On National Bagel Day, buzzy bagel purveyor Call Your Mother emerged victorious from a months-long struggle over its forthcoming location in Georgetown, clearing the way for an opening by the end of the month.

“We are over the bagel moon,” says Call Your Mother co-owner Andrew Dana on Wednesday, after the three members of D.C.’s Board of Zoning Adjustment voted unanimously to approve Call Your Mother’s request for an exception to the building’s zoning limitations.

Back in June, Call Your Mother announced its intention to take over a 1,1000-square foot space at 3428 O Street NW, in a building that previously served as the location for GreenWorks Florist and is zoned for retail use. Under that zoning, the shop could sell its bagels. But to prepare and hawk its popular sandwiches from the location, the business needed to obtain a variance that would allow it to operate as a corner store.

Now, four zoning board meetings later, “we are thrilled that we can now toast bagels and top them for our customers,” says Dana.

Opponents of granting the variance, largely neighbors who own property within 200 feet of the building in question, aren’t surprised by the outcome. The only one we reached who was willing to speak on the record, Melinda Roth, says that “we expected to lose today but we still believe we have the law on our side. We will appeal until someone decides to apply the actual laws … When you buy a house, you depend on the zoning regulations to be followed and I think quite a few of my neighbors are very disappointed because they strongly believe this is changing the way the zoning regulations work.”

Since opening its doors on Georgia Avenue NW in the fall of 2018, Call Your Mother has been a runaway success. The recipient of wall-to-wall national media coverage and $1.35 million in investment, the “Jew-ish” deli from the minds behind Timber Pizza is now in the midst of a major expansion. That growth was supposed to begin in a bright pink building with green shutters in Georgetown. But that plan has been repeatedly delayed.

While city agencies like the Historic Preservation Office and the Office of Planning were on board with Call Your Mother’s zoning request on O Street, opposition came from some neighbors and the local elected officials who represent them, including soon-to-resign Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans.

In October, Evans told DCist that Call Your Mother opening up shop on O Street NW would be “a real hassle,” because the bagel shop’s first location in Park View has become notorious for its long lines. Evans outlined concerns about rats, large crowds, and traffic congestion in a letter to the zoning board opposing the variance, and suggested that the store open on a commercial strip like Wisconsin Avenue instead. (Dana has said that Wisconsin Avenue rents are prohibitively expensive.) The councilmember said that his stance was inspired by the two local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners who have consistently voted against Call Your Mother’s proposed location—they represent the vast majority of the neighbors who live within 200 feet of the building.

But Dana maintains that the Park View outpost has never received noise or trash complaints. Plus, he adds, the Georgetown location has a different system for ringing up orders and a streamlined menu, part of a bid to move everything along more quickly. The deli has also hired a contractor to perform daily trash pick ups to appease neighbors.

At least one other local business issued its support for the bagel shop. “We want CYM deli as a neighbor. #freethebagels” 1310 Kitchen and Bar wrote on its windows last month. “Old ways won’t open new doors.” And the majority of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission that represents that area—ANC2E—has voted in favor of Call Your Mother’s expansion to O Street.

Call Your Mother’s mounting frustration with the hold ups in the process became clear in a December Instagram post, in which the deli wrote that “there are just some people in g-town who really really really really hate bagels … We will not let the hate bring us down. #bagelhate2019”

But Roth maintains that “we’re not bagel haters … You can be supportive of Call Your Mother and still not want them to have a variance. We’re opposed to them receiving a variance, which stays with the building forever. Anyone else could come in who doesn’t have the same promises they have.”

Dana expects that the Georgetown location will open by the end of the month. “We look forward to winning over the people who are not excited by it now by being great neighbors and providing great service,” he says.

Roth says that, despite her concerns about the variance, “I am going to be supportive because I want successful Georgetown businesses and I love bagels.”

Previously:
Councilmember Versus Bagels: Jack Evans Objects To Georgetown Location Of Call Your Mother
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