DCist T-Shirts
dcistshirt.jpg
About DCist

DCist is a website about Washington, D.C. More

Editor: Sommer Mathis Publisher: Gothamist

About | Advertising | Archive | Contact | Mobile | Photos | Staff | Subscribe

Categories
DCist Exposed Photography Show -- Feb 20-Mar 7
Favorites
Contribute

Latest tip:

There is a suspicious package being investigated near 12th and D St SW, in front of the new Homel [more]

 

Latest link:

 

Latest Photo:

 

Recent Comments
Subscribe
Use an RSS reader to stay up to date with the latest news and posts from DCist.
Overheard
Voting Rights
Public Calendar
Links

September 10, 2004

An Obituary: Yurchenko's Au Pied du Cochon

five guys food.jpgDCist is a big fan of Five Guys burgers. We're sure there are healthier things out there for you, but damn they're good. (Feel free to chime with your favorite burgers in town.)

But the historian in us makes us feel sort of sad with the arrival of Five Guys in Georgetown for a piece of Cold War history has been lost: The Vitaly Yurchenko Memorial Bathroom. It was at the old Au Pied du Cochon, the charming French bistro with crummy food and rude wait staff, where in 1985, a KGB spy who defected to the United States, escaped his CIA handler and redefected to the Soviet Union.

Vitaly Yurchenko left to use the restroom, climbed out the window to Dumbarton Street and proceeded up Wisconsin Avenue to the Soviet Embassy. Another account has him escaping though the kitchen and ending up at the State Department, which confuses DCist.

Regardless, there has always been Cold War charm associated with the old Au Pied du Cochon, and that is now gone. When DCist recently visited the restrooms, they seemed to be brand new and windowless. But we're happy that the old bar and lighting fixtures have remained.

As for Yurchenko today, he works as a security guard at a Moscow bank.

five guys.jpgAlthough peanut allergies are no laughing matter, we chuckled with the wording of a sign posted on Five Guys' front doors warning not to take peanuts out onto Wisconsin Avenue because of the "possibility of severe allergic reaction in neighborhood children." Though children do reside in Georgetown (e.g. Sen. John Edwards' kids, who live over on P Street), we think there is more of a threat to visiting children than to kiddies of the neighborhood's elite who eat food off the sidewalk.


Email This Entry







Advertisement: DCist Continues Below!

Comments (2)

Well, you can still find that cold war charm at Yenching Palace up in Cleveland Park. It's been probably a decade since I've been there, but it's hard to imagine that they've "suddenly" gotten around to removing the story of the restaurant's role in the Cuban missile crisis in '62.

 

The peanut allegy warning sign must be a new Five Guys policy. I spotted the same sign last weekend at the King Street location in Alexandria.

 
Post a comment (Comment Policy)

2003-2009 Gothamist LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of Use & Privacy Policy. We use MovableType.

Site Meter