Three new restaurants and one beer garden open in Shaw
The opening of new restaurants on 14th Street has been prolific enough to merit attention from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. These papers might want to turn their attention to Shaw, which is seeing three new restaurants and one beer garden open within a two-week period. All of these new places are within a mile of LeDroit Park.
Dacha
In time for Oktoberfest, Dacha beer garden opened Wednesday at 1600 7th Street to serve a variety of American, German, and Belgian beers. Dacha, like the Garden District beer garden (née Standard) on 14th Street, will close for the winter. After Dacha closes for the season, the owners will start construction on a permanent building to house the kitchen and bar.
Dacha is open weekdays from 4 pm to 10:30 pm and on weekends from noon to midnight.
Tomorrow from 2 pm to 3 pm, Mayor Gray is cutting the ribbon for three other restaurants, Mandalay, Thally, and Baby Wale.
Mandalay
After you finish your beer at Dacha, walk two blocks to Mandalay at 1501 9th Street, a site that has been in the works for several years. Though the building has been finished for some time, the restaurant, which sits on the ground floor, will open Sunday night for dinner.
Mandalay serves Burmese food, including many vegetarian options. The restaurant will serve eight family-style dishes at seatings at 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm Tuesdays through Sundays. Bring your wallet, though, as the prix-fixe menu is $40 on weekdays and $50 on weekends.
Thally
If you’re not in the mood for Burmese food, walk two blocks south on 9th Street to Thally (1316 9th Street), which opened last week. The restaurant, pronounced like ‘tally’, serves “modern American” food. First course items range from $8 to $10 and include peach and prosciutto soup, fancy BLTs, and crab roulette. Main course items range from $17 to $28 and include roasted duck, delmonico steak, and rockfish.
Thally is open from 5 pm to 11:30 pm Tuesdays through Sundays.
Baby Wale (I hope that’s not a menu item!)
If you’re more in the mood for wine and snacks, continue walking two blocks south to Baby Wale (1124 9th Street), a project of the Tom Power, who started Corduroy next door. Baby Wale, which opened last week, is far more casual than its upscale neighbor and serves soups, salads, sandwiches and “upscale bar food”. As for alcohol, the place serves specialty cocktails, 80 different bottles of wine, and six draft beers.
Baby Wale opens at 5 pm Mondays through Saturdays.
It’s amazing how quickly new restaurants are opening on Shaw’s primary main streets. Even more food options are on the way as Progression Place’s storefronts continue to fill and as the new Giant opens in November at 7th and O Streets.
Name | Address | Distance | Cuisine |
---|---|---|---|
Dacha | 1600 7th St | 0.6 mi | beer garden |
Mandalay | 1501 9th St | 0.7 mi | Burmese |
Thally | 1316 9th St | 0.8 mi | Modern American |
Baby Wale | 1124 9th St | 1.0 mi | wine and bar food |
Video from the mayor’s presser on recent flooding
The mayor’s news conference on the establishment of an anti-flooding task force drew a lot of media attention. All the local affiliates covered it:
- NBC 4 (WRC) – video below
- FOX 5 (WTTG) – video below
- ABC 7 (WJLA) – video below
- Channel 9 (WUSA)
Watch the videos below.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mayor Gray announces a task force to address area flooding
Later this morning, Mayor Vincent Gray, Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D – Ward 5), and representatives from DC Water and District agencies, will announce the creation of a task force to address the flooding that has occurred in numerous basements in LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale since July.
The mayor and councilmember will hold the press conference today at 11:30 am at the park at triangle park at First Street and Florida Avenue NW.
During several downpours in July, the overtaxed sewers below Florida Avenue in LeDroit Park and below several streets in Bloomingdale backed up into residents’ basements.
DC Water, the semi-independent agency that manages the drinking water and sewer infrastructure, says the completion of new diversion sewer tunnels in 2025 will solve the problem for good. Waiting 13 years is little consolation for residents whose basements have flooded with diluted sewage.
Meet Mayor Gray in LeDroit Park on Friday
Mayor Vincent Gray is visiting LeDroit Park on Friday night at 7pm. The LeDroit Park Civic Association has moved its June meeting to Friday, June 15 at 7 pm to accomodate the mayor’s visit. The mayor will address various questions from neighbors and about the neighborhood. The civic association has forwarded on to the mayor several questions regarding the park and regarding crime in the neighborhood.
Please join us for this special civic association meeting in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church. We are hoping the mayor will join us afterward for a brief neighborhood tour if his schedule permits it.
All residents are encouraged to attend.
Three Projects Break Ground This Week
We’re back from our half-month vacation and LeDroit Park and Shaw are about to see some construction action starting today.
Wednesday, September 1 – 10:30 am
Just when we thought construction on the park on the site of the old Gage-Eckington School would begin, along came the parks scandal last October. Then in March, Harry Thomas Jr. (D – Ward 5) tried to prevent the mayor from appropriating money to the park project; he then reversed himself after an avalanche of constituent criticism. The new contract was ready to go until Councilmember Marion Barry (D – Ward 8) put a hold on the contract in late July. Mr. Barry’s delay procedure just expired and the mayor’s office will host a groundbreaking ceremony today at 10:30 am at Third and Elm Streets.
3:00 pm
Over in Shaw, the two block site currently occupied by Giant and a crumbling old market façade is about to start its journey to become a vibrant mixed-use development. Join the Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), Mayor Adrian Fenty (D), Council Chairman Vincent Gray (D), Councilmember Jack Evans (D – Ward 2) and Councilmember Kwame Brown (D – at large) for the groundbreaking.
Thursday, September 2 – 10:45 am
After years of planning and promises, construction on the Howard Theatre begins in earnest. Join the developer, ANC Commissioner Myla Moss, and other notables for the official groundbreaking.
We’re relieved to see these long-promised projects finally moving forward to construction.
Two-Sided Nickles
We wrote yesterday about Attorney General Peter Nickles’s determination that park construction contracts, including the contract for the new park in LeDroit Park, should have received approval from the City Council. Well, somebody in the mayor’s office must have paid Mr. Nickles a stern phone call; the Post reports that he is now recanting his previous statement.
Mr. Nickles now insists that Council review should be reinstated henceforth, but not retroactively for current construction contracts.
The Council, however, is not too pleased.
Council Chairman Vincent Gray (D) is annoyed and told the Post,
For the attorney general to give a carte blanche green light to these questionable contracts, even before council hearings or any legislative action, is inappropriate and not in compliance with my reading of the law. If they are required to be submitted, we make no distinction between the past and the future. We expect to receive these contracts.
Councilmembers Kwame R. Brown (D – at large) and Harry Thomas Jr. (D – Ward 5) will hold a hearing on the matter on Friday and are threatening to sue to halt the contracts.
However, ANC Commissioner Myla Moss (ANC1B01 – LeDroit Park), in an email to Councilmember Jim Graham (D – Ward 1), wrote that the park project in LeDroit Park
was reviewed and discussed before the Council during the last round of appropriations negotiations at which time the Council voted to allocate funds for the project.
While a bidding process was absent this project was not only transparent, it also involved inter-agency and inter-governmental collaborations.
When we spotted Councilmember Graham at last night’s streetcar open house we didn’t realize the urgency of this issue or we would have strongly expressed our opposition to further delays (while of course chastising the mayor for his illegal maneuverings).
The Council and the mayor’s office are at odds; let’s hope that LeDroit Park doesn’t fall victim to this clash of titans. In fact there’s something better than hope: you can email Mr. Graham your opinion.
Also, you can attend the LeDroit Park Civic Association meeting tonight; Mr. Graham and Ms. Moss will discuss the issue. It’s at 7:00 pm in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church (623 Florida Avenue).
Recent Comments