Last night, famed saloon Nathans closed, and Carol Joynt ended her 12-year stint as the restaurant's owner.

In the last few days, Joynt's been asking her patrons for a "citizens bailout," saying that Nathans owes the city $22,000 in unpaid sales taxes from February, and she has no way to pay it.

(If you want the long, tortured history of Joynt's experience with Nathans, the death of her husband, and millons of IRS debt, click here.)

As of last night, Joynt believed she was nearing her $22,000 mark. The last official count of donations totaled roughly $18,000. Then on Sunday, Jim Kimsey bought some old Nathans paraphernalia for $3,000 and today Buffy Cafritz offered up a check for $3,000.

Joynt's son drove out to Bethesda to retrieve it. Other people have dropped by checks at Nathans as well.

But Joynt insists the bulk of the checks—for smaller sums, $100 and down—have come from people with old stories about Nathans.

"We had our first date at Nathans" they'll say, or "I got drunk for the first time at Nathans," Joynt recounts.

There will be no last minute sales of Nathans merchandise coming up though. Joynt says her lease forbids her to take any of the furniture or fixtures in the restaurant. There are liens on those items by the building's landlord, who is trying to sell the place.

Joynt says that besides the outstanding payment from February, she still owes June and July's sales taxes. May's check is in the mail. (Office of the Chief Financial Officer was not able to confirm this information one way or another today; But a request is in.) She also owes the landlord $15,000 on Wednesday for the latest rental payment. The owner's lawyer Ronald Shapiro could not be reached prior to this posting.

Luckily besides the good will, Nathans received tons of patrons this weekend. The bar was astonishingly packed from Friday until closing last night.

Out of the restaurant for an appointment, Joynt said at 4 p.m. that she was heading back to Nathans soon.

"The mail should have arrived by the time I get back," she says. "I'm thinking we could have reached our goal."

Image courtesy of Nathans

You got to hand it to City Vista. 

This Mount Vernon Square development has landed the most impressive group of retail, restaurants, and amenities in recent memory: Results Gym, a beautiful Safeway, 5th Street Hardware store, Chevy Chase Bank, Busboys and Poets and now a second location for Taylor Gourmet, as first reported on Prince of Petworth.

The deli, whose first location opened on H Street last year, has received a lot of love on these webpages.  Co-owner Casey Patten says he and his partner started considering new spots as soon as the first location "got on its feet." There were four or five places considered. So why City Vista?

In the end, Mount Vernon Square won out because the owners thought they could attract the workday traffic of downtown and the evening traffic of locals, all while paying a cheaper prices than nearby Chinatown offered. 

"You're not going to pay 7th and H lease prices," says Patten. "You can still do a lot of the same things—serving that office density, doing catering...It's daytime and night-time population."

Patten says he first met representatives from retail developer Edens & Avant back in late December. They came to his deli to, you know, eat some hoagies. ("They're both northerners—they kind of understand good meats and cheeses," Patten says.) 

He expects the new deli will open in late October or early November—Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) permits permitting of course.

As promised, Eastern Market re-opened today after a $22 million renovation, following a fire in the Spring of 2007. Mid May, I (or rather a designated construction official, who said I couldn't come onto the site due to my footwear) snapped some photos of the inside of the building.

According to a city announcement, "all of the original vendors that served the community at Eastern Market prior to the fire have returned." Plus, there's WiFi! And a new pottery studio! And new, 24-hour fire monitoring system that is "programmed to automatically call 911" if another fire ever occurs again.

Tomorrow, the city and the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee will host a community celebration  offering music, food, and arts and crafts.

Right around early May, I need to start budgeting for frozen yogurt. I’m probably spending between $15 to $20 a week. And with cravings lasting through Indian summer, that’s like $350 in annual FroYo expenditures. I mostly blame Mr. Yogato. In the last year or so, D.C. has been inundated with new shops selling sweet-and-sour yogurt topped with fruits, nuts, granola, and other enhancements that make you think This is so healthy and delicious. I should eat this all the time. In Dupont Circle, there’s TangySweet and Sweetgreens. Up in Adams Morgan, there’s CaliYogurt. And while they’ll all satisfy, Mr. Yogato is the best. The flavors are wackier—marino’s mojito, del boca chazel (chocolate-hazelnut)—and the vibe’s more enticingly laid-back. It feels like the kind of place your friend’s brother opened up on a whim. At one table, you can even play an old Nintendo! I’m not the only regular at Yogato. Customers know the people behind the counters. There’s one explanation for this behavior: Visit 30 days in a row, and you get your name—first or last—into a flavor. I’m not attempting that, lest my soft-serve budget ratchet beyond its already ridiculous sum. But I will likely be eating the following soft-serve combinations in the coming months: plain with raspberries and coconut; del boca chazel with bananas, granola, and chocolate drizzle; any flavor with granola, strawberries, and honey.

Mr. Yogato, 1515 17th St. NW, (202) 629-3531

Photo courtesy of Mr. Yogato

The Fancy Stuff Plan:
StreetSense/DSF/Menkiti Group

DSF may be based in the Boston area, but they know how to impress the locals. Kimpton Hotels is already interested in opening up a 80-room hotel on the site and Robert Wiedmaier, 2009 Rammy Chef of the Year, wants to do the cooking there.

Wiedmaier was at the meeting, staying quiet until called upon to explain his concept during a later Q&A. He said he envisions a restaurant that’s something of a cross between downtown’s Brasserie Beck and Alexandria’s Brabo. Not too fancy, the “kind of place you eat three times a week,” Wiedmaier said (…if you wine and dine senators?)

In addition, DSF said they had a letter of intent from Busboys & Poet founder Andy Shallal to open up a place.

DSF’s plan also includes 235 units of housing, 20,000 square feet of open space and 40,000 square feet of retail. The Tiger Woods Foundation—originally a competitor at the site—wants to be “part of our strategy,” said one team representative. Plus the tax revenue will be “compelling.”

(Of course, let’s not forget this either.)

However, today was about moving forward.  Construction workers and officials gathered at the building and discussed its upcoming re-introduction into D.C. life. Crews expect to complete the project on June 9.

Eastern Market will officially reopen on Friday, June 26. A community celebration will be held the following day on Saturday, June 27, according to a press release from the city. Here’s a sneak peek of how the recovery’s going:

Yesterday, I posted about construction at the old Bi-Rite building, up the road from Wonderland Ballroom on 11th Street in Columbia Heights. Today, I reached John Andrade, owner of the future lounge/restaurant Meridian Pint, which will move into the building “any fall now,” as he put it.

Without further adieu, more details about the space: Starting in late 2008, most of the old Bi-Rite building was demolished. Meridian Pint will occupy 6,000-square-feet (humongous) and be the building’s primary tenant, with a lounge in the newly, dug-out basement level, and a restaurant on the ground level. There will be offices on the second floor.

Andrade says he expects that the building’s owner will deliver his space within four to five months. At that point, he can begin the build-out, which will take another four to five months. In the meanwhile, he’ll hire a chef. A while back, he started interviewing people—but the process was ultimately paused as the landlord’s construction schedule changed (thanks to the usual city permitting hurdles, says Andrade).

“I definitely have several in mind, and several in line—it’s a little difficult to say ‘hey I want you to be my chef, I can’t employ you until next year,’ he says.

Bottom-line, if all goes according to plan, expect an opening “tail end of this year, beginning of next year,” says Andrade.

Image by Intangible Arts, Flickr Creative Commons

This is personal Chef Neil Wilson. He used to be in the army—but now he makes delicious ravioli (seen here in its pressed dough, pre-stuffed from). Before becoming a personal chef, Wilson attended L'Academie de Cuisine and then worked as a line cook for Palena.

Here are some of his cooking tips:

• Buy this book:The Flavor Bible. Look up any popular ingredient, and it will provide a rundown of complimentary herbs, spices and foods, and other cuisines in which the ingredient is featured.

• Every time you add a major ingredient to a dish, add a pinch of salt.

• Lemon zest is an easy way to enhance a dish—but only use the very top of the lemon. Once you see white, you're getting the bitter stuff.

• Tired of eating left-over thanksgiving day side dishes? Just put them in home-made ravioli, freeze them, and eat when you desire. Good side dishes to consider: Creamed spinach, mashed sweet potatoes (with a little added cheese), roasted squash.

• Here's an easy, sure-fire pasta sauce recipe that will make anyone believe you're a personal chef: Toast fennel seeds until you start to smell the scent wafting around kitchen. Take them out. Put them on a plate and set them aside. Then, in a pan:

Slowly cook onions over a low heat, so they don't brown too much.

Add a "seasonal twist"–whatever's tasty then: Zucchini, squash, carrots, celery.

Throw in a can of san marzano tomatoes.

Add some diced garlic cloves.

Cook for an hour.

Then, add in the toasted fennel seeds and a cinnamon stick.

Cook for another 55 minutes. Then add in black olives and cook for another five minutes. Done.

Let's say you cooked in three to five different kitchens every week, and you did that for a period of several years? Well you'd probably be pretty good at designing a kitchen.

Personal chef Monica Thomas has that background, plus several years catering experience, not to mention a big family that expects some plate-filling from time to time. She bought her house in Hyattsville in 2001. Kitchen renovation came steadily. First, there were the counters and appliances, plus the corner sink (not pictured).

"I didn't want to commit to the island until I'd lived with the kitchen for a while," she says.

But after a few years, Thomas said "I do" to a special, custom-made stainless steel number. One night, she, her husband, and some guests broke out a duct tape role and started laying out the palatial island's boundaries on the floor.

Here's the rest of what Chef Thomas came up with:

To allow for more walk-through space between the counter and the island, the back of the island dips in.

Foot pedals for the sink allow you to watch your hands and not muck up the sink faucet handles with your germy, chicken-fat-covered hands.

And that would be the caffeine drawer—for coffee and coffee accoutrement.

Hat tip to DC Metrocentric for reporting on the future of Nathans, one of Georgetown’s most recognizable landmarks, home to Carol Joynt’s Q&A Cafe, and—most importantly from a real estate perspective—occupant of a prime D.C. corner: Wisconsin Avenue and M Street.

In the next few weeks, Joynt has to decide if she will renew her lease or not. In her blog, she talks about property taxes, health insurance, and all sorts of other things weighing on her. It’s quite an outpouring, and some of the details seem very complicated. But, anyway, this will give you a sense of what’s going on. Also, Nathans is 40 years old this year:

I also have to make a very big decision regarding Nathans and the future for me. It feels right now like we could get a new lease, but it would be for only three years. There’s no opportunity in that to get investor money or bank loans. Especially in this awful recession. Meeting our obligations, so far, has drained the business. The landlords have made some concessions, they have also asked concessions of me. The biggest burden is to be liable for the property tax. At $70-75,000 that’s a lot of money to pull together when there are so many other urgent demands for the money. And if Nathans folded, I would still have to pay that. I have no personal money left. The well is dry.

A three year lease would give me three years of medical insurance, which is essential. But that may be all. Jon said today that I would have to choose between paying the rent and the taxes or paying me. No pay for me means I’m carrying all the liability and working essentially for the landlords and the city. The only way I could support us then is to go get a job, which means I would not be able to keep an eye on Nathans.

If I choose to close the place, I lose the health insurance, and I will still have to pay the ‘08 property tax – $75,000 – with no income, plus outstanding bank debt, and God knows what other crap will stir up. Right now we’re in day three of an audit by the DC government. The auditor sits in the basement, going through stuff, asking no questions. It’s not a good sign when they don’t ask questions. We’ve done everything straight, but still it freaks me out.

So, what I have to decide in the next couple of weeks is; STAY OR GO? It’s entirely up to me and me alone, and I hate that. I don’t think I’m smart enough to know how to make the decision.

So, you know, please come to the 40th anniversary party.

Image by Giveawayboy