The Great Grocery Store Chase
D.C.'s lack of choice when it comes to gourmet grocery stores may be coming to an end, although not everything is panning out as planned.
A long hoped-for Whole Foods Market on 14th Street in Columbia Heights seems all but dead. “We have no immediate plans for that location,” Sarah Kenney, Whole Foods Market, director of marketing for the mid-Atlantic Region tells DCist.
Over a year ago, Whole Foods signed a Letter Of Intent (LOI) on the space at 3200 14th Street, NW. A LOI is real estate speak for documenting a firm’s interest in the property. Kenney compares it to “asking someone out for a date.” However, some folks have taken it so seriously, you would think it was a marriage license, she says.
In spite of valiant neighborhood lobbying, some bloggers have speculated that lack of dedicated parking in the area is to blame for Whole Foods’ dis. Kenney says the chain must consider competition from other grocery retailers in the area, like the new Giant at Tivoli Square nearby, and the resident complaint factor when delivery trucks pull in at 5 a.m.
Not coincidentally, there is a very successful Whole Foods not too far away at 14th and P in Logan Circle, with which many of us have a love/hate relationship. Love the cheese, hate the cashier line, love the produce, hate the parking, etc.
But Whole Foods’ march into the District is not over. Kenney says that a new Whole Foods will open at Wisconsin and Western Avenues by the fall of 2008. And food fans are watching closely the new Whole Foods in Fairfax that is offering sit down service and – gasp – wine.
So, with Whole Foods practically out of the Columbia Heights picture, another large upscale grocery retailer has a shot at the space – think Harris Teeter or Trader Joe’s.
Harris Teeter spokeswoman Jennifer Panetta coyly tells DCist that the company doesn’t talk about opening new stores until they are a done deal, but notes that HT has lots of openings around the area in the works.
HT is poised to open a short hike away from Columbia Heights at 16th and Kalorama in the Citadel Building in late fall of this year. It plans to open a Jenkins Row location across from the Potomac Avenue Metro in September, Panetta says. It is also planning to open a second and third store in the Arlington area, according to a spokeswoman, who says Potomac Yards will open in July and Shirlington will open in September.
The fairly new Pentagon Row HT location in Arlington has drawn many District shoppers on weekends and refugees from the unbearably crowded Costco down the street.
And what say you, Trade Joe’s? Nothing on their website gives a clue, and the vibe is so laid-back, they don’t even have PR people.
The West End store is the chain’s only District outpost so far, and it gets zinged from time to time by the foodies over at Don Rockwell for its small size, crowds, and, at times, bare shelves.
The bigger, suburban TJ stores seem to have less of these issues, even the tiny one in that weird 70s plaza off of Wisconsin Avenue in Chevy Chase, MD, and the Silver Spring location north of downtown and far from Whole Foods, on Columbia Pike, which opened in 2005.
But just because big gourmet grocery stores are circling the new developments, don’t forget the old favorites and don’t let them go out of business. There’s eccentric and metro-accessible treats at Eastern Market and Rodman’s in Tenleytown.
Maybe someday the O Street Market, an 1880s-era building like Eastern Market, will reemerge in Shaw, although it’s looked pretty grim since a snowstorm collapsed the roof and structure in 2003, halting planned renovations.
Those willing to shop in the ‘burbs can find amazing and cheap Asian markets, Latin American markets, and Indian markets, but that’s a subject for another post.
Photo by Flickr user dipfan.