Gillian Clark’s General Store Now Available for Sit-Down Service
For nearly a month, the General Store, chef Gillian Clark’s home-spun Silver Spring restaurant with the killer fried chicken, has been operating as a take-out joint only. Montgomery County apparently wanted Clark and her partner, Robin Smith, to have more dedicated parking spaces before issuing them a certificate of occupancy.
The matter dragged on for weeks, Smith says. She’d call the bureaucrat in charge of commercial properties, who couldn’t issue a certificate of occupancy without a parking waiver. Then Smith would call the desk jockey in charge of parking waivers, who couldn’t issue a waiver without a certificate of occupancy. This Kafkaesque scenario ended only when Clark and Smith’s lawyer finally made a call.
“Magically, it all came together” when the lawyer called, Smith says.
The renovated 19th-century General Store, with seating for about 30 to 35 diners, has been operating as a sit-down restaurant since Tuesday, Feb. 24, Smith says. Parking for the restaurant can be found in two locations—behind the store, where there are seven spots, and across the street, where there are about 15 more spaces. So far, parking hasn’t been a problem, although competition for those spaces could increase once Clark and Smith open the Post Office Tavern, which is located downstairs. The watering hole has seats for about 13-18 people.
Speaking of the tavern, Clark and Smith also have their liquor license in hand, and should the county make its expected delivery, the General Store will be selling beer tomorrow. The list is limited now, but will expand in the near future, Smith promises.
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Linked From: March 6th, 2009So When Will the Post Office Tavern Open? - Young & Hungry - Washington City Paper
6:23 pm[...] their certificate of occupancy from Montgomery County, which cleared the way for them to (finally) open the General Store as a sit-down restaurant. Which is great. I was really tired of eating fried chicken in the [...]
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Linked From: March 17th, 2009Favorite Five « Counter Intelligence
9:10 am[...] General Store and the soon to open Avenue Oven, has been a press darling as of late for her pioneering ways. Now that General Store has progressed from take-out to seated dining, Clark is focused on one [...]
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Linked From: April 15th, 2009Bitch (?) « Culinary Couture
8:31 am[...] dearly departed Colorado Kitchen was divine and her new place in a hidden nook of Silver Spring, The General Store, shows the same [...]
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Linked From: May 19th, 2009The General Store’s Soft-Shell Crab Sandwich, Which Wasn’t So Soft - Young & Hungry - Washington City Paper
7:22 pm[...] could have done without my first bite of Gillian Clark’s soft-shell crab sandwich at the General Store. As soon as I bit through the crustacean’s semi-soft outer body, I was splattered with a [...]
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Linked From: July 1st, 2009Stream of (mostly) Restaurant Consciousness « The Restaurant Refugee
8:43 am[...] out for brunch, I would rather go to the exceptions to the prior two truths (Cashion’s, anywhere Gillian Clarke is cooking) or someplace with inexpensive mimosas because most place’s eggs are just [...]
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