The Georgetown Metropolitan

Last week, GM griped that the current system of allocating liquor licenses in Georgetown is, shall we say, sub-optimal. Now the identities of the entities who have snatched up the liquor licenses appears to confirm GM’s fears that the only parties willing to camp out in a tent are parties that are simply speculators.

Top Shelf over at the Washington Business Journal got the list:

• A corporation called AN & JM (trade name TBD)
• A corporation called FR & LH, LLC (trade name TBD)
• Ching, LLC trading as So MI
• Luke’s Lobster VIII LLC (trading as Luke’s Lobster)
• Georgetown Restaurant Partners, LLC (trade name TBD)
• Restaurants, LLC trading as Yummi Crawfish and Seafood Restaurant

Rebecca Cooper determined that the first two applicants are tied to the building currently housing Sobilato and John Rosselli Assoc. on Wisconsin, just above P St. Why do they need two licenses? Are they really going to open two restaurants on stretch of Wisconsin that can’t seem to support more than the two that are open there? It all is awfully similar to the Hu’s Wear situation. Continue reading →

Photo by Peter Bjork.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Post does a deep dive of Georgetown and comes up with pretty much the exact same article it’s been writing about Georgetown for the last 20 years.
• GM would’ve guessed that if one Georgetown place would make this list of great DC patios, it would be the Graham.

Dumbarton Oaks Park

In 2011, the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy was formed. The organization, inspired in part by the successful Central Park Conversancy, seeks to restore the magnificent park back to its original state as conceived by the legendary Beatrix Farrand.

Three years on, and the group has begun to display significant progress towards that goal. GM took a walking tour last week with the conservancy’s outreach director, Lindsey Milstein, and learned a great deal about what has been done, and what’s in store.

There are hugely ambitious plans for the park. But the immediate challenge-and one that threads through most of the the discussions of the park-is that presented by the invasive plants that have a foothold throughout the park.

The bulk of the visible progress against this challenge can be seen just past the park’s gate at the bottom of Lover’s Lane. As you can see above, great swaths of brush have been cleared on the hillside below Dumbarton Oaks gardens. Those tubular shapes on the hillside will remain and the plants and vegetation will grow up and over them, giving the slope ridges. This will be both attractive and prevent further erosion.

Planted among the tubes are saplings of native trees, which will eventually replace the invasive Norway maples that were reduced to stumps. Continue reading →

Photo by Call Me Issac Leon.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice article by the Hoya on the state of retail in Georgetown.
• Is $16 million a deal for the Williams-Addison house?

Book Hill

Photo curtesy of the City Paper.

The Washington City Paper reported earlier this week on the scene you see above: people camping out trying to snag a liquor license for Georgetown. As Perry Stein writes:

Yeroushalmie, a developer in D.C., is camping outside the government building in hope of snagging a coveted Georgetown liquor license. The Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration announced last month that it would be accepting applications this Thursday at 8:30 a.m. for a tavern and three restaurant liquor licenses. This is only the second time in almost 20 years, according to ABRA spokeswoman Jessie Cornelius, that a tavern license has become available in Georgetown.

Yeroushalmie pitched his $39 Walmart tent on Tuesday around 8 p.m. He needs a license for a high-end sushi restaurant he’s planning to open in a building he already owns along Wisconsin Avenue

GM predicted this last month when the city announced the release of the licenses. GM analogized to a gold rush, but it appears the more apt metaphor would be Led Zeppelin tickets.

This ridiculous first-come-first-served policy has the potential to lead to the exact same failure the last series of license releases led to: nothing. As GM wrote earlier, of the seven new licenses issued last time, five ended up going to establishments that either never opened or have since closed (or simply stopped using their license).

GM suggested already that one answer is to simply remove the moratorium just on M St. It appears that the economics might rule out new restaurants on M St. right now, but the moratorium certainly isn’t helping to keep restaurants opening on M St.

Continue reading →

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Williams-Addison house sells for $16 million.
• Last month, GM predicted that Smith Point would be the first one at the door to get the new tavern license. This has literally come true. (More on this later).

3200 block of P St.

GM yesterday heard the sad news that former ANC rep Charlie Eason passed away over the weekend. As GM wrote last November, Charlie stepped down from the ANC after he moved to a home on the Chesapeake Bay. He had been struggling with a long term illness and had grown visibly weaker over the past year.

As GM wrote last fall, during Charlie’s farewell address to the ANC he contemplated his new bayside life and said his plans were to sit at the end of his pier, watch for crabs, and read some good books. GM sincerely hopes that in his final months, Charlie was afforded such transcendent pleasures. Continue reading →