No more Candey for you young lady!

When a business goes away there's usually a certain amount of speculation among the local populace about what will be the replacement. One type of business often wished for is a hardware store. Well, we've only had two hardware stores in recent memory on or near Connecticut Avenue -- one left a few weeks ago and the other has just announced they are also calling it quits. True-Value Hardware was on P Street at Dupont Circle and they moved out a few weeks ago. Now Candey Hardware on 18th Street also at Dupont Circle is going away. What happened? Did we stop needing hardware? Or did Home Depot take all the customers?

The usual course of events, at least in this neck of the woods, is that the lease expires, the rent is jacked up to something other worldly, and the business either closes completely or moves. That's not the case with Candey, the family owns the building -- and now they plan to sell it. According to Candey owner Gwen Lofton in an interview with the Washington Post, the store has been losing "a hundred customers a day in the past few years." I don't know how you figure that out, but, regardless, it doesn't sound good.

Maybe some of these big drug stores could incorporate some of the more commonly needed hardware items into their inventory. Maybe CVS could lose some toothbrushes and sell some nails instead. How about dumping some of the thousand different tissue brands and getting some paint in their place? Maybe get rid of a few hundred types of deodorant and put in a few power tools.

But certainly, unless you're Home Depot, it's enough to give potential hardware store owners pause about taking the risk of starting up a business in the city.

One Video Store = One Sandwich Shop + One Bank

What used to be the Video Warehouse in Van Ness is going to be the home of two businesses: Potbelly, which is already here, and Wachovia which is "Coming Soon." We know it's coming soon because the writing is on the wall. Why we're getting another Wachovia when there's already one three doors down is anyone's guess. Maybe they're out to eliminate that Sandwich Shop Capital of the World" moniker that the area is deservedly proud of and change it to, "Van Ness: it's a Wachovia World."

Nanny O'Billiards?

January 30 is the last night for Nanny O'Briens bar in Cleveland Park. They're being taken over by Bedrock Companies, owners of Bedrock Bars. Bedrock already own Atomic Billiards and Aroma on the same block as Nanny's so maybe one day the strip will be called Bedrock Row. They also own Buffalo Billiards in Dupont Circle and lots of other places locally and around the country.

A Nanny's bartender said that Nanny's will be closed on Wednesday and back open on Thursday so don't look for wholesale changes. All they have time for I guess is to clean up a little and try to do something about that smell that's taken over since the smoking ban. Well something more than just leaving the front door open anyway. And maybe straighten the Nanny O'Brien's sign above the entrance. The word is that the St. Patrick's Day Parade fundraiser scheduled for Saturday, February 3 will go ahead as planned.

I never much cared for the name Nanny's although it's certainly recognizable -- there's only one Nanny's. Still, when I've said "I'm going to Nanny's" or "I spent the night at Nanny's last night," it always sounded to me like I'd been spending an inordinate amount of time with my grandmother. As long as they don't go through the identity crisis that the Four Provinces/Four P's/Four Green Fields/Ireland's Four Fields did across the road.

Bedrock claims they're going to keep the Irish music -- something I can happily live without -- but I can put up with it as long as they keep the Guinness. I'm going to take a stroll down Bedrock Row this weekend and check it out.

Coat of Arms pulled out of Indian Ocean -- signs of life detected

I hate to keep writing about the same place but this is an odd duck. The Coat of Arms which, after being open for about a month, became the Indian Ocean, is now back to being the Coat of Arms again. Well, that's what the sign says, I couldn't actually find anyone to talk to about it. The awning people must be making a fortune off these folks.

I wonder what February holds.

Coat of Arms sinks into the Indian Ocean

In what may be one of the fastest company turnarounds in Connecticut Avenue history, the Coat of Arms restaurant in Van Ness was bought out before it even opened. The Coat of Arms owner told me that a few days before the place was due to open, someone stopped by, took a look at the decor, and, "made an offer I couldn't refuse." That was in early December. The Coat of Arms opened on December 16 and the new place, Indian Ocean, opens January 5, 2007. So we're going from British food -- and I was there on opening day and had a very tasty shepherds pie --to Indian. The sign in the window says "seafood/Northern Indian cuisine" to be precise.

At least that's the way it was this afternoon, by the time you read this it might be a Taco Bell.

A Bigger Burke

There's more Edmund Burke School these days than there used to be. Located on the corner of Upton Street and Connecticut Avenue in the Van Ness area, the new addition is standing on what used to be a patch of grass. The original portion of the school is on the extreme right of the "after" photo.

Whaddya say we skip work today?

Metro rail was closed this morning (November 16, 2006) between Van Ness and Farragut North causing crowds of people to wait on Connecticut Avenue for shuttle buses.

It seems there was a loss of power between Dupont Circle and Woodley Park causing a train to stop. The approximately 75 passengers had to be led back to Dupont on a catwalk that runs beside the track. If any of those 75 are bloggers, I expect they'll have a catwalk story to tell a little later today.

Metro is now trying to find out why there was a loss of power.


Buses are also bringing people north to Van Ness and dropping them off so they can continue northwards on the train.

Lucky Van Ness to be the site of all this activity at 7 in the morning!

CVS Listens

I don't know if the concept of "the customer is always right" ever went away, but if it did, well, it's back. We're living in an age where the customer gets what he wants or he goes elsewhere.

The Paradox of Choice pointed out the astonishing amount of options consumers have available to them on the shelves and also in the amount of places to buy those items whether in traditional stores or on the Web. Any organization that's unresponsive to today's customer might not stay in business for long.

An example of businesses working to keep customers happy, at least locally, can be found at the CVS in Cleveland Park. The store had large, colorful panels in its windows facing out to the street. You might have seen them: mostly red pieces, about 20x24 with CVS in yellow (or white) letters. Inoffensive, impractical, eye-catching blotches of color.

The Cleveland Park denizens, however, didn't much care for them and let CVS know that the windows might be even more attractive if the panels were replaced with photos of historical Cleveland Park. Well, lo and behold, fast-forward a few weeks and suddenly there's old-time Cleveland Park right there in the windows of CVS.

The photos are accompanied by short captions that are actually drawing passers-by in to examine the pictures and read the captions.

I don't think CVS burned any bridges or lost any customers by agreeing to this request. Well done CVS!

By the way, there's an egregious error on one of the captions. Get down there and see if you can figure it out!

This just in!

We're very excited to imagine that Van Ness just might become the new leader in the race for the coveted title of Sandwich Shop Capital of the World.

The opening of Potbelly in late September brings the total of sandwich emporiums to seven on a strip of Connecticut Avenue about, oh, 150 yards long. Coming south from Albemarle Street we have Quiznos, Schlotzsky's, Subway and Potbelly (across the avenue from each other), Epicurean (actually a cafeteria style restaurant plus a bar but also heavily into sandwiches so work with me here people), and, maybe to stretch it a little, there's also Burger King and KFC/Taco Bell.

If we could just get another dry cleaners to go along with the four existing ones: Zips, Parklane, Diplomat, and Embassy, in that same strip of connave we could potentially get the Dynamite Double of Sandwich Shop and Dry Cleaner Capital of the World!

Where could Van Ness go from there? Well, a decent bar wouldn't go amiss.

Run it up the pole

Pole cameras have made an appearance on Connecticut Avenue. Well, I've actually only seen one (pictured) and this one is close to the Broadmoor in Cleveland Park. The camera is pointing northwards seemingly aimed directly at the middle of the avenue. The police have said that the cameras are not for catching red light runners but are there as a crime deterrent. So, if you happen to get mugged in the middle of Connecticut Avenue just north of the Broadmoor, rest assured the perp will be be captured for posterity -- at least on camera.

Rumblings From Down Under

OK, this isn't strictly about ConnAve, it's about Metro. But hey, the train goes under ConnAve and that's close enough for me.

I've ridden Metro for the last month so obviously I'm now an expert. This is not an anti-Metro rant; you can find plenty of that elsewhere. You want to hear about elevators and escalators that don't work? Late trains? Single tracking? Sorry, wrong blog.

What I have is a list of the things I find particularly annoying about my fellow travelers along with some advice for them. I suppose a “Ten Worst” list would be appropriate but I don’t have ten, I have nine. No anger management necessary here!

In no particular order:

1) Don't sit on the outside of seats in an attempt to keep me off "your" seat unless you want me crawling all over you. You're not really "special" enough to deserve that seat to yourself.

2) If you are the driver that says, "All aboard! Doors are closing." when actually, they're just now opening, and then repeat it at every station, and I mean EVERY station, well, don't be surprised if I run up to the front of the train one of these days and rip out your little microphone.

3) Keep your foot off that vertical pole when you're sitting on the inward facing seat unless you want your lower leg amputated.

4) What about the people who are so enormous that they take up two seats on their own. Do we need bigger seats? Or smaller humans? We already have seats designated as being available for people with disabilities or the elderly, maybe we should have fat seats that stretch most of the way across the train so the 300 pound and up crowd have a place for themselves.

5) Face front, and keep those feet tucked in! When you sit on the outside of the seat and stick your feet -- both of them! -- out there in the aisle, don't be shocked if those naked little tootsies get stomped on.

6) Hey! People that leave newspapers on the train! Why don't you save the paper and tomorrow, give it back to the person that gave it to you?

7) To the crowd of folks who get up two stops before Metro Center and stand next to the door so they can be first in line to burst out the doors and sprint off to another platform. Have you tried getting an earlier train?

8) To Mr. Hard O'Hearing who won't be happy until he's achieved total deafness, and so listens to his music at full blast so we can all hear that annoying, repetitive, tinny, racket all over the train. Thanks a lot Mr. O'Hearing! Here's to your eventual happiness. Come to think of it, why can you only hear the bass from a passing car when the volume is up at the deafening level, but it's only treble that leaks out of an iPod?

9) Please. Let's all liberally apply deodorant and suck on breath mints before boarding a crowded train.

Giant people seen at Van Ness

Seven months after closing for renovations and enlarging, the Giant at Van Ness has re-opened and so far it looks good, at least on the first weekend. The place is considerably bigger than the previous incarnation, more colorful, inviting, friendly, and with a much larger choice of products. There are still two entrances, one from Connecticut Avenue and one from the Veazey Street garage. There are 12 checkout lanes, three of which are self-checkout.

The variety of drinks alone is astonishing. And over 200 types of cheese. Enough choice to drive a maximizer insane.

I read somewhere that Giant brings in experienced employees for store openings to ensure smooth running as well as the training of permanent staff so all bets are off what the place will be like in a couple of months but for now, welcome back Giant, you're looking good.

Egg Heaven

My idea of a treat in Cleveland Park on an occasional weekend morning is an omelet from Firehook Bakery.

Walk into 3411 Connecticut Avenue across from the Uptown Theater between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m on a Saturday or Sunday and right inside the door you'll find the lady waiting to take care of your omelet desires.

She has more toppings than you'll need including ham, two types of cheese, red peppers, onions, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms. You can also go for bacon and hash browns on the side. A slice of freshly baked bread tops it all off and whaddya know, it's only $5.50. With or without toppings.

The bakery is a long, skinny place with two rows of tables and, way at the back, an outdoor area with some more places to sit and enjoy the food and some quiet time. Firehook's omelet is one of those treats you might not know about if you don't live in the area but it's well worth traveling for.

Put a lid on it!

One of the Cleveland Park Metro exits got a
new roof over the escalator this weekend. I don't know a lot about escalators but you've got to figure that rain and escalators don't go together too well. And that probably goes a long way towards explaining those unintelligable announcements about escalator outages. At least I think that's what they're about. Maybe after they've settled on a new "Doors Closing" voice, they can give some thought to that voice that sounds like it's telling us something important but gets lost as it reverberates throughout the stations.

The escalator outage situation is so chronic that Metro has an Electronic Elevator Notification system in place where you can be sent electronically (as long as it stays dry and remains working), messages telling you of the current escalator status. Metro calls it ELLEN although I'm not sure how you get ELLEN out of Electronic Elevator Notification.

Back in 2001, Metro held a competition for the design of a canopy which was eventually won by a Silver Spring architectural firm. What is it with Metro and competitions? First canopies, now voices. How about they have an internal competition to see how safe and reliable they can make public transportation?

Anyway, before I get off track (no pun intended), Metro has figured out this escalator/weather problem and so Dupont Circle, Woodley Park, and now one side of Cleveland Park have all sprouted these rounded canopies. Metro says that 53 outdoor entrances will have canopies eventually.

So where should we drink tonight?

There's been some odd naming of bars in the Cleveland Park area just lately. The Uptown Tavern for one. In most places, this wouldn't be a problem but when people refer to "the Uptown" in the Cleveland Park area, they're talking about the theater. So why try and compete with that? It's forcing us to use two words when bars should be known by one name, preferably with a maximum of six letters. Nanny's, for example. An odd name for a bar to be sure but when someone says, "I was at Nanny's last night," or I'll meet you at Nanny's at ten," chances are they're not talking about their grandmother. Try saying, "I'll see you at the Uptown on Friday night" to somebody and suddenly you've got a totally unnecessary conversation on your hands.

There's a load of restaurants in Cleveland Park that adhere to the one word name: Ardeo, Lavandou, Palena, Dino, Indique, Alero, Yanni's, and Spices for example. Pretentious sounding for sure, but the latest batch of watering holes could learn from their fancier, yet more simply named, brethren.

The late, lamented (at least by me) Bricks was another great name that caused no confusion. But the new owners decided to rename it the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? Five words and a mighty twenty-two letters. So what's the shorthand of that? CPB&G? Try saying, "I'm off to the CPB&G" out loud. Go ahead, I'll wait.
A common response will be, "what?" Or, from the less verbose, "huh?" And once again you have to explain yourself.

Even the Four P's (as everybody called it), though technically two words I suppose, didn't violate the six letter rule. But now, weighing in at three words and fifteen letters, the Four P's has become Four Green Fields. The best I can come up with is The Fields mainly because I know of an Irish bar in San Diego called The Field and that's a fun little place.

Still, whatever happened to Joe's?

So long, Ireland's Four Provinces . . .

The Four P's is no more -- at least not in Cleveland Park. But fear not you Guinness swilling, wild, wild rovers. The bar is still there, it's just changed owners and got itself a new name. It's now known as Four Green Fields and has been bought by longtime Four P's General Manager, Frank Hughes. Part of the deal was on the understanding that the business name would be changed so as not to conflict with the Falls Church version of the Four Provinces.

So what do we call them? The Four G's? The Fields? Something tells me they'll be known far and wide as the Four P's for a while yet.

It's a puzzler . . .

Lots of things I don't understand: How does the overhang at the Kennedy Center possibly stay up there? Who lives in the Kennedy-Warren? Why do people drive the way they do? (OK, I figure that last one is because they must have supreme faith in their brakes or their reflexes or maybe it's the "it could never happen to me" syndrome). I don't know, but here comes another one for me to puzzle over: why do people ignore intersections when trying to cross busy roads when they could take a couple of extra minutes to walk to the appropriate crossing area and continue living?

I witnessed a woman crossing Connecticut Avenue near Van Ness Metro station today at 8:45 a.m. -- rush hour -- and she took it one lane at a time. She waddled out one lane and stopped. Then, when she saw her chance she advanced across a second lane and stopped again. Now, I don't know if you've ever counted, but there's six of those lanes to get across and to do it one at a time at 8:45 on a Tuesday morning takes a special kind of faith that I can only dream of. There was the Veazey Street traffic light about 50 yards away but no! She was headed to a restaurant and maybe she could hear those waffles calling to her but man, I wanted to say, if you want to make it to lunch you might consider going the extra 50 yards and using the traffic signal over there at Veazey.

The other day a man was hit by a vehicle while crossing Connecticut Avenue close to the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park and not at a traffic light. Now, I feel bad for the guy -- he died later but not before our opportunistic police force slapped him with a five dollar jaywalking ticket -- but you know, if you're going to live dangerously, you shouldn't be shocked when danger comes to meet you. If you're going to attempt to cross a busy thoroughfare like Connecticut Avenue between two close-by traffic lights, then, like those aforementioned drivers and waffle lady, you've got to have a special faith in your good fortune that day.

There's a traffic light at Ordway and there's a traffic light at Macomb. Now there's a move afoot to stick a crosswalk between those lights in the vicinity of the Theater. I don't know if this crosswalk would have a traffic light or not but if it does we can look forward to a complete logjam of vehicles right there in the middle of Cleveland Park. But then, I suppose, a logjam would remove any danger in crossing the road. Or maybe there won't be a traffic light installed, they'll give us flags instead like at Morrison Street up at Chevy Chase. Now there's some faith! Grab a flag and wave it as you boldly step out into traffic.

In an altercation between a vehicle and a human, the human is usually on the losing end. If we don't have the time to go to the crosswalk then it might be time to slow down a little and take stock of our priorities.

Should we lose the Cleveland Park service road?

Commissioner Avi Fechter of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C (ANC3C) is proposing to get rid of the service road on the east side of Connecticut Avenue between Ordway and Macomb Streets. There's a public meeting to discuss the subject on Saturday November 19 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the second district police station at the intersection of Idaho Avenue and Newark Street.

Mr. Fechter says, "Initial DDOT analysis indicate that it is possible to close the service road, widen the sidewalk, and not lose more than 3-4 public parking spaces. Parking spaces would be diagonal, like on 18th St. in Adams Morgan and 8th St. SE (Barracks Row). Cars would back into the spaces, like they would a parallel parking space." ANC3C will meet to disuss and maybe vote on the resolution on Monday, November 23.

Not a bad idea, the east side will look more like the west side: more space for pedestrians, more outdoor cafe type seating, no more stepping off the sidewalk and being clipped by a car. I don't suppose the valet car business will suffer any, in fact, because there will be a loss of "3-4 parking spaces," it will probably be more necessary than ever. I don't know about this diagonal parking space idea though. Stopping on ConnAve in the middle of Cleveland Park to back into a space is not for the faint of heart.

Mr. Fechter is also proposing adding a crosswalk over Connecticut Avenue in the middle of that block. I'm not sure that's necessary -- a crosswalk means a traffic light doesn't it? We're not going to try that orange flag thing again are we? Aren't the crosswalks at Ordway and Macomb enough?

Avi's also got a problem with Zipcar using metered parking spaces for their vehicles. But aren't car sharing services the saving grace for those city dwellers that only need wheels occasionally? Seems to me that outfits like Zipcar and Flexcar will encourage people to get rid of their barely used cars thereby potentially opening up parking spaces.

Well I followed her to the station, a suitcase in my hand . . .

The popularity of blues is cyclical. It might be "in" for five years and "out" for eight. But plugging away through the ups and downs are the musicians on the local level, doing whatever it takes to play this authentic American art form that drives them, keeps them going.

Lots of cities have a bar or two devoted to the blues, sometimes it just takes a little searching. You don't have to be a sleuth in St Louis though, there's three blues bars within a stone's throw of Busch Stadium -- now the former home of the St. Louis Cardinals. Two of them are across the street from each other: BB's Jazz Blues & Soups and Beale on Broadway. One block down the road is the Broadway Oyster Bar. The bands that play here are mostly local and a few of them travel from one to the next of these three bars during the course of a week, making a kind of blues circle. Admission is usually free, and in the warm weather the bands at the Oyster Bar and at Beale play outside. Let me tell you, it doesn't get much better than sitting outside on a warm St. Louis summer evening, drinking some of the local brews and listening to someone singing the blues. A particular treat is to hear Kim Massie. She usually plays Beale on Broadway on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and she has a voice that has to be heard. The locals claim she sounds like a cross between Aretha Franklin and Etta James, and they're not far wrong.

Also in St. Louis is Soulard, a neighborhood that's a little off the tourist path but worth catching the bus for. It's a mostly residential neighborhood with some cobblestone streets and a bar on most corners. The bars often have two bands a day, Friday to Sunday, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. In recent years the music has changed somewhat, though, to try and attract bigger and younger crowds than the blues usually draws -- that's why sometimes you'll hear music written by Jim Morrison instead of by Willie Dixon or Muddy Waters.

Not just St. Louis of course. San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Austin, Kansas City, all have a thriving -- or at least, alive -- blues scene.

And D.C? Well, lucky for us, not only do we have a gen-u-wine blues bar but it's on Connecticut Avenue across from the zoo. Not surprisingly, it's called the Zoo Bar, and the music is live Thursday, Friday, Saturday and, just lately, Sunday nights. Sometimes there's some variation but usually, Friday and Saturday nights have the same bands on the same weeks of each month -- in other words, the band that plays on the first Saturday of the month always plays on the first Saturday of the month.

Well worth catching on the first Saturday is The Big Boy Little Band featuring the incomparable guitar playing of Rusty Bogart and on the last Saturday you can see Flatfoot Sam and the Educated Fools, a staple at the Zoo Bar for many years.

Thursday is jam night at the Zoo Bar and my favorite night. The house band, led by Big Boy Little, plays from about 8:30 to 9:00 or 9:30, and then everybody else gets to join in -- in an orderly kind of way of course. This is no usual jam night crowd of musicians, these people know their instruments and their music. It's sometimes close to astonishing to experience the quality
and diversity of the music played by these folks who come into the bar Thursday after Thursday for no pay, just for the thrill of playing the music in front of warm bodies.

There aren't a lot of national blues acts left touring -- Buddy Guy and B.B. King are close to the entire list -- so we have to rely more and more on our local musicians for a dose of the blues whether in the mid-west or D.C. The Zoo Bar is an underutilized Washington, D.C. gem right under our noses. It deserves our respect if only for hanging in there during the ups and downs of blues popularity.

And just so you don't get the wrong impression, I am in no way affiliated with the Zoo Bar, they don't know about this entry or even this blog. I wrote the above statements because I'm a blues fan, pure and simple.

Cleveland Park Bar & Grill Opens For Business

As I drove through Cleveland Park last night on my way home from work I noticed a new "Now Open!" sign above what used to be Bricks and someone was taking down the paper that has covered the windows for the last few weeks. In the interests of bringing the latest news to my faithful readers, I later slogged through last night's torrential storm to the CP strip to take a look. What was Bricks is now the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill. The new owners (three of them!) have made a lot of changes: new wallpaper, snazzy mirrors, juke box, bench seats, wall paneling, flat-panel televisions, re-finished bar, etc., etc.

Friday night was what they called a "soft opening" -- no advertising, just friends and families had been told, but the Strip foot traffic even for such a wet and wild night helped to fill the place. I guess a lot of locals have missed the Park Bench and Bricks. Incidentally, the word is that the Park Bench will reopen in a couple of weeks as the Uptown Tavern.

The menu is far from complete but there's still the wood burning oven for the pizza, plus there's now a "Dinner Menu" involving steaks, burgers, salmon, and some Italian stuff. OK, so I'm not a restaurant critic. The opening night free pizza was fine but the crusts were consistantly burnt -- seems like the kitchen staff needs a bit more practice with the oven. But let's not forget, it was free.

Starters include Italian cold cuts, pizza bianca, bruschettas and salads. The desserts are listed under the heading of "Sugar," so do with that what you will although I noticed it involved such things as ice cream, tarts, brownies, and more ice cream.

Lots of wines available. The usual lineup of beers on tap including Guinness but unfortunately, no Bass so there go the black-and-tans.

Anyway, it's good to see the place back in business, and all you lost souls that have been roaming the area all summer with no place to go -- the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill is here for you.