DCist’s hard-hitting grocery store coverage continues, but here’s a new one: the non-corporate corner shop. Sure, we love Trader Joe’s (and his internationally named alter egos). And Whole Foods fetishism can gives you a grocery high, yes. But if we’re gonna pay extra, why not do it at a good corner shop every now and then? Yes, they close before the workday ends and their prices are often high, but there’s something special about knowing the details of your cashier’s personal life and saving the trouble of a long walk. Even better, you might be able to go those few steps barefoot.

The many markets hugging Wisconsin Avenue put the “town” in Georgetown—a neighborhood that savors its self-sufficient ways (read: bubble, but a convenient bubble nonetheless). And though Georgetowners may be sleeping with the lights on as of late, they still run out of cups of sugar and toilet paper as they always have. Thus begins a two-day feature on Georgetown’s corner shop scene.