RSS FeedLa Tasca (722 7th St NW) Spanish Restaurant Closed Last Week
As mentioned on La Tasca’s website and by signage on the front door (h/t: a PQ Living reader), the Penn Quarter/Chinatown location is now closed. The closure occurred last week with not much notice. La Tasca opened over 15 years ago and was one of the older restaurants in operation in the neighborhood. We generally enjoyed eating there and for a while La Tasca was one of the few places to hear live music in the neighborhood.
The Boardwalk Bar And Eatery (507 7th St NW) Replaces Iron Horse And Now Open!
It didn’t take long for the construction crew to turn over the Iron Horse into The Boardwalk Bar and Eatery (507 7th St NW). The bar’s website is a placeholder at the moment and there’s nothing posted there for the moment but you can see the early days menu here (h/t: Barred In DC).
Meet and Talk to DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson On Sat, Nov 9 At 10 AM
From the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association we learned that Chairman Phil Mendelson will be at Teasim (8th and D St NW) this Saturday morning. The text is posted below:
Meet and Talk to DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson
Saturday, November 9 – 10:00am – 11:00am
At Teaism Penn Quarter – 400 8th Street, NWAll residents are invited to meet and ask questions of the DC Council Chairman.
I want to take this opportunity to mention one issue that is of great importance to many Penn Quarter residents and businesses and that is now in the hands of Chairman Phil Mendelson. I hope to hear some of you who have not before been heard ask the Chairman about moving forward with legislation on this important matter.
Since the last session of the DC Council, legislation that was introduced and for which hearings were held has been under awaiting Chairman Mendelson’s move to either amend the legislation or place it on the agenda for a vote by the Council. Our understanding is that the Chairman wishes to amend the legislation to gain additional support for it. We would like to know how he intends to amend the legislation, when this will be done, and when it will be presented to the Council for a vote.
You may recall that many residents in collaboration with the business community worked for over a year to develop and prepare draft legislation that would place limits on how loud buskers could play, sing, and/or amplify music AND, IMPORTANTLY, would be acceptable to the courts.
For some time now, cases tried that had been based on violations of the existing noise limits and that measure the noise from buskers to see if the music is within the maximum noise limits have been lost because there is no means of blocking out ambient noise from the meter readings and thus only an unknown portion of the noise can be attributed to the busker being charged with exceeding the
current noise limits.It is clear to us that not only must there be a different way to determine what is excessive noise, and that whatever is unacceptable cannot require a meter to measure decidable levels.
The group has conveyed this information to DC Council members and/or their staffs so they are aware of the existing situation – the current limits are unenforceable.
It is our residents and businesses, especially those on 7th Street between F and H streets that have born the brunt of this inability for the city to enforce current legislation limiting the level of sound buskers can make.
I hope many of you will come to this meeting and let the Chairman know that it is imperative for the Council to enact limits on noise and more specifically music so that the buskers can play but not as loud as they have been since amplified equipment became easy to transport.
We are only asking for enforceable legislation that would require buskers to turn down the volume.
We need the Chairman to amend the legislation that was the basis of the last hearing to establish ENFORCEABLE NOISE LIMITS THAT THE COURTS WOULD UPHOLD. This is one issue I hope a number of attendees will ask Chairman Mendelson to address and act on.
Stealth CVS Now Open On K Street NW (1500 block of K St NW)
In May we tweeted about a new CVS coming to the 1500 block of K Street in the same building as the Hilton at 16th and K. This CVS is now open and stocked as we learned yesterday when we needed to drop in for an item on the way to work. The welcome mat says it’s a 24 hour CVS although we didn’t confirm that with store staff. Regardless, this is an option for those Penn Quarterites who live or work on the western edge of the neighborhood and/or have an urgent need for Ben & Jerry’s at 3 in the morning.
We’re calling it the “Stealth CVS” because as of today it doesn’t show up on the CVS store locator. This is the former home of the downtown MINT Studio (gym) location.
