3000 block of R St.
Is M St. Dining in Trouble?
As GM has noted over the years, there has been a steady attrition of restaurants from M St., and with Qdoba closing recently, the trend does not seem to be abating. Will this cause a long term problem for Georgetown? Lets consider.
When GM originally began the Georgetown Metropolitan, his first task was to take a census of all the stores of Georgetown. Looking back at that original list from December 2008, GM can track how many restaurants on M St. have closed since. And according to this analysis, sixteen restaurants have closed on M St. out of the forty-five that were open at the time. Continue reading
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The Morning Metropolitan
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Hey if you happen to see a red Jeep Cherokee Sport with DC plate BX-4042 around, call the cops! Somebody stole GM’s car!
- Hockey on the canal.
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DC Water Considers Alternatives to Major Tunnel
Photo by Melbourne Water.
As GM first reported many, many moons ago, DC Water is under a court decree to address the chronic problem of untreated sewage being dumped into the Potomac and other local waterways. One of the measures it has proposed to tackle the issue is to dig a gigantic tunnel underneath the Georgetown waterfront running all the way to about the Kennedy Center. The agency, however, is now exploring whether it might satisfy its obligations without digging as large a tunnel.
The purpose of the tunnel is to act as a giant underground reservoir to capture excess storm-water during heavy rains. As it is, when the street drains get overflooded, the excess water is directed to a series of overflow sewage drainage pipes which dump into Rock Creek and the Potomac. This wouldn’t be that huge of a problem except for the fact that in older sections of the town like Georgetown, the storm sewers and the household sewers are combined. So after particularly heavy rains, what you flush down the toilet will soon be floating down the Potomac. (Sorry for that graphic image). Continue reading
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The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Shane Raline.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Former long-time 9:30 club booker is now handling Gypsy Sally’s booking.
- Sorry about the absent posts yesterday, GM had some computer problems!
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Cheers to Filomena!
Photo by Wally Gobetz.
It’s not the first time a Georgetown restaurant has been unwittingly caught up in a national debate (do a Lexis-Nexis search for Cafe Milano) and it’s probably not the last, but last Friday Filomena was momentarily drawn into the Obamacare wars.
It started with a Prince of Petworth post reporting on the restaurant’s announcement to end its Friday lunch buffet. A sign on the door stated, in part:
As of January, 1, 2014, Filomena has discontinued its Friday Lunch Buffet. We regret we had to make this decision but unfortunately we face new expenses as a result of the Healthcare reform and the Friday Buffet, though wonderful, was not profitable and required extra staff which we can no longer sustain. We regret any inconvenience and on a good note, we will continue our Saturday Buffet and invite you to try our much improved Sunday Brunch Buffet!
Since it appeared that the Affordable Care Act was driving this decision, the conservative rag the Daily Caller jumped at the chance to point out that Obamacare was crimping Bill Clinton’s favorite restaurant. Which, truth be told, is a fair conclusion based upon the sign’s language.
But many started to question the stated rationale. For one, the requirement that a business like Filomena provide health insurance has been deferred for a year. Slate writer Matthew Yglesias pointed out this inconsistency and concluded that the reason Filomena was ending an unprofitable lunch buffet was because it was unprofitable.
Soon, however, Filomena responded to the controversy and issued this clarification:
Even though the Health Care Reform employer mandate of 50 or more employees had to be offered healthcare coverage was postponed one year, Filomena decided to offer that coverage, this year, 2014 and not wait until 2015 as most restaurants have done. We want to offer coverage to our employees but honestly have to find new ways to pay for it since we are so labor intense (close to 90 employees for 150 seat restaurant). Continue reading
Filed under Restaurants
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Pinelife.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- It just gets sadder: the man suspected of killing his elderly father and seriously wounding his mother has died from a heart attack.
- Heiner Contemporary to close.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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