The Georgetown Metropolitan

Rock Creek

GM found this video tour of some of Georgetown’s famed sneaker shops (you probably want to skip the last two minutes). If you’re like GM, you don’t know too much about this style, but these are seriously popular stores! Hence the occasionally long lines outside. GM thinks it’s great that they’re are quality shops like these still in the neighborhood that appeal to a wider demographic than the typical clothing shops we’ve got on M St.

But holy crap, were those sneakers at the 5:30 mark really over $1,000?! Damn.

Photo by Anthony Gonzales Reyes.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• More on Phil Mendelson’s move to kill the streetcar.
• Fox 5 DC will be at the waterfront today. Maybe stop by and tell them that they should be ashamed to work for a news organization that parades out fake conspiracy theories and refuses to apologize when they’re called out for their manipulative lies.

3000 block of K St.

Photo by Jgregor

It’s that time again, and GM will today provide (and slightly update) his annual Intern’s Guide to Georgetown:

As year-round Washingtonians know, it’s that time of year again. Eager young interns have arrived 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. GM publishes the below crash course for interns each year:

To Live:

There’s a movement to pay interns more, in order to allow a wider swath of the population to participate in career enhancing experiences. But that said, if you’re an intern you’re still probably living on little to no pay. Can you afford to live in Georgetown? Maybe. But you’ll have to look hard. You’re young, so you probably can’t even remember a time before Craigslist, so no need mention that. But there are other places to look too. The City Paper still has decent listings, but for the short term rentals that you’re probably looking for you may try off campus housing listings like you’ll find here. Good luck.

To Eat:

The Safeway should be on your weekly checklist. You can load up on groceries without going totally broke. For some variety, go to the Whole Foods up in Glover Park sometimes (the Whole Foods is indefinitely closed), or the Trader Joe’s in the West End. Or you could sign up for Car2Go and head out to Costco at Pentagon City to really make your dollar go far.

Or you could eat Chipotle every night. It’s up to you. (Although, really, GM wouldn’t recommend it.)

Restaurants in Georgetown get a bad wrap. But there are plenty of relatively cheap options for a weekly night out. Here are some of GM’s old reliable options:

• Mexican – Los Cuates
• BBQ – Old Glory
• Pizza – Pizzeria Paradiso
• Spanish – Bodega
• Korean – Zannchi

When your parents come to visit and are paying the bill, make a reservation at Chez Billy Sud or, if you’re a traditionalist, 1789.
Continue reading →

Photo by Anthony Gonzales Reyes.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Long and Foster’s building was sold, but the broker is expected to stay, for now at least.
• Chairman Mendelson is killing the the plans to build a cross-town streetcar.

Georgetown Waterfront

This week for Now and a Long Time Ago, GM is mining the wonderful archive that is the Wymer’s archive from the DC Historical Society. The photo he’s starting with is a view of the old Peck Memorial Presbyterian Chapel at the intersection of Pennsylvania and M St.

GM has visited this building before. Here’s what it looked like from the west:

GM wrote that the church was torn down in 1951 and replaced with the gas station that remains there today. What GM didn’t realize was that there was already a gas station on the lot. It was a Lord Baltimore filling station, which was a regional company with many locations. The larger service station that replaced the church a few years later was also a Lord Baltimore station, and was given an award by the Progressive Citizens Association of Georgetown for beautification in 1953:

A couple of things are interesting about this side note. For one, GM should explain that the Progressive Citizens Association of Georgetown is one of the parent organizations of the Citizens Association of Georgetown. Unlike the original Georgetown Citizens Association, the Progressive Citizens Association of Georgetown allowed women to join. The two organizations merged in 1962 to become the Citizens Association of Georgetown.

Secondly, what’s interesting is that CAG awarded the gas station for “beautification” which is a curious thing to say about a service station that existed only because an historic church was torn down first. Continue reading →

Photo by Anthony Gonzales Reyes.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Keep an eye out for this bike, it was stolen from a Georgetowner.
• Bourbon Steak is going Hawaiian this summer.

1200 block of 30th St.