The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The story behind the man behind the piano behind the Georgetown Piano Bar.
• Another look at the bizarre new art gallery on Cady’s Alley.

1300 block of 31st St.

GM is going to shamefully take the idea of Washingtonian writer, Jessica Sidman, who this week asked: If you could bring back from the dead any restaurant from DC’s history, what would you choose? GM would like to take a local spin on it and confine it to Georgetown. If you could bring back any now closed Georgetown restaurant, what would you choose? Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Interesting contrast in the relationship between GU’s campus and the surrounding community, and Howard’s.
• This has nothing to do with Georgetown, but the greatest soccer game of all time was played yesterday. (GM is biased.)

3200 block of P St.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• If you’re like GM, you forgot that Monday was a DC holiday, Emancipation Day, and put your trash out a day early. It should be picked up today.
• This is a great question: if you could bring back just one lost DC restaurant, what would you choose?

This week on Birds of Georgetown, GM is exploring woodpeckers.

Woodpeckers, for those not old enough to remember a certain famous cartoon, get their name from how they strike trees with their beak to find bugs to eat.

Here in DC there are a few varieties you might see. (Although typically you hear them first!). Above is the downy woodpecker. It is the smallest common woodpecker. It can be identified partially by its size (normally only 5 to 7 inches long) and its white spots on black wings. The males have a bit of red on top of their heads.

Another small woodpecker you might find in Georgetown is the red-bellied woodpecker:

These guys are a bit bigger than the downy woodpeckers, at 9 to 10 inches. They have a striking reddish orange stripe on their heads, although the female’s stripe is not as prominent: Continue reading →

Tudor Place

Photo courtesy of Compass Coffee.

In transportation planning there is a concept called “induced demand”. It states that if you build additional supply of something (typically new travel lanes) rather than reducing congestion proportional to the amount of added supply, you will only create new demand which will quickly use up the new supply. It’s hard not to think of that concept when considering the astounding number of coffee shops now open in Georgetown.

The newest is possibly the biggest. Namely, that’s the Compass Coffee, which now occupies the old Georgetown theater building on Wisconsin Ave. Still brand spanking new and it is already full of customers when open.

Consider the number of coffee shops we now have in Georgetown. Defined (by GM) as places you can get an espresso/cappuccino to go (so not simply stores that happen to have a pot of coffee), here’s what we’ve got:

• Starbucks at Wisconsin and S
• Starbucks at M and 34th
• Starbucks at M and Thomas Jefferson
• Starbucks at Washington Harbour
• Starbucks at the Safeway
• Corridor Coffee
• Pattiserie Poupon
• Via Umbria
• Boulangerie Christophe
• Wawa
• Saxby’s
• Cafe Georgetown
• Peete’s Coffee
• Blue Bottle Coffee
• Bluestone Lane
• Grace St. Coffee
• Dog Tag Bakery
• Paul
• Dean and Deluca
• Baked & Wired
• Pain Quotidian

Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU announces plan to restore Holy Rood Cemetery. GM will believe it when he sees it.
• Georgetown’s most ubiquitous (and GM’s personal favorite) realtor, Nancy Taylor Bubes, will be at the next Q&A Cafe this Friday.