Business Ins + Outs

50 Years of David Berkebile’s Georgetown Tobacco

Family and friends — some arriving from the other side of the country — pulled off a surprise party for David Berkebile, owner and founder of Georgetown Tobacco, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. A stunned Berkebile was surrounded by well-wishers, as he entered the Woodrow Wilson House on S Street with his wife Sandy on Sept. 27. His current and former employees view him as a godfather in the tobacco industry. Berkebile has been at the helm of the store — known as “The House That Dave Built” — all 50 years. It is at 3144 M St., NW.

IN: Carol Joynt Joins Foreign Policy Group as VP of Communications

Carol Ross Joynt joined the Foreign Policy Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company, formerly the Washington Post Company, as vice president of communications, after three years at Washingtonian magazine as editor-at-large. Here’s what Joynt’s new employer says about her: “Her extensive career is principally in broadcast journalism. Carol has been a producer for all the major networks and cable channels, in New York and Washington, and worked closely with Ted Koppel, Walter Cronkite, Charlie Rose and Larry King as a writer and producer on their nightly broadcasts. She started her career in print, with the wire services and then as a reporter for Time magazine in its New York bureau. She also directed films for the National Gallery of Art. Carol won the national Emmy Award for ‘Best Interview’ for a Charlie Rose prison interview with Charles Manson at St. Quentin. Her memoir, ‘Innocent Spouse,’ tells the story of the dozen years she spent away from journalism, owning Nathans, a Georgetown saloon.”

Joynt continues her Q&A Cafe at the George Town Club, which began in 2001 at Nathans. Upcoming talks are Nov. 7 with Dan Rather and Nov. 18 with Bruce Allen of the Washington Redskins.

IN: Dog Tag Bakery, Run by Wounded Vets, Set to Open Soon

It is ready to open at 3206 Grace St., NW — a unique business and non-profit — Dog Tag Bakery. Set up for wounded veterans and their spouses who will learn how to bake and run a business. With a curriculum from Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies, the bakery is the brainchild of Rev. Rick Curry, S.J., and Connie Milstein — both of whom have started non-profit bakeries previously.

Curry is a professor at Georgetown University and founded the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped in New York. Milstein is co-founder of Ogden CAP Properties, LLC, which restored the Jefferson Hotel on 16th Street, and has a house on R Street.

Near the C&O Canal and the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street, the rebuilt 4,200 square-foot building, the former space of a Japanese restaurant, will house a cafe and bakery, along with meeting rooms and offices. The bakery’s chief operating officer is Meghan Ogilvie; its general manager is Justin Ford. Says the non-profit: “100 percent of our profits support the men and women who bravely serve in our military and their families. It’s our way of saying ‘Thank You.’ ”