Adventures, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed

Glover Park-Burleith Farmers Market Debuts Tomorrow

Photo courtesy of
‘_MG_0683’
courtesy of ‘logan.brown’

Even though I won’t be around to witness its opening weekend, I’m super pumped that the Glover Park-Burleith Farmers’ Market debuts this Saturday from 9am-1pm.

This producer-only farmers market features local fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese, bread, eggs, plants, cut flowers, handmade soap, pasta, gelato and more. A different bluegrass band will be there every week to provide live music to the dog-friendly market. In 2010, the market hopes to offer additional features, such as bike clinics, live-chef demonstrations and garden/composting workshops.

The market is located in the parking lot of the Hardy Middle School, just across the street from the newly opened Social Safeway.  The market will run every Saturday, rain or shine, until October 30th.

Business and Money, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed

I Declare the Grocery Store Games Officially Open!

SupermarketGladiators

At 8:05am this morning, literally minutes after the new Social Safeway opened its doors to public, and the competition between the super giant and the Whole Foods up the street had already begun.

As I walked down Wisconsin Avenue, the former Pizza Hut, located directly across the street from Whole Foods entrance and parking garage was being decorated with a big bright banner/decal that read “Hungry Georgetown? Safeway: We are just down the block.” How neighborly and friendly of the Safeway to let Whole Foods know they’re there for them. I mean WF might indeed be hungry and in need of a good sandwich.

In all seriousness, I’m all about some good competition.  WF has had it made  since the Social Safeway closed last year for renovations leaving Glover Park, Burleith and Georgetown residents sans a non-organic, “non-gourmet,” whole paycheck devouring grocery store. Advertising the new Safeway directly across the street from WF is a genius marketing maneuver by Safeway. Well done sirs. Well done.

Shop Around The Corner

The Features, Where We Live

Where We Live: Georgetown

Photo courtesy of
‘loves it’
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Where We Live.  This week, we’ll be looking at a DC neighborhood that is older than DC– Georgetown!  Home to beautiful architecture, a thriving commercial district, and a major university, Georgetown probably draws more out-of-towners than any other DC neighborhood (except maybe Adams Morgan on Saturday nights).  Read on to find out what real Georgetown residents think of their neighborhood.

History: Lots of history to cover here.  Way back in 1632, an English fur trader documented a Native American settlement called Tohoga where Georgetown currently is, and he established trade there.  Fast forward to 1751 when the town was incorporated as part of Maryland (interestingly enough, it’s not named after George Washington as I had erroneously assumed– it’s either named after King George II or its founders, George Gordon and George Beall).  Because of its geographic location as the furthest point up on the Potomac River that boats could reach, it became a big port, and warehouses and buildings grew around the tobacco trade (and sadly, the slave trade too).

When Congress created the District of Columbia in 1791, Georgetown was included in the outline of the 10-mile square.  Georgetown continued to grow, with Georgetown University founded in 1789, and much of the area developed with commercial buildings near the water and residential buildings further north on higher ground.  Georgetown retained its identity for quite a while– that is, until its town charter was revoked in 1871, and when it was finally ordered in 1880 to conform with DC’s street naming structure.

Continue reading

Adventures, News, The Daily Feed

Accident at Georgetown Whole Foods

Fire trucks arrive

Fire trucks arrive

At around 7pm last night, an elderly driver crashed into the underground garage entrance of the Whole Foods at 2323 Wisconsin Avenue NW.  Details are still emerging as to what caused the accident, but The Examiner reports that the elderly woman driving the car had minor injuries, there were no other injuries reported and that the building structure suffered minor damages.

According to an eyewitness report, who was in the Whole Foods by the meat counter, there was a loud collision-like noise and a rumble from the impact.  Immediately, a Whole Foods employee came running up the garage stairwell, yelling for the entire store to clear out and customers began heading (in a somewhat civil manner) to the Wisconsin Avenue exit.

When I interviewed a Whole Foods’ employee, who was a witness to the accident, they  said the elderly driver had been coming down the garage entrance and had sped directly into the wall. The employee speculated that perhaps the driver had stepped on the gas instead of the brake.  From the picture I took from the top of the garage ramp (which is as good as I could get from my pauper cell phone,) the entire front of the driver’s car was smashed in, indicating to me, that the car was going very fast at the time of impact. That no one was seriously injured in the accident is a great fortuity considering the amount of Whole Foods’ employees and customers present at this high volume shopping time. Continue reading

Business and Money, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed, The District

Safeway Gets Web Savvy

Photo courtesy of
‘New Social Safeway Coming Soon to Burleith’
courtesy of ‘TreyDanger’

The Social Safeway has gone all social media on us, and got themselves a website.  Yes, we’re still only about half way through the nine month long renovation, but now we can track progress and developments.

The site offers a real time WEBCAM with time lapse, split screen and overlay functions, schematics of the supermarket and commercial area, and photos detailing the new and improved department offerings.

As a regular user of the former Social Safeway, I am pumped for the new grocery store and the additional offerings it will bring to an already vibrant and awesome DC neighborhood.

All Politics is Local, Downtown, Foggy Bottom, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District

Save The Georgetown Circulator

Photo courtesy of
‘Driving, Not Reading!!! :)’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

The Georgetown Monitor reported yesterday that the DDOT is seriously considering a significant cut to the Circulator’s Georgetown service based on budgetary concerns and ridership totals.  Despite Ward 2 DC Councilman Jack Evans’ protests, City Administrator Neil Albert has apparently already signed off on the plan.

The only hope for keeping the service is for DC residents and businesses to appeal to Mayor Fenty directly.  If you’re interested in joining the petition to prevent further Circulator service cuts to this area, GM has a sample letter you can sign.

***For clarification, the DDOT’s proposal would eliminate the Wisconsin Avenue portion of the Georgetown-Union Station Circulator’s route, specifically from M Street to Whitehaven Street.