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!
The Morning Metropolitan
Filed under Uncategorized
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
Tragedy on Q St.
As you probably already heard, tragedy hit Q St. once again this weekend when a domestic dispute led to the stabbing of an elderly couple. The husband died at the scene and the wife is still in critical condition. Their son–who reportedly has struggled with mental health–is the lone suspect.
As pointed out in this piece, there is a morbid coincidence that this tragedy occurred the same week that Albrecht Muth was convicted for killing his wife Viola Drath blocks away on the same street. And that murder was itself preceded by the equally horrific murder of Alan Sennit in 2006 just steps away also on Q St. Continue reading
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The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Vpickeirng.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- DSW coming to the mall.
- Murder on Q St. (GM will have more on this later)
Filed under Uncategorized
How to Turn $450k into Eight Figures
The Washington Business Journal reported this week that 75% of the new Montrose condo (FKA the Hurt Home) has already been sold.This is remarkable for several reasons. First, the building is not even done yet. Second, the one and two bedroom units are priced between $1.65 to $2.39 million. Finally, it’s most remarkable when you remember that the developer bought the building from the city for only $450,000.
The story of the Hurt Home condoification is long (just read here) but here are the quick facts:
- DC announced its intention to surplus the former institutional building way back in July 2009.
- The only bid that came in was from the Argos Group, and they originally proposed to build 41 units.
- The neighbors lost it.
- Eventually Jack Evans stepped in and negotiated the number of units all the way down to 15.
Negotiating the number of units down also meant lowering the price that the developer would pay. Originally the price was somewhere around $1.5 million. Part of the rationale was that the cost to remedy decades of structural neglect of this historic building was a relatively fixed cost. The developer argued that the fewer units it could build, the less it could recoup the construction costs, and thus the less money it was willing to pay up front.
(You might ask, “Aren’t you just talking about how many slices a pizza has? If they had to build fewer units, wouldn’t they get that money back by selling larger units?” Yes and no. They originally planned a large wing off the back which would have returned a lot more money. So it was in fact a matter of a smaller pizza, not fewer slices, so to speak.)
Filed under Uncategorized
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Ehpien (of a photo at GU Hospital).
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Website that looks about as old as the Internet advertises a hotel’s proximity to both the Foggy Bottom and Georgetown Metro stops. Optimistic?
- Muth trial update.
Filed under Uncategorized
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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