GBA Warms Up at Expanded il Canale Ristorante

November 21, 2014

The Georgetown Business Association held its monthly reception Nov. 19 at the newly expanded il Canale Ristorante on 31st Street, just a few steps from the C&O Canal. GBA members and friends were there to talk about the November election results and to check out the restaurant’s added space, which once housed Cannon’s Seafood Market — and to get in from the cold.

Il Canale owner Joe Farruggio greeted the more than 100 guests with a great selection of food that included pizza, pasta, antipasta and cannoli. On hand were local politicians, designers, bankers and PR and media types as well as Italian Embassy staffers.

The next GBA get-together is a big one: the Annual GBA Holiday Party, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 12, at the Embassy of Ukraine at 3350 M St. NW and requires a government-issued ID at the door and an RSVP by 5 p.m., Dec. 9.
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Moleskine Storefront Coming to M Street

November 13, 2014

Italian notebook maker Moleskine is moving in to Georgetown at 3029 M St., NW, in the lead up to the holiday season. The store will open its doors as a pop-up shop until January, when it will close to begin a permanent build out. The Moleskine brand began in 1997, when a small Italian company reintroduced a small leather-bound notebook popularized in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Since then, the company has expanded to sell planners, diaries, sketchbooks, bags, pens and pencils, and other reading and travel accessories. Moleskine products are already sold in the District at outlets like Target, Staples and Barnes & Noble, but this will be the brand’s first brick-and-mortar location in Washington, D.C.

EastBanc helped Moleskine make the move to Georgetown. EastBanc’s vice president, Philippe Lanier said, “Moleskine is a prominent lifestyle brand and will compliment the other lucury retailers in our Georgetown portfolio. Their arrival reinforces the neighborhood’s status as a premier retail destination.”

After the store moves in, Georgetowners will be able to get all their paper goods on one M Street block: Moleskine is moving next door at Paper Source.

Business Ins + Outs

November 6, 2014

IN: Free People
Free People, a Bohemian apparel and retail store that sells women’s clothing and accessories, will open its first store in D.C. – at the former Fino Italiano space, 3009 M St., NW – by the end of the month. Owned by Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters, Free People has more than 81 boutiques in the U.S. and two in Canada. It has six stores in the region.
IN: Rent the Runway
Rent the Runway will move into Cady’s Alley at 3336 M Street, NW, in mid-November. The store rents designer gowns, dresses and accessories.

OUT: Prince Cafe
The Georgetown Prince Café and Hookah Bar at 1042 Wisconsin Ave., NW, and its owner Ehab Asal have moved on. The business gained fame on WUSA Channel 9, which reported on its health code violations, including a “mummified rat inside the kitchen.” Local advisory neighborhood commissioner Bill Starrels observed: “The neighbors on all sides of Prince Cafe were thrilled that the business was moving on. The trash and grease was becoming a rat buffet. … Prince was a hookah bar that wasn’t even licensed for that. Chances are good that whatever replaces Prince Cafe will be a step forward for the neighborhood.”

Trickponi Pop-up, Nov. 6-9
A Trickponi pop-up in Georgetown will open at 3210 O St., NW, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 6, to Sunday, Nov. 9. The pop-up will showcase collections from unique Middle Eastern designers as well as U.S. designers including Christin Chang, Shosh New York and Emm Kuo.

IN: Alice and Olivia
The hip woman’s clothing boutique Alice and Olivia is under construction at 3303 M St., NW. Its founder Stacey Bendet is the designer who aims to make “a trouser sexy.” She launched the brand at Barneys in 2002. It now sells in more than 50 countries. The Georgetown store will be Alice and Olivia’s 14th store. It should open by the end of November.
GeorgeTownPool Pops Up, Nov. 15
A preppy men’s and women’s clothing store, GeorgeTownPool, will pop-up Nov. 15 at
1063 Wisconsin Ave., NW, in the space once occupied by the Pleasure Place, next to Filomena Ristorante. The pop-up shop originated on Nantucket this past summer with ideas from hospitality leader Bo Blair. The store is run by Georgetown native and Gonzaga alum Marty Ellsworth. Mike Pabb of Smith Point is also involved in the store, which will carry local brands such as Smathers and Branson and Sissy Yates, as well as Lilly Pulitzer, Southern Proper and more. Call 202-669-2659 for employment opportunities. The pop-up runs through Dec. 31.

GBA Reception at il Canale, Nov. 19
The Georgetown Business Association’s Nov. 19 networking reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the newly expanded il Canale restaurant, 1063 31st St., NW, will also be a “post-election celebration.” RSVP to 202-640-1279 or info@gtownbusiness.

Don’t Repeat Vanderbilts’ Mistakes

October 23, 2014

Most people remember the Vanderbilts as one of the wealthiest families in our nation’s history – creating immense wealth to be passed on for future generations to prosper. Right? Wrong.

What Cornelius Vanderbilt got right was creating a shipping empire that began with nothing and amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune.

What he got wrong was planning for the future of his fortune.

There are three stages in everyone’s financial lives from the accumulation phase to the protection payout phase and, finally, to the legacy phase. We spend our lives working tirelessly to provide for our loved ones, then we work to preserve that wealth believing that what is important is what we leave behind when we are gone.

This is only half of it.

Just ask Cornelius Vanderbilt. Seventy years later and his fortune has been squandered by the same family he was seeking to provide for.

You don’t have the fortune of a Vanderbilt. Few do. For some it is about money, but we should all begin to think of wealth, and for that matter estate planning, in a different way. We should all begin by asking ourselves: What is true wealth?

When I ask my clients what they think the most important thing to pass on to their beneficiaries is, they say financial assets dead last. But many, if not all, estate plans start and stop with a dollar amount.

If it’s just the money, then you should rejoice. This summer the D.C. Council approved a package of extensive changes to the tax code including raising the state estate tax exemption from $1 million to $5.25 million and bringing it in line with the federal tax code.

This may sound like an opportunity, and it is for the financial industry, which is trying to convince you to buy their last engineered product designed to pass as much of your wealth onto your children a legally possible. That’s a great instinct but too often people are persuaded by financial industry sales pitches that offer no advice other than how to make their estate plans as tax–efficient as possible.

Remember the Vanderbilts? You should.
Cornelius’ estate plan was flawless, but what he forgot was that, with money comes great responsibility. When it is handed to you on a silver (or gold) platter, your children, those same beneficiaries, often lose out.

It is important to sit down and create an estate plan, but it is just as important to sit down with your children and teach them your values, the meaning of hard work and the importance of charity.

There are a number of tried and true ways to do that, including family foundations to continue charity work, and leaving your money in a fashion that encourages entrepreneurship, such as a family “bank.” That’s what has sustained Europe’s Rothschild family of bankers for two centuries.

It’s the job of a financial planner to look at your hard earned dollars and make sure you can sleep at night knowing that you left your money in competent hands.

There’re many ways to set up an estate plan. I can show you how to plan for the next generation’s future while accomplishing your own goals. I can tell you how to make the most of the new tax rules in Washington, and how to ensure your children get the most of what you leave behind.

But the most important advice I can give my clients is to think about the good they want their money to do instead of the ease of luxury it might provide. I suggest that they ask themselves what they should do today to make sure their fortune and their legacy last longer than 70 years.

John E. Girouard, CFP, CHFC, CLU, CFS, is the author of “Take Back Your Money” and “The Ten Truths of Wealth Creation,” a registered principal of Cambridge Investment Research and an Investment Advisor Representative of Capital Investment Advisors, in Bethesda, Md.

Business Ins + Outs

October 22, 2014

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.’ ”

Dog Tag Bakery Celebrates Ribbon-Cutting on Grace Street

October 10, 2014

Dog Tag Bakery, a non-profit bakery that employs veterans, cut the ribbon May 4 at 3206 Grace St., NW.

Here’s how the non-profit business describes itself: “The bakery will feature an assortment of baked breads from Father Curry’s book, ‘The Secret’s of Jesuit Bread Making,’ as well as specialty, seasonal and holiday items. The bakery will also offer light fare for breakfast and lunch and a full-service coffee and beverage bar. Dog Tag Bakery will also produce homemade dog biscuits for our canine customers. The bakery will be a self-sustaining vehicle for supporting and funding our veteran’s program. Our building will be fully ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant and will provide classroom and meeting space. Our intent is to provide the critical business and life skills in the classroom that our staff can then learn experimentally through their internship at the bakery.”

The unique bakery plans to open later this year.

New Life for Parking Lot at Prospect Place


One of the last pieces of underdeveloped prime real estate in Georgetown is about to go under construction. Prospect Place, the parking lot on Prospect Street across from Cafe Milano, will be the site of a new community of retail outlets and restaurants.

Chicago-based McCaffery Interests, Inc., will redevelop the 82-space parking lot, constructing two stories of storefront retail atop a 101-space underground parking garage. Development is well into the entitlement process, and the owners hope to have approval from the ANC by early-to-mid 2015. The goal is to break ground toward the end of that year. The construction is projected to take just over a year, with an estimated completion date of late fall 2016, assuming no delays in approval.

“It’s a killer piece of frontage,” says Juan Cameron, Senior Managing Director of Development and Acquisition Opportunities at McCaffery. “Prospect Street has a great flow of pedestrians—it gets more foot traffic than any place in the neighborhood besides M and Wisconsin.”

McCaffrey is interested in what Cameron calls the “pedestrian experience,” making streets comfortable for walkers, retailers and restaurants. M Street’s thin sidewalks, for instance, are prone to crammed, highly concentrated traffic jams on street corners and outside of major retailers. Wider sidewalks, which are a key feature to the proposed designs for Prospect Place, allow more rhythm on the street. “We want room for diners to sit outside at a storefront cafe and space for foot traffic to comfortably walk by.”

Although it is still too early to know what shops or restaurants to expect, McCaffrey anticipates that there will be local retail players that Georgetown has not seen before.

“This is a very important piece of real estate and we all want to see it done right,” says Bill Starrels, ANC commissioner for Ward 2.

One objection raised by Starrels and the ANC board was the initially proposed plan to have merchandise delivery and trash pickup out front on the sidewalk. “Anybody who has to drive on Prospect in the morning knows it’s a pain because of restaurant deliveries. We have to learn what didn’t work in years before. When we’re talking about an additional 28,000 square feet of retail, we need proper designs for loading and unloading.”

Starrels believes there can be great benefits in the new construction for local residents as well as visitors. “It really depends on what goes into these new storefronts. Retailers in Georgetown need to remember that there are about 14,000 residents—add Burleith and that’s 2,000 more, plus all the college students. There are a lot of retail options that could benefit the neighborhood community.”

For his part, Starrels would like to see if the developers could attract a Trader Joe’s or a small Whole Foods.

The owners should be sensitive to this fact, as they are one of Georgetown’s oldest families. The Weaver family, who settled in Georgetown in 1811and have run WT Weaver & Sons, an architectural hardware and decorative plumbing store at 1208 Wisconsin Ave., has owned the parking lot for over a century and will retain ownership of the redeveloped property.

Business: Ins + Outs

October 8, 2014

Oktoberfest in Cady’s Alley

In the tradition of Munich, Bavaria and Deutschland, Oktoberfest was celebrated in Cady’s Alley Sept. 27 and 28. The retail alley became a Oktoberfest fun fair with Bavarian food provided by Kafe Leopold, a soft pretzel cart, a two-story central beer hall that featured seasonal German brews and a fun zone filled with games and attractions. The weekend festivities were sponsored by EastBanc, Inc., and Jamestown Co.

IN: Mama Rouge Set to Open Oct. 14

Mama Rouge, the new Southeast Asian Bistro, replacing Bangkok Joe’s at 3000 K St., NW, will open Oct. 14. Chef and owner Aulie Bunyarataphan and husband and business partner Mel Oursinsiri are working at the same spot at Washington Harbour near the entrance. Expect a nice mix of Southeast Asian and French influences from the chef’s family. The restaurant’s name comes from Bunyarataphan’s grandmother.

IN: Yummi Crawfish’s Grand Opening

Yummi Crawfish, “the traditional Cajun crawfish experience of Louisiana,”1529 Wisconsin Ave., NW, held its grand-opening party just about all day Sept. 26. If you “like” the restaurant on Facebook, you will get 15 percent off your bill on your first visit.

OUT: Subway Closed

The Subway sandwich shop at 1363 Wisconsin Ave., NW, closed suddenly last month.

OUT: La Fourchette to Close

La Fourchette on 18th Street is set to close. Chef Pierre Chauvet and his wife Jacqueline will also sell their apartment next door. Also adjacent to the classic French restaurant, Jonathan Cho of Sakuramen will be opening a new pan-Asian place at 2431 18th St., NW.

Palisades Safeway Property Up for Bid; New Law Passed

While the owners of 4865 MacArthur Blvd., NW, where a Safeway grocery store has been for decades, say that the store “will consider a short-term leaseback post closing,” the future of the Palisades Safeway is unclear.

Passed Oct. 7, legislation by the District Council prohibits use of restrictive covenants being placed on land, formerly occupied by grocery stores. “Some national grocery store chains use restrictive covenants or land use restrictions to prohibit new grocery stores from filling the space of their former stores when they vacate,” according to one of the law’s sponsors, At-large Councilmember David Catania.

KLNB Retail lists the 64,815-foot commercial site with a bid deadline of Oct. 6 and a close of escrow of no later than Dec. 12. The property is assessed by D.C. tax office at $3.2 million. The loss of the Palisades Safeway would leave the neighborhood with only the Georgetown Safeway or stores in nearby Arlington.

Cerberus Capital Management bought Safeway, the nation’s second-largest grocer for more than $9 billion in March and is merging it with Albertson’s, the fifth-largest grocer.

Watergate Hotel Under Reconstruction

Work has begun to renovate the Watergate Hotel, “a $100-million project that will significantly increase the number of guest rooms and return the property to its former luxury status,” according to the Washington Business Journal. Reconstruction will gut “all 13 floors of the vacant, 277,000-square-foot building on Virginia Avenue, NW, replacing plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems and installing high-end, imported finishes.The room count will go from 251 to 348 . . . The work will also result in two new restaurants, as well as a rooftop bar, renovated ballrooms and spa and fitness areas.”

IPhone 6: Worth the Hype

October 1, 2014

The most readily-apparent differences between the iPhone 6 and its predecessor are in form: where the iPhone 5 is a little boxy, the iPhone 6 is slim and trim, striking an impressive balance between substantiality and lightness of being. Though 17 grams heavier than its predecessor, the phone’s weight increase is balanced in such a way that the feel of the iPhone 6 is more reassuring than that of the iPhone 5.

The 4.7-inch display on the iPhone 6 (up from 4 inches on the iPhone 5), is just enough of an increase to deliver much-needed real estate without inflating the iPhone 6 to a degree that would require extra space to carry or a closer eye to look at the screen. In terms of display quality, though, the odd choice of a 1334 x 750 resolution for the iPhone 6 doesn’t change the pixel density one bit; the iPhone 5, 5c and 5s all sport the iPhone 6’s 326ppi.

In terms of functionality, the iPhone 6 offers little in the way of earth-shattering improvements. Looking past the changes in iOS 8, the hardware upgrades seem to have a negligible impact on performance, despite the inclusion of the much-touted Apple A8 processor, which replaces the A7 in the iPhone 5s. Apple claims the A8 is 25 percent faster and has 50 percent better graphics than the A7, though the average user likely won’t notice a huge difference with today’s mainstream apps.

With the iPhone 6, Apple has stuck by the 1GB RAM allotment of the iPhone 5 in a nod to prolonging battery life. However, RAM bottlenecks tend to account for more performance degradations in the end-user experience than underpowered processors.

And what about battery life? According to Apple’s estimates, there is a significant improvement in the audio category; you’ll get an additional 10 hours of music time out of the iPhone 6, up to 50 total hours, compared to the 40 hours estimated for the iPhone 5s. Across the other categories – video, Wi-Fi, LTE and 3G browsing – the increases are token and insubstantial

The majority of the bells-and-whistles associated with the iPhone 6 come via iOS 8 and are as-yet-unrealized in their full potential. Apple Pay, the new near-field communications (NFC) technology incorporated into the iPhone 6 that will theoretically allow iPhone 6 owners to use their devices as a tap-and-go credit card, is still in its infancy. Metal, Apple’s new technology geared towards mobile game developers, will supposedly allow the creation of more immersive and richly detailed games that take advantage of the iPhone 6’s new hardware. Apps that leverage Metal will take time to become available, though.

The Takeaway: Wait and see. The iPhone 6 and iOS 8 have real potential, both individually and as a team. But unless you dislike the iPhone 5 for aesthetic reasons or are one of those who simply must have the latest and greatest on day one, my advice would be to wait a few months to let Apple work out the unavoidable new-release kinks and give the wider tech world a chance to capitalize on the new development features.

Bluemercury Rising

September 26, 2014

Marla Beck, wearing a sleeveless black dress and gold cuff bracelet, and Barry Beck, in a crisp white shirt and silvery blue tie, appear as one might imagine the founders of a $100-million luxury cosmetics and skincare company to be: chic, well-groomed and smelling slightly of Barry’s favorite body wash, Molton Brown Black Peppercorn.

Yet the couple, who’ve gone from owning one Bluemercury store at 3059 M St., NW, 15 years ago to 55 nationwide today, revolutionizing the beauty business in the process, would prefer customers to think of them simply as the “mom and pop” of the industry.

“It used to bug us a little when people would say, ‘Oh, those Bluemercury beauty shops.’ We wanted to be this big national chain. The truth is that today, it’s this mom-and-pop shop feeling that’s really been the driver of our success,” said Barry, sitting with Marla in their Georgetown headquarters.

Success in this case means owning the fastest growing beauty and spa business in the country, with 20 to 30 stores opening in the next year, plus an Internet business that earns the equivalent of 60 brick and mortar stores. Indeed, in the District, home to four stores including the Georgetown original, Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans declared Sept. 13, “Bluemercury Day,” after the District Council voted unanimously in favor of the designation.

The concept of the beauty shop around the corner began with Marla, a California native and self-professed “product junkie” who was getting facials before most people had heard of them. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, she attended Harvard Business School in Boston, where she would drive 45 minutes to buy her favorite MAC lipstick because cosmetics were sold only in drug and department stores.

“In the back of my mind, I always loved the business,” she recalled, flashing a smile. “But it wasn’t something I was focused on until I came here to D.C.”

She moved to Washington to head up mergers and acquisitions for a large janitorial services company but was more interested in running her own business. She’d heard Jeff Bezos give a speech in 1997 about the future of e-commerce and “caught the bug.” She knew there was a gap in the cosmetics market and was mulling the idea of bringing luxury cosmetics to the Internet.

It was right around this time that she met Barry, who owned a maintenance company he had started with his brother while at Cornell University. He was trying to sell that company to the company Marla worked for.

“I’m embarrassed to say I never even looked at Marla the whole time during the meeting,” Barry recalled, relishing telling the story. “Honestly, I thought she was the secretary. She never said a word. She was just watching me the whole time. At the end of the meeting, she said, ‘By the way, I’m the head of M&A. I make all the decisions about which companies we buy and which ones we don’t.’”

Afterward, his brother asked him how the meeting went. Barry replied: “I don’t know, but I think I’m resigning. I think I met the woman I’m going to marry.”

She didn’t buy his company, but Barry did ask her out. In fact, the two left their jobs and raised $1 million in investment capital to create Bluemercury online and open one brick-and-mortar store in 1999.

They also started a life together in Georgetown, getting married (at store number four), having three children (stores five, eight, and thirteen) and finally, today, employing 600-plus people.

Like any good partnership – personal or public – the Becks appear to fill in each other’s gaps. In business, she is the CEO, a strategist who handles all things customer-related: merchandising, marketing, staffing and product development. He is the COO, the tactician who oversees finance, real estate and e-commerce.

He is also the boyish talker who clearly loves to tell – and sell – their story, while she’s the quiet listener who occasionally interjects with a clarification or correction.

At one point Barry said that Bluemercury has more stores than Neiman Marcus and Saks combined.

“I don’t think that’s true,” Marla said quickly. “We should count them.”

“Well, yes, we should count them,” Barry agreed “But it’s close.”

At another point, he revealed that next year the company is launching several new brands, including color cosmetics, haircare and sun-care lines, to which Marla said, “Wait, we’re not supposed to be talking about that.”

“We can’t tell you the names and what’s going to be in them,” Barry said. “We can’t tell you what they are. [But] we’re going to build a house of brands.”

Marla remained unfazed, leaving the salesmanship to him. But as soon as the conversation turned to her role in the business, her blue eyes lit up and her speech quickened. She takes a hands-on approach to hiring people and selecting products, she said, personally interviewing every store manager and trying every product that goes on the shelf.

In addition to selling dozens of brands such as Laura Mercier, Trish McEvoy and Bobbi Brown at Bluemercury stores, Marla launched her own line of natural, dermatologically-tested products called M-61 two years ago after seeing a gap in the market.

“A product has to have great quality, great packaging and a great plan for product development,” she explained. “I look for a lot of authenticity. That’s why we have makeup artists’ brands, because there are people behind them creating the product. I don’t like the fads where someone’s like, ‘I think this is cool this year.’ ”

Her perennial favorites are Trish McEvoy’s High-Volume Mascara and the M-61 Power Glow Peel. Here is the latter’s Bluemercury website description: “Marla loves this pre-makeup and pre-moisturizer before a very important event for a radiant glow. She also loves it for hormone-related breakouts, which she seems to get.”

Clearly, Marla, who pens a beauty blog, spends a good deal of time testing these products. Where does all this experimentation take place? They receive so many prospective products at their office, Barry said, that they put them in a spot dubbed “the garage.” Every so often, they pull them out, set them up and Marla goes through them like movie scripts with Post-it notes in hand.

“I’m like: ‘No, no, no, we need more information on this,’ or ‘Who’s doing this?’ or ‘This one I want to take home’,” she said.

“You know a brand is on its way into the store… ” Barry started. “Could be going in,” Marla interrupted.

Barry flashed his brown eyes at her, finishing, “Because the train stop right before that is in our bathroom.”

She did not disagree. In fact, there seems to be little the Becks don’t ultimately agree on, at least in business. Barry describes their partnership as “magical” and “this amazing combination that has really worked well for us.” Their list of professional accomplishments is long, including Marla’s recent appointment as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School and Barry’s lecturing on entrepreneurship at Cornell and Columbia universities.

They seem to have figured out what works well for them at home, too. They include their three children, ages 7, 9 and 11, in store openings and activities as much as possible. “We’ve never seen our life as, ‘Here is our work life and here is our family life,’ ” Barry said. “It’s a blend. Bluemercury is who we are, who our family is.”

That life includes a considerable amount of business travel. Marla noted that she logged 13,000 miles in June alone and met with every store manager during August. “There was one week I was in a different city every day,” she said. “So it depends. But it’s a minimum of one day a week.”

Even so, they make a big effort to be home at night with their kids. If they need to visit a store together, no matter where it is, they try to make it a day trip. If going to the West Coast, they often fly out in the morning and take the red eye back.

“We like to go to bed under our own roof,” Barry said. “Husband, wife, three kids. The truth is, it’s a labor of love for us. We love what we’re doing. We’re excited to see a store in Santa Monica and can’t wait to get out there. And we also can’t wait to get back to our family.”

Another way they stay connected is by taking nightly walks through their Bethesda neighborhood, or wherever they happen to be. It’s a habit they started when they lived in Georgetown and would walk down to the monuments a few times a week. They’ve calculated they’ve walked halfway around the world.

“Last night, we walked almost five miles,” Barry said. “We were in a great conversation, saw something funny, gave each other a little hug…”

“And I walked into a tree,” said Marla with a laugh.

And if she got a scratch from the branch, she knew she could walk to the beauty shop down the street for the perfect product to cover it up. [gallery ids="101863,137669,137666,137660" nav="thumbs"]