Call Your Mother Georgetown Safe for Now
Call Your Mother deli’s Georgetown location, 3428 O St. NW, got a temporary reprieve last week, but its future is still uncertain.
Crowds lineup outside Call Your Mother’s deli in Georgetown. (Photo: Dreamstime)
D.C.’s Board of Zoning Adjustment held a hearing last Wednesday in an ongoing dispute over the bagel chain’s Georgetown cafe, which some residents claim violates neighborhood zoning laws. Instead of making a final decision, the board scheduled a vote for Oct. 23.
The deli is seeking two permits to continue operations a few blocks from Georgetown University. One would allow it to operate as a “corner store” under D.C. law. The other is an exemption that would allow them to continue selling prepared food at the store.
Customers brings unwanted noise, trash
But, some neighbors claim the deli’s popularity has brought unwanted crowds and trash to the once-quiet neighborhood.
The hearing gave both sides the opportunity a chance to give the board a progress report since a seven-hour hearing in June, which also ended without a resolution.
Much of the debate at June’s meeting was about garbage and if Call Your Mother’s presence and popularity caused overflowing public trash bins. At one point, the deli’s attorney Martin Sullivan presented four screenshots of CCTV footage showing a figure who appeared to be dumping trash into a city receptacle at 1:30 A.M.
Sullivan then claimed the shots depicted George Washington University visiting associate professor Melinda Roth — the lead plaintiff in an earlier challenge, which resulted in its original permit being vacated — disposing of her home garbage in order to blame the restaurant.
“It’s me throwing rat carcasses away,” Roth responded. “But I’m not the one responsible, on a daily basis, for overflowing trash cans … I tend not to want those dead rats in my own house.”
Call Your Mother’s Sun City bagel sandwich with bacon, spicy honey, an egg, American and cheddar cheeses on an everything bagel. (Photo: Call Your Mother/Facebook)
Deli hires ‘bouncer’ to move neighborhood diners along
At last Wednesday’s hearing, Call Your Mother’s co-owner Andrew Dana said that the bagel shop has hired an employee to stop patrons from sitting on neighborhood stoops and hand out maps that show available public seating.
So far, the shop hasn’t had any issues with telling people to leave, he said. “These are morning people eating bagels. It’s not people leaving a nighttime club where you’d need a heavier hand.”
ANC, D.C. Office of Planning drop opposition
Resident Chris Ittelaig, who spoke in support of Call Your Mother, said that since the June meeting, the neighborhood’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission voted to drop its opposition to Call Your Mother’s permit.
“We think that says everything about what Call Your Mother has put forth this summer,” he said.
Roth said Call Your Mother’s bouncer hadn’t led to fewer people in the neighborhood. Instead, they have just move up the street. “While they have made this effort in hiring this hall monitor, it has not changed a single thing,” Roth said. “What they’re saying is … since we’re not doing it at night, you shouldn’t be bothered by what’s happening during the day.”
Crystal Myers, a representative from D.C.’s Office of Planning, told the board that her office continued to support Call Your Mother’s permit, testifying that her office had visited the site recently during the lunch rush and that their crowd mitigation and trash pickup procedure were effective. “The applicant’s conditions would sufficiently mitigate the establishment’s impact on the neighborhood,” she said.
