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A new wave of residents and real estate development was on its way to downtown DC in 2005 and just over four years ago, we put up our first two posts as Gallery Place Living to let visitors, workers and residents know about the latest goings on in the area. The first post announced a session with Mayor Fenty to discuss the future of the MLK Library and the second post announced the opening of Bed, Bath and Beyond on 7th Street NW. How’d it work out? The library hasn’t changed and the Bed, Bath and Beyond seems to do a good business.
We’d like to take this time and space to thank all our readers, writers, advertisers and those who have contributed to the Penn Quarter Living project in one way or another. You can e-mail us at pqliving [at] gmail.com with neighborhood tips, suggestions or whatever is on your mind. One million unique visitors later, we’re still going strong and thank you all.
Downtown Wakes Up To Beauty
Photo Credit: MVT Resident
We checked out the roads yesterday night and all the downtown roads were passable in a four wheel drive but many were still covered with white stuff and not plowed down to the pavement. The sun should take care of some of that today. Many trees took a hit as the weight of the snow brought down branches. Traffic was running on main arteries such as Pennsylvania Ave and Massachusetts Ave and we saw a number of pedestrians around looking for cabs to hail which were out and about looking for fares. The Federal government is closed today, the Circulator is running (and is free for today) and Metro is running a limited schedule. Mercifully, the CVS at 4th and H St NW was up and running when we stopped by around 10:30 pm last night for our chocolate fix.
DC Link Roundup: Heard In The ‘Hood
Photo Credit: Neela
Follow PQ Living via Facebook here and Twitter here. Our Flickr tag is pqliving.
Due to below freezing temperatures, the snow will be with us for more days so we have more reader photos of the snow on display. Yesterday’s gallery has twenty snow pictures including some from condos/apartments all over downtown.
Here’s what we were reading last week about neighborhood news in DC.
Penn Quarter/Chinatown – Are we getting a Flip Burger? Maybe. Just maybe. Simultaneously, there’s talk that Wagamama on 7th Street NW is bailing. [WaBizJo]
Southwest – Work continues on Waterfront Station. The new Safeway is slated to open April 16th. [Southwest...The Little Quadrant That Could 1] & [Southwest...The Little Quadrant That Could 2]
Downtown – Lured by Fenty and the city, CoStar moves downtown to L Street between 13th and 14th Streets. In a striking bit of irony, CoStar is buying the former headquarters of the Mortgage Bankers Association building for 54.2% of what the MBA paid for it. [WaBizJo]
Judiciary Square – A profile of Jose, a worker who keeps the outside of the National Building Museum clean. [People's District]
Mount Vernon Triangle – Kushi Izakaya and Sushi at CityVista (400 block of K Street NW) put up their flag…that’s a great sign! [The Triangle]
Downtown – Ford’s Theatre cancelled today’s (Sun, Feb 7) performance of The Rivalry due to the snow. [Ford's Theatre]
Let It Snow!
UPDATED 12:30 PM: We’re receiving photos and posting as them as we can. Check after the break for reader photos from yesterday and today!
Still doing the morning jog in the Penn Quarter!
Send us your downtown and Penn Quarter Washington DC snow photos to pqliving [at] gmail.com and we’ll post them or you can use the pqliving tag to post them on flickr. Comments on stores that are open and not open can be made on yesterday’s post.
Snow Update…What’s Open And What’s Not
Here’s what we know. It’s snowing and it’s been snowing since the morning. In downtown DC, the snow is beginning to stick to asphalt surfaces as of 4:30 pm. We received a few reports about what is open in our neighborhood and what is not as follows (sources are in square brackets):
1) Til Death Do Us Part (by Dana Ellyn and Matt Sesow) at the Long View Gallery (1234 9th Street NW) – This exhibition and wedding is on as planned from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Bring your boots and Metro farecard. [PQL Intelligence Network]
2) Proof (775 G St NW) – Opening at 5:30 pm today and tomorrow. [E-mail newsletter]
3) Caos on F (923 F St NW) – Reception has been cancelled for tonight and postponed until February 19. [PQL Mailbag]
4) Zola Wine & Kitchen (505 9th St NW) – Their Friday night wine tasting is on. [PQL Intelligence Network]
5) Ford’s Theatre (511 10th St NW) – Ford’s Theatre has canceled its Friday, February 5, performance of The Rivalry at 7:30 p.m. Patrons have the option of exchanging their tickets into another performance of The Rivalry or Little Shop of Horrors. Patrons who are unable to exchange may donate the value of their tickets to Ford’s Theatre or request a refund. [PQL Mailbag]
Check past the break for full details on the Ford’s Theatre news… Continue Reading >>
A PQ Wedding And Art Exhibition
Local artists, Dana Ellyn (a PQ resident) and Matt Sesow (Adams Morgan), will be tying the knot this Friday evening at Long View Gallery @ 1234 9th St NW! This wedding and art exhibition is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30pm and nuptials begin at 7:30pm followed by live music. One needs only to RSVP with your name to info (at) longviewgallery.com. No gifts please, but be sure to pick up a painting if one strikes your fancy. Also of note: a member of one of the bands performing at the event, Möbius Strip, lives in the Penn Quarter.
This blog first wrote about Dana & Matt a mere 3 1/2 years ago. And as the neighborhood has changed and improved, Dana & Matt have lived through it all and have been urban activists even if they don’t explicitly state it. While Dana can tell you what she helped improve in her neck of the woods, Matt can tell you about our neighborhood back when the 9:30 club used to reside at 930 F St NW. And even the threat of snow is unlikely to deter a few hundred of Dana & Matt’s closest friends from coming out to join in on the celebration. So, strap on your snow boots and be sure not to miss this one!
And, hopefully, there will be many more PQ weddings to come in the near future!
New & Notable In The Neighborhood
New: Fro-Zen-Yo, the new self serve frozen yogurt shop in the much blogged about (at least on our site) 10th & F corner. We tweeted about their opening last week and stopped by to try it last night. This is the frozen yogurt of our childhood, much sweeter than TangySweet, so your personal tastes will determine which you like better. We do like controlling our toppings (extra yogurt chips!) and it can be much cheaper, but overall we give the taste-edge to TangySweet. Fro-Zen-Yo should be very popular with the tourists who are bused into that area, and the staff seems very nice. Workers have been standing outside offering free samples all week.
Notable: We’ve mentioned it a couple of times in the comments section, but the recent renovations at the 8th & E CVS deserve special note. The renovations were completed very quickly, and the change is monumental. The store has been reorganized with more prepared foods, a better selection of groceries (bricks of Cafe Bustelo are finally in stock), and the checkout system is a breeze. Self checkout is significantly improved, including a dedicated staff member to continually reset any problem machines. We don’t know if the extra (and helpful) staff is here to stay, but we want to give CVS the benefit of the doubt. For many of us CVS remains the first stop for staple grocery items; we applaud their efforts to finally clean up the 8th Street store.
Downtown Neighborhood Survey Now Online
The third annual Downtown Neighborhood Survey, a data gathering effort sponsored by the Downtown BID, the Downtown Neighborhood Association and the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association is now up online. You might win a gift certificate to a downtown restaurant or a free weekend at the Monaco Hotel. You can enter the survey directly from this link.
DC Link Roundup: Heard In The ‘Hood
Photo Credit: M. V. Jantzen
Follow PQ Living via Facebook here and Twitter here. Our Flickr tag is pqliving.
Here’s what we were reading last week about neighborhood news in DC.
Mount Vernon Triangle – An explanation and discussion of vault space rentals. This is not the kind of vault you’d find in a bank…if you own a condo and deeded parking space downtown, you may want to read this one. [The (Mount Vernon) Triangle]
Columbia Heights – Artists are showing their wares on the street in Columbia Heights. Kind of a street fair, you might say. [New Columbia Heights]
14th Street - A nice profile on SOM Records (1843 14th St NW), a vinyl record store that brings you back to the days when you could enjoy the cover art and talk to sales staff that knew something about music. [Borderstan]
H Street NE – The real housewives of DC were spotted on H Street. Do you think they would go to that part of DC if a TV producer didn’t tell them to? [Frozen Tropics]
Logan/14th Street – Yep…it sure did snow yesterday. A dusting? Ha! [14th and You]
Shaw – More Convention Center legal wackiness. [Renew Shaw]
Penn Quarter – We noticed that both the Chipotle under the Verizon Center and the Starbucks at the corner of 7th and H St NW are closed because they’ve been gutted and are undergoing complete renovation. The nearest Chipotle? 18th and M St NW. The nearest Starbucks? You can try the one on 8th between K and I or on 9th between G and H or on 7th at E or…you get the picture.
Wayback: 6th & Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Ever wonder what used to reside on the land now occupied by the Newseum? The National Hotel, of course. A blogger in our neighborhood tracked down some wayback images of 6th & Pennsylvania Ave NW via the Historical Society of Washington, DC’s research website.