The Foggy Bottom outlet of Tonic, located at 619 21st St. NW, has secured its liquor license after a yearlong battle, the GW Hatchet reports.

For the most part, the establishment will stick to wine and beer, except for a curious exception. Quoth the Hatchet:

Hard liquor is only being offered on weekend mornings, per an agreement [with] the University.

On Monday morning, the George Washington University community awoke to a campus plastered with fliers that appeared to espouse vitriolic anti-Muslim sentiment. G.W.’s student newspaper, The Hatchet, describes the fliers:

The posters, on standard letter-sized paper, read, “Hate Muslims? So do we!!!” Below the statement is a picture of a Muslim man next to a diagram describing a “typical Muslim.” Some features mentioned include “venom from mouth,” “suicide vest,” and “peg-leg for smuggling children and heroin.”

The GW Young America’s Foundation is named as a contact on the poster, but leaders of the conservative organization said they had no involvement.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the posters were a stunt: An outsider’s satirical response to the YAF’s upcoming “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” set to begin October 19. The YAF staged a controversial event; someone who objected to it responded by falsely publicizing ridiculous anti-Muslim sentiments and attributing them to the YAF. That’s satire—albeit cheap, low-rate satire.

But the subsequent GW community meeting—and the Hatchet’s follow-up story—made it clear that (uh, sorry guys) nobody really gets it.

The GW Peace Forum, which organized the event, had this to say:

“We’re all here, we’re not all the same and we need to understand,” said sophomore Tarek Al-Hariri, president of GW Peace Forum, during the discussion. “I think something this morning happened. It may or may not have been taken the way it was supposed to be (and) may not have been a mistake. Nevertheless, people were affected, and people took offense.”

The quote is pretty representative of GW’s general confusion over what the discussion was, in fact, discussing. (Something happened, but it may or may not have been—what now?)

The remainder of the meeting was similarly stalled by a lack of understanding of the situation at hand. Reports The Hatchet:

“It was completely satirical and overblown,” [graduate student Lara] Nasri said. “It was the antithesis of racism.”

[YAF President Sergio] Gor disagreed with Nasri.

“This is not satirical,” said Sergio Gor. “It is hatred.”

Kareem Shibib, a senior from Cornell University who came to gathering after hearing about the poster, said that the flyer is racist.

“I think this is a rather overt form of racism,” Shibib said. “What is important (is) to look further into this.”

So, GW graduate student Nasri, for one, thinks it’s satire. But strangely, YAF president Gor—who has come under fire from students who think that he’s responsible for the flier—insists that it’s not. Cornell’s Shibib says we better look into it.

As for the unknown poster (or posters) of the fliers, just about everybody is pissed at them; some have suggested their expulsion if they’re ever found out. At least then they’d get a chance to explain to everybody what the heck they were talking about.

As local reporters are apt to do, I attended an ANC meeting Wednesday night. This particular meeting was in Foggy Bottom (ANC 2A). There was a bit of squawking about congestion issues and the appointment of a new commissioner. Blah, blah, blah.

The most startling aspect of the entire experience was the ANC chair himself: The guy looked like he couldn’t have been much older than 22. Sitting beyond a sea of gray-headed people, I thought he may have just appeared young by comparison. But a bit of googling and a phone call to ANC chair Asher Corson himself confirmed my prior hunch. Corson actually just graduated from George Washington University a few months ago is currently a part-time student at George Washington University, finishing up his classes while working full-time for Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh. He expects to graduate in 2008.

Corson says he was elected commissioner last November and became chair early this summer.

“I’ve been really welcomed by the community with open arms, which has really been incredibly flattering since I’m so young. And as a GW student, I think it’s really amazing and special that people in the community supported me.”

Measured. Positive. Innocuous. Sounds like he’s getting the hang of things.

CORRECTION: Due to an error by Ruth Samuelson, an earlier version of this post incorrectly reported Corson’s status at George Washington University.

Bookslut has just published local writer Paul Morton’s lengthy, thoughtful interview with Foggy Bottom novelist and essayist Thomas Mallon, whose Fellow Travelers is one of the better American novels I’ve read this year. I’ve totally cheapened the intelligence and depth of the back-and-forth by choosing the oral-sex question for the headline of this post, but Mallon’s answer does go a long way toward explaining why how-to books on writing historical fiction don’t advise, “More blowjob scenes”:

No, I don’t think it was this common, but I also don’t think it was unheard-of. I think to put an oral sex scene set in the 19th century, it would feel like a stunt, where you were making some exceptional point about the characters.

And kudos to Morton for stoking this somewhat testy exchange about Christopher Hitchens:

There was once an old bumper sticker: “Americans out of Vietnam. Russians out of Latvia.”

One person who doesn’t add up to people right now politically and who I think is a very morally serious person as well as being a very flamboyant character is my friend [Christopher] Hitchens. Hitchens is somebody who is trying to grope his way, day by day, conflict by conflict, article by article, toward a serious strenuous moral position on things.

I don’t see that. I think he writes too quickly to make that claim for himself. So much of his work seems like billboard notices.

He is a man of action, which I’m not. Once in a while, I’ll muse upon something politically. But what would me as a man action be? Working at the NEH a couple of years as a political appointee (laughs). But he is in the fray, and he’s a figure who’s exasperating to a lot of people. He has lost friends over politics, which is itself a sign of seriousness, sacrifice. I just think he’s interesting in that he gives everybody something to complain about. These Republicans who are so delighted to have him on their side where the Iraq war is concerned still have to put up with his book on Mother Theresa. And that in itself is bracing. His presence in the culture is healthful, as opposed to the blogging culture generally.

But I see him as very similar to the blogging culture. He’s a talking head. He’s a product of the media. He seems to have created a narrow focus for himself of being the secular humanist who is happy to do battle with Islamo-fascism where he just ends up making Blink-like reactions to every issue.

I think he wound up in that place. I don’t think he created that for himself in the way some people create identities for themselves in the sense of “That’s good business, I can brand myself as that.” His intellectual journey, moral journey took him to that place. And that’s where he is now. Being the kind of flamboyant, spectacularly verbal character that he is he isn’t going to be shy about occupying that position or defending it. I think a lot of him. I think the world of Hitchens. Aside from all else he’s tremendous fun, which you can’t say about many people who write about anything in Washington.

There’s a new restaurant in Foggy Bottom: Tonic opened May 29 at 2036 G St. NW and occupies three floors of what was once Quigley’s Pharmacy, a drug store and soda fountain that opened in 1891. Co-owner Jeremy Pollok describes the place as “casual,” “homey,” and similar to the Mount Pleasant outpost. He adds that the restaurant’s shiny, wooden bar is absolutely “beautiful.”

Just don’t try to get any booze at that beautiful bar. The new Tonic is nestled within George Washington University’s campus, in a university-owned building, and the area is zoned as residential. That’s a problem for Tonic. On Feb. 21, the ABC Board denied Tonic’s liquor-license application, stating that D.C. Code prohibits liquor licenses in residential areas.

So why is there a bar at Tonic? “I’m hoping,” Pollok says. “I’m an optimistic person.” And he has reason to be. Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham has introduced a bill that would permit Tonic’s owners to acquire a liquor license for their GWU restaurant, even though code forbids it. By striking just two words, “type and,” from the code, Graham’s bill, the Retail Class Exemption Clarification Amendment Act of 2007, would make it possible for Tonic to acquire a license.

Why? As it’s currently written, D.C. Code prohibits retail licenses in residentially-zoned areas unless there’s a license of the same “type and class” within 400 feet. The Lisner Auditorium, which holds a CX multipurpose license, happens to be less than 400 feet away. The board considers Lisner the same class as Tonic, but not the same type.

Vince Micone, chair of the Foggy Bottom–West End advisory neighborhood commission, worries the Graham bill could pave the way for other liquor-licensed establishments to open in residential areas. The commission originally supported some university-sponsored food service establishment at the site, he says, but opposed Tonic’s liquor-license application. “Basically, what they want to do is change the entire law for this specific business,” he says. “I think it’s ridiculous.” Micone worries it “could impact on other parts of the city.”

Jeff Coudriet, who assisted then-Ward 6 Councilmember Sharon Ambrose in rewriting the liquor law in 2001, says the law is strict when it comes to residential areas for a reason. Ambrose didn’t want a proliferation of additional liquor licensees operating in residential zones, he says.

Graham declined to discuss details of the proposal, saying he has yet to officially endorse it. A hearing is scheduled for June 13.

On Feb. 19, 16-year-old Brittany Wright was boarding a Metrobus in Foggy Bottom. She set the brakes of her wheelchair while the driver prepared to turn on the lift that would hoist Wright into the bus. “Like, the next thing I know I’m flipped over on the ground,” Wright says. “I flipped over and hurt my back really bad, and I’m still in a lot of pain, like, a lot of pain.”

Wright landed on her 19-year-old sister, Geneva James, who lost consciousness. Paramedics arrived. James was bruised, but Wright’s pain remains. Their mother, Racshell Wright-Jones, says Metro never even called to apologize. “It could have been a situation where they had their necks broke and their heads bust wide open because of negligence,” she says. “Geneva, she’s still walking with a little limp….With Brittany, you can’t even touch her back.” Community nonprofit Bread for the City is trying to put the family in touch with a lawyer to recover the costs for treatment.

Wright alleges that the driver was in a hurry and pressed the button without checking that the chair was secure. Metro spokesperson Joanne Ferreira denies the driver was at fault. “Our understanding is that it’s the customer’s responsibility, and it’s a very unfortunate incident, and we’re very sorry it happened,” says Ferreira. She adds that Metro didn’t call the family because its report on the incident wasn’t finished; she says Wright-Jones will hear from the agency soon.

If you’re looking to free up a few parking spaces to do some construction work, getting official “Emergency No Parking” signs is no big deal. You head on down to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) headquarters at the Reeves Center a few days beforehand, fill out a few forms, and walk out with your placards.

Apparently, that’s still too much hassle for somebody in Foggy Bottom.

Temporary no-parking signs on the 1100 block of 24th Street NW have been changed by construction crews, says Michael Malloy, editor of a neighborhood newsletter. “They’ve been doing it for a while,” he says, “but now it’s just getting out of control.” Malloy says the signs are put up on short notice—less than the required 72 hours—and altered whenever construction crews deem it necessary. “It’s probably just a construction crew saying, ‘No one will complain,’” Malloy says, discussing a sign that was originally marked to expire June 25 and has been changed to June 30.

Just exactly who’s doing the creative editing, though, remains unclear. An employee of Bovis Lend Lease who operates a construction site on the block, says his crew isn’t the problem. He blames the city, the Department of Public Works (DPW) in particular, for the altered signs—and a big hassle. Though Bovis workers can’t park vehicles on the east side of the street, no maintenance is currently being done. “The signs have been up for three days and no trucks have been there,” he says.

“I haven’t heard anything about the issue,” says DPW spokesperson Mary Myers. She points out that her agency does not handle any sidewalks or street maintenance and referred questions about the signs to DDOT, which could not respond to an inquiry by press time*. “DPW does not issue any signs, ‘No Parking’ or otherwise.…[People] say DPW, but they mean DDOT.”

Malloy isn’t buying the excuses, either. “I’m 90 percent sure it’s not a city crew,” he says.

ADDENDUM, 6/29, 1:05 P.M.: Late yesterday, DDOT spokesperson Erik Linden said that his agency had not placed the signs. Linden said that Washington Gas was working in the area and might be the culprit. However, a Washington Gas spokesperson, Janet Davis, also denied responsibility. “As far as I know, we have no scheduled work in that area,” she said.