IN: Postmodern Foods Brings Organic to M Street
• December 22, 2015

Postmodern Foods, “an organic food & drink company,” opened at 2920 M St. NW last week in the former Graphix space. Owner Denise Hicks, who was raised in the Washington area, returned three years ago to start Postmodern and soon opened a store in Great Falls, Virginia, which supports the Georgetown locale. Postmodern offers cold-pressed juices, smoothies, salads, savories and desserts — and includes online orders and office delivery.

Just Paper and Tea: a Perfect Marriage
• December 9, 2015

Tucked just inside the P Street corridor off Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown is Just Paper and Tea, the quaint specialty shop offering a finely edited array of — you guessed it — paper and tea. Owners Nick and Carolyn Wasylczuk are celebrating the store’s 26th anniversary this month.

The store opened its doors in November 1989. It was then a paint store, specializing in faux finishing. At the height of this art form’s popularity, they serviced a clientele that included the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Andrew Lloyd Webber (during the peak of his “Phantom of the Opera” fame). The couple would be the first and last contractors working in Webber’s Trump Tower corner duplex, with memories of a bathrobe-clad composer bringing them coffee in the mornings and wine in the evenings.

When asked why the store now specializes in just paper and tea, Nick queries, “Why not?” Carolyn is a former stationary buyer, and tea is an integral part of her family background, being of Asian descent. “She does all the printed materials,” says Nick of their work partnership. “If it were up to me, I’d still be printing the first piece.”

What is it like to work with your spouse? Carolyn has a quick answer. “I can’t work with anybody else,” she says. “Everything we do, every decision we make, we pass by each other.”

Just Paper and Tea is an American Express Small Business, which encourages cardholders to think big but “shop small.” Last year, American Express spruced up several of the shops at this section of P Street for Christmastime. This year, the company paid for artist Aniekan Udofia to paint a mural on an outside wall of Just Tea and Paper in the alley, easily seen from Wisconsin Avenue.

Nick and Carolyn’s repertoire of work includes everything from designing wedding invitations for a newly reunited military couple to birthday luncheon invitations for Pope Benedict. “We feel very lucky in that we love what we do,” says Carolyn. “We get to see people at their happiest.”

“In today’s world of evolving technology, the written word is power,” adds Nick. “You can delete an email.” He pauses. “You can throw away a letter — but you won’t.”
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GBA Meets at Paolo’s, Learns About D.C.’s Green Infrastucture
• November 30, 2015

Members and guests of the Georgetown Business Association gathered for its annual monthly get-together Nov. 18 at the newly renovated Paolo’s Ristorante on Wisconsin Avenue. Before the reception, filled with great tastings from the restaurant, such as skirt steak, the GBA board of directors heard from Fred Moosally, director of D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, and his take on Georgetown’s liquor license moratorium. With infographics lining the wall, DC Water’s Bethany Bezak spoke to the group at Paolo’s about the utility’s Green Infrastructure initiative and the upcoming neighborhood street work. [gallery ids="102363,124559,124553,124570,124564" nav="thumbs"]

Madda Fella Brings Its Key West Clothes to M Street
• November 16, 2015

“Live life now,” proclaims Key West clothing store Madda Fella, which has popped up at 3277 M St. NW (in the former space of Capitol Prague Restaurant) through Christmas Eve. Full of beach, sports and outdoor wear, the company touts its adventure-driven purpose with shirts, pants and accessories for “living a life full of sunshine, blue water, friends and fishing.”

The company’s namesake comes from Caribbean slang that is an expression for surprise, astonishment or frustration. Evoking the spirit of author, adventurer and Key West resident Ernest Hemingway, the writing in its catalogue rivals — because it’s real — that of J. Peterman of “Seinfeld” fame.

M Street store proprietor Grace Louden, originally from Maryland, is the daughter of the company’s co-founder Mike Louden and brought her mascot 10-week-old golden retriever, Ella, to the store for the retail adventure. The store with its Key West vibe has kept the back bar, which is used for special events on Saturday afternoon.
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United Bankshares Buys Bank of Georgetown
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On Nov. 9, United Bankshares announced that it is buying the Bank of Georgetown, a privately-held bank headquartered in Georgetown, for an estimated $269 million, effectively creating the area’s largest community bank.

According the Washington Business Journal, the all-stock deal would grow United Bankshares, which owns United Bank and has headquarters in McLean and Charleston, West Virginia, to $5.4 billion in local deposits and $8.6 billion in local assets. The Bank of Georgetown brings $1.2 billion in assets to the table with 11 branches and 3 business development offices in the metro area. The bank was founded in 2005 by Mike Fitzgerald and the late Curt Windsor III.

Sid Mashburn Opens on N Street
• November 9, 2015

Over the weekend, Sid Mashburn opened its doors for the men’s side of the Atlanta-based clothing store at 3206 N St. NW in a soft opening in time for parents’ weekend at nearby universities. The women’s side, Ann Mashburn, is being finished up and will open soon. The new store which stretches from N Street to Prospect Street has been totally rebuilt in clean lines and is full of light. It is part of the Georgetown Court complex and occupies the former space of Neyla Restaurant and a long-closed Chinese restaurant.

Also coming soon, next to Mashburn, will be the Dancing Goats Coffee Bar. The coffee shop will be at the west side of the store, facing the courtyard. The Washington State-based Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters plans to open in November.

Founder Sid Mashburn worked as a designer at J. Crew, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Lands’ End and made his vision of clothing and service a reality in 2007. His wife, Ann Mashburn, was an editor at Glamour and Vogue magazines. She writes that she “knew how to find the incredible among the so-so.”

Here is how Mashburn describes itself (from its website): “Our brick-and-mortar shops are a place to pick up a pair of jeans or get measured for a custom suit, but also to play ping-pong, listen to records, drink a Coke, and be properly taken care of in every way. Caran d’Ache pens and Musgo Real shave creams are stacked below Sartorio suits and Isabel Marant jackets; Danish cattle horns and classic editions of ‘The Secret Garden’ sit next to Laguiole knives and Mason Pearson hairbrushes; Levi’s 501s and Saint James minquiers hang alongside our full line of Sid Mashburn and Ann Mashburn product, leading to a juxtaposition that is really not such a juxtaposition at all — all these things are well-made, iconic, to us, even perfect.”

This new addition gives a extra shot of style and smart design to a retail complex which has undergone many changes. Welcome to Washington’s oldest neighborhood, Sid and Ann.
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BID Says Let Liquor License Moratorium Die
• October 28, 2015

The Georgetown Business Improvement District released a report recommending the moratorium on new liquor licenses be allowed to expire on Feb. 3, 2016, to “encourage new high-quality restaurants to open in Georgetown.” Begun in 1989 to address public drunkenness, late-night noise, litter and the like, the Georgetown moratorium is no longer needed, the BID contends, as such problems have “decreased dramatically.” If the moratorium is extended, “Georgetown will be the only neighborhood in D.C. to have restriction on all classes of restaurants,” exacerbating an “oligopoly of operators, economic rents and speculative behavior,” the group states.

COMING: Mashburn at G’town Court
• October 19, 2015

Mashburn, a clothing store out of Atlanta, will be coming in 2015 to 3206 N St., NW, which is part of the Georgetown Court complex and in the former space of Neyla Restaurant and a long-closed Chinese restaurant.

The store will stretch from Prospect to N Street with a women’s and men’s side. There will also be a coffee shop on the west side of the store, facing the courtyard. “Think L.L. Bean meets Starsbuck’s,” said the architect, who showed plans at the Dec. 1 meeting for the Georgetown-Burleith advisory neighborhood commission (ANC2E).

Britches of Georgetowne Founder Plans to Revive Brand
• October 15, 2015

For decades, it was the smart mark of the well-dressed man, a stylish retailer with a well-heeled attitude that could get both father and son wearing its clothing, Britches of Georgetowne—which added “Since 1967” on its labels from the very start. It is about to be revived almost 50 years later.

Britches of Georgetowne co-founder Rick Hindin, a businessman and entrepreneur, is known around Washington, D.C., for the iconic Georgetown clothing store as well as for Adworks, Chicken Out Rotisserie and Hinsilblon Laboratories—and the causal version of the men’s clothing store, Britches Great Outdoors.

“We can do this again,” said Hindin of the Britches revival. “It is a heritage brand, a legacy brand,” he said. “Manufacturers are seeking licenses for such brands. We have been working on this for a little over a year. The clothing will be targeted to millennials and baby boomers. There will be separate models for each segment with the same fabrication—ages 25 to 65 with the same taste level.”

Hindin bought the trademarks for Britches and with Stephen Wayne will revive the label and its apparel with sales expected to begin before the end of 2016.

Britches was sold by its founders Hindin and David Pensky in 1983 to the retail specialist, CML Group, although the two ran the business until the late 1980s. When they left, Britches, including Britches Great Outdoors, numbered 100 stores. The company formally declared bankrupty in 2002.

The first Britches was at 1245 Wisconsin Ave. NW—today, appropriately, the space occupied by Ralph Lauren. Its second store was at 1219 Connecticut Ave. NW, not far from Raleigh’s, Burberry’s and other men’s clothing stores, some still in business, others not, but all classic for their times.

Now a business consultant with his Asterisk Group, Hindin lives in Chevy Chase, Md., but he added that he was most proud of another thing he helped to found in Georgetown. In the early 1970s, Hinden along with John Laytham (Clyde’s), Richard McCooey (1789, the Tombs), Jim Weaver (Weaver’s Hardware) and Paul Cohn (J. Paul’s, Old Glory, Paulo’s) started the Georgetown Business Association.

While Hinden knows the power of ageless style and of nostalgia, he is also betting that baby boomer and millennial can agree on the branding power of Georgetown, D.C.

Biz Group Salutes Bank of Georgetown’s 10 Years
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The Georgetown Business Association met for its monthly networking reception Sept. 16 at the rooftop of the Bank of Georgetown headquarters on 30th Street to help celebrate the hometown bank’s 10th birthday.

GBA president Sonya Bernhardt welcomed the rooftop crowd to congratulate the bank employees at their anniversary and especially Bank of Georgetown CEO, chairman and co-founder Mike Fitzgerald. Along with GBA members and guests, Bernhardt also wished past GBA president, Riyad Said, good luck in his new job and life in California.

Guests were treated to heavy hors d’oeuvres by Occasions Caterers as well as a beautiful sunset.
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