The Georgetown Metropolitan

Dean and Deluca is dead. Long live the Dean and Deluca catering van.

Specifically, long live the Dean and Deluca catering van that has been left abandoned on Volta Place for months.

GM first noticed in September that the van had been left there, unmoved. The Georgetown Dean and Deluca closed at the end of July. This was part of a company-wide downsizing. There are now just a handful of stores still open. Some sort of bankruptcy seems to be in its near future.

But yet the van remains.

Shortly after GM noticed that the van had been there for quite a while, the block was slated to be repaved. No parking would be allowed. The van had already racked up a couple tickets:

Surely it would be towed away.

And yet when the crews came to repave the street, the van remained:

They tore up the street around the van!

It seemed like the van had declared itself a sovereign state. No city agency could pierce its hold on this precious square of asphalt.

But then the crews came back and finally moved this scofflaw van. Continue reading →

Photo by BeyondDC.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Lots of homes in Georgetown claim to be “federal”. Most aren’t (they’re typically not old enough and are likely Victorian). But this one really is.
• KickSpot in some legal trouble.

1500 block of 33rd St.

A new Turkish market is coming to the long vacant space at 1826 Wisconsin Ave. A sign has been on the window for several weeks, and the build out is making progress.

The market appears to be affiliated with Cafe Divan, next door, which is also Turkish. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Sugar Lab is now Hot Pho You.
• Speaking of restaurants, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant suffered a fire and is closed indefinitely.

Dumbarton Oaks

This Saturday, the Georgetown Library will host an event to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the creation of the DC Punk Archive.

The archive–a collection of ‘zines, posters, photos and other ephemera of the DC punk scene–resides in the Peabody Room of the Georgetown Library. To celebrate the library will host the follow events:

Outdoor Celebration
2:30-5 p.m.

Exhibition
Local music photographer and author of Frame of Mind: Punk Photos and Essays 1997-2017 Antonia Tricarico will present an exhibition of her photographs.

Activities
Visit our do-it-yourself merch table to make a button and stencil your own posters and t-shirts! Paper will be provided but you must bring your own t-shirt.

Music
Enjoy music by Les the DJ at 2:30 p.m. and CORIKY (Amy Farina – Ian MacKaye – Joe Lally) at 4 p.m.

For those not up on their DC punk history, that last group of musicians includes two of its biggest names. Ian MacKaye and Joe Lally are one half of Fugazi, the long dormant legendary band. And, of course, MacKaye was lead singer of the great straight edge hardcore band, Minor Threat.

He also worked at the Georgetown Haagen Dazs. His boss was Henry Rollins. You can see the two of them goofing around in the picture above.

Sadly the particular Haagen Dazs that they worked at wasn’t the one that is on M St. They worked in one that was at 1438 Wisconsin Ave. (where the Avocado Cafe sometimes decides to be open). Either way, it’s nice to see a Georgetown punk & ice cream legend return to his old stomping grounds.

Photo by Plum Pine.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Meet the men who could be Mr. Georgetown.
• Fiola Mare still getting top marks among DC’s restaurants.

1400 block of Wisconsin Ave.

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM has a fascinating interior shot from the Historical Society of Washington, DC. It is of the Emrich Beef Company Store.

The photo says it is located between 1306 and 1312 32nd St. That’s not where it would seem by today’s map. (Actually there is no 1300 block of 32nd St. today). The photo is from 1894, during the brief period that the street we now call Wisconsin Ave. was called 32nd St. (it was called High Street before that). This particular address is now the location of the Georgetown Inn (a building from the middle 20th century).

Here is another photo from the collection:

As you can see, the store sold far more than just meat. It appears to sell a variety of dry goods and produce as well. This was the main location of the store, but it had a couple branch locations too: Continue reading →