The Georgetown Metropolitan

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.

C & O Canal

A sign on the front of Ri Ra announced that the restaurant is closed from January 4th through the 13th. It attributes this closure to a “serious liquor license infringement”. It then goes on to profusely apologize and promise that it won’t ever, ever, never, ever do it again.

It doesn’t actual state what the violation was but ABRA records indicate the infraction involved selling alcohol to minors. Granted it is an Irish restaurant, can’t it have authentic Irish drinking laws?

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• What the new owners of the old Latham Hotel have planned.
• GU bans hoverboards.

C & O Canal

The student lottery for DC Public Schools is now open. This is the process by which students who don’t want to attend their designated local school can get a slot at another school. You can apply and find more information here.

If you plan on sending your child to Georgetown’s Hyde-Addison, you do not need to enter the lottery unless you’re interested in one of the pre-Kindergarten grades. In that case you do need to apply and you’re not guaranteed a slot. (Regardless, once your child is in Kindergarten they are guaranteed a spot).

As you may know, this school year Hyde-Addison added a Pre-K 3 year old program, which proved very popular. That will have some ramifications this year since the children in the current PK3 program will rise and take most of the slots for the PK4 program. So there are likely going to be few available slots for the PK4 program. In the past, the lottery system announces how many slots the school anticipates having, but at least as of now it does not. So GM doesn’t know. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Jaco Taco may open this week.
• More on that Bradlee mausoleum.

Georgetown Waterfront