Mike Peabody reported today that, as GM predicted, an agreement has been reached to save Scheele’s Market long into the future. The agreement involves an incredibly creative solution to the problem faced by the Save Scheele’s group: namely how can they come up with a legally binding way to ensure that a market will remain on the property without owning the building outright. The solution: they’ll lease it themselves. Peabody’s email explaining it all after the jump:
Filed under Around Town, Breaking News
GM stopped by the future North Face location (3333 M St.) on Sunday to see if construction has begun yet. As it happens, the general contractor was there too. GM spoke with him and learned that construction is actually starting today. The whole building will be gutted and despite this ambitious plan, the store is scheduled to open in August.
Filed under Around Town
As year-round Washingtonians know, it’s that time of year again. Eager young interns arrive in earnest droves to fill those couple inches on their resumes between their GPAs and their “other interests”. Many of these interns will be drawn to live and/or play in Georgetown. Consider this a crash course:
Filed under Around Town
GM is back from his two week honeymoon and completely unready to dive back into the daily humdrum, but no matter: the neighborhood blogger never rests!
So what did GM miss over the last two weeks? A quick read through the normal sources reveals this:
City Council Gives Mixed Messages on Jellef: As GM discussed a while back, the Mayor’s proposal to buy the Jellef Branch of the Boys and Girls Club was never a done deal. The Council sent the first shot across that plan’s bow when it struck the $15 million set aside in the Mayor’s budget to purchase the property. CMs Evans, Cheh and Medelson have all said encouraging words about the likelihood that the Council will eventually find money for the transfer, but for now it’s in flux.
CAG Elects New President: The Citizens Association of Georgetown elected a new president to replace Denise Cunningham. Jennifer Altemus will take the helm.
Georgetown Library Plans Announced: The plans for the Georgetown Library were presented to a group while GM was away. From the Current’s account, it sounds like the designers tried to solve the problem they were facing earlier with trying to have a community meeting room in the basement level by moving it to the second floor. Either way, GM is a little surprised they went ahead and announced the plans before bringing them back before the ANC.
Five Guys Shuts Down Temporarily: The Georgetown Five Guys apparently shut down for a short time in an attempt to “get ahead” of the bad press reporting on a rodent infestation. It seems to GM that you could probably set up a camera outside any DC restaurant and find a few mice or rats scurry by, but it’s best just not to think about it…
Cannon’s Owners Sentenced: Robert Moore Sr. and Robert Moore Jr. were sentenced to three years probation for their role in illegal fish trafficking. Senior must stay out of the fish-monerging biz for three years and Junior must post a sign at Cannons door announcing that the store won’t sell any Rockfish. Earlier reports said that they would also pay a combined$150,000 in fines and $53,000 in restitution.
That’s it so far as GM’s jet-lagged eyes can see. The June ANC agenda was released tonight, but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
Filed under Around Town
The Georgetown Farmers Market will kick off its 2009 season today from 4:00 to 7:00 at Rose Park (26th and O St.). The market will run every Wednesday until the fall. While not as large as the Dupont market, the Georgetown Market is fantastic for its small size. Typically there are two to three vendors selling meat and produce, which is normally enough to pull together a tasty meal. Last summer GM once whipped up a full garlic and rosemary goat-chop dinner just from stuff he found there on the way home.
Mmmmmm…goat-chop.
Filed under Around Town
A tipster alerted GM to the fact that the Philadelphia Cheesesteak Factory is all boarded up. There haven’t been any rumors about the historic space, so it was a bit of a mystery why the successful restaurant would close up so abruptly. A call to the restaurant, however, revealed that they aren’t closing down. They’re just performing some renovations and will remain a Philadelphia Cheesesteak Factory when it reopens.
Filed under Around Town
Social Safeway is no more and we have roughly eleven months until Social Safeway Mark II opens. So unless you’ve got one gigantic pantry, you’re going to need to find a new option for groceries. GM explores some of your options after the jump:
Filed under Around Town
According to the Washington Post, the Georgetown waterfront is soon going to be adding a tiki bar. Agraria, the fresh-ingredient-proselytizing restaurant, is apparently going to undergo a face lift that will include the addition of a tiki bar.
If there’s one thing that the waterfront doesn’t need, it’s yet another fratty bar, and nothing screams frathouse more than a tiki bar. However, from the WaPo description, it doesn’t sound like the actual bar itself will be that different. They write:
Unfortunately, while we’ll have a wide selection of drinks to choose from, we won’t be sipping navy grog while sitting in some Polynesian paradise full of tiki heads and tall rattan chairs. “The decor of the restaurant won’t change too much,” Motruk Loy says. “We’re making it a little more casual, and we’ll soften it up a bit. But we’re not going to pack up Founding Farmers and bring it over here.”
Ok, so it sounds like all they’re doing is opening a new bar and then trying to start (or follow?) a nostalgic rum drink trend.
GM has been to Founding Farmers and tried their cocktails. They are an homage to the type of hand-crafted drinks that populated prohibition-era bars and they are fantastic. So, tiki heads or not, maybe those drinks will finally make it worth while to tread through the hoards of prom goers, bachelorette parties, and dudes showing off their boats and make our way down there.
Ehh, probably not.
Filed under Around Town
Cuba’s been in the news a lot recently. President Obama eased travel restrictions to the island nation. The Castro brothers disagreed on what that meant. And worst of all, Joe Cuba died.
When better a time to buy up some Cuban folk propagandist art? This Saturday you’ll have your chance. Bill Brubaker of 3319 O St. will be holding his annual art sale. Mr. Brubaker wrote to the Georgetown listserv that his sale:
will have the usual assortment of paintings, textiles, batiks etc. from Asia, Africa, the Americas. But the highlight will be dozens of silkscreened Cuban movie and propaganda posters from the 1960s to present. I’m selling them for $59 each. Most are 20 by 30 inches, unframed and in great condition. They make spectacular gifts.(One poster honors Marilyn Monroe!) My sale will be held Saturday and Sunday (April 25-26) from 10 am to 7 pm each day.
So between the house tour, the French Market, and a Cuban Marilyn Monroe, you certainly can’t complain that there’s nothing to do around town tomorrow.
Filed under Around Town
What are your five favorite bands? How about your five favorite movies? How about your five favorite fast food restaurants? If you’re a Facebook user, these inane questions probably sound awfully familiar. That’s because the ubiquitous social networking site has been lousy recently with people announcing to the world their top five favorite-things-that-nobody-else-cares-about. The application that enables this pointless ranking system is called LivingSocial, and surprisingly enough it was developed by a start-up company based right here in Georgetown.
And as of this week, LivingSocial became the number one Facebook application, registering 20 million active users. In doing so, it knocked out of the top spot another application called Causes that helps charities raise money.
Filed under Around Town
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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