Shaw

Possible Shooting in Shaw around 4:30pm Today

By Prince Of Petworth

Sometimes it feels like the madness never ends. Thanks to a reader for sending (plus the photos):

“Thought you might like to know of yet another shooting that occurred about 20 minutes ago at the housing projects at 8th and S. The police on scene wouldn’t give any info. I wonder how many of these it will take before any serious action is taken.”

Update: I’m now hearing that “MPD told me that they responded to the sound of a gunshot at 4:48 p.m. at 8th and S Streets NW, but that no victim or evidence of a shooting was found.”

This is odd because I’ve never seen a street roped off before without an actual shooting. Will update as more info becomes available.

Judging Buildings – 902 T Street, NW

By Prince Of Petworth

It’s nice to see the building at 9th and T Streets, NW all fixed up again. This building had been in disrepair for many years. It is interesting to note that this building is of historical significance as well. Cultural Tourism DC says:

“Location: 902 T Street, NW

The Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression, founded in 1903 by concert pianist and educator Harriet Gibbs Marshall (1868-1941), was one of the city’s earliest institutions promoting the arts for children and adults. Marshall worked to inspire and train African American musicians and to encourage them to create and embrace their own heritage of concert music…

The Conservatory began to decline after Marshall’s death in 1941, and it closed in 1960. In 2004 the building is in disrepair.”

The renovation will feature condos. Sad that the school had to close but I’m happy the property has finally been fixed up.

Going – Vegetate Restaurant (1414 9th Street, NW)

By Prince Of Petworth

This is sad news. A reader writes:

“Hey there, have you heard anything about rumors of Vegetate (1414 9th Street, NW), the veggie place by 9th and O, closing on Nov. 28? The scuttlebutt is that the landlord is tripling their rent.”

We judged Vegetate back in Dec. ’08 and there were lots of fans. Today the CCCA blog shares a note from the owners:

“We’re writing with some unfortunate news. Vegetate on 9th Street is going to be closing at the end of this month. Our lease is up and we’ve decided to look for a new location.

We will let all of you know once we’ve found a new space. In the meantime, we’ll be doing select catered events.

Thank you for all your support over the years. Those of you in the area, please stop by for one last dinner at Vegetate’s 9th Street home.

Best,
Dominic & Jennifer”

Here’s to hoping they find a new spot soon!

Good Deal or Not? 1140 sq. ft. 2 Level Unit Edition

By Prince Of Petworth

This condo is located at 936 N Street, NW:


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The flier says:

“STUNNING 2 BEDROOM, 2 BATH, 1140 sq. ft. 2 LEVEL UNIT. HARDWOOD FLOORS WITH RECESSED LIGHTING. OPEN KITCHEN W/ STAINLESS STEEL APPLIANCES, GRANITE COUNTERTOPS, BREAKFAST BAR & TOP OF THE LINE CABINETS. BATHS ARE COMPLETE WITH MARBLE COUNTERS AND WALK- IN CLOSETS. CLOSE TO METRO, CONVENTION CENTER SHOPS.”

You can find more info and photos here.

Well, the description sounds really nice but I’m a little disappointing with the photos. I’m really surprised there are no photos of the bedrooms. I think yesterday someone said that they were tired of seeing 2 bedrooms under 900 square feet. Given that this one is 1140 square feet do you think $479,900 sounds reasonable?

House of the Day

By Prince Of Petworth

I really liked the details on this one from 9th Street in Shaw. And of course I was digging the tree as well.

PoP Preview – The Passenger

By Prince Of Petworth

The Passenger bar is located in the former Warehouse space at 1021 7th St. NW near the Convention Center. I was able to attend a media preview Tuesday evening. The bar opens to the public on Wed. at 5pm. This venture is from Tom and Derek Brown, Tom was most recently in charge of the bar at Cork and Derek oversaw the bar program at the Gibson. Paul Ruppert from Room 11 is also a partner. The space has maintained the warehouse feel:

Though there are more exciting things to come after tomorrow’s grand opening. Over the weekend they hope to open up the “train room” which will be able to host overflow and private parties:

And in January they will be opening up an additional room, The Columbia Room, which will be reservation only and will feature a mixologist who can make drinks for up to 20 people. I spoke to owners Tom and Derek:


Derek left, Tom right hand side

Tom said that he envisions the space as a neighborhood bar. They were less interested in a gimmick and more interested in focusing on the fundamentals of a good bar. As such they will have 25 wines by the glass, 15 different cans of beer, and four beers on tap, in addition to specialty cocktails including gin punch which I may or may not have sampled between one and six…

While there is not a big kitchen there will be some food options. There will be Spanish Olives ($3), Marcona Almonds ($3), Chili Half Smoke ($7), Kimchi Hot Dog ($7) and Paninis ($10).

One other question I had was how did they come up with their tag-line, “God Save the District”. Tom told me “that is our Don’t Mess With Texas. We wanted to create a DC place not import a NY place to DC”. And the name The Passenger was inspired by an Iggy Pop song. I definitely feel like this place has very little pretension. I’m excited to see it when all the extra rooms open up and I’m equally excited to see what type of crowd it attracts. For sure it will fill the gap of neighborhood-type bar on 7th Street.

More photos after the jump. (more…)

Coffee Shop Reopening in December at 944 Florida Ave, NW – Mocha Lounge

By Prince Of Petworth

I received a great email last night. It’s great timing because I saw a worker on the roof and was wondering if something new was going into this spot. A reader writes:

“I just ran into the owner of a new Coffee House located at Florida & W st. NW. The building has long sent empty and had a nice awning and sign saying “Mocha Lounge”. Since the sign still looks good, he’s going to keep it! He says he’s got a permit for outdoor seating in the good whether and his family has an old western wooden wagon he’s going to keep on the premises. He’s rehabbed the inside and has restored the tin ceiling, and told me he plans to Open in 3-4 weeks. Should be a fun place to hangout!”

This Email Left Me Speechless

By Prince Of Petworth

In the three years I’ve been running this site, from time to time, I’ve been made aware of some horrible things. The worst incident I was emailed about was a rape that took place in Shaw on Marion Street. Thankfully, an arrest has been made in the case. Since the crime occurred back in April I have been corresponding with the victim and her boyfriend every couple of months. I have not published that correspondence for obvious reasons. Today I received an email from them that truly boggles my mind. At their request I will publish below.

“Just recently we were dealt another blow. Our small claims case against our landlady to recover our security deposit was denied. Our judge ruled that our landlady’s duty to mitigate the fact that we wanted to break our lease ( ie advertise and re-rent the property) extended for the entire month of May. We told her as soon as we could contact her that we had no intention of staying in the property and in court she stated that she knew immediately that we would not want to stay in the property. Instead of being proactive she just dragged her heels for 2 weeks then offered to let us out of the lease if we paid an additional month plus taking our security deposit. We declined that offer and ended up in court, losing our security deposit.

We would be interested to see what the people have to say to the question “If a violent crime is committed in a rental property what do people think would be a reasonable resolution to terminate the lease?” Kind of a serious topic but we would be intrigued to see what kind of responses people have to see if we are being unreasonable or if our landlady just has a heart of stone.”

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