The Georgetown Metropolitan

In his retelling of the story of the Exorcist Steps, GM described 36th St. prior to the steps’ construction as “flowing over” a steep rocky hillside running from Prospect down to M St. A reader wrote in an corrected GM. 36th St. was on maps but it wasn’t really much of a true road.

The photo above from 1865 shows 36th St. (which at the time was called Gay St.) as it tumbles down to M St. (which was itself known as Falls St. at this time). It’s a stretch to call it a street. Yes you could probably scramble up the slope to get to Prospect St., but it would be even harder than it is to sprint up the Exorcist Steps today. Continue reading →

Photo by DoD News Features.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Keep the Halloween season alive with a nightly ghost tour.
• GM left too early to do a proper write-up of Monday’s ANC meeting. Here’s a good one.

Volta Park

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GM was asked for the best first date location in Georgetown, and he suggested Chez Billy Sud. Any other suggestions?
• GM finally got around to reading Ghost of Georgetown. As much as it’s obviously about ghosts, it’s also a fabulous history of actual Georgetown. Pick it up and read it sometime!

Yesterday the new Georgetown Olive Oil Co. opened at 1524 Wisconsin Ave. The store offers offers over 65 different varieties of olive oil and aged balsamic vinegars. GM stopped by for a tasting last night and sampled from about a dozen different varieties, including straight (and relatively mild) olive oil from Chile, to a much more peppery one from South Africa. The vinegars provided a huge range of flavors, from sweet fig, and smooth chocolate, to bitter orange, and fiery chipotle. Continue reading →

2900 block of M St.

For no particular reason at all, a couple local DC publications decidedly recently to revisit the insane plans from the 1960s to criss-cross the city with freeways. Due to the heroic efforts of activists across the city, the plan was defeated and dozens of neighborhoods (most of which are currently thriving) were saved from demolition.

In Georgetown itself, the plans actually were not too much more dramatic than what we currently have. A proposal to create a new bridge upstream of Key Bridge by the Three Sisters Islands would have brought highway traffic straight from Spout Run in Arlington. The traffic would feed directly into the Whitehurst and flow to an expanded K St. in Foggy Bottom. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Georgetown King of hair extensions.
• At last night’s ANC meeting, Lieutenant Hoyle announced that crime was pretty much nonexistent in Georgetown for Halloween, except of course for those four robberies.

1500 block of 33rd St.

Tonight is the November meeting of the ANC. Check out some of the interesting topics they’ll discuss below:

Green Infrastructure

GM wrote about this topic last week. DC Water is exploring using a variety of green infrastructure strategies to limit water runoff in west Georgetown. Some residents are getting worried about what that means. Since the article was published, DC Water has been very eager to ease the worries and put together a plan that will make the neighborhood happy. To that end, representatives from DC Water will be at the meeting tonight to briefly discuss the project. There also are some plans by DC Water to hold a meeting in December or January with a lot more information about what they’re considering. Keep tuned.

Booze

A couple interesting liquor license applications are up for discussion tonight. The first is for Via Umbria. They’ve been shut down for months as they renovate. But in the meantime they’re planning some changes for when they reopen. They already have a liquor license to sell wine. But they also want to have events where people purchase wine for consumption on the premises. And there’s only one type of license that allows that combination: a market license. This presents some interesting possibilities because it requires the store to actually be a food market. Georgetown residents are always bemoaning the lack of food markets in the neighborhood, so this might kill two birds with one stone. But we’ll see…

The Starbucks by the Safeway and the Shophouse also are seeking a license. The Starbucks change is part of a wider change that the store is making in the city to offer nighttime fare. Given the Georgetown location’s roof deck, there will probably be some restrictions placed on them. But it will probably eventually go through.

The last is a license for Kouzina Authentica. GM’s mentioned this restaurant before as it is somewhat emblematic of the problems with the liquor license moratorium. The applicant squatted on one of the newly released licenses for years before ABRA finally pulled it. So he went and grabbed it again. According to ABC transcripts, the space he intends to host the restaurant won’t become available until next year. Continue reading →