The Georgetown Metropolitan

Tudor Place

Octoberfest is coming to Cady’s Alley! The weekend of September 27-28, the alley will be transformed into a bavarian fall fest, with a two story beer hall, polka music and pretzels. (GM’s genuinely curious to know what space this two story beer hall is, and why we can’t just have that all the time?)

The heart of the party will be Leopold’s, which is technically Austrian (as is the alley’s visionary, Anthony Lanier), but why quibble when there’s marzan to be drunken? Continue reading →

Photo by Kenya Allmond.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Baked & Wired and Dolcezza are opening in CityCenter. Or as GM put it: Georgetown Bakes, the World Takes.
• Georgetown definitely has soul (or at least charm) but should Arlington be judged poorly by comparison?

Dumbarton Oaks

The Subway restaurant on Wisconsin just south of O St. has been abandoned. GM learned that the operator simply left the shop. Apparently his business has plummeted since the new 7-11 opened across the street. The suspicion is that they both offer similar food, it’s just that 7-11 offers even more. (GM doesn’t eat at either, but would probably settle for a Subway sandwich way before eating the junk from 7-11).

Restaurant tenants that just walk away are more common than you’d think. Just down the block, the family running the Pink Smile frozen yogurt shop simply abandoned the property last year. They had already broken away from the IceBerry franchise to become Pink Smile. Avoiding the franchise fees helped, but it didn’t stave closure. Continue reading →

Photo by Anakwa Dwamena.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Reminder: Cather Lanier at the Q & A Cafe at the George Town Club this friday.
• El Centro: One fine bathroom.

Dumbarton Oaks

Yesterday GM proposed the adoption of new street signs to indicate the Georgetown Historic District as well as the old name of the street. GM got an email afterwards from the BID reminding him that Georgetown actually used to have signs that did just that.

Above you can see a photo from a 1953 National Geographic article about the neighborhood. It shows the signs, in this case it was on 31st St. It also shows the cool old street signs that DC used to us at the top of the lamp post (they were made of glass so at night the light would illuminate the letters and numbers). GM should have remembered these signs as he has mentioned them before. Continue reading →

Photo by Lindsay Maizland.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Fancy variant of Tom Haverford’s Rent-a-Swag coming to Cady’s Alley.
• Mr. Smith’s auctioning off all its interior fixtures.
• Gypsy Sally’s reaches one year anniversary.

Dumbarton Oaks