From Politico: Spike, of Top Chef fame, announces that his burger joint is set to open July 7 on Capitol Hill:

Washington, rising in the ranks of food towns but still not quite at the top, is home to Mendelsohn’s parents and sister, which explains his choice to open in the D.C. market. Don’t look for any Palm-esque dignitaries or pundits on the wall, though: “It probably wouldn’t be a great decision to take the political route,” he said. Good Stuff Eatery will be “a neutral cow” — much like the Canadian-born Mendelsohn, whose permanent resident status prevents him from voting in the November election. He admits to having a horse in the ’08 race, though.

“I come from a Democratic family,” he said. “We definitely seem to lean more toward Obama, all of us.”

Note to Spike: Please ditch the hat. It’s making you look—judging from this picture—like a forgotten cast member of “90210.” Do you really want to be the Brian Austin Green of celebrity chefs?

Two years ago, when Brennan Proctor opened Uncle Brutha’s Hot Sauce Emporium in a stand-alone store, he knew he was entrusting his profits to impulse buyers. People don’t make a special trips just to buy condiments, at least not the way the masses converge on the market for cookies and produce and fresh meat.

But in 2006, when Proctor signed the lease on his shop on 7th Street SE, the area around Eastern Market was booming and he felt confident the crowds would toss enough cash his way to make the rent. The fire last May changed that. With the precipitous drop in foot traffic, Proctor says, he hasn’t been able to maintain growth. When his lease ends at the end of this month, Uncle Brutha’s will close.

“The local community has continued to support us but it’s just not enough,” he says. Proctor says he will go back to hawking his signature No. 10 (the red one) and No. 9 (the green one) sauces at various market stands and is working on getting his sauce on tables at local restaurants. So far, he’s sold bottles to B Smith’s, Bread and Chocolate, and the Nationals Park. Uncle Brutha’s will also soon reappear on the shelves at area Whole Foods, which haven’t carried the hot stuff for a few months because Proctor was having a problem with his distributor.

Murky fans everywhere (well, mostly in Capitol Hill) will be happy to know that, after a lengthy process, coffee-bean buff and former Murky manager Ryan Jensen has scored the lease for the now-vacant storefront.

Barista doyen Nick Cho—who, as you undoubtedly recall, operated Murky out of the 7th Street space until the unfortunate raid of the D.C. tax office prompted by an even more unfortunate $427,000 in unpaid sales taxes—speculates that landlords Stanton Development may have selected Jensen because “they want to carry over the good things about Murky without the bad.” (The good ostensibly being serving excellent coffee, the bad, getting seized.)

Jensen, who spent three years managing Murky’s D.C. location, currently works for Counter Culture Coffee, a company that supplies beans to a number of area cafes—including Cho’s Arlington shop, which has, so far, escaped the consequences of his recent tax troubles.

Jensen is getting set to abandon his current occupational digs in order to run his new cafe, Peregrine Espresso.

“It means wanderer or pilgrim,” says the congenial 28-year-old. “It’s a word I came across a few years back. I wrote it down and have been slightly obsessed with it every since.”

Jensen says he doesn’t exactly know when the place will be up and running; there are some minor changes he’d like to make to the space, but he hopes to open by the end of summer.

Jensen and his wife, Jill Jensen—who will co-own the business—are serious coffee-lovers and felt strong connections to the Murky Coffee on Capitol Hill. Actually, they met there in the summer of 2003 and married two years later. “It’s where our romance blossomed,” Jensen says.

When the place closed down, they feared someone disinterested—or maybe someone who doesn’t love coffee as much as they do or did not meet and fall in love there—might snag the shop.

So they went for it, along with numerous other entrepreneurs, hoping to grab the valuable commercial space. When Jensen got word last week his bid was accepted, he contacted Cho before the rumor mill could. Cho and Jensen are not only former employer and employee, they’re friends.

Cho isn’t dwelling on how things turned out. He says that, for the most part, he’s ready to move on. “The more we talk about it the more misunderstandings there are,” he contends.

As City Desk reported last month, Murky’s equipment is also ready to move on—to soon-to-open Big Chair Coffee in Anacostia.

—Rend Smith

photo by peregrine espresso

The National Park Service is taking its sweet, federal time making improvements at Lincoln Park, the largest and most popular park in Capitol Hill. First, in late October, NPS blocked half of it off with a chain-link fence and gave no warning or explanation. Then, when pressed by D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells’ office for information, officials even boasted a little bit: “The contract period is for 90 days, however, we anticipate the project taking less than half of that time.”

So, doing the math, the renovation should have been finished by Feb. 19 at the latest. Instead, half of the park remains closed as construction equipment sits idle. Until Tuesday, no work had happened for several weeks.

The feds have two excuses: “a contract modification due to changes with the base material” and the weather.

“When the temperature falls below 40 degrees you really can’t pour concrete,” says NPS spokeswoman Janet Braxton.

Advisory neighborhood commissioner Nick Alberti, whose district includes the northeast half of the park, thinks bad weather is a lame excuse.

“I’m stunned that they would schedule a repaving project during the 3 coldest months,” Alberti writes in an e-mail. “It was either very poor planning or disingenuous to assure us that the park would reopen by Feb 19th.”

Park Service facility manager Frank Young reports that all work should be finished by April 30.

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells is still fighting for peace and quiet in the District. The lawmaker, you may recall, pushed a bill before the D.C. Council last month to limit “non-commercial speech” to “70 decibels, or 10 decibels greater than ambient noise.” In other words: No setting up a big speaker on the corner and blasting people’s ear drums all day long.

The bill was tabled by a 7-5 council vote.

Charles Allen, chief of staff for Wells, says his boss isn’t giving up on the proposal.

“Just because it was tabled,” says Allen, “doesn’t mean the councilmember believes it’s dead. The community has made it clear that they want this.”

The community, in this instance, is code for residents living around 8th and H Streets NE. In that now-bustling corridor, religious groups like the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, featured in a recent Washington City Paper cover story, gather with loudspeakers to stage al fresco sermons.

Wells claims that “As a result of the group’s amplifiers, residents as far away as three blocks away can’t open their windows or work in their yards without being subject to the amplified noise.”

—Rend Smith

The Capitol Hill Current Voice of The Hill reports that “Murky Coffee owes the District 427,395 in unpaid sales tax dating back to November 2004.” This information comes courtesy of Natalie Wilson of the city’s Office of Tax and Revenue. The new number puts Murky Cafe owner Nick Cho’s debt at almost twice that of what was reported here on Feb. 27.

For those with an unquenchable fascination with the ins and outs of the Capitol Hill Murky demise, here’s an e-mail interview with tax office Deputy General Counsel William Bowie:

1)How did Murky Coffee get to this point?

Answer: While I cannot provide you with specific taxpayer information, generally a seizure will take place if a taxpayer ignores tax deficiency notices we send them, fail to submit financial information to determine if they can maintain a payment plan, fail to meet with us to discuss the tax situation and fail to stay current on there tax obligations while discussing there delinquent situation, then they are candidates for a seizure. Also, if it involves delinquent sales tax for multiple periods they will also be candidates for a seizure.

2) What prompted you to move on Murky now? It’s been a couple of years, right?

See answer for #1

3)What are Murky’s options?

Answer: Pay the outstanding sales tax delinquency.

4) Will the Murky in Arlington be effected? Why or why not?

Answer: We have the option of pursuing the assets of a delinquent taxpayer wherever they may be. There is a legal process for doing this and this is an option we would look at executing.

5) What will happen to the property if owner Nick Cho is unable to pay?

Answer: If the taxpayer fails to pay the liability the seized assets owned by the taxpayer will be auctioned.

6) Did Cho receive any sort of warning on the morning of the seizure?

Answer: Before we seize taxpayer assets they generally will receive multiple notices and calls warning them of the consequences for failing to come into tax compliance.

7) Cho’s place was raided around 10 a.m. on a Tuesday. Is it usual practice to do this sort of thing during business hours? Why or why not?

Answer: If the establishment is open during normal work hours then that is when we will do the seizure. We have commenced doing some seizures of businesses that are only open after normal business hours. i.e., nightclubs, restaurants only open for dinner.

8) Cho said, “It’s like when you get caught speeding, was i speeding? Yes. Does this feel like bullshit? Yes.” What’s your take on his angst?

Answer: If a taxpayer knows he owes us sales tax monies, receives notices of such and still fails to make arrangements to pay, then they should know what the probable outcome will be. Sales tax monies are monies the merchant hold in trust for payment to DC government. Those monies are used to pay for city services. The merchant has no right to spend those monies for their own purposes. It is against the law.

9) How common is all this?

Answer: Unfortunately, as business tax delinquencies increase, particularly for failure to pay sales tax, our tax seizures will increase.

–Rend Smith

Tacked to the window of Murky Coffee in Eastern Market is a half-torn letter that the shop has received from Attorney Morris R. Battino. The letter addresses Murky owner Nick Cho and states:

Dear Mr. Cho/ Murky Coffee LLC

As you are aware, I am legal counsel to and for the owner /landlord at 660/666. Pennsylvania Ave, S.E. Washington D.C. 20003

This is your official (30) day notice to quit and vacate the premises at 660/666 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E. Washington D.C. 20003. Due to expiration of your month to month lease term. If you do not vacate or[sic] before May 1, 2008, the landlord/owner will file an action for possession in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the District of Columbia Superior Court.

According to someone from the Battino office, Murky Coffee has an outstanding balance but will be evicted regardless of whether they pay their back rent or not.

The storefront has “possibly” already been rented to someone else, the source adds.

As reported previously in this space, Murky in late February was shut down by D.C. tax authorities over an unpaid tax bill tallying roughly $220,000.–Rend Smith

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty finally got on his horse for Sen. Barack Obama this morning, appearing in Ward 6 to open the presidential candidate’s local offices.

Arriving in his trademark black fedora, Fenty started up by leading the crowd of more than 150 in a chants of “Fired up! Ready to go!” and, yes, “O-ba-ma.”

Hizzoner then gave his best Obama pitch to D.C. voters. “We are here to say that for the nearly 600,000 residents of Washington, D.C., he’s by far the right candidate at the right time.”

Fenty went on to detail Obama’s promises to support any and all efforts for congressional voting rights for the District back when Fenty gave his endorsement in July. “I told him I was a one-issue mayor—if you support voting right with that bully pulpit of the president of the United States…you’ve got my support….He has not wavered.”

The voting-rights spiel got big ups from the crowd, outdone only perhaps as when Fenty mentioned that Obama “stood strong against us going into Iraq.”

fter pulling out the requisite John F. Kennedy comparision—by proxy, seeing as he was about a decade away from birth in 1960—Fenty finished by rallying the troops for Election Day. “The polls open at 7 a.m. We want to see you there at 6:45,” he told them—”vote early and often,” it was not.

How big of a deal is the new office? Well, not huge. The storefront, at 1225 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, will be open from today until next Wednesday. The space, not much more than 500 square feet and worth $900 for the six days of use, was donated by George Simpson, who also gave the $2,000 maximum to Fenty’s election campaign.

Fenty says the arrangements for the building weren’t finalized until about 36 hours ago. John Falcicchio, the Fenty aide tasked with getting out the Obama vote, says the office will be used as a storage space and staging area for convassing and get-out-the-vote ops, as well as a spot for some limited phone banking.

As for the big mystery—where’s Barack?—Fenty says there’s still no firm plans for Obama to make any appearances in the District before Tuesday, though he says the campaign is “still working on all that.” Falcicchio says there’s a likelihood that Obama will be in town Tuesday, possibly to take in the results and give his end-of-night speech.

A parting note: LL did not immediately agree with his colleague Jason Cherkis on the awfulness of that goddamn “Yes, We Can” song. But after listing to it running on a continuous loop outside the office before and after the rally, he can see where Cherkis is coming from.

The saga of the Market 5 Gallery continues.

This morning a gallery employee discovered that the historic arts space’s locks had been changed. This latest drama centers around back rent and other fees the city and its minions claim the Eastern Market gallery owes. It’s the city’s second such eviction push in seven years. You can read the gallery’s own narrative of the disputes here.

Gallery Executive Director John Harrod says he received an eviction letter three weeks ago. The letter stated that he had to be out of the gallery’s North Hall space on Dec. 31. Another letter followed, he says, claiming that he owed $12,000. He says although that figure is in dispute, he quickly wrote a check for $9,000 of the $12,000.

Harrod had planned to take his fight over that sum to court. He says that the figure included bogus maintenance fees and snow removal fees–which the gallery takes care of on its own.

Now, Harrod has another court battle–one that he didn’t anticipate. “It’s obviously illegal,” Harrod says. “You can’t just lock your tenant out. You have to go through the courts.”

“Here we go again,” says Donald Temple, the gallery’s lawyer. “Wrong is wrong. It’s documented that Market 5 Gallery is making a historic contribution.”

The gallery and Harrod have spared with the city over just about everything. Still, the gallery had managed to hang on.

Last spring, Eastern Market went up in flames. But the gallery’s North Hall location had been miraculously spared from the damage.

Now there’s the new locks on the doors.

“We have a couple of performances coming up this week. There’s a tango event on Thursday,” Harrod, 60, says. “I’ll try my best to resolve this before then.”

The Washington Business Journal has an interesting piece in this week’s issue about the development potential of school properties on the closure list. “At the top of the list might be Hine Junior High School, a 131,300 square-foot Capital Hill building at the corner of Eighth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE that is set snuggly among Eastern Market, the Metro station of the same name and the Barracks Row retail corridor,” writes reporter Jonathan O’Connell. The article also mentions three sites in the prime-for-development Brookland area. (And O’Connell did track down one developer, Jim Abdo of Abdo Development, willing to go on record saying he was “very interested in looking at what’s available.”) At least four buildings look safe from bulldozers, according to the article, the Ward 8 schools: Wilkinson Elementary, Douglass Transition Center, Green Elementary, P.R. Harris Educational Center.

Photo credit: Darrow Montgomery

A new report from the Brookings Institution says that the Washington area has the most “walkable places” per capita–one for every 264,000 people– of all the nation’s large metropolitan areas. “The two major reasons for the high number of walkable urban places in Washington are (1) the success of the Metro system and (2) the aggressive use of “overlay zoning districts” that allow and promote walkable urbanism around Metro stations.” Also, District residents favor walking because of “the high educational level of the population (the highest percentage of college graduates of all metro areas in the country according to the Census in 2006), given the apparent, though not yet proven, propensity of the highly educated to prefer walkable urban development.” The report identifies Capital Capitol Hill, Adams Morgan, Georgetown, West End, Friendship Heights and Dupont Circle as model “walkable places” in the District.

In its heyday, many prominent people supported the Eastern Branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. “It was a central charity of the NBA All-Star Game,” Capitol Hill resident Jim Myers says. “Clinton painted a wall there.”

Last month, however, far less credible advocates lobbied on behalf of the Capitol Hill club. On Nov. 27, Marc Borbely was on his way to class at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law when he spotted several kids soliciting money for the club. “‘Please help us try to keep the Eastern Boys & Girls Branch open,’” he remembers them saying. Borbely found their plea strange: The branch has been closed since August.

Kerrin Torres, spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, says, “If we did solicit funds, we’re not raising money for the Eastern Branch.” She says anyone who sees kids trying to raise money for the clubs on street corners or at Metro stops should call the organization immediately.

“It’s bittersweet that people are trying to raise money for the club we don’t have,” says Myers.

In early October, Jon Schwabish decided to spruce up the garden in front of his house. He bought some tulip bulbs, dug a trench, planted them, and prepared to wait for blooms. A couple of weeks later, the Capitol Hill resident noticed four or five divots in his tulip bed. He figured squirrel or a cat might have gotten to his bulbs.

Not necessarily. A few days later, Schwabish’s wife was returning from a stroll when she noticed an elderly man rifling through her soil. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“‘No, you’re OK,” he replied.

Schwabish’s wife asked the man what he was doing. He mumbled, dropped something into a burlap bag, and walked away, leaving a fresh series of divots. The man had made off with their bulbs.

After the episodes, Schwabish bought 10 replacement bulbs at Eastern Market. He asked his neighbors for advice about how to prevent future thieves. Suggestions ranged from mousetraps in the dirt to switching from mulch to dog poop. He decided to cover his garden with chicken wire.

Happy Halloween, Washington. Welcome to my favorite holiday, the one that brings together two of my chief passions: candy and clothes.

I’ve been monitoring neighborhood Listservs to see how residents are preparing for tonight’s onslaught, and I discovered that Capitol Hill is embroiled in a serious debate: Do un-costumed kids deserve candy? If so, what kind?

One resident says she and her husband have initiated a policy to deal with costumeless kids. “We are pretty strict about the no costume-no candy rule and my husband revels in skimping out on the older kids with mediocre attempts at dressing up,” one neighbor posted on her local Listserv.

Another responded that plainclothes kids should be viewed within their socio-economic context. “I can understand feeling a bit ripped off by kids and adults who come with no costumes, but I’d like to urge some compassion – for the kids anyway. Younger kids in particular may not have the means or ability to put together a costume if Mom or Dad don’t help. What’s the harm in modeling generosity or teaching compassion by wishing everyone a Happy Halloween and giving out some candy?” she wrote.

Meanwhile, one resident said he was just too scared to deny kids candy. “I concur with the no costume-no candy rule, but then reality strikes. The kids without costumes are usually the kind who will remember your house and return with some ‘tricks.’ So it is better to just pay the protection candy and let them move on. Besides, one kid was pretty funny. I asked what he was dressed as and he said ‘I’m a student in the DC Public Schools, isn’t that scary?!!!’”