NCHCA MINUTES
May 4, 2011
Bloombars
Jackie Greenbaum, owner of forthcoming Mexican restaurant on 11th Street (small yellow building next to Arthur’s).
She owns Jackie’s, Sidebar and the Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring, but she lives in DC and is excited to have a DC establishment. She likes older buildings with character, and the space defines much of her concept, she loves this building as it has a lot of character on the inside, exposed wood, brick, will have great light from the front.
They received their building permits some time ago, and just last week received their liquor license. Hours of operation will be closing at 2 (3 on weekends), with a roof top deck that closes at 11 (12 on weekends). She was hoping for later hours on the deck but she feels like this is a good compromise as neighbors were concerned about noise. Food will be served late as there are a dearth of places to get quality food late at night in the area. Eventually, they will also open for breakfast and lunch.
Once she completes her build-out, which will start in the next week or two, she will have a long bar on the left with 12 seats, plus around six tables of four on the interior, and a rooftop area with an additional 30 seats. The space, and in particular, the kitchen, are very small. The goal is to open later this summer if everything goes smoothly.
The menu will be an eclectic Mexican menu with tacos, Mexican street food, a few specials, still in development. The menu won’t be too large due to the size of the kitchen, she wants the focus to be on quality not quantity. She wants this place to be very affordable, some items will just be a few dollars, and the higher-end items will be priced in the teens. There will be many vegetarian options.
She wants to have a small, interesting drink menu, including great frozen margaritas. The margaritas will be priced right, and there will always be a $5 margarita available. They will also make their own sodas. Getting the drink selection right is very important to her, Sidebar on cover of Washingtonian bar issue.
Still trying to come up with a name. Decor is still up in the air, but does want it to remain rustic. The front garage door will be replaced with glass to let natural light in. Also plans to paint the building.
Regarding trash and noise: no dumpsters so she will have trash picked up six times per week. She is very cognizant of neighborhood concerns, she has received zero noise complaints at The Quarry House, and it is important for her to be a good neighbor in terms of trash, noise, and vermin issues. She plans to be by every day of the week, she is not an absentee owner.
She knows some of the other 11th Street business owners and hopes to eventually work together on neighborhood issues / improvements.
Regarding parking, she expects to draw mainly walking patrons, this will be a neighborhood establishment. She does not expect this to be like H Street which draws a big crowd of outsiders on weekends.
II. Brainstorm session re: neighborhood parking / green space / dog park /
Parking: there is a lot of concern that all the new commercial activity around 11th Street will crowd out neighborhood parking. A few ideas were discussed. A few that seemed difficult or to present problems were to consolidate bus-stops on that corner to create more parking, or utilize diagonal parking like in Adams Morgan. A more popular idea was to create more zone-only parking (and allow residents to have visitor passes as well) to push transient parking away from the residential areas, perhaps to the large nearby parking lots at the Giant and the Target. The Giant lot is particularly appealing, but is currently only open until 11 or midnight – encourage later hours somehow? A DDOT employee was at the meeting and stressed the importance of getting DDOT and the ANC on board early to implement a Mount Pleasant style parking pilot program. Another possibility, similar to Mount Pleasant, would include more metered parking with low time limits, with fees waived for residents. Another idea: encourage 11th Street businesses to utilize some type of valet system / expand the current rickshaw system on weekends, particularly once there is a critical mass of restaurants to support that type of endeavor. Maybe coordinate with extra space in Giant lot? Another idea: paint parking lines on street to maximize use of space. DDOT will likely reevaluate parking / traffic patterns once Sherman Avenue project is completed – need to judge impact on traffic flow from that project before any radical changes are finalized in terms of actual parking infrastructure, but we could certainly pursue zoning changes in the meantime.
Dog Park: it is a dust bowl, hygiene / smell concerns, really need to improve the surface. The key is, how to get enough regular dog park users to buy in, both in terms of financial contributions and in terms of labor? Also hoping to get support from CM Jim Graham, who has expressed willingness to try to help IF there is community buy-in / engagement. Want to protect existing trees, improve landscaping and seating (currently temporary plastic chairs), and most of all, create a proper dog park surface. Yared is the “mayor” of the dog park and may be able to help. Several meeting attendees expressed enthusiasm for trying to get this project off the ground. Key is to figure out what kind of surface if affordable / feasible, perhaps some medium-sized gravel if we can’t fund something as permanent / attractive as the 17th and New Hampshire dog park.
Tree Boxes / Landscaping: we would like (potentially with help from area businesses) to improve tree boxes in the area, beginning with 11th Street and Park Road. Casey Trees may be able to help out. Dupont has some sort of program in this regard. We want to encourage beautification of the neighborhood. Need to raise funds, work on designs, get buy-in from neighbors and 11th Street businesses. Several attendees expressed enthusiasm about working on this project, and will begin to gather more concrete ideas.
