Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans is among the local officials voicing disapproval of the latest plans for bagel juggernaut Call Your Mother‘s forthcoming Georgetown location.

Fresh off a year’s worth of fawning national media attention and a recently announced $1.35 million investment for expansion, the “Jew-ish” deli needs to clear a bureaucratic hurdle to make its proposed second location on 3428 O St. NW a reality. The bubblegum-pink building on the residential street, which previously housed GreenWorks Florist, is currently zoned for retail use. Call Your Mother is asking D.C.’s Board of Zoning Adjustment for what’s called a “use variance relief“so it can open as a prepared food shop on the property.

The Advisory Neighborhood Commission with jurisdiction over the location, ANC 2E, has already approved of Call Your Mother’s request by a 6-2 vote. But Evans is siding with the two commissioners, including Chairperson Rick Murphy, who voted against the variance.

“It’s akin to the Georgetown Cupcake situation,” Evans tells DCist, referring to the blocks-long lines at the popular bakery on M Street NW. “It would be a hassle, a real hassle.”

In a letter to the zoning board first reported by The Hoya, Evans expressed concerns about blocked sidewalks, congested traffic, and rats, which he says would impact residents’ quality of life. He contends that Call Your Mother should open on a more commercial street in Georgetown, like Wisconsin Avenue.

“We’re trying desperately to get retail to return” to Wisconsin Avenue, Evans says, noting the dozens of vacant storefronts. While he acknowledges that the difference in rent would be substantial, “from what I read, the bagel shop is doing quite well.”

Indeed, Call Your Mother’s notoriously long lines in its original Park View location are part of why the opposition is concerned.

“The problem is that Call Your Mother is very successful,” says Murphy, the chairperson of ANC 2E. “If the Call Your Mother on Georgia Avenue is any indication, it will bring noise, trash, and traffic that don’t really belong in a quiet residential neighborhood.”

That characterization confuses Call Your Mother co-owner Andrew Dana, who says that the Park View location doesn’t have those issues. “We’ve never had a noise complaint or a trash complaint, even on our busiest days,” he says. “The line isn’t rowdy—it’s just people reading their phones, waiting for a bagel.”

Dana adds that, while he’s heard broad support for the new location in Georgetown, the deli is trying to mitigate the concerns of the “group that is worried that it’s going to be this sort of Doomsday, worst-case scenario.”

It begins with how they’re designing the O Street storefront. “Park View just wasn’t built for speed,” says Dana. “We’re building Georgetown for speed.” That includes switching their system for ringing up orders, having a smaller menu, training staff to help move the line along, and more. To quell concerns about trash, the deli has hired a contractor for daily trash pick ups.

“The fact that they’re willing to go that extra step, I think, is going to help mitigate impact,” says Kishan Putta, one of the local commissioners who voted in favor of Call Your Mother and a challenger in the Ward 2 D.C. Council race. (Evans, who is currently facing a series of investigations over alleged conflicts of interest, hasn’t announced whether he is running again.)

Putta says that Evans is discounting the expertise of city agencies, like the Historic Preservation Office and the Office of Planning, who determined that the Georgetown Call Your Mother represented “no substantial detriment to the public good.”

Evans acknowledges that he disagrees with the city agencies on this one. He says it’s because “the neighbors are dead against it, and I represent the neighbors … They like the idea of the bagel shop, they just don’t want it there.” He says more than 25 people have contacted his office, all vehemently against the deli on O Street.

Evans says he’s putting residents above city agencies and some business interests. “I do know many of the investors in the bagel shop, so it’s one of those situations,” Evans says. “The residents are the most important, but I do know many of the people who invested as well.”

Putta says that most of the neighbors he’s heard from have been supportive of the business, and even those with some hesitations thought it was a “net positive.”

In letters to the zoning board, neighbors chimed in both for and against the deli.

Call Your Mother is already paying rent on the O Street space, according to Dana. He says that the team looked at about 20 locations in Georgetown for more than two years, and all the spaces on Wisconsin Avenue or M Street cost $80-120 per square foot. “As busy as you’re gonna be as a bagel shop, it’s hard to make those economics work,” he says. Dana adds that, even off the main drag, rent is “significantly more expensive than Park View. We’re still paying to be in Georgetown.”

At a hearing today, the zoning board asked Dana and Call Your Mother for additional information about how the business will run. The board will make its final determination at a hearing in early December. If the board approves the zoning variance, Dana says Call Your Mother could open about a week later.

“We’re trying to show the neighborhood that we’re not Walmart coming to a small town,” Dana says. “We’re a mom and pop bagel shop from D.C.”

Previously:
Call Your Mother Is Opening A Second Location In Georgetown
Yet Another National Outlet Is Obsessed With Call Your Mother
First Look: New Park View Deli Call Your Mother Draws Inspiration From Montreal, Argentina, And Drake