaurant-related construction. This didn’t seem to portend well for a restaurant actually opening.
And now it’s clear, no restaurant is opening there. A women’s clothing shop (finally one of those!) is opening there. It’s called LiLi the First and it appears to be a independent shop moving in from the suburbs. Good luck to them!
But here we see the system broken again. The license didn’t go to someone that opened a restaurant. And groups that actually want to open restaurants in Georgetown now can’t get one without buying one off the secondary market (prices for that can be around $80,000).
Stop this insanity. End the moratorium.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 