Balducci’s Really, Really NOT Coming To PQ, Really!

No loss. Balcucci’s is way, way over-priced. The Safeway is a fine store, an easy walk for everyone in PQ. If any grocery store locates within PQ, I hope it is along the lines of a NYC bodega and not some snooty thing like Balducci’s or Whole Foods.

Who honestly thought they were coming? If you did, you need to get your heads out of your tush, and into the reality of the city. This has been a dead issue for a loooooong time. Yes, it is resurrected from time to time for political reasons, but none that would make the store ever open. EVER.

Ah yes, the City Paper article mentions that letter from the DNA to Balducci’s begging for a store. “We are DESPERATE!” it said. I remember reading the letter itself. It was so pathetic. All I could do was smile.

sick of the Balduccis issue. Thank God its finally dead

Well…now that space is at least filled through inauguration day, with an inauguration/obama themed store. Just opened yesterday.

I saw docs that said if grocery cant be secured in a year or so that the space can be divided into smaller easier to lease parcels. Maybe its time for another approach. Emtpy spaces are not good for PQ.

j – you’re one store over. the Obama inauguration store is in the old HNTB space which was almost the Textile Museum Annex space. the Balducci’s space is one bay up towards E Street.

for a photo, see our report from September of 2007.

Before the Safeway at 5th & K opened, I was hoping Balducci’s might still happen. But now? Not a big deal to me.

I appear to be the only person to feel this way – but I still say that it would do well, and would be a valued store to the residents of and daily visitors to downtown – especially the southern end of PQ.

You aren’t the only one, Anonymous.

Sorry the hear about Balducci’s. For those of us in the southern part of PQ, a market closer to us would be wonderful. I like the new Safeway too but it’s too far to walk with lots of groceries, and I wouldn’t feel safe walking there after dark. I think the prices are higher than other Safeways in the burbs.

I suspect that thinking the new Safeway is a long ways away or very close is less where you live in PQ, and more where you lived before coming to PQ. I lived in Kalorama, and had a terrible Safeway (off Columbia RD) that was about a half mile away.

In the PQ, I’m about 3/4 of a mile from a brand new & much nicer Safeway. I use the same grandma cart for this safeway that I used for the one in Kalorama, which yesterday was packed with a couple hundred dollars worth of groceries and got them home easily.

But if your home before PQ was close (or you drove) to a nicer grocery store, then I can see the distance to Safeway being a bigger deal.

If it’s anything like the Balducci’s in Old Town, you just dodged a bullet. That place has so many layers of suck, it’s almost a quantum singularity of suck from which nothing, not even light, can escape. Their prepared foods are ridiculously overpriced and seasoned for people who have flavor intolerance. Their beers are a couple bucks more expensive than Whole Foods, only with a lousier selection. Baked goods are often moldy, and seafood tastes of iodine. I’ve seen more appetizing things in treeboxes.

I am sure a PQ Balducci’s would only have the freshest of the fresh, tastiest of the tasty, and most expansive inventory of expansive inventories. I am just SURE of it!

Boycott all Balducci’s. Either they just like being courted and/or they are beyond indecisive.
As for whether or not we could use a grocery, of course we can. Safeway was never a grocery I favored. If Trader Joes or some other grocery came into my side of PQ, I would be overjoyed.
For those who enjoy going to Safeway and don’t think it’s to far to walk to for an item or two and feel safe there at night and actually enjoy their oversalted, sitting for a week prepared food that’s your business.
I am sick to death of the Mt. Vernon people who are so happy/smug with your grocery, (which by the way is usually empty). This is PQLiving, you have your own blogs.

I have to say that Gallery Place Gal sure does have a case of the grumpies! You are right. We have our own blogs. Way to be a neighbor.

Trader Joes would be great and what about a YES Organic Market? Seems like they can operate in a smaller space.

It’s okay Mike — I’ll meet you to work out, grocery shop and then have a coffee at BB&P. I can’t help it GalleryPlaceGal — I AM happy (but not smug) with the grocery store. And don’t worry about your safety. It is perfectly safe to walk down 5th Street at night. But walking from any part of PQ to the store takes only 5 minutes or 10 minutes max (it doesn’t take long for me to walk to the Farmers Market on Thursdays). It takes longer for most folks to drive their car somewhere in the suburbs. That being said, it would be nice to have higher end/gourmet grocer someday.

MVTResident, sounds like you have it all over in your neighborhood. My only question is then why do you all say you too live in Penn Quarter when your condos go up for sale?

Hey — I wasn’t making an MVT vs. PQ comment. I totally love being part of the PQ neighborhood. I was trying to make the point that we spend as much time south of Mass as north of Mass. We’re one neighborhood as far as I’m concerned. Although we say we live in Penn Quarter, Chinatown, Downtown, the Triangle — we definitely have way too many names.

MVTResident. Sorry we are not one neighborhood. I live in Chinatown/PQ/Gallery Place. I don’t see you saying you live in Mt.Vernon/the Triangle/SHAW. You don’t pay expensive PQ morgages or rent. We are a distinct neighborhood and you have your own distinct neighborhood.
Please stop saying to PQ residents that we don’t need a Grocery in PQ. I don’t say to Mt.Vernon people you don’t need restaurants in MVT.

GalleryPlaceGal, you’re 100% correct. & I agree 100% with your earlier post about the Mt Vernon Triangle Safeway – it’s not that great a store, the prepared food is mediocre at best, & it is dangerous up there, despite the fact that 90% of the posters here refuse to face that fact.
We need a grocery in PQ, preferably in the spot that was set aside for an upscale grocery. I’d love to see a Trader Joe’s in that spot, but any upscale grocery offering prepared food for the thousands of people who work in PQ would make a mint.
I just re-read your posts, & I agree 100% with every word you wrote. Thank you for being so clear.

I would hope that we all embrace the holiday season and each other as downtown neighbors with common goals and interests. just as I’m happy to go to Busboys and Poets and the CityVista Safeway, I’m happy that MVTResident comes to our side of Mass Ave too. there’s fun to be had on both sides…for example, a Buddha Bar (of New York, Paris, Dubai & so on fame) has signed to go in on the north side of Mass Ave and that’ll be a nice feather in the cap for all of us.

as for the “Balducci’s” space, we’re going to have to find another name for it. at this point, subdividing it may be for the greater good. as Mick Jagger crooned…

you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need.

happy holidays…however you choose to celebrate it!