Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Boundary Stone

A hearty crowd stopped by this evening for the open house at 116 Rhode Island Avenue NW provided by the hosts Gareth Croke, Matt Croke and Colin McDonough. Nearly everyone who attended exuded great enthusiasm.

First off, the name of the place is Boundary Stone, which sounds totally cool.

There were some three-fold handouts distributed with info about the vision for the business, a sample menu and brief bios of the Croke Brothers and Colin. There is no website yet, but they will be working on Facebook and Twitter in the short-term. I hope to scan the three-fold into a PDF and post it somewhere for everyone to see.

The interior will sport a bar of some sort, with some tabled seating elsewhere. There was chat about having mezzanine-level seating above the kitchen area in the rear. Plus, there is the option of outdoor seating in the front. The sidewalk is broad enough there to accommodate it. Above the dropped ceiling are the original tin Sylvan Theater tiles, which look great. I am hoping that they can incorporate the tin ceiling tiles into the final design.

Regarding the liquor license -- the intent is to pursue the tavern-class liquor license -- the same class of liquor license that Baraki pursued and obtained. The tavern-class liquor license makes more sense than the restaurant-class license, since the requirements for the percentage of food sales to satisfy the restaurant-class of liquor license is simply too steep of a bar to realistically achieve.

They will soon have the official ABRA liquor license application notice posted on the front window.

Note that the business has already been before the Bloomingdale Civic Association and ANC 5C to provide a courtesy advisory that they would be returning to actively solicit support for the liquor license. So there has been no "vote" yet. That will come soon. Expect the voluntary agreement process to play out.

Timetable? Perhaps the Boundary Stone will open first quarter of 2011.

Did we mention that our trio are also Bloomingdale residents?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Best dudes out.

Anonymous said...

agreed! these guys are great.

Anonymous said...

Finally - those three have worked so hard for this!

Anonymous said...

No Cowboys here. I have known them for years and they are not in for the quick buck.

dmf said...

so excited...

Ryan Eades said...

Crazy excited. Listening to the guys last night it sounds like they have a great grasp of where they are and what they still need to do to make this dream (theirs and our neighborhoods') a reality.

Can't wait for next spring to poke my head out my window and look three doors down to the patio to see if any outside seating is available!

j bollinger said...

Bloomingdale residents are fortunate to have Boundary Stone opening in their neighborhood. Hard working, honest, good guys...I wish them the best of luck with their dream.

Mari said...

Scott did you ask about funding?

bamoll said...

Mari, it sounded as though they had the capital to move forward (although I didn't ask them directly), but the Q1 2011 opening doesn't quite make sense to me if that is, in fact, the case. Build out of the space should only take a few months unless they plan on doing a lot of the work themselves. Did anyone ask them about this?

I agree, great guys, great concept, great vision.

Anonymous said...

Q1 2011 is most likely a conservative date for opening. Licensing, permitting, build in some road bumps that might bump completion date, etc... i think they will have a better picture once the liq license is in place, they can start construction.

I think the trio has tried to keep expectations low, i.e. they have been planning this for quite a while, obviously they've secured a space, have blue prints, financing in place, concept, etc....yet the community didn't really know anything about it period until PoP posted a blog about it.

Baraki has been delayed...and delayed...and delayed...

Q1 2011 does seem a long way off...11 months off basically...but maybe we will see a Veteran's Day Opening?!?!?

Anonymous said...

I remember a recent City Paper or Post article about new restaurants saying it's typically a 12 - 18 month process from signing a lease to opening doors. There's a lot of red tape.

Anonymous said...

QUITE THE DISAPPOINTING SHOW--

These guys are supposed to open a bar, and they couldn't even have a basic cheese platter and some wine?!

Lame. Very lame showing.

Amy said...

How exciting! I'm bummed that I missed out on the meet and greet last night. I would have loved to see that tin ceiling. Hopefully, I'll get to see them when this place opens : )

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing serving wine to the public in an unlicensed establishment while they are in the process of trying to acquire an alcohol license would be about the stupidest thing they could have done ...

Anonymous said...

Hahah nice response!

Chris said...

Wish I could have been there. Sounds very exciting!

Unknown said...

I talked to Matt a bit last night and I've talked to Gareth before. Matt told me last night that they've got a 10 year lease on the space.

I think the extended time line is to avoid putting a date out there then missing it. Lots of permits, etc. They really seem to have their stuff together.

Celine said...

Congratulations on getting to this point and we wish you every success with your permit. We look forward already to our visit with you and enjoying our afternoon Irish Coffee either on the sidewalk or being reflected on the tin ceiling tiles.

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to 2011! I live in the neighborhood and am happy to see some new businesses on the way.

Eli

Kweyol Observer said...

This is great...I understand through Prince of Petworth, that there will be a notice circulating to sign in support of the project. Please post more information in this regard as it becomes available. Local businesses are essential to balanced community development!