The Georgetown Metropolitan

Last week, after months of delay, Call Your Mother opened its Georgetown location. (Yes, GM told you it would be a month and a half away back on July 20th. He was happily wrongly informed on that.)

The shop is now selling bagels, both prepared and unprepared, along with a few assorted offerings like drinks and cookies. The shop allows you to order online and pick it up, which is helpful because you won’t have to wait and they tend to run out of bagels before their 2 pm close. You can even order the night before and have it ready right after they open at 8:00 am. Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Blues Alley to remain virtually open for now, but Bogart Salon has closed permanently.
• Georgetowners have been decrying the end of Georgetown since the dawn of Georgetown.

Dumbarton Oaks Park

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is exploring an aerial shot from the other side of Georgetown from where most of the shots he’s explored so far. While the shot above is primarily focused on the Lincoln Memorial and its surroundings, it still captures pretty much all of east Georgetown from an interesting angle.

The primary impression you get is that not much has changed!

But some things have. For instance, the shot (taken in January 1949) does have the Whitehurst Freeway (which was opened October that year) but it ends at simple bridge over the Rock Creek Parkway. The jumble of highways that would later destroy whole communities over in Foggy Bottom had not been constructed yet.

You can also see the undeveloped lots near the old Corcoran School (on 28th) and the Phillips School (on N), but that’s not that rare a sight, seeing as those lots were developed only a few decades ago:

Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Cafe Milano fined for Coronavirus-related infractions.
• GM’s going to try to get away again! So barring another last minute SNAFU, he will be out next week. Stay safe!

1500 block of 33rd St.

GM took the above photo in the middle of the day, back in April. It’s of M St., and there was hardly a soul (or a car) around. While DC’s Coronavirus-positive numbers are still alarmingly high, you wouldn’t necessarily know it based on the car traffic that has returned.

The Post reported that even by early June, traffic in the DC area was already back to 80% of the pre-pandemic levels.  Based upon GM’s own observations, it’s above that now in Georgetown.

When the shutdown was at its height, the streets were empty, both of traveling cars and parked cars. GM’s own block was rarely more than a third full of parked cars. That is not the case any more. It is back to the “normal” where by 9:00 most mornings, Maryland and Virginia cars take up the spaces that were empty around 7:00. Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Rose Park Farmer’s Market seeks minority-owned vendors.
• GU trimming off a whole $2,800 from tuition for students who study from home next year. That seems like not enough!

1100 block of 33rd St.

A big cookie is coming to town. Literally. They’re huge.

Levain Bakery is opening in the former Johnny Rockets space at 3131 M St. The name might not be familiar to you. It opened in 1995 and only has a handful of locations in and around New York City. And the name also might make you think it’s a bakery in the normal we-sell-bread so of way. It’s not that.

What it is is a shop that sells cookies. Giant cookies. Not quite as large as that jumbo pizza-sized cookie above, but still way larger than you really ought to be eating.

The cookies weigh in at 6 ounces, which is almost half a pound. Granted, jumbo cookies are hardly that rare these days, but rarely are they this voluminous:

That’s like a friggin scone. Anyway, the tourists will love em.