In: Escape Room Live
How’s this sound? We lock you in a room and you have 45 minutes to find clues to get the heck out of there. Whether this is your idea of fun or not, the two-floor, 6,573-square-foot Escape Room Live has opened at 3345 M St. NW. Formerly occupied by West Elm, the space is next to the shuttered Capriotti’s sandwich shop, where the legendary Cellar Door once held musical court.Escape Room Live has set up rooms with themes from “Friday the 13th,” “Ghostbusters,” “The Mummy,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Titanic.” Edgar Allan Poe rooms are also planned.
In: The Shade Store
Cady’s Alley gets another home-decor classic. This time, it’s the Shade Store, a family-owned, 70-year-old business that started in New York’s Westchester County. The retailer sells custom window treatments and is proud to be “handcrafted in the USA.” Located at 3324 M St. NW, the 3,000-square-foot store opened last month.
Out: ShopHouse Getting Chopped by Chipotle
Chipotle Mexican Grill, the fast-casual restaurant group recovering from a loss of customers due to E. coli outbreaks, will stop investing in ShopHouse, its noodle-bowl variation. There are 15 ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchens in the U.S., including the Georgetown location at 2805 M St. NW. Others are in Dupont Circle (the first one), Chinatown, Union Station and Bethesda and Silver Spring, Maryland, as well as in Illinois and California.
According MarketWatch, Chipotle decided that ShopHouse could not support “an attractive unit economic model.” The company will expand its Pizzeria Locale and Tasty Made burger concepts while seeking “strategic alternatives” for ShopHouse, Business Insider reported. The ShopHouses — beloved by Millennials — will stay open for now, however.
Out: Eastbanc Unloads ‘Exorcist’ Condos
EastBanc has sold its property — where Key Bridge Exxon sits, next to the “Exorcist Steps,” where it hoped to build condominiums — to Altus Realty Partners of Arlington.
Altus paid $14 million for the half-acre site at 3607 M St. NW, according to the Washington Business Journal, which added, “Appropriately enough, the deal was recorded on Halloween.” The company intends to build more than condos on the site, with the same EastBanc design that was approved, the Journal reported. The land has also been touted as the best spot on the D.C. side of the Potomac to build the terminus for the envisioned Georgetown-Rosslyn aerial gondola.
Welcome Back
J. Paul’s Saloon at 3218 M St. NW, which was damaged by a fire on May 30, reopened before Halloween. Check out the revamped Georgetown classic, which features After Five half-price specials, 5 p.m. to closing time, Sunday through Wednesday.
BID’s Glow Returns for a Month
The third annual Georgetown Glow, an exhibition of public art celebrating interaction with the natural environment, will run Dec. 2 through Jan. 1, in Georgetown’s commercial district. Works will be displayed mainly outdoors along the C&O Canal and Wisconsin Avenue. The exhibition features commissioned works of local, regional and international artists. Funds for the curated show came from a Public Arts Building Communities Grant awarded to the Georgetown Business Improvement District by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities. Participating artists will be announced soon. Last year’s exhibition was on view for only 10 days.
