Robert Devaney • June 9, 2014

Great Falls on the Potomac River was at flood stage May 17 and looked wilder than usual. Streams on both side of the river broke their banks, and there were fatalities during the flood.

In Georgetown, the flood gates were up at Washington Harbour over the weekend.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Potomac River at K Street in Georgetown crested around midnight, May 18. On Sunday morning, the river was at 8.8 feet, which is 2.8 feet above flood levels.

In April 2011, flood gates at Washington Harbour during springtime flooding. Water from the Potomac flowed into the riverside complex, shutting down businesses for months. The complex was renovated and upgraded and is more popular than ever.

Robert Devaney • June 4, 2014

There was a downpour just before the beginning of the 22th Annual Tudor Place Garden Party May 21. Partiers were undeterred as they enjoyed conversation, drinks, great food and the great lawn of one of Georgetown’s crown jewels, Tudor Place. [gallery ids="101755,141534,141542,141546,141539" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

A woman was attacked early Saturday morning, May 24, in the 2400 block of Wisconsin Avenue, NW, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. She appears to have been uninjured.

Various media outlets, however, tell slightly different news stories of the incident, which took place across from Guy Mason Park.

ABC7 News reported: “In the Glover Park neighborhood, residents aren’t used to hearing about this kind of crime. … According to police, the incident took place at about 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. A 19-year-old waitress had just gotten off work, and she was walking in the 2400 block of Wisconsin Avenue when a man grabbed her in an alley and tried to force her to perform a sex act. Luckily, she was able to break free and run for help. … Even at that time of morning, neighbors say there is usually foot traffic here, usually made up of patrons of the bars and restaurants.”

NBC News 4 added this to the story: “Sources tell News4 the suspect was a customer at the establishment where the woman worked earlier in the evening. The customer was ‘pushy’ toward the woman while she was working, but she had ignored his advances at the time, sources say. The victim told police the suspect pulled her into an alley just before closing time and tried to get her to perform a sexual act, but she was able to run away and call 911.”

This is part of what Fox5 News reported: “According to the police report, a 19-year-old waitress tells police a man pulled her by the head and forced her to perform a sex act at about 1 a.m. Saturday morning in an alley in the 2400 block of Wisconsin Avenue of Northwest. The police report calls the incident first-degree sex abuse with force. Police aren’t releasing any real information about the case or a description of the suspect, but no arrests have been made and detectives have been seen in the area looking for evidence.”

MPD detectives were seen Memorial Day, May 26, walking along Wisconsin Avenue checking for leads and surveillance records of the incident. MPD had not issued a suspect description as of May 27.

Robert Devaney • June 2, 2014

You have three evenings left to dine at Bangkok Joe’s. The Thai restaurant at the entrance to Washington Harbour at 3000 K St., NW, will close June 1, as its owners transform the space into a French-Southeast Asian restaurant, named Mama Rouge.

The new restaurant will open in September, owners — chef Aulie Bunyarataphan and Mel Oursinsini — told their patrons in a May 27 email. They also cited the changing tastes of customers. The same team runs Tom Yum District across Key Bridge in Arlington as well as T.H.A.I.

The self-described “dumpling bar and cafe” — which was reviewed by Zagat as having “dumplings “to die for” and “great cocktails to boot” — has attracted the likes of such celebrities as Nicole Kidman and Nicholas Cage.

Opened in September 2003, Bangkok Joe’s is getting a re-boot, so to speak, to stay current with its guests. Along with a revamped menu, the space will be redesigned and get a new kitchen.

Robert Devaney • May 29, 2014

The restoration of Wisconsin Avenue traffic lanes — between Calvert Street and Whitehaven Street — to previous patterns has gotten a thumbs-up from drivers, especially those traveling northbound, up and down the avenue in Glover Park.

Now, the lanes are back, a speed camera was installed and a new traffic light will go up at 35th Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

The District Department of Transportation reversed its 2012 decision and work that took two traffic lanes out of operation by the installation of a median. The reduction from three to two lanes, both ways, during rush hour caused major back-ups. Now, as before, during rush-hour parking restrictions, there are six traffic lanes: three, north; three, south.

“We are getting positive feedback from the community,” said Ed Solomon of the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission, who was involved in the traffic studies, surveys and meeting.

Indeed, the Facebook page, “Glover Park Traffic Jam,” posted on May 7: “The traffic nightmare is over! Thank you to all who supported this effort. And to those who didn’t support the change back, your concerns are important and hope you will tackle them with DDOT in a way we can all be happy. This Facebook page was created last year “for Georgetown, Cleveland Park, Burleith and Glover Park residents who want the new traffic patterns on Wisconsin Avenue changed to accommodate vehicles and pedestrians.”

Pleased with the restored traffic flow, Bill Starrels of ANC 2E noted: “One of the smartest things ANC2E did was to make sure DDOT used paint instead of the cement medians that ANC 3B was asking for when the traffic ‘experiment’ was done. Thanks to councilmembers Jack Evans and Mary Cheh as well as Mayor Vincent Gray for correcting the nightmare experiment. Today, I was able to drive from Georgetown to Massachusetts Avenue in normal time. I will start shopping in Glover Park again.”

The Glover Park neighborhood also underwent a streetscape beautification that the traffic-calming plan was a part of: sidewalks were widened, and new street lights installed.

“We are going to move back to the old plan but with an important caveat,” Brian Cohen, an ANC3B commissioner once in favor of the DDOT traffic-calming plan, told WAMU a few months ago. “We are going to add traffic cameras to help slow down traffic, and the new lanes, once we go back to six lanes, are going to be a little less wide than they originally were. So, hopefully those two factors will slow down traffic a little bit.”

To continue the effort to combat speeding cars down the avenue, a new speed camera has been set up along Wisconsin Avenue, just north of Calvert Street.

Also, work has begun on the installation of a new traffic light at 35th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. In this new traffic configuration, 35th Street at Wisconsin Avenue will become a two-way street. As of today, it is a one-way street southbound. The light will calm traffic but also gave pedestrians a safer crosswalk. The light should be ready by July, said Solomon, who added that DDOT will monitor the new light and traffic flow to see that all is going according to plan.

Robert Devaney • May 27, 2014

When Clyde’s corporate chef John Guattery gave 1789 chef Daniel Giusti a book on the restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, “Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine,” he had no idea the gift would prompt his executive chef at his best restaurant to quit and run away to Denmark.

“The company has been gracious,” said the 27-year-old Giusti, speaking at 1789’s pub bar before the dinner hours.

In return, Giusti recommended Casa Nonna’s executive sous chef Anthony Lombardo – his friend and one-time roommate – as 1789’s top chef.

“We think the same as far as food goes,” Giusti said of Lombardo, giving the Clyde’s Restaurant Group a smooth continuity between chefs. Giusti’s last day at 1789 will be Aug. 28; Lombardo begins work at the 36th and Prospect Street fine dining spot this week.

For Giusti, who departs with his girlfriend Annika De Las Heras for Europe in September, it is a leap of faith. He is heading to Noma, cited as “the best restaurant in the world,” with merely a job possibility from owner Rene Redzepi. “There’s a good chance that I’ll never get paid,” he said.

What would make a chef at a top restaurant leave without a firm job offer for another in an old warehouse by the docks?

Noma – its name short for “Nordisk Mad” or Nordic Food, or so it is said – is admittedly the best and known for its unique and complicated recipes from local sources in season with epic gastronomical results (a meal with wine can pass the $300 mark).

For the departing 1789 chef, it is the Scandinavian restaurant’s precise pursuit of excellence on all levels fueling his passion for food. He wanted to know: “How is the best kitchen in the world run?”

What struck Giusti was “the intense energy of 60 persons” working in the kitchens along with a combination of contemporary and traditional techniques. The “tame-looking food,” he said, surprises with the tastes of the mixed ingredients. Noma— where the cooks bring diners the food and where Giusti briefly helped around the kitchen in July – is “the best as far as their thinking” goes in search for the “best or pure food,” he said. “What I love to do is to cook at seasonal levels.” And as far as making the top of that restaurant list? “Being on the list gives the owner the freedom to think. I can do what I want,” he said.

The adventuresome Giusti began working at Clyde’s of Georgetown at the age of 15. Attending the Culinary Institute of America, he then worked in New York — where he met Noma’s current chef Matthew Orlando at Aureole — and Las Vegas. He returned to D.C., becoming 1789’s top chef for a little more than three years. He was nominated by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington for a 2009 and 2010 RAMMY Award and received a regional nomination for “People’s Best New Chef” from Food & Wine Magazine.

While Giusti said he was disappointed to be in New York during the surprise visit to 1789 by President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in June, he said it was pretty cool to have met the Clintons as well as Paul McCartney there.

Not bad for a kid from New Jersey who moved to Northern Virginia and was Langley High School’s prom king in 2002. See you in Denmark.

Robert Devaney •

An impressive group of supporters gathered at Tudor Place for the Rose Park Fall Party Oct. 24.

“The vision for Rose Park reflects a clean, safe and attractive natural open space where families gather and play, neighbors walk their dogs, commuters pass through, and sports are played,” the groups says. Rose Park is between P Street and M Street, NW, bounded by 26th and 27th Streets and by Rock Creek Parkway. Its facilities include three tennis courts, a basketball court, a baseball diamond, two playground areas and substantial open space. Friends of Rose Park, Inc. is a volunteer non-profit, dedicated to Rose Park. It works with the neighborhood, the D.C. Department of Parks & Recreation and the National Park Service to make Rose Park a valued community resource.
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Robert Devaney • May 23, 2014

The Georgetown Senior Center — which meets three times a week at St. John’s for lunch as well as social and educational programs — held its spring fundraiser May 1 at the 35th Street home of Penny Farthing and Andrew Miller. Attendees enjoyed food and drinks in the elegant, historic house and talked of Georgetown history and the house itself being used in films, such as “The Pelican Brief.” Old- and new-comers are always welcome at the center. [gallery ids="101742,141929,141932,141917,141920,141925" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

The Corcoran College of Art and Design’s Georgetown campus, housed at the old Fillmore School at 1801 35th St., NW, will be for sale with the transfer of the Corcoran School and its real estate to George Washington University, according to the Washington Business Journal.

The oldest art gallery in Washington, D.C., the Corcoran Gallery of Art and its art school are to be divided between G.W. and the National Gallery of Art — with the university receiving the school and the real estate and the National Gallery controlling the Corcoran’s works of art.

The deal between the Corcoran, National Gallery and G.W. has been completed and awaits approval by the D.C. Superior Court.

Meanwhile, the old Fillmore School property at the intersection of 35th and S streets will again be looked at by developers — to be turned to a condominium, as previously planned. In 2010, EastBanc was in talks with the Corcoran to purchase it, but talks broke down. (The old Fillmore School property is not part of the D.C. Public School System.)

The Corcoran located its Georgetown campus in old Fillmore School in 1998. According to the Corcoran, “renowned artist and photographer William Wegman helped launch the campus and taught the first course at Georgetown, allowing students to photograph his famous dogs.”

[REVISED May 23 for correction and clarification.]