Would-be JP’s buyer still trying for lease

From the October 2010 edition of the Glover Park Gazette:

The former home of JP’s Night Club (2412 Wisconsin) has been rebuilt after a January 2008 fire, but no tenant is yet lined up for the space. The would-be buyer of the JP’s business has been negotiating to rent the building for months, but has not yet reached a lease agreement with the landlord, according to James Charles, attorney for JP’s owner Michael Papanicolas. The buyer and Papanicolas have signed a sales contract, but the contract is void if the buyer can’t get a lease, Charles adds. Meanwhile, the club’s liquor license was scheduled to expire on September 30, but Papanicolas had applied for a renewal, according to a spokesman for the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration.

A permit on the building’s front door seems to indicate that its use will change from nightclub to “apartment house,” but that’s not accurate, says Demetra Green, a member of the family group that owns the property. “The DCRA [Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs] made a mistake on the permit—no apartments,” Green writes in an email. “JP’s is considering going back into business,” Green continues. “The fire occurred in the middle of his lease, so he has right of first refusal.”

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Glover Park football guide, 2010 edition

From the October 2010 edition of the Glover Park Gazette:

Thanks to new screens at several bars, Glover Park’s football fans have a bewildering array of game-viewing options this season. Here’s some data to help you narrow down your choices:

Town Hall (2218 Wisconsin)
Cable Provider: DirecTV
Games Available: All NCAA and NFL football games
Sound Options: Game sound on for featured games on the second floor and select games on the first floor
Fan Bases: Redskins, Saints, Ravens, Eagles, Patriots, Steelers, Panthers, and Titans. “All are welcome, though, and we make every attempt to show all requested games,” says managing partner Paul Holder.
Game Day Specials: $2.50 Miller Lite, Coors Lite, and High Life

Breadsoda (2233 Wisconsin)
Cable Provider: DirecTV
Games Available: All NCAA and NFL football games
Sound Options: Game sound on for weekend day games and Sunday and Monday night games
Fan Bases: Redskins
Game Day Specials: Sundays—$4 Miller Lite, $3 Pabst Blue Ribbon. Mondays—$3 chili dog; $4 Miller Lite; $7.50 for chili dog, chips, and PBR.
NB Say goodbye to Steve McQueen during games; the bar has installed a 5 x 8 pull-down TV screen over its signature Bullitt still.

Blue Ridge (2340 Wisconsin)
Cable Provider: DirecTV
Games Available: Broadcast NCAA and NFL football games
Sound Options: Game sound allowed, but music plays as well
NFL Fan Bases: Regional NFL teams and local/Southern collegiate conferences
Game Day Specials: Half-price drafts, discounted sandwiches (bar only)
N.B. Blue Ridge now has a large TV screen in its downstairs bar area, with two more flat-screens on order at press time.

Bourbon (2348 Wisconsin)
Cable Provider: Comcast
Games Available: Broadcast NCAA and NFL football games
Sound Options: No game sound; music only
Fan Bases: Redskins
Game Day Specials: None

Kavanagh’s (2400 Wisconsin)
Cable Provider: Comcast
Games Available: Broadcast NCAA and NFL football games, including HD channels
Sound Options: Game sound on for featured game
Fan Bases: Redskins
Game Day Specials: $4 bloody Marys and screwdrivers; chicken wings

Kitchen (2404 Wisconsin)
Cable Provider: DirecTV
Games Available: Broadcast NFL and NCAA games plus College Game Day
Sound Options: Sound depends on the game
Fan Bases: Redskins, Ravens, University of Georgia, LSU
Game Day Specials: $3 Miller Lite drafts during all games; 50 cent wings on Monday nights

Gin & Tonic (2408 Wisconsin)
Cable Provider: DirecTV
Games Available: All NCAA and NFL football games
Sound Options: Sound always on for biggest game or game with most fans
Fan Bases: Redskins, Ole Miss, SEC teams
Game Day Specials: $6 pitchers, $4 rail drinks during all games

Surfside (2444 Wisconsin)
Cable Provider: DirecTV
Games Available: All NFL football games
Sound Options: Sound on for big games or big crowds; otherwise, music plays
Fan Bases: Redskins, Jets, Bills
Game Day Specials: Monday nights—free chips and 7-layer dip with first drink order

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Hero Bar noise raises neighbors’ hackles

From the October 2010 edition of the Glover Park Gazette:

Neighbors of Blue Ridge (2340 Wisconsin) have begun to complain about noise emanating from the restaurant’s upstairs event space, recently dubbed Hero Bar. On September 17, revelers on the restaurant’s second-floor deck were heard blocks away, late into the night. “I thought GU was playing its homecoming game in the field next to Whole Foods,” one irked neighbor joked on the Glover Park Yahoo newsgroup.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Jackie Blumenthal responded that, under the terms of the restaurant’s voluntary agreement with the ANC, alcohol can be served on the second-floor deck after midnight “once or twice a month, only for private catered parties, and only if neighbors do not complain.” She added that she had been working with the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) to determine whether Hero Bar is a permissible use of the restaurant’s license. At press time, the ANC was planning to discuss the situation at its September 28 meeting.

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Murder charge brought in 2007 Good Guys attack

From the October 2010 edition of the Glover Park Gazette:

In 2007, Vasile Graure doused a young Good Guys (2311 Wisconsin) manager with gasoline and set him on fire. The victim, Vladimir Djordjevic (above), had been hospitalized with severe burns since the attack, but in May, he died of his injuries. Now Graure—already serving a 30-year sentence for the assault—faces murder charges.

On the night of the incident, Graure had been drinking at the strip club, but he was ejected for trying to photograph one of the dancers. He walked up to the gas station at Wisconsin Avenue and Calvert Street and returned with two gallons of gas. When Djordjevic tried to stop him from torching the club, Graure splashed gasoline on him and set him ablaze.

Graure had not been arraigned on the murder charge at press time. There will be a felony conference status in the case on October 12.

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Lucien et Eivind to add day spa space

From the October 2010 edition of the Glover Park Gazette:

Estimable beauty parlor Lucien et Eivind (2233 Wisconsin) is expanding to add a day spa as well as a separate “hair replacement salon” catering to cancer patients, says owner Eivind Bjerke. The renovations should be finished by next spring, adds Bjerke, who was the official White House hairdresser for Rosalynn Carter.

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Z-Burger living awkwardly in the past

Z-Burger (2414 Wisconsin) is advertising on Craigslist for a female cashier. The catch? You’d have to do the job prior to 1964, when it became illegal for employers to discriminate based on sex. On the plus side, food service uniforms were pretty cute back then.

Here’s the ad:

Female Cashier for Z-Burger at Tenleytown and Glover Park washington DC (NorthWest DC)

Date: 2010-09-27, 12:00PM EDT

Reply to: gigs-vwavn-1975977312@craigslist.org

Currently, we’re looking for a female cashier at our Tenleytown store and Glover Park

The schedule will be fixed and you can work part time or full time. This job would be a great opportunity for student who’re looking for a temporary job.

You’re responsibly will be the cash register and making sure that everything is fine in Lobby. If you be interested you can also work in other sections too and make extra money.

You can either come and stop by at our Tenleytown store. The address is 4321 wisconsin ave NW washington DC. You can also call the restaurant at 202-966-1999 to make sure that I be here

When you come here ask for Meghdad

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Tennis Zone coming to Glover Books space

Glover Books & Music (2319 Wisconsin) closed over the summer, but a tennis shop expects to open in the space soon, its owner says. We ran into Ravi Shankar, owner of north Tenleytown’s Tennis Zone, outside the vacant Glover Books storefront this afternoon, as he was working to clear the building of books and other detritus left by the previous tenant. Shankar said he hoped to open his Glover Park location by October 1.

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It’s 96 degrees out. A word about snow.

Whenever D.C. gets a big snow, an absurd hole in the District’s public-safety law reveals itself. Furious citizens demand that the hole be patched, and lawmakers promise to do so. Then the snow melts and people forget. The law is not fixed. Eventually, it snows again.

And when that happens, snow on unshoveled sidewalks quickly gets trodden down into hard packs, which then freeze into ice sheets that can last for weeks. The sidewalks become unsafe for small children, elderly people, and those with disabilities. People slip and break bones. People walk in the street and get hit by cars. People feel trapped at home for fear of injury.

Angry, frustrated citizens ask why there isn’t a law requiring residents to keep their sidewalks clear. But in fact, there is such a law. According to the D.C. Code (§9-601), anyone whose house fronts a public sidewalk must clear the sidewalk of snow or ice within eight daylight hours of the last flake’s falling.

So that’s the law, and here’s the hole: there’s no workable enforcement provision. The city can’t easily fine you for failing to shovel, the way it can fine you for parking in a fire lane, leaving your garbage where rats can get at it, or otherwise endangering public health or safety.

Last December, City Council members Mary Cheh and Tommy Wells cosponsored a bill that would allow city workers to issue $25 tickets to residents who don’t clear snow as required. This bill was referred to the Council’s Committee on Public Works and Transportation, headed by member Jim Graham—and there it remains, more than nine months later. The committee did hold hearings, and the Council’s Office of Policy Analysis issued a report that recommends “giving ticketing authority to municipal workers.” The report also advises steps already within the District Department of Transportation’s power, such as designing sidewalks for easier snow removal and training snowplow operators to be more mindful of pedestrians’ needs.

Graham says he expects to take action on the matter before the snow season begins, but “it is still unclear whether the Committee will report a bill to the full Council [for a vote], or whether we will simply request that DDOT initiate some of the recommended actions for which they already have authority.”

That’s right: Jim Graham’s committee has not yet decided whether it will even allow the Council to vote on fines for scofflaws. If you would like to help them decide, you can write to ask them to release the bill. Here are their addresses:

Jim Graham: jgraham@dccouncil.us
Tommy Wells (bill cosponsor): twells@dccouncil.us
Muriel Bowser: mbowser@dccouncil.us
Kwame Brown: kbrown@dccouncil.us
Phil Mendelson: pmendelson@dccouncil.us

Under the current law, the only way to get penalized for not shoveling snow is for the city to clear it and then sue you for the cost—which it never does. After years of watching politicians vow—and fail—to make the law easier to enforce, one wonders whether it’s possible to sue the city for not enforcing the law as-is.

Photo of Puck the Corgi copyright 2010 by Wendy Stengel, all rights reserved.

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Bike rental station coming soon

The Georgetown Hoya reports that a Capital Bikeshare bike rental station will be installed at 2422 37th Street, near the intersection with Calvert, this month.

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