Georgetowner •

**Roberto Donna**, one of DC?s most famous (and infamous) chefs will reign over the kitchen at **La Forchetta**, a new full service, 116-seat, family-style Italian restaurant on New Mexico Ave. NW, where **Balducci?s** used to be. Owner **Hakan Ilhan** is best known for his Pizza Autentica chain, as well as three **Caf? Cantinas**, three **Einstein Bros. Bagels** and **Gelato Dolce Vita** in Georgetown. The country-style Italian restaurant is slated to open at the end of this month.

First announced a few months ago, husband and wife chefs **Emily Sprissler** and **Jason Cote** are finalizing plans to open a casual seafood res?taurant in Glover Park called **Mayfield & Pine**, where **Town Hall** used to be. Sprissler?s face may be familiar, as she appeared on season two of Top Chef in 2006. Her food may be familiar from her time at **Vidalia**. They both worked at **Wegman?s** in Northern Virginia before landing the Glover Park site, and plan to open by the end of April.

Chef/owner **Frederik De Pue** signed a lease to open a restaurant called **Table** in D.C.?s Shaw neighborhood on N St. NW. He plans to be open seven days a week, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The restaurant will serve wine and beer, but only tableside, as there are no plans for a bar. The building was formerly a car repair shop and Pue plans to keep its rustic look (re: lots of concrete). There will be outdoor seating on the roof deck. De Pue owns **42? Catering** and for?merly worked at **Smith Commons**. A summer opening is planned.

Ch-ch-ch-changes: **The Reef** in Adams Morgan is about to undergo renovations to give a fresh feel to the space. Renovations will main?ly occur on the middle fish tank floor. Owner **Brian Harrison** plans to install new hardwood floors, and reconfigure the booths. Construction will take place on various weekdays so that he can stay open for business. The ground floor will also be renovated at some point next year.

**Oded Weizmann** plans to open an ?urban retro deli gastro-pub? called **Carving Room** in NoMa at 300 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The neighborhood bar and restaurant will serve house-cured, hand-carved meat for their sand?wiches. The 55-seat space plus patio will have an open kitchen with meat carvers up front and a bar with ten taps serving regional beers. The plan is for it to be a quick service place during weekday lunch and transform into a full-service restaurant at night and on weekends. Oded used to manage Silver Diner in Rockville as well as BD?s **Mongolian Barbecue** in Bethesda. He also worked for **Bedrock Management**. Carving Room is slated to open by late summer.

14th and S Streets, NW: **Ted?s Bulletin** from the **Matchbox Food Group** plans to open by end of 4th quarter 2012. **Mark Kuller** plans an upscale Southeast Asian restaurant there, close to the end of the year as well.

Openings Update: **Del Frisco?s Grille** plans to open at 12th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. NW, (former Les Halles site) in early July. **Alegria, Bazin?s** Mexican restaurant, should be open by beginning of March next door to sister restaurant, Bazin?s on Church. **Yo! Sushi** at Union Station is now looking at a June opening.

**Eric** and **Ian Hilton** are planning to be quite busy this year opening new restaurants. The brothers behind **Marvin**, **The Gibson**, **Blackbyrd**, and **American Ice Company**, plan to open an Italian gastro-pub and wine bar in the former **HR-57** jazz club spot at 1610 14th St. NW, featuring live music. The yet-to-be-named restaurant plans to open this fall. They are also planning to open **The Brixton**, a British pub at 901 U St. NW by end of second quarter 2012, as well as a taqueria called El Ray a few doors down at 919 U Street, NW, in early fall. Not to mention a burger joint called **Satellite Kitchen** at 2047 9th St. NW. Did we mention they also plan to open **Chez Billy**, a French-style bistro in Petworth soon?

Chef & GM Update: **Brian McPherson** is the new chef at **Jackson 20** and the **Grille at Morrison House** in Old Town. **Rick Dugan** has been named General Manager of **BRIO Tuscan Grille** in Rockville, MD. He was formerly GM at **O?Donnell?s Sea Grill** in Bethesda and in Kentlands for many years, as well as at **Clyde?s** of Chevy Chase. **Chris Kujala** was named executive pastry chef for **Robert Wiedmaier?s** restaurants. **Maura Delaney** is GM at **McCormick & Schmick?s** in Reston. She had previously been GM at **Morton?s Steakhouse** in Tysons Corner before it closed.

**Izakaya Seki**, a 40-seat Japanese bar and restaurant, located in the former **Spott?s Barber Shop** space at 1117 V St. NW, is under construc?tion. Owners of the building and restaurant are **Cizuka Seki** and her father, **Hiroshi Seki**, a chef-owner who had his own place outside of St. Louis. Instead of a bar on the first floor, there will be a nine-seat food counter. The main din?ing room will be on the second level. Although there is no bar, there will be beer, sake and a selection of sh?ch?, a Japanese spirit that was a big hit at the **International Food & Wine Show**. As soon as they figure out how to get gas to the building, they will have a better idea of an opening date.

Quick Hits: **Mike Isabella** has targeted 14th and W Streets, NW, for a Greek concept restaurant. **Solly?s Tavern** will soon be expand?ing into **Madjet**, the Ethiopian restaurant space next door, and will offer a food menu. Should be up and running by beginning of March.

*Linda Roth Conte is president of Linda Roth Associates, Inc. (LRA), specializing in market?ing initiatives, community outreach and special events for the hospitality industry. Contact her at 703-417-2700 or [Linda@LindaRothPR.com](mailto:linda@lindarothpr.com) or visit her web site at [www.LindaRothPR.com](http://www.lindarothpr.com)*

Georgetowner •

This week, I chaired a meeting of the Committee on Finance and Revenue to consider a bill to require mobile vendors, including food trucks, to pay sales taxes. The bill amends a section of the District?s tax law that currently exempts sidewalk and mobile street vendors from sales tax requirements.

Currently, sidewalk and mobile street vendors, including food trucks, pay a quarterly fee of $375 to the District in lieu of having to pay sales taxes the way other food service businesses must. Members of the public and other stakeholders have pointed out that this is not a fair system, and the evolution of the mobile vendor market requires a modernization of our tax laws. A writer for the Washington Blade recently called the current quarterly fee ?a token alternative annual payment initiated several decades ago? and advocated for ?sales tax parity? as found in the bill I am sponsoring.

Legitimate concerns have been raised by the food truck industry about the need for comprehensive regulatory reform that more accurately takes into account their true corporate structure and business activities. At my hearing last year, for example, the executive director of the D.C. Food Truck Association testified that, like storefront restaurants, mobile vendors should be licensed and taxed as businesses rather than as sole proprietors. However, requiring individual street vendors to have a vending license, she says, makes about as much sense as requiring an individual waitress in a restaurant to have a business license. I tend to concur.
Regardless of the merits of that argument, though, the subject matter of corporate form is not within the purview of my committee, but rather is being addressed by regulations from the District?s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). Comments on the proposed rules were due March 1 and are posted at [dcra.dc.gov](http://dcra.dc.gov).

The bill I moved this week has been subject to debate and public comment since at least March of 2011 and would not propose to implement the tax until October 1, giving plenty of notice to the industry while also allowing a reasonable amount of time for the regulations to become effective prior to implementation of the sales tax. As noted by the writer quoted above, however, ?there is scant evidence of public support for continuing to exempt the[se] businesses from the standard sales tax levy? or allowing the sales tax issue to remain unresolved while the regulatory process is completed.

Also this week, I chaired a hearing on my proposed bill to repeal the out-of-state municipal bond tax. I have heard from many constituents about the hardship and unfairness of changing a law that impacts so many seniors after they have already relied on the tax break in good faith when making their retirement plans. While the hearing has already taken place, the record will remain open until March 9. If you have time to send a letter to my staff [kstogner@dccouncil.us](mailto:kstogner@dccouncil.us) in support of the bill by next Friday, we will include it in our official record to help demonstrate the support we need to convince the Mayor and the couple of swing votes on the Council we need to repeal this tax.

Georgetowner •

At the latest meeting of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, officials approved revised designs by the Tudor Place Foundation for new small buildings on the historic home’s grounds along 31st and Q Streets. Such approval was a triumph of balance between neighbors and a historic home. While some did not like the proposed garage designs taking up their line of sight on 32nd Street, the argument did not devolve into a “not-in-my-back-yard” discussion. Tudor Place modified its initial designs after critiques by neighbors and government bodies, and the result was a better design overall.

We must find ways to maintain the historic homes within our neighborhood without going NIMBY on them. They are fragile and expensive to get. Likewise, owners of these properties should always engage the residents in their mission and future. Two historic Georgetown homes – Evermay and Halcyon House – are now under the umbrella of the same non-profit, S&R Foundation, which appears more than willing and able to preserve and protect them. Families, it seems, cannot hang on to such large properties.

As Georgetowners and bearers of the light of history, we must work with the persons or groups that own our historical places. We cannot make it all about us. At the same time, they may own it, but it is not theirs alone.

Georgetowner •

Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University Law Center student, found herself the target of radio host Rush Limbaugh on March 1 after recommending that employers cover the costs of contraception in their health care programs at a meeting of the House Democratic Steering Committee. For her remarks, Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

“So, Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal,” Limbaugh continued. “If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”

“This language is an attack on all women,” Fluke responded. “The millions of American women who have and will continue to speak out in support of women’s health care and access to contraception prove that we will not be silenced.”

After a major outcry against the radio commentator – including a phone call to Fluke from President Barack Obama on March 2 – Limbaugh apologized March 3. “In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation,” he said. “I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke… In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone’s bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a presidential level. My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.”

Below is a letter by John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, commenting on the fracas.

There is a legitimate question of public policy before our nation today. In the effort to address the problem of the nearly 50 million Americans who lack health insurance, our lawmakers enacted legislation that seeks to increase access to health care. In recent weeks, a question regarding the breadth of services that will be covered has focused significant public attention on the issue of contraceptive coverage. Many, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, have offered important perspectives on this issue.

In recent days, a law student of Georgetown, Sandra Fluke, offered her testimony regarding the proposed regulations by the Department of Health and Human Services before a group of members of Congress. She was respectful, sincere, and spoke with conviction. She provided a model of civil discourse. This expression of conscience was in the tradition of the deepest values we share as a people. One need not agree with her substantive position to support her right to respectful free expression. And yet, some of those who disagreed with her position – including Rush Limbaugh and commentators throughout the blogosphere and in various other media channels – responded with behavior that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student.

In our vibrant and diverse society, there always are important differences that need to be debated, with strong and legitimate beliefs held on all sides of challenging issues. The greatest contribution of the American project is the recognition that together, we can rely on civil discourse to engage the tensions that characterize these difficult issues, and work towards resolutions that balance deeply held and different perspectives. We have learned through painful experience that we must respect one another and we acknowledge that the best way to confront our differences is through constructive public debate. At times, the exercise of one person’s freedom may conflict with another’s. As Americans, we accept that the only answer to our differences is further engagement.

In an earlier time, St. Augustine captured the sense of what is required in civil discourse: “Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.”

If we, instead, allow coarseness, anger – even hatred – to stand for civil discourse in America, we violate the sacred trust that has been handed down through the generations beginning with our Founders. The values that hold us together as a people require nothing less than eternal vigilance. This is our moment to stand for the values of civility in our engagement with one another.

Georgetowner • February 21, 2012