Clyde’s on the Walk Adjusts Hours (Opening Earlier, Closing Earlier) + pic

They could close it all together as far as I’m concerned. Or better yet have better food and more choices. Nothing tempts me to purchase anything there at all.

Just one more place GP cant sustain – In any other city this place would be packed

Anon 3:20, in any other city a walk up counter for sandwiches would have been packed after 5pm? Even where there is a full service restaurant attached? As well as tons of other options in the area?

mr columbo, walk up counter busy after 5pm? have you ever been to the reading terminal market in philadelphia? restaurant previours just like clydes on the walk with a constant buss until 8pm. completly surrounded by some of the best restaurants in the city not to mention a few great hotel bars to belly up at and have a phenonimal meal.

i find it supprising that gp was unable to keep clydes on the walk open for 12 hours a day. it is mind boggeling that the business professional in this neighborhood arent interested in good, fresh, simple ingredients in a take out setting. instead gp/dc gets horrible cookie cutter corporate food that wiggles into dc to poach off all of the tourists in this city.

All of the “corporate food” with in 0.1 miles of the gp metro

Fuddruckers
Potbelly Sandwich
Latasca Spanish Rstrnt & Tapas
California Tortilla
Ruby Tuesday
Legal Sea Foods
Fado Irish Pub
Bar Louie
Hooters
Quiznos Sub
Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Burger King
Camiles Sidewalk Cafe
Mc Donald’s
Mc Cormick & Schmick Seafood
Lawson’s Grill
Austin Grill
Finn & Porter Restaurant
Chipolte
Subway

I am so tired of the anonymous whining — “I hate chains”; “I want a grocery”; “dc sucks.”

Know what? You want change, then do something about it — attend local civic meetings (and I know you’re not there — cause I am and don’t see you). Do some number crunching and come up with $1M+ to open your own restaurant — ’cause that’s what it’s gonna cost in this neighborhood.

I am a DC native — born and raised. Yes this is a quirky town. We don’t have an inherent culture of nightlife (besides clubs/bars). Until VERY recently, this is a city that closed at 5:00. Now it is bustling — yes in the touristy, artificial Gallery Place — which I am so proud to call my home — for many years to come.

I have been working for change — attending meetings, making contacts at almost every new establishment that opens, volunteering for community activities, and even creating an arts festival that benefits Penn Quarter to the tune of more than $100K in a single 3-day period.

So, make my day’s reading easier and keep the kvetching to yourself — help to spread truths, not hearsay; get involved with the PQNA or DTNA or the BID — or the ANC and Police meetings. Make a difference, and you, too will learn to embrace this amazing neighborhood — quirks, tourists and all.

and btw – this is the best city blog out there

For perhaps the first time, I (somewhat) agree with Mr. Gann. The complaining about DC not being able to sustain businesses like Clyde’s on the Walk is just ridiculous. COTW is an experiment of the Clyde’s group that we should expect to be recalibrating their business plan from time to time. They are mostly a quick bite to eat type place, while most of the people in our neighborhood in the evening (businesspeople, residents, tourists) are looking for something more substantial.

I can’t agree, though, that you should keep your comments to yourself. No one’s forced to read this blog (in fact, most of you probably enjoy it like me), and this is as good a public forum as any. We need a grocery store, so I don’t see it as offensive or annoying for people to bring it up in the comments here. I’ve been to lots of neighborhood meetings as well, and guess what? We still have no grocery store, tons of closed sidewalks, troublemaking liquor stores, etc. Community meetings are no panacea, so let’s stop pretending that they’re the only way things get done.

To Jon Gann…sorry that one of the anoonymous’ offended you. We (anonymous)are not all the same person and everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Having just lived here 6 months (and having lived numerous places around the world in the past 40+ years)it is a bit unsettling to see businesses not last in a so called booming area.
I am sure that if you are a “owner” versus a “renter”, these issues can be very sensitive.

Those of us who have experience in living in different areas see the closing of businesses very disturbing.

Maybe more people need to keep their money in the local area, rather than going to Virginia, Maryland and other parts of DC…this will keep these businesses here. However, greedy owners just raise the rents until they put small businesses “out of business”…this happens throughtout the country.

No one is intentionally saying DC sucks, it just needs to be aware of where it may be heading.

Another anonymouse.

The complaining and the propagation of negative energy needs to stop.

I’m here to spread some positive energy and vision as a native Washingtonian.

For anyone interested, there is an excellent book that was recently published called “Unique Places in DC: An Insider’s Guide to Shipping the District’s Indie-Boutiques”. It is published by Zeitgeist Books. The book doesn’t provide an exhaustive list of all boutiques in DC, but the authors identifies what they consider the best-of-the-best in each category.

Downtown DC, while the centre of commerce in DC, is not the centre of Indie-retail in DC.

14th Street has plenty of independents, Georgetown has plenty of independents, Dupont Circle still has plenty of independents, Adams Morgan has plenty of independents, Capitol Hill and Barracks Row have plenty of independents, and U Street has plenty of independents.

Explore and discover. These handy DC Indie-Boutique guides are available at the Bussboys & Poets and I do believe the Olsson’s Bookstore. Oh yes, those are independents too.

Or if you’re creative enough, you can walk over to 15th & F Sts to the Washington, DC Economic Partnership office. This option is for anyone looking to use their own entreprenurial spirit to open a business up in DC. I double dare you!

Oh yes – back to Clyde’s on the Walk. I never see a lot of people patronizing the place when I walk by.

Here’s another theory… closing Clyde’s on the Walk early has nothing to do with DC sucking or DC not being as cool as London or Paris (sorry, from an earlier post) or even PQ not being able to support one more sandwich place in addition to the 20-30 other fast food places that are within easy walking distance…. maybe Clyde’s decided that they didn’t want to waste time selling $5 sandwiches to customers who otherwise might have ventured into the restaurant to spend at least $20.

To those who are afraid DC is heading downhill… if you look at the historical context you’ll see it’s actually headed in the opposite direction. For all practical purposes, Washington has been a “city” for only 140 or so years. In that time the city has gone through a lot, and is only now emerging from riots and a flight to the suburbs (by both whites and blacks) 40 or so years ago. A mere 10-15 years ago, PQ was an abandoned and dangerous part of the city, and it’s now thriving.

DC won’t have too many small, independent stores left so long as the DC Council and Mayor do their best to tax them out of existence. Soon the only stores that can afford the expenses will be the major nation chains. When that happens, byebye vibrant downtown, hello stripmall.

otavio is 100% correct. Indie-retail/dining is thriving in DC, just not in Gallery Place. This is the Times Square of DC. I don’t say that negatively; I work in GP, and love it. Just calling a spade a spade.

If I understand the posts correctly, I don’t tnink the comments are related to DC as a whole. I think the comments are directed primarily to the Penn Quarter/Gallery Place area.

This seems to be the area in question…ie..businesses closing, empty store fronts and replacing them with non-residential friendly businesses.

DC as a whole is great. I just see problems in some areas that are trying to get established.

Hey Monkey,

The headline on Washington Business Journal’s front page reads “Small D.C. retailers in store for tax relief”

Yes, that is tax relief. This very financial package will take away from the very increases detailed in the rest of that article you linked to – and that should be decided when the Council reconvenes later this year (max 3 months from now).

“Council now must decide how to distribute $11M pool”

“11,000 small businesses” in D.C.

As you all know I was preturbed about the change in hours for Clydes on the Walk. I just left and the place was buzzing, all seats outside were finned as well as the counter inside. I asked Steve about the change in hours and why they changed. He said that since DC empties out during the summer they decided to close early and not incur the overhead. They will be re-adjusting to the old schedule in the fall

Anon: Excellent info – thank you!