The Georgetown Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Eastbanc firms up some longer leases for Cady’s Alley spaces. You’ll never guess what type of stores! (Just kidding: it’s more expensive Italian furniture shops.)
• We got a busy fall coming up for the ANC.

A lot of people know that Dumbarton Oaks is beautiful in the spring. But I like to to issue this annual reminder that it’s also quite lovely in the fall:

Dumbarton Oaks is well known for its spring displays of incredible seasonal bounties. But people often overlook how spectacular the acres of gardens are in the fall. Hurry up and catch it now before it’s gone.

But here’s just a taste. The wildflowers of the Herbaceous Border are breathtaking:

The rest of the garden is at that magical moment when the gardeners loosen their grips and the plants give off one more explosion before the winter:

Of course the rest of Dumbarton Oaks is also looking great:

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Safeway holds grand “re-opening” and donates to Hyde-Addison.
• Jackie Kennedy house goes to auction.

One of the fun steps in my annual business survey is to tally up all the restaurants and see how the varieties of cuisine stack up in terms of numbers. Hence, how does the neighborhood “taste”.

You can see the results above. As usual, “American” dominates the list, with 23, or nearly 18%. The broad category of “sweets” (i.e. ice cream, cupcakes, donuts, etc.) comes in second, with 17, or 13%.

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The community celebrates Martin’s turning 90.
• Good run down of recent business openings and closings.

The central part of my annual census of commercial establishments is to take a periodic snap shot of all stores that have opened or closed over the course of (roughly) a year. And as I discussed on Monday, this past year has been a busy one on the openings front. Here are all the new stores I counted:

College Scooters

Garden Hill

Capitol Danks

Herbivore

Build Design Center

Gallery Article 15

Glosslab

Hersheys

Yellow

Alkova

Storie Collective

L’Enfant Gallerie Annex

Greater Goods

Shouk

Garden Shop

Manse

Arcay Chocolates

Cafe Con Bagel

Vape Shop

Home Court

Taste Buds

Taichi Bubble Tea

Mamam

DC Tasty Corner

Pressed

Dig

Little Words Project

Ever Body

Woolford

Foxtrot

Hobo

Curated by Cecelia

Sleep Number

Van Leeuwen

District Tobacco

Scotch and Soda

Khin’s Sushi

Fangyan

Two Nine

B&B Italia

Sandro

Kyojin

Pasha Castle

Studs

Diptyque

Nisolo

Todd Snyder

Alo

Showfields

Glossier

Boathouse Apparel

Naadam

Mugs

L’Avante Guard

Villa Vara

Afghania

Lugano

Upscale

Bourbon Concierge

Funky Piece

Kabul Castle

Coffee Republic

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• New restaurant called Baker’s Daughter coming to old Taim location on Wisconsin.
• New condo owner a big Smokey and the Bandit fan, apparently.

It’s that time of year again, when people start to wonder what the hell are those giant grain brain-shaped fruit around Georgetown. As in past years, I am ready with the answer, as reprinted below:

This time a year, if you wonder around Montrose or Volta Parks you’re bound to find on the ground weird softball-sized green fruit like the one above. People are often so struck by the sight of the fruit, they pick up one or two of them and bring them home. But what are they, you ask?

Despite their green color, they’re oranges. Osage oranges, to be specific. They are grown by Osage trees, which line the Parrot rope walk. These trees are prevalent in the Great Plains states, where they are often planted along hedgerows. Traditionally, the pliable but strong nature of this tree’s wood made it valuable for fence posts and archery bows.

Technically speaking, the fruit is edible. But you can only eat the seeds, and they’re not easy to extract.

I heard once that people should not feel guilty about taking the fruit home since no animals eat them. I find that they rot after a month or so. But if you don’t want to keep them around, Amazon sells them for $39 for a dozen, maybe you can undersell them (besides being an interesting knick-knack, the fruit is believed to  repel insects and spiders).

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Blank Street Coffee set to open this weekend.
• Martin’s celebrates 90 years.

As alluded to in my monthly ANC update, I finally conducted my annual(ish) census of commercial establishments in Georgetown. It’s a survey I’ve been doing since I started this website in 2008, and so the accumulated data reflects the ebbs and flows of the Georgetown retail community. And the overall message from this year is that we are still in a steady flow following the stark ebb that Covid brought us.

But before I get to the numbers, I need to issue my typical disclaimer: First, it’s important to know that my counting is more of an art than a science. The term “establishments” as used here refers to just about all commercial establishments serving the general public: retail stores, restaurants, salons, gyms, etc. I don’t count pure office space. The rule of thumb I use is if you can walk in without an appointment, I count it. But again, sometimes it’s a close call (for instance, I count realtors but not lawyers). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Overall Picture

Last year was the first year I performed a count since before Covid. And the story of last year’s numbers was that it wasn’t as bad as expected! The overall number was down, obviously, but not that bad. In 2019 I counted 509 establishments, which was near a record high. Last year I counted 451. That’s about an 11% drop. Significant, but not catastrophic. This year the numbers inched up further. I counted 464 establishments this year. (And keep in mind that my count is very much a snapshot. Stores may be just days away from opening, but I don’t count them).

That net gain represents about a 3% gain. Behind that net gain I counted 62 openings and 45 closures. I’d call that strong and steady as you can see by comparing to the last ten years:

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