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Tagged as Georgetown Current

May 15, 2009 · 2:06 pm

Favorite Things – #6 – Greater Dumbarton Oaks

While GM is on his honeymoon, he’s publishing his top ten favorite things about Georgetown. Today number 6: Greater Dumbarton Oaks.

What does “Greater Dumbarton Oaks” mean? It’s meant to refer to all the aspects of Dumbarton Oaks, including those that get ignored in preference for the gardens. So for the record, this is what GM means:

Dumbarton Oaks Gardens
Dumbarton Oaks Park (the part of Rock Creek Park just north of the mansion that is open and free all the time)
The Byzantine Collection
The Pre-Columbian Art wing designed by Phillip Johnson
The Friends of Music Series

There’s a lot to Dumbarton Oaks. But as GM has complained in the past, Harvard does a terrible job engaging the institution with the wider population. Whereas Tudor Place hosts holiday parties and Easter Egg hunts, Dumbarton Oaks maintains overly restrticted hours and runs few special programs. The buildings and grounds are maintained almost exclusively for the benefit of the lucky few Harvard landscape architecture students who are resident there.

But that criticism aside, Dumbarton Oaks truly is an incredible collection of spaces and natural and manmade beauty. And one exception to the general rule that Dumbarton Oaks doesn’t host many special events is the aformentioned Friends of Music. Once a month from November to April, the ridiculously grand Music Room of the mansion is turned over to its intended purpose. The series invites top notch musicians to play in an intimate and unique space. GM’s been a subscriber for about six seasons, and it’s absolutely worth the price.

Add the artwork of the two collections and the formal gardens to the rambling and overgrown faded glory of Dumbarton Oaks Park and you have a priceless treasure. If it weren’t for their stand-offish attitude towards the public, Dumbarton Oaks would be much higher on GM’s list. As it is, they remain at number six.

Previously:

7: Sara’s Market

8: Bistro Lepic

Filed under Favorite Things

Tagged as Dumbarton Oaks

May 14, 2009 · 8:06 am

Favorite Things – #7 – Sara’s Market

While he is on his honeymoon, GM is publishing his top ten favorite things about Georgetown. Today is number 7: Sara’s Market.

Sara’s Market is one of the stars in Georgetown’s neighborhood market constellation. It’s been “Sara’s” for over 80 years and shopping at a store like Sara’s is what makes living in a city so enjoyable. GM normally hops off the D2, walks across the street, grabs milk or whatever else he’s lacking, and walks a couple blocks home. No driving to a huge parking lot. No lines. No huge loads of groceries. Just what you need for a couple of days to get you to your next unpleasant trip to Safeway wherever your going to for the next year.

Proprietors Andy and Suk Yang Johnson are on a first-name basis with many customers and are happy to chat about the comings and goings in the neighborhood. As the lower East Village fears the potential loss of their neighborhood market Scheele’s, GM is happy to note that the Johnsons own their property and are thus in control of their destiny. Also, they are proposing to add a dry cleaner drop-off service, which will only increase the store’s utility to its neighbors.

For these reasons, GM selects Sara’s Market as his seventh favorite thing about Georgetown.

Previously:

8: Bistro Lepic

Filed under Favorite Things

Tagged as Sara's Market

May 13, 2009 · 8:05 am

Favorite Things – #8 – Bistro Lepic

As GM is away on his honeymoon, he is publishing his ten favorite things about Georgetown. Today is number 8: Bistro Lepic.

Bistro Lepic is an authentic French restaurant perched on Georgetown Heights. It has an intimate dining room on the first floor and a stylish wine bar on the second. Between the French accents from the waiters and the wrap-around Toulouse Lautrec mural, you could easily believe you’ve slipped away to Paris.

For GM, the appeal to Bistro Lepic is as much is locality as its food. Nestled up on Wisconsin between R and S, the restaurant offers those living in upper Georgetown fine dining without having to trek all the way down to M St. For that reason, it’s a favorite of locals.

So for these reasons, GM has select Bistro Lepic as his eighth favorite thing about Georgetown.

Previously:

Filed under Favorite Things

Tagged as Bistro Lepic, French Restaurants

May 12, 2009 · 8:04 am

Favorite Things – #9 – Q St. Elms

GM is on his honeymoon across Europe for the next two weeks. In place of timely articles, he is publishing his top ten favorite things about Georgetown. Today is number 9: Q St.’s elm trees.

As GM has discussed before, we are blessed with a row of beautiful and healthy American Elms along Q St. Cathedral-like canopies of American Elms once shaded countless streets across the country until the dreaded Dutch Elms Disease decimated the population. Only in a few isolated locations do the trees live on. Q St. is one of those locations.

While luck has played a large part in keeping these trees healthy, credit also goes to Trees for Georgetown, an organization that makes sure the trees receive regular inoculations against DED. They perform a great service to our community.

So for the comfortable shade that they create on hot summer days, GM has selected the resilient American Elms of Q St. as his ninth favorite thing about Georgetown.

Previously:

10 – Abundance of Stores

Filed under Favorite Things

Tagged as Elm Trees

May 11, 2009 · 2:04 pm

Favorite Things – #10 – Abundance

GM tied the knot on Saturday at the Dumbarton House and now he’s on a two week honeymoon across Europe. As such he won’t be able to write timely articles for the next two weeks. In their place, GM has prepared a list of his top ten favorite things about Georgetown. Starting today at number 10: abundance. As in an abundance of stores, restaurants and other establishments.

As GM’s research discovered a while back, Georgetown is not as overrun with chains as many think. Yes there are a lot of chains, but there are simply a whole lot of establishments period. There over 400 stores, restaurants, and other establishments in Georgetown (it’s probably even close to 500 when you add the streets that were not in GM’s survey). That’s a huge amount of stores for a village of 60 acres.

There are so many stores and restaurants in Georgetown that if you don’t like a certain type of store or restaurant, there probably are a lot of places here that you don’t like. That makes it easy for people to write off the neighborhood because of its chains or because of its fratish bars. But in doing so, people ignore all those stores that they would like if they could see beyond the chains or frat bars.

There are three used and rare book stores in Georgetown, do you think many people know that?

It is that abundance, with its challenge to see beyond the warts, that GM selects as his 10th favorite thing about Georgetown.

Filed under Retail

Tagged as Restaurants, Stores

May 7, 2009 · 7:53 am

Wedding Bells

GM is getting married this Saturday, so there won’t be any posts today or tomorrow. Check back here Monday as GM publishes his top ten favorite things about Georgetown. Regular posts will resume once GM gets back from his honeymoon after Memorial Day.

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May 6, 2009 · 12:51 pm

The Georgetown Metropolis

3100 block of N St.

3200 block of N St.

Filed under The Georgetown Metropolis

Tagged as N St.

May 6, 2009 · 10:22 am

Georgetown Farmers Market Opens Today

The Georgetown Farmers Market will kick off its 2009 season today from 4:00 to 7:00 at Rose Park (26th and O St.). The market will run every Wednesday until the fall. While not as large as the Dupont market, the Georgetown Market is fantastic for its small size. Typically there are two to three vendors selling meat and produce, which is normally enough to pull together a tasty meal. Last summer GM once whipped up a full garlic and rosemary goat-chop dinner just from stuff he found there on the way home.

Mmmmmm…goat-chop.

Filed under Around Town

Tagged as Georgetown Farmers Market, Goat chop

May 6, 2009 · 7:51 am

Update – Philadelphia Cheesesteak Factory Moving

GM heard through the grapevine that contrary to the information he heard the other day, the Philadelphia Cheesesteak Factory isn’t really renovating, they’re moving. Where to is not known yet, but supposedly it’s somewhere in Georgetown. According to the rumor, they’re vacating their historic building due to a rent hike.

So where could they be moving to? There are not too many open spaces right now. The only one that comes to GM’s mind is the old Grace and Bamboo space on Grace St. just south of the Patagonia. Not nearly as prime a location as the old space, but perhaps it would be more affordable. We’ll see…

The next interesting question is what’s to become of the old building. Could the Cellar Door return? We can dream at least.