In January Tom Sietsema, the Post’s food critic, gave Zee’s Restaurant (600 Florida Avenue) a highly positive review. In fact, the restaurant is now listed as an editor’s pick on the Post’s website.

Curried goat, cooked over a low fire until the meat is tender, is almost a meal for two when you factor in the accompanying lettuce salad, the chunky potatoes and the folded flatbread known as roti. Chicken stew, seasoned with thyme and other herbs, comes with a shovelful of pigeon peas that are flecked with carrot and corn. (They could use a sprinkle of salt.) Shrimp, oxtail, beef and mixed vegetables are among the featured ingredients that are either curried or stewed, take your pick, at Zee’s.

We’re happy to see neighborhood businesses succeeding.

Mr. Steve May relayed more details on Shaw’s Tavern at last night’s meeting of the LeDroit Park Civic Association.  The restaurant, slated to open in mid-June, will seat 65 – 70 people inside and 15 – 18 people on a sidewalk patio on the 6th Street front.  On Florida Avenue near the eastern end of the building, the restaurant will feature a special door just for take-out pizza orders.  (Click the image above for a larger version.)

Inside, however, the restaurant will feature a variety of entrées priced from $12 – $18.  Mr. May distributed a tentative menu.

The restaurant expects to stay open until 11:30 or midnight on weeknights and until midnight or 1 am on weekends.

As for the adjacent empty lot on 6th Street, Mr. May offered to buy it, but says the owner demanded $1 million, which is far too much for a vacant lot of that size.

While Shaw’s Tavern will occupy the first floor, the restaurant will rent out three one-bedroom apartments upstairs and expects to have them ready by May.

Howard University wants to add 1,300 beds on 4th Street, a new restaurant is coming to 6th St and Florida Avenue, the neighborhood watch seeks your input, and the conclusion of park construction are all agenda items at tonight’s Civic Association meeting.

The meeting is open to the public and all neighbors are encouraged to attend.

Tuesday, March 22 at 7 pm
Basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church
(enter on U Street)

The civic association will also take open comments from neighbors who wish bring up anything of neighborhood concern.

The building at the southeast corner of 6th Street and Florida Avenue (pictured above) may soon have a tenant. At Tuesday’s meeting of the LeDroit Park Civic Association, Mr. Steve May will discuss construction plans for a restaurant called Shaw’s Tavern. We don’t have the full details, but we are told it will be similar to Clarendon’s Liberty Tavern, which describes itself thusly:

Located in a historic building in the heart of Clarendon, The Liberty Tavern features modern American cuisine in its upstairs dining room and downstairs bar, along with a diverse wine list, creative specialty cocktails and a great selection of premium draft and bottled beer. Our comfortable ambiance is enhanced by warm, hospitable service, and whether you’re joining us for a round of drinks in the bar, a casual midweek supper with your children, or a special evening with friends and family, you’re sure to feel at home.

Attend the civic association meeting on Tuesday night for more details.  (7 pm in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church; enter on U Street)

Last month Howard University’s Board of Trustees agreed to proceed the planning process to build 1,300 beds of student housing in two new dorms on campus. This marks a 28% increase from the current 4,609 beds the university controls.  This is smart move that will aid academic success and reduce commuting pressure through the surrounding neighborhoods.

View Howard University’s future development in a larger map

The university’s goal is to create a “Freshmen Village” on 4th Street just north of LeDroit Park.  Ms. Maybelle Bennett, Howard’s community outreach director, said that enhancing academic performance and graduation rates is the university’s motivation for concentrating housing and services for new students in Freshmen Village.  Since a student’s first year is critical to a student’s success during an undergraduate career, the university wants, as Ms. Bennett adoringly put it, “to bring our babies home.”

The university will add these two new buildings to their forthcoming campus plan proposal that they will submit to the Zoning Commission in the coming months.  Each university in the District is required to submit a campus plan for the commission’s approval every ten years.

We think this is a smart move on the university’s part and will benefit everyone.

National social benefits

Universities serve a unique social mission: they exist to educate America’s youth.  As such, we must remember that a university’s success is in the national social interest.  The university’s goal of improving academic performance is laudable and its reasonable measures should be supported on social grounds.

Traffic and environmental benefits

Furthermore, by bringing more students onto campus, the university reduces the commuting pressure currently placed on students and the surrounding neighborhoods. More students walking from bed to class means fewer students driving from home to campus.

As it stands today, hundreds of students commute from housing in Prince George’s Plaza alone.  Though most of them probably take the Metro, many will undoubtedly drive on occasion, thus adding traffic and pollution to surrounding neighborhoods.  Carpooling in a Prius still has a greater environmental impact than walking, which is mankind’s oldest, cheapest, cleanest, quietest, and most universal form of transport.

Economic development benefits

With 1,300 more people within a short walk of Florida Avenue, the new dorms will increase the economic viability of the commercial spaces along LeDroit Park’s southern edge.  All of the properties along Florida Avenue are zoned for both residential and commercial use, even though most are solely residences at the moment.  In fact a century ago the 400 block of Florida Avenue (across the street from the Post Office) hosted numerous prominent black-owned businesses and doctors’ offices.

What do you think? Are you supportive of the university’s desire to add more housing on campus?

Ms. Bennett will present the plan for Freshmen Village to the LeDroit Park Civic Association. The meeting is open to the public and residents are encouraged to attend. The meeting will be at 7 pm on Tuesday, March 22 in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church (enter through the back at U and Bohrer Streets).

Florida Avenue elevation for Douglas Development's proposal for 2221 Fourteenth Street NW

The monthly meeting of ANC1B will be on Thursday, December 2 at 7pm in the Reeves Building at Fourteenth and U Streets NW.  Here are some of the highlights from the agenda:

Development/Public Space

The commission will likely support the zoning relief application for 2221 14th Street NW (image above).  In a rare residential foray, Douglas Development seeks to build a condo building at the southeast corner of Fourteenth Street and Florida Avenue.  The company is seeking support for several variances and special exceptions, mostly regarding the roof structure, rear setback, and parking requirements.  View the designs and zoning application.

The commission is also likely to lend its support to the Arts District Branding Project, which is developing graphic banners (sample at right) to hang from lights posts along Fourteenth Street and U Street.  The banner is part of a $200,000 city-funded branding project to enhance the marketing and identity of the arts district that stretches along Fourteenth Street from Rhode Island Avenue to Florida Avenue and along U Street from Seventeenth Street to Seventh Street.

DDOT prefers that private groups obtain ANC support before the agency permits groups to hang banners on poles for 90 – 180 days.  After the 180-day term, the banners remain up until another group wishes to use the poles or until the group removes them.

Also on the agenda is the District-owned Parcel 39 at the southwest corner of Eighth and T Streets in Shaw.  The site is currently a parking lot, but Mayor Fenty, in the waning days of his mayoralty, is seeking to sell the lot to a development team with plans to construct a four-unit condo building.  The sale price, or proposed sales price, has not yet been disclosed.

Alcohol Licenses

Two licensees are looking to modify their licenses:

Alero Restaurant & Lounge (1301 U Street) looks to amend its Class C license to include a 44-seat sidewalk café serving alcohol from 11:30 am to 1 am Sunday through Saturday.

Nearby, the Islander Caribbean Restaurant & Lounge (1201 U Street) wants to extend its hours and expand to the second floor.  Currently their hours are Sunday 10 am- 2 am and Thursday-Saturday 10 am-2 am.  They propose these new hours: Sunday through Saturday, 6 am-4 am with alcohol served Sunday 10 am-2 am, Monday-Thursday 8 am-2 am, and Friday – Saturday 8 am-3 am.

The commission will likely renew the following licenses as a formality:

• Duffy’s Irish Restaurant (2106 Vermont Avenue)
• Hominy/Bohemian Caverns (2001 11th Street)
• Dickson Wine (903 U Street)
• Velvet Lounge (915 U Street)
• Indulj (1208 U Street)
• Desperados Pizza (1342 U Street)
• Patty Boom Boom (1359 U Street)
• Marvin (2007 14th Street)
• The Gibson (2009 14th Street)
• Café Collage (1346 T Street)
• Jin (2017 14th Street)

We received an email from a Howard University alumna looking to open a coffeeshop nearby. We pointed her to some of the following properties that appear to have retail space for rent and that are located along heavily trafficked corridors.

First let’s look at the second floor of the recently renovated building (right) at Florida and Georgia Avenues. Earlier this summer Pharmacare opened up in one of the ground-floor retail spaces and we also learned that a 7-11 is slated for the rest of the ground floor. As far as we know, the second floor is still open and could serve as a sunny and spacious cafe location. Sitting at a major crossroads, this building is well located to extend the U Street commercial corridor down along Florida Avenue.  It also sits along a popular walking route for Howard students walking between campus and the Metro.

At Sixth Street and Florida Avenue, by the LeDroit Park arch, are two empty retail spaces at the southwest and southeast corners. On the southeast corner is a two-story building (right) that is nearly finished its renovation. As we reported in September, the location along a heavily-trafficked corridor will benefit any business locating there.  The renovated space sports new bay windows and benefits from ample outdoor sidewalk space for potential outdoor seating.

Across the street at the southwest corner lies the remaining half of the old Pyramids restaurant. Last month Zee’s Restaurant opened up next door on Florida Avenue, but the eastern half is still open.  Though it’s small, it also has ample sidewalk space along the Sixth Street face.

The last space we know about is the old hair salon at the corner of Fifth Street and Florida Avenue.  You may recognize it as the purple building adorned with the image of Madam C.J. Walker (right). The last time we checked, it was still for rent. Unfortunately it has little space for sidewalk seating, it’s isolated from other commercial strips, and it’s small.

These are the properties we think would work well for a fledgling cafe. Are there any other locations nearby we missed? Also, what sort of amenities are you looking for in a neighborhood cafe?

Zee’s Restaurant has opened up on Florida Avenue at Sixth Street. The Trinidadian restaurant is family-run and serves goat curry, potatoes, chickpeas, callaloo soup, and roti, among other things. The reviews, including an unpublished review from a newspaper food critic, are highly positive.

The liquor license is pending.

We’ve been remiss in posting lately, but we thought we might share with you some neighborhood updates.

Over at First Street and Rhode Island Avenue in Bloomingdale, Rustik Tavern just opened, offering the holy duo of pizza and beer.  We went there after the last LeDroit Park Civic Association and though it was unbearably loud, it did serve good beer and good pizza.

Speaking of the LeDroit Park Civic Association, September’s monthly meeting featured the proprietor of Zee’s, the new restaraunt opening on Florida Avenue across from the LeDroit Park arch.  It will open any day now and will offer Trinidadian cuisine.  The owner has come here by way of New York and we welcome his investment in the area.  What will his restaurant serve?  Well, we’re not sure what constitutes Trinidadian cuisine, but when it opens, we’ll be sure to find out.

On the southeast corner of Sixth Street and Florida Avenue, the property we wrote about earlier is nearly finished with its renovation.  There’s no word yet on any potential lease or if the owner himself will open a tavern.  We’re still looking hopefully at the building nonetheless.

The LeDroit Park Market will be remain closed for the next two weeks while it undergoes some minor renovations and electrical repairs. We’re afraid we’ll have to satisfy our ice cream cravings elsewhere.