It's been nearly two years since Y&H first reported about Gillian Clark's Petworth project, the Georgia Avenue Meeting House, and since that time the chef's other planned eatery, Avenue Oven in Takoma Park, has gone the way of the Adventists.

Given the lack of news about the Georgia Avenue Meeting House, I'd begun to fear that it, too, may have suffered a premature death. Not so, Clark told me today.

"The ball is rolling," Clark says, "but very slowly."

She and her business partner, Robin Smith, lost almost a year to arranging the financing. Apparently the partners' funding source kept dragging out the process until one day, via e-mail, Clark and Smith learned that the source had dried up.

Clark says they now have the money, which will start rolling in once D.C. issues a building permit. Assuming she gets her permits in a timely manner, Clark thinks construction will not take long and fully expects a March 2011 opening date.

The restaurant will serve genuine soul food, Clark tells me with no small amount of irony. Everyone thinks the General Store, her American-oriented eatery in Silver Spring, already serves soul food, but now she finally will. Look for turtle soup, catfish, and frog legs, among other specialties, on Clark's menu.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Prince of Petworth broke a juicy piece of news yesterday when he announced that former Colorado Kitchen chef/owner Gillian Clark had signed a letter of intent to open a nearly 4,000-square foot restaurant at Park Place, a mixed-use development at the corner of Georgia and New Hampshire avenues. Just one small correction, my liege: Clark tells me that the name of her restaurant will be the Georgia Avenue Meeting House, not the Meeting House.

She also says that the GA Meeting House will be, by 2011 or so, the third of hopefully five or more restaurants in her budding empire, co-owned by Clark and business partner, Robin Smith. "We're going to be the next new restaurant group of D.C.," Clark says. The partners plan to open restaurants in "spots where nobody wants to open" places, including the Benning neighborhood and other areas east of the Anacostia.

The two partners will likely be working with investors and/or developers to realize their plans, Clark says. "It'll be harder to do with just the two of us," she deadpans.

In the meantime, the opening of their General Store and Post Office Tavern in the Forest Glen neighborhood of Silver Spring has run into another bureaucratic snag: Montgomery County, Clark says, requires at least 30 parking spaces for the twin-concept operation.

"We're short 23 spaces," she says. "We had no idea that this was a requirement."

Clark and Smith have applied for a parking waiver. If that fails, Clark says, there is an office next door that has agreed to let the restaurant use its lot. The chef is confident the General Store and Post Office Tavern will open in early January.

Her Takoma Park operation, which will serve Eastern European cuisine and rotisserie chicken, is also rolling along. Plumbers are laying pipe now for a new sewer system. Clark and Smith are aiming for a spring opening date.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery