MODERNO FEATURED IN WASHINGTON SPACES MAGAZINE!
volume 3: issue 4
While some condominium owners want to stay put due to great locations, they often struggle with wanting to have the latest and greatest amenities, such as state-of-the-art kitchens and hardwood flooring. Or maybe they want to update to get the highest return on their investment. Two architects and two interior designers walk us through the steps you can take to update, from doing complete overhauls to just adding a little paint.
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Public House
May 31, 2007
Most folks driving along Georgia Avenue NW see abandoned structures sealed with plywood or one barber shop after another hiding behind safety bars, maybe even a few fellas loitering around the House strip joint, distributing postcards trumpeting the fleshy, bum-cake joys of Cherokee D’Ass. Not Robb LaKritz.
Years ago, back when the former Shaw resident used to drive his motorcycle to Curtis Chevrolet for repairs, LaKritz could see his past before him—maybe even his future.
“I was like, this is a boulevard. I mean, this is a beautiful boulevard. It reminded me of Woodward Avenue, where I grew up in Detroit, where you’ve got wide sidewalks,” recalls LaKritz, who used to work on overseas economic development for the Treasury Department. “You’ve got an interesting topography. The hills go up and down. They kind of undulate, and you get beautiful soaring views at places on Georgia Avenue.”
The vision stuck. In 2003, LaKritz purchased an 1896 farmhouse on 8th Street NW and began spending time with his new neighbors. They all seemed to agree on one thing: The ’hood needed a real sit-down restaurant, not another shabby carryout offering that great triumvirate of chicken, subs, and Chinese-American stir-fries. By January 2006, they got what they wanted: Temperance Hall, which LaKritz and business partner Joshua Adler, another Treasury refugee, opened with the hope of recalling an idealized Jazz Age milieu, one that likely never existed along Georgia Avenue.
Temperance Hall may be the strangest, coolest venture you’ll ever see. LaKritz and Adler seem driven less by a passion for food and restaurants than by a passion for revitalizing a blighted neighborhood, which they hope to accomplish without gentrifying it. LaKritz calls their approach “responsible revitalization” because it tries to serve the needs of Petworth, not make it over.
The LaKritz-Adler team’s inexperience in the hospitality industry led them to turn to Joe Englert for guidance on how to transform the former barber shopn cumncrack house into Temperance Hall. Englert, the man behind the “Atlas District,” owns a 50-percent share in the building and restaurant, and his fingerprints are all over the place; Temperance’s moody, sumptuous, Roaring ’20s ambience feels distinctively Englertian, as thematically airtight as some of the guy’s H Street NE drinking holes. But LaKritz says the neighborhood has had as much a hand in shaping Temperance as Englert and the former Treasury boys.
Specifically, LaKritz recalls a community meeting at the home of Buddy Moore, a veteran neighborhood activist. More than 30 people attended. “They were asking us, ‘What do you guys envision for the menu?’ And I said to them, ‘What do you guys envision for the menu, because you’re going to be the customers?’?” They had suggestions, LaKritz says, from high-quality burgers to grilled-cheese sandwiches to Sunday brunch.
Many of the suggestions made the cut, which perhaps is not so surprising. The menu follows the basic grill-it-or-fry-it rule of taverns, although LaKritz notes that Temperance plans to add an oven soon to expand its options. But even within the current limited framework of pub grub, Temperance delivers quality chow at a price that seems eminently affordable to anyone, whether denizens of the ’hood or not. The highest-priced entree, a well-seasoned and grilled hanger steak, all char and savor, tops out at $14.
The chicken Milanese, served on a crunchy, pillowy bun from Lyon Bakery, is about as exotic as a cafe latte these days, but Temperance prepares the sandwich with utmost care, layering avocado, Jack cheese, lettuce, and roasted-garlic mayo on top of a tenderly fried piece of breast meat that has just the right crunch. The all- American sloppy Joes— refashioned on the appetizer menu as “Junior Joes” to capitalize on the mini-burger craze—go easy on the Bunyon-esque sweet-and-sour flavors that typically induce my gag reflex. The kitchen also impressed me with its half-pound burger studded with onions, which was no small feat, given that my friend had ordered it well-done.
Temperance seems to grasp that small details are important, even with finger food. The spicy bar nuts, dubbed Prohibition Peanuts, are tempered with generous sprinkles of cinnamon and sugar. The addictive hummus, served with crisped strips of Barbary bread, is given extra depth and color with roasted red peppers, and the French fries come loaded with thick crystals of flavor-enhancing salt. Only the grilled cheese proves disappointing, a cheddar-and-Jack combo on satisfyingly crunchy semolina bread that’s drenched with nasal-clearing mustard.
Arguably the highlight here comes on the drinks menu. It’s a Sazerac, the old New Orleans cocktail made with rye whiskey, Peychaud’s bitters, and just a hint of Herbsaint, that absinthe stand-in. The licorice-flavored cocktail, with its excellent whiskey burn, is history in a martini glass, a throwback to when rye spirits ruled the northeastern U.S. in the days before Prohibition. The Sazerac, as well as Temperance’s line of rye whiskeys, recall the days when people drank first and asked questions later. Way later.
No matter what you order at Temperance, though, it’ll likely be served by someone from the neighborhood. It’s part of the Temperance ethos: Work where you live. Says LaKritz: “Almost exclusively, all of our staff lives in Petworth.” Such an admirable philosophy has its drawbacks, particularly if address counts for more than experience: Service can range from inattentive to needy. One evening after waiting 30 minutes for our food, I checked with the manager; he apologized repeatedly, which seemed to be his preferred method for handling crises. When I returned to the table empty-handed, I told my friend I did get three more apologies. “I thought I heard four,” he said.
Of course, the self- consciousness with which Temperance has established itself as a neighborhood icon—a sit-down restaurant designed for and staffed by Petworth residents—makes the place a sizeable target. I decided to walk the streets near Temperance and take the temperature of the tavern. I found a number of people who echoed Francis Saleh’s comment: “It’s pretty nice,” he says, noshing on a tuna sandwich outside Lion’s Liquor and Spirits, just up the street. “And when I say it’s nice, I mean it’s nice all the way around.”
But across Georgia Avenue, a few neighbors who have gathered on Otis Place NW in the late-afternoon heat hold a different opinion. Sharon Askew, who sits in her idling Chevy Prizm pulled to the curb, begrudges Temperance management for blowing her off about a cooking job. Crepson Kellyman, straddling his bike, says flat-out that the place needs a good cook like Askew, while Al Smith, squatting on a concrete block, won’t visit Temperance ever again. “We don’t really feel welcome when we go to it,” Smith says. “My wife has a low tolerance for that.”
Their comments perhaps reflect the awkward position of a neighborhood tavern that wants to be more friend than food trough: People expect too much.
Temperance Hall, 3634 Georgia Ave. NW, (202) 722-7669.
On Site, Summer, 2007
"ROBB LAKRITZ AND JOSH ADLER" (pdf)
Moderno Goes Residential
April 26, 2007
Moderno, a one-time commercial project on U Street in the District, is going residential and retail, with plans to break ground on April 15.
Higher construction costs led to the change of plans, says D.C.-based developer Robb LaKritz of LaKritz | Adler, which will partner with luxury residential developer Robertson Development on the $12.5 million project.
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The 35,000-square-foot development will be at the corner of 12th and U streets NW, one block from the U Street Metro station.
Current plans call for 5,000 square feet of retail on the street level and 15 residential units above. An adjacent site will be divided into two sections, each with two three-story flats.
The redevelopment of the infill site at 1939 12th Street revives a long-vacant property that once was a parking lot known mostly as a hangout for drug dealers.
LaKritz says the site was carpeted with hypodermic needles and trash.
Developers hope the new denizens of the site will be professionals who can afford to pay anywhere from $350,000 for a condominium to $1.2 million for a triplex. The units will come with European-style kitchens and high-end amenities. Sales began Oct. 26 of last year.
Georgetown-based Core is the project architect.
LaKritz says the project is modeled after developments he saw in Barcelona. "It's about enhancing neighborhoods," he says.
The project's architecture will reflect both European and modern design elements. It will have clean, simple line with attention to detail and a lot of glass. The facade will be of limestone.
LaKritz also wants the retail space to be occupied by a European-style cafe/bakery/market that would fit in as a low-key but welcoming neighborhood convenience.
LaKritz is actively looking for tenants and talking to bakers and professionals in New York and elsewhere.
This will be a larger development for LaKritz | Adler than some of the others it has undertaken, including building a neighborhood restaurant and hangout called Temperance Hall at 3634 Georgia Ave.
The development duo also is working on a project near the Petworth Metro at 3646 Georgia Ave. The plan is to create a shopping center with convenience retail including a bank.
Georgia Ave. Awakening
Outdoor plazas. Affordable housing. A revamped Metro station. An infamous nightclub turned into luxury lofts.
By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 14, 2007; A01
Promises have been made before on Georgia Avenue.
Plans to revitalize Washington's longest commercial corridor -- tattered by time, drugs and neglect -- have been thrown away like the unlucky lottery tickets that litter the street each day. Back in 1992, President Bill Clinton moseyed along the avenue, sampling fried scallops and greeting beauticians, and residents and business owners saw even that as the beginning of a renaissance.
It never came.
Much of Georgia looks like it has for decades. "The Avenue," as people like to call it, has 70 beauty salons, 40 barbershops, 13 liquor stores -- a beer and a haircut seem as perfectly matched as vanilla ice cream and warm apple pie. The street has too-many-to-count corner dives that sell single beers in brown paper bags just big enough to hide the vice. Residents have learned to live with the redundancy of retail, to navigate the crime.
But now it looks like the renaissance is about to be real: Over the next decade, the District and private developers will spend millions to pump new life into the historic section between downtown Silver Spring and downtown Washington. For its part, the city is contributing funds from the $100 million Great Streets Initiative and other programs to redevelop neglected corridors, a legacy of former mayor Anthony A. Williams.
One of the biggest projects, the one District officials hope will be the catalyst, has been started: Park Place, a $60 million development of 156 condominiums and townhouses at the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro stop, near the midpoint of the four-mile road. A Mocha Hut and a sit-down restaurant will top the station, catty-corner from a check-cashing store. One Metro entrance closed Dec. 11 for the construction, which should be completed in two years.
As the shovels go into the ground, residents and merchants have a range of emotions. Excitement and anxiety pierce the blended scent of Jamaican beef patties, Chinese takeout and fried fish. Careful what you wish for.
"There's an ambiance that inspires people," said Henri Edmonds, a Howard University theater professor who recently published "The Georgia Avenue Bus," a book of short fiction about people on The Avenue. "There's a quality about black life that's on Georgia Avenue. The cooking odors. The way people greet you. I don't care what problems you have, there's always laughter.
"Pennsylvania Avenue is the intellect. K Street, that's the business of Washington. But Georgia Avenue, that's the heart and soul of the city."
The lottery ticket is about to be cashed. Who will pay? Who will win?
A city planning map that shows the future of Georgia looks like a Monopoly game board. In sketches, condominiums, upscale shops and grocery stores replace neglected rowhouses, abandoned storefronts and empty lots. The envisioned blocks are filled with outdoor plazas, Victorian street lamps and sidewalk cafes.
Nothing in the plans shows how the mom-and-pop and family-owned businesses fit in -- the ones that stayed through the 1968 riots, the '70s heroin scourge and the '80s crack epidemic.
There were starts and stops to several plans to revitalize Georgia Avenue. The plans got lost in a lack of city funding and poor organization. But somehow, timing and economics have finally reached Georgia. The city's downtown space has been tapped, and neighborhoods such as U Street and Columbia Heights are also reaching capacity. Private developers see Georgia Avenue as an untouched resource, another frontier. Williams made the Great Streets project a priority for his administration, and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) made cleaning up Georgia Avenue a campaign pledge as a council member.
With the help of the city, residents are trying to ensure that Georgia continues to have the mix of people that make it Georgia. Most of the projects are on schedule to be under construction this year and completed by 2008 and 2009. Land deals, permits and other factors that often hold up development are in place so that this time, the renewal of Georgia Avenue is real.
The city plans to turn the Park Morton public housing complex, a few blocks south of the Metro station, into 348 affordable and market-rate homes.
To the north, the notorious Ibex nightclub at Missouri Avenue, near where, in 1997, a police officer was gunned down by a man who had been rejected from the club, has been transformed into 32 luxury lofts, selling for $258,000 to $391,000, and an upscale restaurant. At Taylor Road, the same developer, Neighborhood Development Co., will start construction this year on the Residences at Georgia Avenue, which will have 72 affordable apartments and an organic grocery store. Lamont Street Lofts, another 38-unit loft project just off Georgia at Lamont Street, is open.
On lower Georgia, Howard Town Center is expected to follow at Howard University: a $60 million project of 322 apartments, a 24-hour grocery store and shops. Where Georgia turns into Seventh Street, Radio One Inc. has plans to return to the city from Lanham and build $110 million in offices, 202 residences and stores at S Street.
City leaders said they are disappointed that the Army has decided to sell Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which takes up 113 acres and has entrances on Georgia, to the General Services Administration and the State Department. The hospital will close in 2011, but city officials are trying to see whether they can get some land for development.
"You put all these things together, and you have the true new Georgia Avenue," D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said.
How people feel about that depends on where they stand.
At one community meeting, someone asked former planning director Ellen M. McCarthy whether Georgia Avenue would someday look like Wisconsin Avenue, upscale development nestled in predominantly white neighborhoods.
"It will," McCarthy blurted.
She instantly regretted it. "When I said that, I realized I shouldn't have said that," she said later. "Georgia Avenue is its own street."
How much will survive? The street pulses with sound. Gossip at the beauty salon. The passing of knowledge at the row of Afrocentric bookstores just north of Howard. The giggles of students from Banneker High. Go-go blasting from stores that specialize in local music. At Amazyn Hair Design, the air smells of hair singed by hot combs and curling irons. "That's that old smell from a long time ago," said Mary "Pee Wee" Jeffries, a hairdresser. Older women get their hair pressed and watch Martha Stewart on a small television.
At African Hairbraiding, Arlette Canel danced to a song by Guinean artist Sekouba Bambino blaring from a portable stereo. Originally from Ivory Coast, she and Fatu Dembaga, a native of Mali, have found a steady business in braiding hair.
The Avenue is not one homogenous street. It twists and turns out of the upper- and middle-class neighborhoods of Takoma Park and Shepherd Park, into the middle- and working-class community of Petworth, into the dicey alleys and walkways of the Park Morton housing complex. It rests at the red-brick sidewalks near Howard University.
Georgia's only true constant is the screech of the crowded 70 bus.
"Race doesn't matter here. Socioeconomic status doesn't matter here," said Robb LaKritz, who owns the Temperance Hall bar, which opened early last year just south of the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Station.
His bar, which replaced an abandoned house that had become a heroin den, was seen as one of the first signs of gentrification. But Temperance Hall is gradually becoming part of the neighborhood. It's the place that sells fancy mini-sloppy Joes and shiraz.
Georgia is not the suburban-inspired Connecticut Avenue, it's not the new faux-Manhattan U Street, LaKritz said.
"It's so much more raw. This is much more real," he said.
Georgia can be dangerous. Robberies, sometimes at gunpoint, are listed in weekly crime reports. District police have identified three areas of Georgia as "hot spots," meaning the neighborhoods are known for open-air drug sales and other crime. A combined 139 robberies, assaults and other violent crimes made Georgia as dicey as hot spots in Southeast last year.
A better Georgia Avenue would be without guns but would keep its grit, LaKritz said. It would be clean but not sanitized.
Chris Donatelli and Larry Clark, developers on the Park Place project, stood one day last year on the roof of a high-rise and looked out at the Georgia vista and talked about what could be.
"I just love this view," Clark said as he looked into the distance at the Washington Monument to the south, a spire at Catholic University to the east and the clouded high-rise buildings of Rosslyn to the west.
The city originally planned to put the Department of Motor Vehicles on the site, but residents, with the help of Fenty, who had just become Ward 4 council member, intervened. They picked Donatelli to develop it.
"My mother grew up here," Donatelli said. "She lived on Varnum Street. She remembers when there were shops and then it went into sort of a decline," he said as a homeless man approached him for money on the sidewalk in front of the Metro.
The developer is reserving 20 percent of the condominiums for low-income residents, and some of the units will be limited to residents earning 30 percent of the median income or less.
"Do you have a buck to give this guy?" Donatelli asked Clark, reaching into his wallet and giving the man a dollar.
In a planning department sketch of Park Place and its future surroundings, there are families, couples, a blind man, people eating at a sidewalk cafe and others crossing a fancy brick walkway.
No one looks homeless.
Breathing New Rhythm Into Tired Streets
Yoga Studios Signal D.C. Gentrification
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 12, 2006; A01
To track the economic transformation of Washington, here's a simple rule: Follow the yoga mats.The march of yoga studios from west to east across the District dovetails with the development frenzy that began five years ago and is remaking long-stagnant neighborhoods.And it's not by accident. Owners of yoga studios are drawn to the cheap rents of transitional neighborhoods, naturally, but some developers actively recruit them. They see the studios as symbols of safety for women and amenities for their target demographic."Yoga tends to be an activity done by well-educated people -- it's a quiet, subtle sign that things are changing," said John K. McIlwain, a senior fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute. "It doesn't mean upper-income people necessarily, because students do it, but they are much more highly educated people. These tend to be the gentrifiers."The city does not count its yoga studios, but an informal survey turned up 25. The oldest are clustered around affluent Georgetown, Tenleytown, Cleveland Park and Dupont Circle -- with six on Wisconsin Avenue alone -- while the newest have set up shop on steadily gentrifying U Street, Logan Circle and beyond.The most recent arrival is Yoga House, which opened on Georgia Avenue in the Petworth neighborhood in October. On a hunch that the working-class community just north of Howard University was about to take off, developers Josh Adler and Robb LaKritz had purchased a building that had been vacant for a decade. "It's the next stop up the Green Line from Columbia Heights," Adler said. "It just made sense that this was really going to change soon."On the ground floor, they created a sit-down restaurant named Temperance Hall, the only one in the immediate vicinity. Then they built the yoga studio above it.A yoga studio would bring people to the building, maybe increasing customers at the restaurant, Adler said. But it would also send a message: "Women tend to practice yoga more than men, and when you see a woman walking down the sidewalk with a yoga mat under her arm, it says she feels safe enough to do that," he said.Adler and LaKritz installed bamboo floors, created oversize windows to make the studio light and airy, and then on a community listserv found a yogi who had been teaching in Tenleytown and Adams Morgan and longed to own a studio. They leased the 6,000-square-foot studio to Elizabeth Greathouse for $3,300 a month, a third of the rent she would pay in Dupont Circle.This month, a yoga studio will open on H Street in Northeast, a strip that is poised for a comeback. The studio will replace a 40-year-old laundromat that had been losing business as rising rents forced out its customers. A few blocks away, developer Jim Abdo is spending $250 million to convert the old Capital Children's Museum building into condominiums.Studio owner Elizabeth Glover is paying $4,000 a month for 3,000 square feet, half of what she would pay on the other side of Capitol Hill along Pennsylvania Avenue SE."I like the idea of helping rebuild an area that was the site of riots" after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, said Glover, 31, who is opening Bikram Capitol Hill after teaching for years at studios in Dupont Circle, Falls Church and Rockville."I was a little concerned about being a gentrifier," she added. "But I really liked this neighborhood. If you walk around Northwest, everyone looks down on the ground. Here, everyone looks you in the eye and says hello."Greathouse's friends initially questioned the wisdom of her move, too. One teacher declined to work there, and a few students didn't follow her. "Some people won't come here because they're afraid," said Greathouse, who lives 10 minutes away in Brookland. "They ask if it's safe to park their car. It's 'the 'hood' for them."Business was slow at first. Sometimes no one showed up for a class. "That doesn't happen any more," Greathouse said. Classes have gradually grown, although she has yet to turn a profit.Half of the 500 customers on her mailing list live in the neighborhood. Most are relative newcomers. When she opened in October, her clientele was largely white, but over time it has become racially mixed. Now, half of the local clients are black.On a recent evening, an economic consultant, a federal analyst and a foreign aid professional were among the students sitting cross-legged on the gleaming bamboo floor, trying to bring their navels to their spines as they inhaled. The class was overwhelmingly young and female.Greathouse sprinkled rose petals along the windowsill, lighted candles in the sconces on the exposed brick walls and invited the class to chant "Om." Outside, in the alley lined with trash, three boys jumped up and down on a discarded mattress under a broken basketball hoop.Cindy Runyan, a financial analyst for the American Red Cross, moved to the neighborhood in 2004 because she could buy a four-bedroom house for $350,000. Yoga House has become a de facto gathering spot for the newcomers, she said. "I've met a lot of people in the neighborhood in class," said Runyan, who hopes for another restaurant or two, coffee shops, a bookstore.Georgia Avenue still looks worn and rough around the edges. Yoga House is surrounded by peeling storefronts, many of them vacant. There's a clinic that provides free HIV testing on the corner and a strip club down the street. The front window of a long-shut dry cleaner is punctured by a bullet hole.Sharon Ray, 45, has lived in Petworth for years and noticed the yoga studio when it opened. "I wanted to try it, but I didn't have that kind of money at the time," said Ray, a condominium maintenance worker.Some longtime residents cast a wary glance at the yoga studio. "They're bringing in the rich and sending the poor to Maryland and Southeast -- that's how I see it," said Brenda Allen, who has lived in Petworth since 1978."Let's face it -- yoga is something that people with disposable income can do," said Robin Heider, a 31-year-old economic consultant who bought a rowhouse on Seventh Street NW last year. She had been taking classes in Dupont Circle until Yoga House opened. Now she comes twice a week.Two blocks north, the Bethesda developers Donatelli & Klein plan 156 condominiums and 17,000 square feet of retail space in a $40 million project on an empty lot adjacent to the Metro station. Four blocks north, the Jair Lynch Co. intends to build a $27 million development that includes 110 rental apartments, 19,500 square feet of shops anchored by a cafe, and a branch of Results gym, the upscale local health club chain. And eight blocks north, LaKritz-Adler plans 105 condominiums and 20,000 square feet of retail space.Kimberly Perkins, 32, a speech pathologist from Rockville, took a class with Greathouse for the first time last month and left thinking that she, too, will move to Petworth."I don't know much about this area, but it has a yoga studio -- I could practice every day," she said.© 2006 The Washington Post Company
In Petworth, the Jazz Age Returns
By Fritz Hahn
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, March 3, 2006; WE05
The early 20th century was a boom time for the "streetcar suburb" of Petworth, as the arrival of public transportation and an influx of housing led to increased population and a string of new shops and businesses along the Georgia Avenue corridor.Almost 100 years later, this sounds familiar.It seems only appropriate then, as Metro and the frenzied real estate market make for a new boom in the area, that Petworth's latest restaurant and tavern is a classy throwback to the Jazz Age, complete with sparkling French empire crystal chandeliers, a pressed-tin ceiling, gilt-edged mirrors and a sparkling collection of rye whiskeys. Torchieres throw light on flocked-velvet wallpaper and ancient-looking brick walls, and seltzer bottles line the back of the heavy wooden bar.Scratch just below the surface of this retro-cool decor, though, and you'll realize that Temperance Hall, open since early January, is simply a neighborhood hangout with a bit of style and a clientele that reflects the community.Stop in after work and you may find older men occupying the large banquette in the bay window, talking D.C. politics in Caribbean accents; guys with tattoos eating hearty bowls of four-meat chili and sipping microbrews at the bar; a couple nestled into one of the wraparound leather booths; and a group of friends -- black and white -- shooting pool in the rear of the split-level room, watching sports on a flat-screen television.The Internet jukebox is as eclectic as its customers: One night it's a succession of slow-jam R&B tunes, another, it's blasting English punk and ska."I think it's important to make a place where everyone feels comfortable," manager Dan Searing says. "I see it as a responsibility in a neighborhood like Petworth, that's underserved in the kind of establishment we are." He's especially happy that many new customers introduce themselves "by telling me how far they live from the bar."He could answer in kind. Searing, who bought a house in Petworth in October 2004, left his job managing Oyamel restaurant in Crystal City early last year to take a job closer to home. "I thought opening a new bar in my neighborhood would be pretty exciting," he says, adding that he thinks his address helped him get his foot in the door because "I'm someone who made a commitment to living in the community."Neighborhood ties run deep, from part-owners Robb Lakritz and Josh Adler of the Lakritz-Adler real estate development company to several members of the staff, including the doorman and one bartender. (Joe Englert, the bar magnate who has made a habit of opening taverns in up-and-coming areas, is a partner in the venture and the man Searing credits with Temperance Hall's theme.) To complete the theme, Searing is assembling a large collection of rye whiskey -- bourbon's older, more bitter brother -- because it was especially popular with pre-Prohibition drinkers. (The Old Potrero, made in the 18th-century style, is especially worth a try.) Other drink options include Manhattans, Old Fashioneds and four draft beers, which should change frequently.Because Temperance is trying to appeal to a broad crowd, the short menu sticks to clever twists on staple bar foods, including filling bowls of four-meat chili, large burgers and choritzitos, a trio of little sausages that lacked the expected bite. The sleeper is a plate of mini-sloppy joes -- a take-off on the current craze for small burgers -- well-seasoned and so overstuffed that you'll need your silverware to mop up. Don't overlook the bar's house-made cocktail nuts, which are addictively spicy. Problem is, they cost $1 a bowl after 8, when happy hour ends.Now that the kitchen has settled in, Searing says, the menu is set to expand, including a weekend brunch later this spring.Although there are high-backed booths and plenty of nooks in Temperance Hall's main room, I'm especially drawn to the speakeasy-like Whiskey Room, hidden down a flight of stairs and past the kitchen and bathroom. It's a smaller, more intimate space with a tiny bar and a few tables. It also has a better soundtrack, thanks to a CD jukebox stocked by Searing, a musician and DJ who has played in local indie-rock bands such as Glo-Worm and the Saturday People and has spun records at the Eighteenth Street Lounge and Pharmacy Bar. The self-described music obsessive wanted to create "a well-curated jukebox that would please the deeper listener," so he has filled it with vintage dub and R&B, '70s punk rock, a collection of 1920s and '30s gospel singles -- "We needed to have some period music," Searing says -- and a personal favorite, the Clientele. (The Saturday People released a split 7-inch single with that English group a few years ago.) The Whiskey Room also has a door that leads to a fenced, covered patio, which will come in handy once the District's smoking ban kicks in. "I don't want anyone to have to stand out on Georgia Avenue," Searing says.Temperance Hall is on its way to becoming a fixture in the community, but some members of the staff still seem to be settling in -- pouring gigantic heads on beers, looking right past you when your glass is empty. They're friendly and service is getting better, though I still see people at tables having to get up, come to the bar and ask for a check.Still, I won't let such small missteps dissuade me from visiting again, and I suspect I won't be the only one coming from outside Petworth. Searing maintains that the focus will remain on being a "neighborhood bar" rather than "a destination," but Temperance Hall shouldn't have any problems drawing either crowd.Temperance Hall 3634 Georgia Ave. NW 202-722-7669 Scene: A friendly neighborhood tavern with a roaring '20s theme.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
From the August 26, 2005 print edition
Commercial Real Estate Week
At 12th and U NW, developer plots 30,000 s.f. of retail, offices
Lakritz | Adler Development wants to build a 30,000-square-foot office and retail project at the long-vacant corner of 12th and U street NW. The D.C.–based company says it is in talks to bring in a specially grocer and would like to fill the office component to create more daytime activity in the neighborhood. In a survey last year by the now-defunct 14th and U Main Streets Alliance, residents said they wanted a nearby grocery store more than any other service or amenity. But they also have been looking for ways to make the neighborhood more lively during the day. A host of new restaurants and bars is keeping the U Street area hopping at night, although it’s slow between 9 and 5. “Everyone talks about this being an 18-hour destination, but it’s really not,” says development partner Josh Adler. “You’ve got to have daytime traffic. Things are really quiet there during the day.” No leases have been signed yet, and Lakritz and Adler say they’re willing to open up the entire space for retail if a prominent store expressed and interest. The company hopes to break ground as soon as January.
From the February 25, 2005 print edition
Temperence Hall
Fed up with having to travel outside their neighborhood to find a sit-down restaurant, a few residents in the Georgia Avenue corridor got together and decided to open their own. When Temperance, a 1920’s-themed restaurant, opens just south of the Georgia Avenue/Petworth Metro station in June, it will mark the long-awaited return of a sit-down restaurant to the area. The Neighborhood owners are Robb Lakritz, Josh Adler, and Joe Englert. Englert operates several bars and restaurants in D.C., including the Capital Lounge.
Temperance’s opening was delayed last year when residents insisted the owners obtain a restaurant liquor license rather than a tavern license, requiring them to have a higher food-to-liquor sales ratio.
May 2005 Print Edition
Temperance Hall
The vintage bar, antique lighting and crushed velvet booths of Temperance Hall complete the venue’s roaring 20’s theme, which co-owner Robb Lakritz says pays homage to the era of Georgia Avenue’s heyday. Photos that capture Petworth in its prime have been contributed by longtime area residents and will adorn the walls to add a special sense of community to the venue.
“We’re very entrenched in the Petworth community. You’ve got young and old here,” Lakritz said. “We wanted to bridge the gap. We want [the restaurant] to be a neighborhood gathering spot.” The menu is the standard American fare with an offering of vegetarian dishes and an excellent Sunday brunch, and there is a patio for outdoor dining as well. The venue, which is currently in the final stages of construction, is scheduled to open Jun. 21. Temperance Hall is located at 3634 Georgia Ave., NW, one block south of the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro Station. Lakritz and his partner Joshua Adler of Lakritz-Adler Development teamed with Joe Englert to create Temperance Hall. The group also has plans to open businesses on the second and third floors above the restaurant. Lakritz said he and his partners are looking into opening a yoga and/or fitness studio on the third floor of the building and a retail store on the second floor. The businesses would open at the same time as Temperance Hall.
PRESS RELEASE
City Councilmember Jim Graham
Georgia Avenue Gets New Sit-Down Restaurant
February 14, 2004Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward One) and community activists today announced a new restaurant that will bring true sit-down dining to the Georgia Avenue corridor. Neighborhood dining options have been sparse near the Georgia Ave.-Petworth Metro station, which opened in 1999. But this summer, a 1920's themed restaurant called "Temperance" will open one block south of Metro at 3634 Georgia Avenue. Developers and Columbia Heights/Petworth residents Robb LaKritz and Josh Adler have teamed up with Joe Englert, owner of the Capitol Lounge and numerous other restaurants and bars in the District.Temperance will feature antique wood fittings, booth seating and ceramic tile floors. With brunch on weekends (including a senior discount), a children's menu, and a non-smoking dining room, the Petworth neighborhood will have a new gathering place. The owners have decided, after many meetings with the community and much consideration, to pursue a restaurant (CR) liquor license instead of the tavern (CT) license in their original plans."It's wonderful to welcome a real sit-down restaurant to Georgia Avenue after all these years," said Councilmember Jim Graham. "This is only the beginning of a very exciting year for Petworth, Park View and North Columbia Heights. The partners in this project are truly top-notch, and we all appreciate them taking the community's desires and concerns into account."A range of community leaders are supportive of this new addition to Georgia Avenue. Buddy Moore, a longtime activist in the adjacent Park View neighborhood, said, "I'm thrilled to have this restaurant coming to Georgia Avenue. We're ready for a whole range of new retail, and I think this is a great start."Alicia Rucker, a community association leader and lifelong neighborhood resident, is similarly enthusiastic: "I've heard the owners speak about their plans at community meetings. Personally, I think this will be a refreshing change for the Avenue and will open the door for more new businesses. And you can bet I'll be there for the weekend brunch!"Andrew McGilvray, an organizer of the nearby Georgia-Petworth Farmers Market, stressed the balance involved. "Many residents are excited about the restaurant, but some are worried about possible problems like parking. Given Joe Englert's depth of experience and the owners' efforts to work with the neighborhood, I'm confident that Temperance will be a true asset and a catalyst for further improvement on our stretch of Georgia Avenue."Temperance is scheduled to open in June.
