1601 14th Street NW: The liquor license application describes the proposed operation of a French restaurant. (Matty Rhoades)
From Tom Hay. Questions for Tom? Send him an email. You can follow him on Twitter @Tomonswann.
The on-and-off plans to bring a business to the long vacant “shirt laundry” building at 1601 14th Street NW appear to have taken a significant step forward. Late last month a DC Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) application appeared in the window of the building at the northeast corner of 14th and Q Streets NW. The applicant is listed as Parc Deux Restaurant Partners, LLC.
Details noted on the application describe a 246-seat restaurant serving French cuisine for breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch. Establishments that wish to serve alcohol have a series of regulatory hoops to jump through with ABRA before being granted a coveted license. There was a hearing scheduled for January 3.
Back in June stories were swirling that a Philadelphia area Starr restaurant group was planning on bringing a French-themed bistro to the prominent storefront in the Logan Circle neighborhood. The licensee listed on the ABRA application is Parc Deux Restaurant Partners but no trade name is listed.
The venue will join a recently revealed Italian restaurant in the Well Built furniture store location. That venture is being operated by Thaddeus Curtz who also runs the Standard, a BBQ and beer garden at 14th and S. Back in 2010 Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema had mentioned that local developer ABDO was planning an Italian restaurant for the shirt laundry space. Those plans never seemed to move forward.
Italian Shirt Laundry is the name of the pizzeria/bakery restaurant planned for 1601 14th Street NW, the northeast corner of Q and 14th. (Luis Gomez, One Photographa A Day)
From Tom Hay
Washington Post food critic, Tom Sietsema, announced that two new Italian themed restaurants are in the planning stages for 14th Street NW. Abdo Development and Whisk Group are partnering on the restaurants.
A pizzeria/bakery style restaurant at 1601 14th Street, will be called Italian Shirt Laundry, a reference to the former tenant it replaces. Further south at 1404 14th Street (just north of Rhode Island Avenue), currently Abdo’s office, will be the more upscale restaurant, Italian Cinema. According to Sietsema’s column, the owners are aiming for an opening later this year.
The Abdo name will be familiar to many in Borderstan. The developer got his start in the Logan Circle neighborhood in the 1990s, transforming distressed historic structures into luxury condominiums. Some notable projects include the Willison at 1425 Rhode Island Avenue NW and the Emerson at 1220 N Street NW.
