Is Spike Really Part of the “Next Establishment”?

Photo courtesy of
‘Good Stuffy Eatery’
courtesy of ‘acaben’

It’s no big secret that many people consider Spike Mendelsohn to be the golden boy of Washington restaurants. Whether or not these people live in Washington is another story. Vanity Fair has just come out with their “Next Establishment” List, a sort of JV list to the Vanity Fair 100, and has named Spike as number twenty-five. He’s among such business superstars as Tory Burch, Bonnie Hammer (President of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment), and Tim Westergren (CEO of Pandora) on a list Vanity Fair bills as full of folks “doing some empire building of their own.”

Do two casual restaurants an empire make? Spike has been saying, essentially since opening the first Good Stuff Eatery two years ago, that he would be expanding all over D.C. and beyond. But after a fair amount of false starts (rumors of Adams Morgan, Georgetown, Dupont Circle and Union Station outposts never came to fruition), he still just has the one Good Stuff Eatery and the new We, The Pizza next door.

Now don’t get this gal wrong, opening two successful restaurants is no easy feat. But is it an empire? And is Spike, as Vanity Fair puts it, “[close] to owning the Hill’s dining scene?”

Ashley Messick

Ashley is a born and bred Washingtonian who left for college but came running back to the District as fast as her little legs could carry her. By day she is a Capitol Hill brat, but by night she is a lean, mean, eating machine. It’s her goal in life to steal Anthony Bourdain’s job…by whatever means necessary. Contact her at Ashley (at) welovedc (dot) com or follow her on Twitter.

2 thoughts on “Is Spike Really Part of the “Next Establishment”?”

  1. Agreed. The Vanity Fair article is absurd. I love Good Stuff, for sure, but the media should tone down the hyperbole.

  2. I hate to be a spoilsport, but I just can’t stand Good Stuff. The milkshakes there are the only keepers. For my money, I’d go to Ray’s the Steaks, and for the burger, I’d rather hit Five Guys than deal with Good Stuff.

    Haven’t been to We, the Pizza yet, but I can’t say that Good Stuff has paved the way for me to want to.