The X2

It's shaping up to be a busy fall season for new H Street NE retail & restaurants, after a somewhat sleepy summer. Several spots have recently been bestowed with signage for new businesses. There's more to come, but the first three we'll take a look at are here: San Francisco based Neapolitan pizza maker Mozzeria  is set for the Baldwin building at 1300 H Street NE. Mozzeria looks great with a classic & simple menu of 12 inch wood fired pizzas, --including vegan pies (yessssssssssssss)-- small plates, and the all important after-dinner coffee service. I finally caught up and read this WaPo article about the founders . So cool to get to know the story of the owners of a place before they open in the city. Just like the SF restaurant, the DC store will be fully staffed by deaf workers, making it the second business on H (Starbucks) dedicated to hiring primarily deaf and hard of hearing staff and management. The restaurant will have around 100 seats, give or

920 H Street NE Tear-down and constriction has recently enveloped the property at 920 H Street NE, the former site of Park's Hardware. The store closed four years ago and the property has remained vacant since. The new project will result in a 10 unit apartment building named Ashton Park . The units range from a 471 sq ft studio to a 1,220 sq ft 2BR. There will be 3,600 sq ft of retail on the ground and basement levels; apparently being designing to snag a top restaurant or bar. The owners also seem to be catering to a transient audience of renters, offering what they describe as "hotel-like" amenities, providing some fully furnished units, and offering leases as short as two-months in length. They even call the studio a "hotel suite." Interesting concept. Delivery unknown, but I'm guessing early 2020.

The Big Idea : Why Hotel, Kitchen Cray, Chase Bank, and CorePower Yoga area coming to H Street NE. The Lucille and 501 H, two new-ish residential buildings, are getting their first retail tenants. The Lucille is a 9-unit condominium building located at 1301 H Street NE. Vinyl signage just went up on the first floor signaling the arrival of Kitchen Cray , a Maryland-based restaurant and catering outfit. It's known for being run by chef JR Robinson of Hell's Kitchen fame. The website describes the menu as "prepared ... for every taste." Main courses include chicken & waffles, catfish & grits, and lobster mac. Signage up for Kitchen Cray. A few blocks west is 501H, a 28-unit apartment building located at, well, 501 H Street NE. Douglas Development recently released the list of retail tenants for the space: CorePower Yoga , Why Hotel, and Chase Bank. CorePower Yoga is the only business of the three that has signage up at the moment. Why Hotel

Dirt is being moved at the site of Flats at Atlas Phase II in Carver Langston; at least for utility works.  The original Flats at Atlas building opened in 2012 with 257 units and 3,450 square feet of retail. The new building, Phase II, is located at 1676 Maryland Ave NE, just east of the current site. There is an empty lot there at the moment. A joint venture with Kettler & Westbrook Partners acquired the current building and the adjacent lot for $95,000,000 almost exactly three years ago. Phase II is expected to add another 325 units and be 5 stories tall, with no new retail. This second building has always been planned to accompany the original building, so many of the amenities like on-site parking deck were built to accommodate the total number of apartments. They will also share the circular drive area on Maryland Ave.  I have yet to see renderings or a site plan for Phase II, but there was an ANC meeting about two years ago outlining the outer rim landscape a

Carver Langston has a new mural! The narrative features an abstract sort of geometric nature theme, switches to a sunglasses-decked woman representing Northeast DC, transitions to a male historical figure, then to a montage of pencils, an image of hands on a typewriter, then finally returning to the geometric nature theme to cap it all off. It's lovely, bold, colorful, and we deserve more murals like this in Carver Langston. But there's just one thing about this one... As you may know, on paper, Carver Langston is really two neighborhoods. Carver is the triangular shaped part of the neighborhood north of Maryland Ave NE, going up to the Arboretum. Langston is the part of the neighborhood south of Maryland, going down to Benning Road. Carver's namesake is a person most of us learned about in elementary school, George Washington Carver . Carver was one of America's top intellectuals and inventors of the early 20th century. Langston takes its name from the

Carver Langston now has a second Capital Bikeshare station. A new station opened yesterday at the corner of 17th Street and Maryland Avenue Northeast. This is the second station for Carver, with the first being a highly trafficked 14 dock station at Starburst Plaza. The new station has 19 docks and is closer to the residential center of the neighborhood. It's adjacent to Aldi Food Market and near Hechinger Mall (Safeway, Ross, Modell's, Payless, etc). Thank you Capital Bikeshare!