Phila's HipCityVeg Coming to Chinatown

HipCityVeg will be located between Shophouse and It's Sugar

Philadelphia Business Journal is reporting that HipCityVeg is coming to DC. And I. Can. Not. Wait.

The all-vegan, fast casual restaurant is slated to open at 712 7th St NW in burgeoning Penn Quarter, near Chinatown. The 712 address was previously home to a Ruby Tuesday and very briefly a FroZenYo.

The DC restaurant should open some time this spring and will be HipCityVeg's third or fourth, depending on when the new Philadelphia location opens. They currently have two Philadelphia locations, one in University City and another near Rittenhouse Square.

For the owners, I have one recommendation, one request, and one reflection...

Recommendation: Be ready for people to buy a lot of food. Whatever the daily totals are for the existing stores... throw those numbers out.

Request: Bring Charlie Was a Sinner and Bar Bombón with you! Dying to eat at both of these places.

Reflection: I was totally prepared to hold up the line ordering this off-menu Grilled Chick'n Club, but I see you put it on the menu! Thanks in advance.

Looking forward to visiting this summer. Good luck y'all! 

712 7th Street NW was most recently occupied by FroZenYo

Sixth Street NW

Crime Museum Asked to Leave by Landlord

The National Museum of Crime & Punishment (aka the Crime Museum) is a private museum located in Penn Quarter. After being open for seven+ years, it will close on September 30, 2015. In various news reports, museum staff indicated that the landlord of the space has asked them to leave. The museum is seeking a new space in the DC area. Just reading between the lines here; it appears as if they weren't attracting enough customers or generally weren't creating enough sales to the liking of the landlord; i.e. they can charge more to potential tenants with higher revenues and profits.

The Crime Museum was always an awkward fit in Penn Quarter. It is located across the street from from the established Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museums, as well as only two blocks away from the very popular International Spy Museum. The block the Crime Museum is on is very eclectic with neighbors such as an international law firm, a high volume Mexican restaurant, a swanky hotel, a steakhouse, a popular basement bar, a cupcakery, and a coffee shop. So, there was a lot of competition for just getting noticed, let alone getting folks to come inside and spend money. Even with bright yellow signage for its "Cop Shop" store, one could easily miss the museum save for the police themed music often pumped through speakers at the door or the stanchions made of handcuffs funneling you inside.

A few years ago, the museum made some seemingly obvious and avoidable missteps in marketing and promotion. In 2011, they created a Valentine's Day promotion featuring domestic violence crimes, but wordsmithed the promotions into a rather morbid activity for couples to experience while bound together in the museum. 

And in a 2011 two-fer, the museum was called out for sending staff, many young black men, out into the streets of DC to pass out promo materials while dressed in orange, mock-prison inmate jumpsuits. 

In 2013, another set-back: the show America's Most Wanted was cancelled. It had been filmed on set inside the Crime Museum. The show's host, John Walsh, was a partner in the museum's creation and opening.

No word yet on where the museum may end up, or what will replace it in the 25,000+ square feet space at 575 7th St NW. I'll post more news as it comes.

Project to Deck Over Interstate Begins

Looking north from E Street NW.

Capital Crossing, the massive project to construct buildings over parts of Interstate 395, has begun. The interstate currently runs through parts of SW and NW DC, ending rather abruptly near New York Ave NW. The Capitol Crossing project aims to build five new buildings over an exposed portion of 395 from E St W to Massachusetts Ave NW. The exposed portion is open to the air, but it runs below grade.

There are five buildings planned for the seven acre site including 1,000 underground parking spaces for cars, and almost 500 spots for bikes. The buildings total 2.2 million square feet, consisting of mostly office and retail. The intestate will remain operational during and after construction. When complete, it will exist underground; with new entrance and exit tunnels emerging from Massachusetts Ave and 2nd St NW, respectively. 

You can see renderings here, at the project website. The building designs consist of very DC-typical, squat, unimaginative glass boxes. The way some of the buildings engage the surrounding streets (E Street, especially) are underwhelming at best, detrimental at worst. In better news, F Street will get a new block between 2nd and 3rd, and the Mass Ave frontage looks more promising.

The entire project isn't scheduled to be complete until summer of 2019, as the new buildings will come in phases. However, the changes are already visible and this project promises to continue changing the East End over the next five years.

Area under construction marked. Image and Map Data © Google 2015.

Bar Deco Coming to 6th St NW

Bar Deco is under construction on 6th St NW near Chinatown. It's in the space formerly occupied by the ill-fated Coyote Ugly (there's nary a mention of the DC store on their website). More recently this space was occupied by the lounge-y but unsuccessful Muse nightclub. Restaurant and bar activity on 6th St has picked up in the last 5 years (Denson, Daikaya & Izakaya, Flight, Penn Commons, Absolute Thai, Graffiato, Corner Bakery, etc.) But this space in particular has never really been stable since Coyote Ugly. Maybe Bar Deco will stick around for a while.

DCRA permits reveal that much of the space has been renovated over the last ~16 months. The permits also indicate that the total occupant load will be 311 persons, including 180 seats. It appears as if Bar Deco will utilize all three floors and the 1,200 sq foot rooftop, which is probably awesome. 

Bar Deco recently began advertising for open positions and their website suggests a Summer 2015 opening date.So, if you're looking for an industry job, now's your chance! Get in there. Bar Deco is located at 717 6th St NW.

Barnes Dance, Painted

After nearly five years of existence, the "Barnes Dance" all-ways crossing finally has painted pedestrian lines. The intersection at 7th and H Streets NW offers an all-ways pedestrian crossing period every third light sequence. All vehicular traffic is held by red lights during this time period, and no turns are allowed. Previous paint schemes did not cover the entire intersection.

Micro Units for New Chinatown Hotel

627 H Street NW will soon be home to a hotel.

Washington Business journal is reporting that the new hotel across the street from the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station has broken ground. 

The property, partially developed by by DC's Modus Hotels, will be a Pod Hotel brand. Pod Hotel currently has two locations in New York City.The rooms in the DC hotel (627 H Street NW) will be "micro units." Among other things, that means the rooms will be 150 square feet or less. Pretty small! There will be 245 total rooms over 11 floors.

The trade-off regarding space is supposedly cheaper rates. Choosing single pod room nights in New York, during weekdays in October in November, I got rates ranging form $135-$205. I'm guessing DC rates will be marginally cheaper. Interesting concept and a good location for visitors to the District who want to be able to wake up and get right to it without much travel time.

Rendering of Pod Hotel via http://www.thepodhotel.com/

Bakers + Baristas

The Patio Life in Penn Quarter

Sandwich shop Jetties opened recently at 801 8th St NW. Jetties has a pretty simple menu full of hot & cold sandwiches and lots of salads. Nothing vegan at first glance, but you could possibly work with one of the salads, modified. This is the spot formerly leased by 1791 DC Deli, which I grew to love over the years. Good luck Jetties!

*     *     *     *     *

And here's a photo of the new patio at Penn Commons. Looks awesome! I need to get here before the temperatures climb too high. 700 6th St NW.

Dolcezza Opening Downtown Sunday

904 Palmer Alley NW.

Dolcezza, the much loved DC gelato and coffee shop, is opening a store downtown this Sunday, April 19. The new location will be at 904 Palmer Alley NW, in the City Center development. Palmer Alley is an east/west, pedestrian-only thoroughfare between H and I Streets. The Alley runs through all three City Center buildings and is quickly filling with retail stores and restaurants. Jeweler David Yurman is set to open later this year next to Dolcezza. Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Fig & Olive are all on the way to the Alley as well.

Dolcezza will be handing out free small cones from 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM on Sunday, opening day. And yes, the sorbetto is vegan! Coffee service is pretty on point, too. Good luck Dolcezza!

David Yuman is opening next to Dolcezzza.

New in PQ: China Chilcano, Bakers & Baristas

Two very new and very different food spots are making waves in Penn Quarter. 

China Chicano is the newest project by star chef José Andrés. He operates a handful of other large format, very stylized restaurants in the District, including two within one block on this new concept. China Chilcano is the chef's take on traditional Peruvian as it's been shaped by both Chinese and Japanese cuisines and techniques. It seats 158 and has quite a unique and engaging interior design. The restaurant is currently open for dinner service. 418 7th St NW.

Bakers & Baristas is taking over the space formerly occupied by frozen yogurt bar TangySweet. Bakers will be a "European-style patisserie," according to Washingtonian. Among the shrinking number of niche, hand-held food markets yet to be explored in DC, this seems like a viable one. Hey, as long as the coffee is good, I'm happy. [My current coffee go-tos in this neighborhood are Chinatown Coffee Company and Pitango Gelato. Always happy to give a new spot the chance.] They're planning to open by the end of next week. 501 7th St NW.

Then and Now : 7th Street NW

600 block of 7th Street NW, at G Street / c. 1900-1905 / Photographer: Unknown / Source: LOC.

600 block of 7th Street NW, at G Street / c. December 2014

Then and Now : Chinatown 1980 / Chinatown 2014

600 block of H St NW / 1980 / Photographer: Walter Smiling Jr. / Source: LOC.

600 block of H St NW  / 2014 

370 Room Hotel Opening at CityCenter

A parking lot currently occupies the new hotel site.

Phase II of the 10-acre CityCenter project will kick off next year with construction of a new hotel. Hilton will operate the 370 room hotel under its Conrad Hotel & Resorts brand. The hotel will be the first for CityCenter, which already boasts offices, condominiums, apartments, retail and restaurants. There is also an open air plaza and a public/private park. The hotel will cover about half of the block bound by New York Ave NW, 9th Street, I (Eye) Street, and 10th Street. 

Plans call for 70,000 square feet of retail to accompany the hotel, adding to the 188,000 sq ft of existing retail. The Conrad timeline includes a mid-2015 start to construction, retail openings in fall 2017, and hotel grand opening in early 2018.

In other CityCenter news, upcoming retail and restaurant openings include:

Dolcezza: Local gelato and coffee shop.
Arc'teryx: Outdoor exploration and sporting wear.
CH Carolina Herrera: Private men's and women's luxury clothing label.
momofuku: Huge (4,500 sq ft) iteration of this popular Chef David Chang series.
milk bar: momofuku sister shop with cookies, pies, ice cream, and other sweets.
Caudalie Boutique Spa: NYC based luxury spa and boutique.
mango tree: Bangkok based Thai restaurant with over 70 worldwide locations.
Centrolina: 4,000 sq ft Italian restaurant and market from Chef Amy Brandwein.
Louis Vuitton: French bags and ready-to-wear.
Dior: French haute-couture and luxury goods. 

Hotel rendering via Hines.

Site plan via CityCenter DC.

Downtown Holiday Market is Open

The Downtown Holiday Market is back or its 10th year. The market is a product of the DowntownDC Business Improvement District and features a rotation of about 100 vendors selling clothing, photography, paintings, glassware, woodwork, textile art, jewelry, antiques, and other collectibles. There are a few food & beverage vendors, too; including Vigilante Coffee, one of my DC area favorites. 

The market is located on F Street NW, next to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. It stretches two blocks from 7th St to 9th St. The market is open daily through December 23, from Noon - 8:00 PM.

&pizza coming to Chinatown, Dupont

&pizza Chinatown's shop would occupy the white building next to Starbucks.

Washington Business Journal is reporting that &pizza will open more restaurants, and soon. Three of the planned four new shops will be located in the District. The Dupont location will be located at 1215 Connecticut Ave NW, near Rhode Island Ave. The Chinatown restaurant will be located at 802 7th St NW, most recently the site of a bank. &pizza also plans to open restaurants in Capitol Hill and Rockville, MD. They hope to accomplish all of this by the end of 2014 or early 2015.

&pizza is a fast casual style restaurant that makes-to-order personalized, single-serve pizzas. Once you start the customization process, it typically takes 4-5 minutes to receive the pizza ready to eat. It's a neat process and they are vegan friendly, so I eat there A LOT. They recently opened a restaurant close to the new Chinatown location at 1005 E St NW. 

Interesting note in the WBJ article: west coast pizza chain Pizza Studio will also open in Dupont at 1333 New Hampshire (formerly Baja Fresh). Looks like I need to revive Pizza Wars!

Dragon Video Billboards for Penn Quarter

More video advertising boards are being added to the area around the Verizon Center in Penn Quarter. The newest addition has been in the works for a few months, creating an inaccessible construction area on the G street pedestrian walk. This weekend, we got to see a bit of  the resulting work. 

This video board is mere feet above the heads of the average passerby, maybe 12-15 feet above ground level. Apparently there will be a dragon-like sculpture attached to the billboard, because... Chinatown? I mean, I should wait until completion to judge, but this seems to be a very strange location for a permanent video billboard and the addition of the dragon could be awesome or terrible depending on the execution.

The boards attached to the side of the Verizon Center last year were placed high up on the building, near the third floor, at the corner of 7th and F NW. The new video board is double-sided and has been placed in the busy "pedestrian walk" area. The pedestrian walk links 6th and 7th Streets NW, is home to several food-based kiosks, and leads to a mini-entertainment center featuring Bar Louis, Lucky Strike Bowling, and Regal Cinemas, among others.

I'll definitely post a photo after the billboard is complete. 

What Should Replace the Hoover FBI Building?

Yesterday the General Services Administration announced that it had narrowed the options for relocation of the J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building to three sites. None are in the District. That means the days are numbered for the the iconic headquarters in downtown DC. The building was dedicated in 1975 and is the only structure on the block, bound by Pennsylvania Ave, 9th, 10th, and E Streets NW. It was the first major federal government building to be built on the north side of Penn Ave. With a height of 160 feet (E Street side) and 2.8 million square feet of office space, the Hoover Building is one of the largest single structures on Penn Ave between the White House and the Capitol.

There's no timeline for demolition, but one of the options the government is looking into is essentially a swap with developers: the GSA would get a site to build a new HQ, the developer would get the current FBI building and land. Even if that doesn't happen, when the FBI moves, that block will be up for wide-open development. 

In a perfect world, what would replace the Hoover Building? A hotel to compete with J.W. Marriott and Trump Hotel nearby? A new flagship library for DC? Apartments only available to those making less than 60% of the area median income? Park or open space? Site for a new museum like the National Women's History Museum? Lots of options. The site is quite large, so my guess is that it will serve more than one purpose. What do you think? You can choose more than one.

What should replace FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Ave NW?

• Residential: Shelter
• Other
• Museum Site
• New Flagship DC Library
• Shopping Center or Mall
• Embassy
• Office Building: Private
• Open Space or Park
• Residential: Apartments/Condominums
• Exact Replica of Current HQ (in LEGO)
• Office Building: DC Government
• Name Brand Hotel
• Residential: All Affordable (<60% AMI)

Created on Jul 29, 2014

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poll by twiigs.com

New Hotel for Chinatown

Location of proposed 245 room hotel in Chinatown.

District Source has a very detailed run down of the zoning adjustments made en route to approval of a 245-key hotel project in Chinatown. The article discusses the reasons the project was allowed to move forward despite planning for zero on-site car parking spaces, which is typically a no-no for a development of this size. 

The H Street Hotel would be built atop a long-empty lot on the 600 block of H St NW, between Vapiano and Panera restaurants. (The future of this lot, including its parking allotment, has been in question for seven years.) This space is directly across the street from the WMATA Metrorail Gallery Pl-Chinatown station and adjacent to stops for the busy 70s and X bus lines. Currently the closest hotels to this site are Kimpton's Hotel Monaco and Marriot's Fairfield Inn & Suites. 

The new hotel would be run by Modus Hotels, the company behind DC's One Washington Circle and George Washington University Inn hotels. With no current structures remaining on the lot to incorporate, the hotel would feature all-new construction. The 245 rooms would bring the hotel to 11 floors, including some form of ground level retail. Exciting development for this block, one of the busiest in the central business district.

New Downtown Farmers Market

There is a new farmers market operating in downtown DC. The City Center development is now hosting a farmers market operated by FRESHFARM. The market is every Tuesday from 11:00 am until 2:30 pm. I went yesterday and there was about a 50/50 split between fresh produce stands and prepared food/product stands. The market is located in the new plaza at the corner of 10th and I (Eye) Streets NW. It's only a few blocks from the Penn Quarter Market (also FRESHFARM) which opens Thursday at 8th and E Sts NW.