Town Topics

Georgetowner • March 13, 2014

Flowers and love songs, shared passions and passion for each other. Like loves like and sometimes the opposite. A hero or heroine, thinking, saying, “I would die for you, and definitely cry for you.” The love that endures into time’s long years. Being there when it counts. Remembering a rose or a favorite song. Being the one person who makes the other person laugh and being the other person who laughs even when it’s not funny. Being there when you need no one but the other. Thinking that the future is boundless because the someone that has your back is standing right in front of you…or lying beside you.
These are a few of things that come to mind as Valentine Day’s approaches. And these are a few of our favorite people: couples who exemplify all that and more.

Amy & Martin Gammon
Martin Gammon, vice president, Bonhams Auctioneers, Washington, D.C.
Amy Maniatis, National Geographic Society executive vice president and CMO

How they met: They met at a dinner party in 1990 at Berkeley on Gammon’s first day in California, after he drove across the U.S. from New York. Both majored in philosophy at Berkeley.

Their first date was at the famed “beatnik” Vesuvio Cafe in North Beach, San Francisco.

Their favorite date night is to walk one block to the small bar at 1789, where bartender Bob Jordan (as seen on cover) the gives free advice. Great spot for a romantic dinner.

The wedding: They married in 1995 in Carmel, Calif., at Mission Ranch, which is owned by Clint Eastwood, who was Mayor of Carmel in the 1990s. Eastwood happened to be at the bar during their wedding and greeted the bride and her maid of honor.

On many Valentine’s Days, the couple and their two daughter are at their place in Baja California — and go see the whales in the Pacific.
(Both daughters — Lucy and Chloe — attend Holy Trinity School.)

How to keep the spark: “Bunsen burner, ha-ha. Just be each other’s best friend,” says Martin. And “Spontaneity,” added Amy.

Future plans or happening now: The British Virgin Islands

Bob and Gwen Jordan
Bob,1789 bartender (Also on cover as ‘favorite date night location’)
Where they met: At a bar in Arlington (Capitol City Brewery); he was a bartender there.
How to keep that spark: We laugh all the time.
Coming from a military family, Bob grew up in Arlington.
The Jordans live in Vienna, Va. Their special date-night place is a sentimental favorite, Artie’s in Fairfax.

Michele and Jack Evans
Michele Evans, interior designer
Jack Evans, D.C. Councilmember, Ward 2

How they met: Friends in Georgetown thought we would be a great couple so they managed to get us in the same place at the same time and with his schedule it wasn’t easy!

When they ‘knew’: Well, you know that it’s love you share, but marriage is a huge commitment so we took almost four years to make that large leap of faith.

The wedding: We got married in September of 2010 and every year we learn more about what makes a marriage work and how to compromise on the small stuff and you learn that most of it is the small stuff.
Biggest surprise you learned after you got married: It takes unconditional love and the dog sleeps wherever she wants!
Future plans or happening now: What’s happening right now is that it’s JACK EVANS for MAYOR and it’s a full time, full press and don’t forget to VOTE mode!

How to keep the spark alive: We try and keep the spark a flame!

Favorite date night plans in Georgetown: We both love the movies so we get our night started on K Street with a flick and popcorn followed up with a fun dinner or drinks. Sometimes it can be as simple as burgers down at Tony and Joe’s with the added entertainment of people watching. We both like Martins and try and keep it simple in Georgetown. Jack loves a cold Budweiser and sometimes it’s just date night on our bedroom deck looking at the stars and drinking frozen margaritas with my secret ingredient.

Happy Valentine’s day
Michele and Jack

Art and Margaret Heimbold
Margaret, Long and Foster Realtor
Art, founder and chairman of Summerville Senior Services

How they met: We were introduced by mutual friends.

When they ‘knew’: About a year after we met.

Married for: 30 years

Biggest surprise after you got married: We were married in Princeton, New Jersey and my husband moved the next month to Washington, DC.

Future plans or happening now: To enjoy each other’s company in our lovely house in Georgetown. Being parents to six children and grandparents to 11 grandchildren.

How to keep the spark alive: We take great fun in planning trips to museums, art galleries, historic sites, out of town places within a car drive and returning to our favorite vacation spots. We both write and are very creative. And importantly, each of us has served on boards and volunteered for many organizations in the city.

Favorite date night plans in Georgetown: There are so many fun things to do in Georgetown, it would be difficult to pick just one. But mostly we stay in Georgetown, act like we are vacationing and enjoy the opportunity that the community presents.

Nancy and Alan Bubes
Nancy Taylor Bubes, Washington Fine Properties Realtor
Alan Bubes, former president and CEO of Linens of the Week

How they met: Alan’s mother called me on a listing for a house.

When they ‘knew’: About three weeks before we eloped- Lake Tahoe…this was after five years.

Married for: 24 years

Biggest surprise you learned after you got married: That we were going to be a two toothpaste family.

Future plans or happening now: We are going to Amsterdam and Brussels for Valentine’s Day this week

How to keep the spark alive: I try to not bitch too much in the kitchen.

Favorite date night plans in Georgetown: Dinner, movies and a walk home…and Thomas Sweets.

Robin and Jeff Jones
Robin, CAG gala co-chair
Jeff, Georgetown advisory neighborhood commissioner

How they met: We were introduced by mutual friends. Surprisingly, we had many friends in common and attended many of the same events yet had never met.

When they ‘knew’: We knew fairly soon and were married in about 1 1/2 years.

Married for: 17 years

Biggest surprise you learned after you got married: Hmmmm… Can’t think of anything in the big category

Plans for the future together or happening now: Keep having fun and taking lots of vacations! This year we are taking our family to Kauai. Happening now- answering this questionnaire on a Caribbean island with friends from Georgetown.

Elizabeth and Paul Centenari
Elizabeth, owner of THE Artist Agency
Paul, CEO Atlas Container

How they met: My famous expression: The North, met the South, in the West and live in the East. I grew up in Kentucky, Paul in Boston, we met in Colorado and live in D.C. My girlfriend and I were having dinner at a restaurant and Paul and his brother approached us. Paul talked to my girlfriend and I talked to his brother. Basically I shook Paul’s hand and said hello and goodnight. I called my mom when I left the restaurant and said I’ve just said hello and goodnight to the man that I will marry.

When they ‘knew’: I knew the first night we met. Paul knew the day we got married

The Wedding: Together for 28 years, married for 25. We walked down the aisle to “Ain’t too proud to Beg” by The Temptations at our wedding and we both have it saved in our cars as the first song on our playlist!

Biggest surprise you learned you got married: Paul wanted children right away (our wedding night!) I wanted to wait several years. Our first daughter was born 4 years later

Plans for the future together or happening now: We will keep dedicating our time to our careers, our family and our charity, Hope for Children. We plan on spending more time in Africa helping the children at HFC.

How to keep the spark alive: We make time to chat, either at the beginning or the end of every day. Some of our best talks are over coffee on a Sat/Sun morning. The spark stays alive as long as we keep talking and laughing. Date nights help too!

Favorite date night plans in Georgetown: A quick bite at our favorite spot, Peacock Cafe and a movie on K Street. If Thomas Sweet is still open after the show, we hit that on the way home
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Georgetowner • February 27, 2014

Laytham Hotel, Citronelle, La Madeleine . . . Closed for Good?
News that the Laytham Hotel — along with Michel Richard’s Citronelle and the chain La Madeleine — was closed for at least six months due to “extensive flooding” and structural damage has been the talk of the town. How extensive will the repairs be for the hotel and its adjacent restaurants? Will it be ready for the 2013 inauguration? The hotel operator and owner have not been very communicative with the public, as the hotel has been for sale on-and-off over the last few years. (Indeed, Citronelle was rumored to be closing or moving about four years ago.) It is a sad situation for the restaurant and hotel workers, although some have gotten jobs in other places already.

Indeed, a Changing of the Guards
The other bad news: the closing of the Guards, at 2915 M Street since 1966. Supposedly temporarily . . . as restaurant owner Hossein Shirvani, who also once owned the famed Childe Harold restaurant in Dupont Circle, continued to discuss a new lease agreement with the property owner.

Then, the Washington Post’s Tim Carman reported: “It’s official. The Guards is closed. Yes, it’s true, says longtime owner Hossein Shirvani, that he and the landlord are deep in lease talks over the future of the Guards. They’re both, he says, looking for someone to take over the space. In other words, the Guards, the historic Georgetown restaurant that once was the playground of celebrities and politicians alike, is officially closed.”

“It’s just my decision not to sign a new lease. We need to pass on the torch. You know what I mean? We need to get new blood in there,” Shirvani told the Post.

7-Eleven Closed for Expansion Until Late September
The closing of the 7-Eleven at 2617 P St., NW, is temporary, as it must close for its remodeling and expansion into the space once occupied by P Street Frames. The convenience store will remain closed until late September, according to GeorgetownPatch.com, increasing in size by 2,500-3,000 square feet.

Dutch Clothiers Setting Up M Street Shops
Suitsupply at the Four Seasons Hotel at 2828 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., is almost ready to open by the looks of the M and 29th Street corner — and by the end of August. The Amsterdam-headquartered men’s clothing company combines nicely priced suits (affordable and custom) with high-end service, such as in-store tailors. The company appears as “qualified and equipped” as the Dutch Olympic team it outfitted for London Games. www.SuitSupply.com

Scotch & Soda Amsterdam Couture is set to move into the former location of Betsey Johnson’s store at 3029 M St., N.W. While sold in other stores around the city, the Scotch & Soda in Georgetown will be its third official U.S. store after New York and Miami. The Amsterdam-based brand mixes and matches an ungraded American look — 202-338-4090; scotch-soda.com

M&T Banks Opens Branch on Wisconsin Avenue
M&T Bank opened a new, full-service branch at 1420 Wisconsin Ave., NW, in the space once occupied by famed hipster clothing store, Commander Salamander.

“Our new Georgetown branch is an example our investment in and commitment to the greater Washington area,” said Steve Heine, M&T Bank’s greater Washington market manager. “This is a convenient location that will help us to serve existing customers and attract new customers with our high level of service and M&T’s wide range of banking products.”

M&T Bank Corporation is one of the 20 largest U.S. bank holding companies with more than 750 branch offices in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Delaware. Founded in 1856 in Buffalo, N.Y., M&T was originally called Manufacturers and Traders Bank. Investor Warren Buffett owns large amounts of the bank’s stocks.

M&T’s hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday. The branch’s phone number is 202-333-6163.

Luke’s Lobster to Open Aug. 23
Luke’s Lobster, which specializes in authentic Maine seafood rolls, is set to open a Georgetown location at 1211 Potomac Street, NW, Aug. 23. It is the same building which houses the ill-fated Philly Pizza & Co. and the Crave.

The young company which has eateries in Penn Quarter and Bethesda, along with its five Manhattan spots, was founded by Luke Holden, who is a Georgetown University business school alumnus. His family owns a lobster-processing company in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Holden opened his first spot in Greenwich Village in 2009.

As for the new Potomac Street spot, Luke’s vice president Ben Conniff said, “Aug. 23 is around when we think we will be fully decorated, staffed and ready to go. We hope to get a few days under our belt and introduce ourselves to the neighbors before the students return to campus. We can’t wait to open in the neighborhood.”

Luke’s is planning a grand opening party around the Aug. 23 date, Conniff said. “For customers, we’ll be giving away some Luke’s Lobster Georgetown swag to our first hundred or two customers.”

“Luke’s Georgetown years were as formative as his lobster-boat summers,” a company press release announces. “Dishing fresh, sustainable Maine lobster to his old neighborhood and fellow Hoyas has been Luke’s dream since he served his first sandwich. In particular, he has been pining for the building where he burned his mouth so many times on melted cheese and tomato sauce before the pizza joint closed in 2010. He couldn’t have found a better location. The whitewashed clapboard house at 1211 looks as though it was transplanted directly from a Maine lobster dock. Luke’s first two-story location will have room to satisfy neighbors and students alike amid lobster gear from his old boat. And the neighborhood’s love of good food, from cheesesteak to cupcake, makes it the ideal community to share the world’s greatest lobster, in the form of D.C.’s favorite lobster roll.”

The menu is already outside the door of the new eatery: Lobster roll, $15; crab roll, $12; shrimp roll, $8. For $20, there’s Taste of Maine, a sample of the three rolls in one meal; double that amount for $38 with Noah’s Ark. There is a blueberry ice cream sandwich — and, of course, chowder.

Sweetgreen Coming to Glover Park?
“We’re hearing that 2200 Wisconsin Ave.—home to BodySmith Training Gym—may soon welcome local fro-yo-and-salad chain Sweetgreen,” reports the Hyperlocal Glover Park news blog. “According to one source, the plan is for BodySmith to retain gym space in the building’s basement via a separate entrance, while Sweetgreen inhabits the glass-fronted retail space above.”
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Georgetowner • January 31, 2014

Georgetown business owner Tom Russo died Jan. 24 at the age of 60 from cancer.

Thomas Joseph Russo lived in McLean, Va., and died surrounded by his family. A Georgetown University graduate, he was the owner of Chadwick’s Restaurant in Georgetown, at K Street and Wisconsin Avenue, as well as the owner of Chadwick’s in Alexandria. Most recently, Russo was named the 2013 Georgetown Businessman of the Year by the Georgetown Business Association.

According to the notice sent by the Russo family, he is survived by his beloved wife of more than 37 years, Stephanie, children Katie Burkert (Jason), Dan Russo, Annie Pavia (CJ), and Joe Russo, and grandson, Levi Thomas Burkert. He is also survived by brothers Jack and Rudy, sisters Marilyn and Janice, his wife’s parents Howie and Rita Meyer, and a large, loving extended family. He was preceded in death by his parents, Joseph and Ann Russo, of Norristown, Pa., where he was born. He attended Georgetown University where he met his wife Stephanie and graduated with a B.S. in Accounting in 1975.

In McLean and Annandale, Russo coached youth baseball and basketball. He and his wife Stephanie were very active as parents at St. John’s Academy in McLean and were honored for their work. Russo also worked with the Bartenders’ Ball Foundation and helped to raise money for several charities.

The visitation will be held 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 29, at National Funeral Home in Falls Church, Va. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held 11 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 30, at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean. (Following the mass and burial, there will be a reception and celebration of Tom Russo’s life at Chadwick’s in Georgetown.)

Donations may be made in Russo’s name to the V Foundation for Cancer Research www.jimmyv.org or to Life With Cancer www.lifewithcancer.org.
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Robert Devaney • January 29, 2014

The year’s first monthly meeting for the
Citizens Association of Georgetown at Evermay
Jan. 15 drew one of its biggest crowds, as the
S&R Foundation’s Kate Goodall spoke to the
crowd about the foundation’s goals as social
incubator and its Illuminate seminars at Halcyon
House. Its Overtures Series of musical performances
begins March 11. Artist-in-residence
Ryo Yanagitani serenaded the audience with
Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” written in
1801, the same year that Evermay was built.

Robert Devaney •

Nancy Taylor Bubes, Georgetowner and
real agent rockstar at Washington Fine
Properties, organized a festive thankyou
with Marc and Nancy Duber at
their newly redone N Street home for
the officers of the Metropolitan Police
Department Jan. 16. A great mix of
neighbors and police officers enjoyed
the party so much they round up singing
“Amazing Grace” at the end of the
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David Roffman •

As The Georgetowner newspaper
closes in on its 60th Anniversary, it
seems fitting that your town crier
will be relocating to new digs, of
course, in Georgetown. Unlike other newspapers
that call Georgetown theirs, this is the only
newspaper that makes its home in Georgetown
— and has for six decades, albeit at 14 different
locations in the community.

The Georgetowner newspaper was the brainchild
of Ami C. Stewart, who at the age of 66,
began publishing it on Oct. 7, 1954. She knew
the newspaper business; she was a longtime
advertising representative for the Washington
Evening Star. Her sales territory was Georgetown
and its surrounding environs. She dreamed of
starting a newspaper for Georgetown for several
years when, with great encouragement from the
Randolph sisters, owners of Little Caledonia, a
small department store of delightful surprises at
1419 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. It was on the second
floor in Little Caledonia, where Ami Stewart created
Volume 1, Number 1, of the newspaper. It
was The Georgetowner’s first address.

Some of us still cannot get used to the idea that
there is no Little Caledonia in Georgetown. Then
again, most of the shops that existed here in 1954
are long gone: Neam’s Market, Dorcas Hardin,
Dorothy Stead, Baylor Furniture, Little Flower
Shop, Doc Dalinsky’s Georgetown Pharmacy,
Chez Odette, Rive Gauche, the French Market,
the Food Mart, Magruder’s, Muriel Mafrige, the
Georgetown University Shop and on and on. All
have left us. But The Georgetowner marches on.

Soon after its founding, Stewart moved
into 1204 Wisconsin Ave., NW. The building
was headquarters for the National Bank
of Washington. The Georgetowner occupied a
small room in the back, one desk, two chairs,
one window. Riggs Farmers & Mechanics Bank
was across the street. Both banks are long gone.
Our third location was 3019 M St., NW. We were
next to a funeral home. We, however, lived on.

Stewart finally found an office more to her
liking. It was situated at 1610 Wisconsin Ave.,
NW. Ami and her right-hand gal Sue Buffalo
ran the newspaper from these premises for close
to eight years. The staff also included Carol
Watson, a wonderful artist; Marilyn Houston,
who wrote many articles of historic interest;
and a young man, fresh out of the army, Randy
Roffman, my older brother. It was he who drew
me into the wonderful world of Ami C. Stewart.
I never would have guessed at the time that I
would spend the next 42 years with the newspaper,
but it happened.

In the early 1970s, with Ami’s health failing,
we moved to 1201 28th St., N.W. The lone brick
building at that corner was our home for the next
8 years. From our second floor windows, we
watched the construction of the Four Seasons
Hotel across M Street. We also witnessed the
mass arrest of the yippees who tried to shut down
the government in May 1971, protesting the
Vietnam War. They marched en masse down M
Street from Key Bridge. They were arrested and
put in huge detaining trucks right below our windows.
I remember a National Guardsman yelling
at us to get away from our window and quit taking
photographs. Protestors who were rounded
up were transported to RFK Stadium where
they were held for processing. (The May Day
1971 protests in Washington, D.C., provoked the
largest-ever mass arrest in American history with
more 12,000 individuals detained.)

Our sixth location was on the third floor
above Crumpet’s, a pastry shop in the 1200 block
of Wisconsin Avenue. John and Carol Wright
were the owners. This was when writer Gary
Tischler joined the staff. Britches of Georgetown
was a few doors away. Billy Martin’s Tavern
was across the street, as was Swensen’s Ice
Cream Parlor. (There was formerly Stohlman’s
Ice Cream Parlor, now memorialized at the
Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.)
Climbing those three flights of stairs was rough,
especially when balancing two cups of coffee
and four Danish. We survived.

A few years later, we moved across the street
to 1254 Wisconsin Ave., NW, to the third floor
above Swensen’s. It was the final years of disco,
and Michael O’Harro’s Tramp’s Discotheque
was closing. The Key Theatre, next to Roy
Rogers at the corner of Prospect and Wisconsin,
had them lined up around the block each weekend
night for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
After several years high atop Swensen’s, we had
to move again.

You might be asking yourself at this point,
why did you move so often? Usually, it had to
do with the landlord renting out the entire building
to a new tenant. Because we were second- or
third-floor occupants on short leases, well, we
had to go.

Our next location was Hamilton Court, the
beautiful courtyard developed by Al Voorhees.
The courtyard was fronted by a row of new
storefronts which included the Old Print Gallery,
Cliff and Michelle Kranick’s gallery, an antiquarian
book store, and Ann Brinkley’s antiques
store. Behind it was a series of spacious offices,
of which we occupied one at the rear of the
courtyard. We enjoyed our stay here, the setting
was in the heart of Georgetown across the street
from our beloved, landmark post office. But we
had to leave when the architectural firm above us
had to expand … into our space.

We next occupied the top floor of the
Georgetown Electric shop on M Street, next to
Old Glory restaurant. Spacious quarters indeed,
and once again we climbed a lot of stairs every
day. But we were close to Harold’s Deli, the
Food Mart and Nathans. What more could we
ask for?

While running the newspaper from
these quarters, we also founded and ran the
Georgetown Visitor’s Center in Georgetown
Court off Prospect Street. Robert Elliott, owner
and landlord of the courtyard, gave us the space
rent free, the merchants chipped in and afforded
us the opportunity to publish brochures and pamphlets.
Robert Devaney joined our staff at this
point in the early 1990s.

When Duke Rohr closed the GE shop, we
moved once again. This time we returned to
familiar digs at 1610 Wisconsin Ave., NW, way
up the hill. We felt so removed from everything.
The block had changed drastically. There was a
7-Eleven at the corner of Que and Wisconsin,
the legendary French Market was gone and
Appalachian Spring crafts had moved down the
street. We felt like strangers up there.

We moved after five years, down to 1410
Wisconsin, another empty upper floor spacious
room, with no wiring. It dawned on us that we
had probably wired half the second and third
floor buildings on M or Wisconsin by this time.
Thank goodness for Randy Reed Electric.

While at 1410, Sonya Bernhardt joined the
staff at The Georgetowner. In 1998, Sonya
became the third publisher and owner of The
Georgetowner. Many offices, few publishers:
Ami C. Stewart, David Roffman and Sonya
Bernhardt.

The Georgetowner moved to its 13th location
in 2001. The building at 1054 Potomac St., NW,
had once been the home of Georgetown’s first
mayor. Now it housed “the newspaper whose
influence far exceeds its size” – as well as the
Georgetown Media Group, which publishes The
Georgetowner and The Downtowner newspapers
and their websites. From late 2001 until this
week, the offices were at this address.

Now, as we near our 60th anniversary, we are
in the process of moving once again, to the northwest
corner of 28th and M, the building which
once housed American Needlework and then
Schrader Sound — not to mention the Bryn Mawr
Bookshop and the office of Captain Peter Belin,
famed president of the Citizens Association of
Georgetown. Lots of history here. We hope to
see you there and all around town when we set
up our business office in February.

Find us at our new address:
Georgetown Media Group, Inc.
2801 M Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
202-338-4833
202-338-4834 (fax)
[www.georgetowner.com](https://georgetowner.com)
[editorial@georgetowner.com](mailto:editorial@georgetowner.com)
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