The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice profile of Georgetown artist.
• Pretty bad flooding hit the Addison building at Hyde-Addison. GM only received some details, but apparently several classrooms were severely damaged.

Washington Harbour

For no particular reason, next month various friends, family and former employees of the late great Nathans restaurant will be gathering to reminisce of old times. And you’re invited too.

The informal party will take place at Martin’s Tavern March 10th.

In the meantime, here’s a little something to stoke those memories:

Photo by LaunchOurRocket.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Chez Billy Sud now open on Lundi.
• Georgetown is surprisingly not a great place to become a landlord.

Montrose Park

Photo by LaunchOurRocket.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice Q&A with the Georgetown University student president and vice-president.
• Church-turned-home back on the market. Come be GM’s neighbor!

Recently GM happened to notice that the restored canopy being installed at the old Georgetown Theater was full of lightbulb sockets (seen above). GM happened to pass architect Robert Bell another time and he confirmed that the underside of the canopy will be covered in lightbulbs. This will look spectacular.

That is the classic look for old movie houses, so it’s not really surprising that he’s bringing it back. But it’s exciting nonetheless. Continue reading →

Potomac River

Monday night, GM attended a packed preview of the newly (almost) open Sovereign restaurant. And he can report that it’s going to be a top notch addition to the neighborhood.

It’s located down the alleyway between the old Benetton building and the Ambercrombie and Fitch:

It occupies the building that held Champions sports bar for many years in the 90’s and then Blue Gin for about five minutes in the mid 00’s (and then Champions again for about two minutes after that). It’s been empty for years.

The restaurant has a Belgian theme. That wouldn’t be particularly notable in a town with plenty of moules-frites joints. But the Sovereign promises to stand out, primarily based upon its beer menu. You can get Chimays and Hoegaardens practically anywhere, so Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s beer director Greg Engert dove deep into the heart of that tiny beer-rich country to deliver beers you rarely see on this side of the Atlantic:

This includes breweries like De Ranke or De Struise. And it has fifty taps to dispense those rare brews at a quality that you can expect at it’s sister establishments Churchkey and the Arsenal/Bluejacket. GM personally doesn’t have a deep knowledge of Belgian beers beyond the basics, so he is very much looking forward to many years of close study.  Continue reading →

Photo by LaunchOurRocket.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Except for the tracks of O and P (and the tracks they ripped up to the west) most of the rest of the old streetcar tracks in Georgetown are probably still under the asphalt.
• GM’s got his own review coming later, but here are some great photographs from the Sovereign.