The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Fiat Luxury.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• When Georgetown was full of “Communists, ballet-dancers and economic planners.”
• Ri-Rá Ri-Opened.

C & O Canal

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Come hear from the author of the great Capital Losses book, James Goode, at Dumbarton House this Thursday.
• Annapolis-based coffee roaster opening a “coffee training space” in Georgetown.

Today on Now and a Long Time Ago, GM stops by what was once the oldest saddle shop in the DC area: Stombock and Son Compay. The store stood at 3278 M St.

According to Capital Losses, the store opened in Georgetown in 1895 across the street at 3293 M St. But only a few years later it moved into 3278 M St. (which now houses J. McLaughlin).

At the turn of the century, a saddle shop in the middle of the city wasn’t an odd thing, seeing as so many people still got around by horse and buggy. But as the automobile took over, the shop switched to the equestrian sport business. Continue reading →

1000 block of Wisconsin Ave.

The Georgetown BID announced yesterday that it was entering into a new year-long arrangement with DDOT to perform routine maintenance of the sidewalks. As CEO Joe Sternlieb explained in the release:

“There are over one million bricks on Georgetown sidewalks, some of which are loose, broken, or missing at any given time. This agreement allows DDOT to use the BID’s staff and ‘eyes on the street’ to quickly identify and fix problems on a daily basis.”

Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Mama Rouge closed for renovations (although honestly, that’s something a lot of restaurants say when they’re really closing for good.)
• Chaia Tacos now open on Monday. Also: Chaia Tacos now awesome, you should definitely stop by.

3200 block of Grace St.

GM has long tracked the pernicious Dessert Deserts that occasionally appear in Georgetown. These are areas where somebody might have to walk up to a whole two blocks to find a frozen treat or other sweet.

As of about a year ago, they were nearly abolished. But with a steady stream of recent bad news, we’ve lost several pillars of our neighborhood’s defense against healthy teeth.

First, it was the closure of the frozen yogurt shop at 30th and M, which was once an Ice Berry but later rebranded as Little Penguin. That happened a while ago, but it was probably easily missed, what with all the other options. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• New owner for the Ritz.
• GM missed this deep dive into the West Heating Plant when he was on Christmas break, but it’s worth a read.