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International House of Pancakes is in talks to open a restaurant in the DCUSA development in Columbia Heights, according to the Washington Business Journal. We've witnessed a lot of debate and handwringing in the past about the relative classiness of businesses going in to DCUSA, but surely everyone can agree on Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity.
IHOP to Columbia Heights?
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We went to the Macy's at 12th & G this morning for the Black Friday morning specials. There was a sh
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IHOP?! What about Waffle House? We all know the WaHo has a much better bacon egg and cheese!!
I second the desire for a Waffle House instead. I know they're usually stand-alone buildings, but hey, it's DC - they could think of something...and get a ton of business in the end.
At this point they need to fill in the enormous amount of empty space, so IHOP should be a win win. Most people like breakfast food or the other casual dining offerings on their menu. It is not gourmet but will appeal to a broad swath of residents. I don't really eat pancakes but love a omelets and don't always want to spend $$$ for a fritata at some smancy place. Plus you gotta appreciate a breakfast joint that leaves you a carafe of coffee at your table so that you don't have to beg for refills.
Criswell predicts this IHOP will turn int a thuggy mcloiterville, a la the Gallery Place Mcdonalds.
agreed. exhibit a: 7-eleven on 14th a bit south of this megaplex...but only sometimes. speaking of 14th, when will the short stretch between thomas circle and rhode island be spruced up? GEEZ LOISE!
eww! eww! eww! eww! eww! eww!
Dear God: if you exist, please let this deal fall through. K? Thx.
why? so it's not your cup of tea, but what if other people will patronize it?
i say go for it. better than a vacant place.
The Prince of Petworth folks are going ape$h!t over this. You'd think they were about to open a puppy and kitten themed abbatoir.
oh noes! not the PoP commentariat! whatsoever shall we do? wheresoever shall we go?
You're right. Definitely not my cup of tea, and I guess there's nothing technically wrong with IHOP. But I just feel our neighborhood has had it's fair share of a random influx of big chains and it would be nice to see some more locally owned action. That's all.
I know! Like a locally-owned organic kite store, right?
Nah, was thinking more like a locally-owned organic go-screw-yourself.
Nah, was thinking more like a locally-owned organic go-screw-yourself.
Agreed. I also lament the loss of mom-and-pop porn shops. They must make a comeback!
Heh. Come.
Don't worry, you'll get your precious little kite store sooner or later.
For your information, I happen to like kites! Choose something else. Third time's a charm, I promise!
Among the flood of freaked-out comments on PoP, it emerged that this franchise will be locally owned ...
aren't most franchised locations of corporate entities "locally owned"? i'd hardly call that a revelation.
Sure, but I still think it's a fact that this knee-jerk "chains are bad!" reflex often overlooks.
i get the feeling that the standard knee-jerk "chains are bad" response that you're going to get from a lot of people over there has less to do with the economics of who owns what, and more to do with the preceived "coolness" factor for a lot of those folk.
Anyone who really does worry about the perceived coolness of businesses in their neighborhood would do well to read Virginia Postrel's defense of chain stores, which first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly a few years back.
agreed, yonas. but, given the economic circumstances, we're kind of stuck with whatever we can get right now...oh well.
Exactly. What's wrong with an IHOP? Besides, look at the other "flagships" of Columbia Heights: Target, Ruby Tuesday's, Best Buy, Marshalls, etc. IHOP seems to be in-line with the other local establishments. Perhaps you would like CH to have no places to eat/shop and return to the sketchy ghetto it once was? If I lived in CH, I'd rather have an IHOP with tourists in it rather than a crackhouse.
TX2DC, I agree with you, it's ain't like IHOP will be a sore thumb in the otherwise big chain store-filled DCUSA. As a frequent visitor and soon to be resident of Columbia Heights, I'm down for some IHOP, if only for the nostalgia--don't think I've set foot in one since highschool. Anyone know anything about the organic market that's supposedly going in DCUSA by the Panda Express?
I like IHOP just fine, but its arrival in Columbia Heights is my cue to get out of the hood... as Esmerdelda said, 'what is this, Ballston?'
You must have to move a lot ... sounds exhausting, this constant policing of one's neighborhood for any hint that it's lost its gritty urban cachet.
Speaking of waffles and gritty urban cachet, when is Doug Jemal going to re-open the Waffle Shop?
yes, it is exhausting
You're gonna love Ballston, it's got lots of chain stores and restaurants.
Or you could move to Mt. Pleasant. There are no chains, to my knowledge, there. Oh wait, there isn't ANYTHING there…………except maybe Tonic.
Surprise, DC USA wants a fat long term triple net lease with national chain pockets to back it up. I'd rather have formula business zoning, but that doesn't seem likely.
The Elwood Thompson space is fine for IHOP, after all it's just steps away from Washington Sports and Health.
As long as they can keep the place decently CLEAN, I'm cool with IHOP. I'll bring my own maple syrup, though.
Even though I don't live in CH I welcome any establishment that serves pancakes. Although I'd wish it'd be more like the new IHOP in Vermont. Pouring maple-flavored snot on pancakes does not good eats make.
It'll still take a million years to get planning permission. How long have we been waiting for Wagamama's?
Yet somehow Fat Unhealthy Man-Child Cupcakeries get approved.
One thing that people are missing is that those large chain stores or at least Target is paying the community back. They paid for the building of libraries at Bancroft and Bruce Monroe ES. They are drop dead gorgeous libraries and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They sponsor numerous local events such as many Cherry blossom festivities, NBM events, etc. They donate a portion of their proceeds to local schools. They are pretty good community participants. Staples, Bed Bath and Beyond and the Children's Place made donations to the victims of the Deuville fire.
Let's face it IHOP is not cool but you know what the vast majority of the folks in the neighborhood are not cool. They have kids and would love a place to take the kids for a reasonably priced meal that does not involve pizza, burritos or clowns. With a place like IHOP I can keep my little screamers away from those who love to scowl at us when we dare enter a hip place.
14th Street in Columbia Heights never was and never will be a strip of cute frou-frou boutiques that sell nothing that anyone needs. For that, just keep heading south down 14th -- and if you'd really move out of the neighborhood because of the arrival of an IHOP, then please do get out! Even the thugz are preferable to neighborhood ninnies...
"14th Street in Columbia Heights never was and never will be a strip of cute frou-frou boutiques that sell nothing that anyone needs"
Wrong on at least one count: Sticky Fingers Bakery. I'm not aware of a lot of other specialty vegan café/bakeries around the city. Love that place. The meat-free hotdogs are awesome. And those hotdogs certainly fall into the "nothing that anyone needs" category. Now if SFB could just do something about the curt, surly hipsters working the counter.....
Sticky Fingers may be vegan, but the food is good even to a non-vegan like myself. So it definitely serves a valuable neighborhood function. And in my experience none of the people working there are curt and surly. Quite the opposite in fact. Perhaps you were trying to order while talking on a cell phone, while dressed in a mink coat.
Yeah, but where are the gourmet dog biscuiterias and $5 cupcakes for your goddamned cat?
Talk about third-rate wannabe neighborhood like Eisengard...
I'm with mommyworks all the way, as long as they don't build the horrible roof. I've seen buildings try to take over a former IHOP with disastrous results. Imagine yourself in a nightclub shaped like that.
How about instead of IHOP they courted the owners of the Florida Avenue Grill? Those people foolishly took their extra cash and developed a condo building next door out of their parking lot. The Lacey is sure to be a money loser, but investing in expansion would have been smarter. Not sure what you'd call the Grill in its new location. Nor sure you could replicate that either.
Or a Constantine or Andy restaurant-thingy. Lord knows CH could use one of those.
IHOP to Columbia Heights?
That seems entirely unnecessary. Just take the metro dude.
DC-USA has affordable stores with things DC residents need and want, unlike so much of DC retail that is either overpriced and downmarket or overpriced and upmarket. The many native Washingtonians I've talked to about DC-USA are thrilled with the new stores. Not to mention that was a major shopping corridor until it was burned down in 1968 -- a continual reminder to longtime residents of a painful past.
We have about seven locally owned, non-chain restaurants and bars around that intersection (love Pete's Pizza and want to try the new Vietnamese place!), plus a handful of shops and Gala Theater. And the food chains are "good" ones - i.e. Potbelly, Rita's and 5 Guys, not McDonald's and Dominos. I'd be happy to have IHOP there, though I really wish a post office would reopen in that location!
These places have created a lot of jobs. I have family members driving forklifts and running registers for Target and Best Buy in other states. These may not be glamour jobs, but they're full time with benefits. Too many activists who claim to be concerned about gentrification give away their bias against blue collar work when they miss how valuable those jobs are.
Blueberry Pancakes...brown...not yellow!
YUMMMMMMMMM
But will they be serving Aunt Jemimah syrup?