The Georgetown Metropolitan

The Friends of Volta Park will be celebrating their 20th year with their annual spring cocktail party on June 10th. It’s always a great opportunity to come out and see (or meet) your neighbors and support a great cause.

The party this year will be focused on acknowledging the debt the neighborhood owes to the original board who organized and worked with the city to save Volta Park from decades of neglect.

So buy your tickets and come on out June 10th from 7 – 9 at Georgetown Visitation!

Photo by Bryan Alexander.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Flower thief who (likely) hit Georgetown for years was arrested.
• Is a model train from a long lost Georgetown restaurant still circling up in Chevy Chase. (No, but the story is a fun read anyway).

3200 block of P St.

It happens all the time. Some news report will talk about something happening at a hotel in Georgetown. GM will stop and think, “wait a minute, there’s no Fairmont in Georgetown.” And of course it turns out that it’s yet another case of misleading names used to fool tourists.

The latest was about a bomb threat called in to the Marriott at 22nd and M St. This location should be called the West End. It also could be called Foggy Bottom, without too much problem. But instead it calls itself the Washington Marriott Georgetown. This lead to Greater Greater Washington writer Payton Chung to observe:

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Photo by Peter Bjork.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Don’t forget the Georgetown Garden Tour this weekend! It’s always one of GM’s favorite annual events.
• $5000 a month for barely 1,000 square feet? Yikes.

1500 block of 33rd St.

Today for Now an Long Time Ago, GM is strolling through a fantastic collection of old postcards on a DC Library website (thanks for the tip Peabody Room!)

There he found the image pasted above. It’s of a funeral parade for Rear Admiral Winifred Scott Schley, taken on October 5, 1911. (Definitely follow the link to see a larger picture of the photo. It’s got incredible detail).

Schley was born in 1839 in Maryland. After serving in the Civil War he had a long career in various American Imperialist conflicts of the late 19th century, including the Spanish American War. After that war, he came to dispute a history of the war that described him as a “caitiff, poltroon and coward.” (GM had no idea what those first two words meant, but it turns out they are just fancier ways to say the word coward).

A committee of inquiry was formed yo determine the truth of the accusation. It did not find in his favor: Continue reading →

Photo by Payton Chung.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Post finally reviews the Sovereign.
• Where to party for Cinco de Mayo.

Dumbarton Oaks

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, 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 (it’s new and very good)

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 (although that will be closed for a long stretch in July and August).
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