She sees a connection between the upcoming opening of Busboys and Poets and the upcoming razing of her home. Odom lives at Barry Farm, the public housing community near Anacostia that will be demolished and redeveloped by the city beginning this spring. “They want to move forward with this redevelopment, but it’s not really benefiting my family,” she says.
resident Nicole Odom doesn’t think they can. The question is whether Shallal’s businesses can pay homage to black history and contribute to the cultural richness of the District without also leading a wave of development that negatively impacts black residents. Prices are standard across all the existing restaurants, regardless of the neighborhood or the median income of its residents. Entrees at the restaurant range in price from $9 for beans and wild rice to crab cakes for $26. The restaurants remain popular with both locals and out-of-towners who like their vegan nachos with a side of social justice and can afford a $14 burger.
Every location offers programming, from author talks to community meetings and open mics, and President Barack Obama even paid a visit to the 14th Street NW location in 2016. The artwork at the restaurants celebrates black history a mural at 14th and V streets NW, created by Shallal, features images of activists like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr., who have eased the plight of oppressed people.
#BUSBOY AND POETS DC 14THST MOVIE#
The neighborhood was home to the city’s first non-segregated movie theaters and abolitionist Frederick Douglass lived his final years in a house on W Street SE.īusboys and Poets’ name honors another famous black Washingtonian, poet Langston Hughes, who worked as a busboy at D.C.’s Wardman Park Hotel in the 1920s. Historic Anacostia is rich with African-American history-the same kind of history that Busboys and Poets aims to lift up and celebrate. Median home sales prices rose slightly more, by 14 percent, city-wide last year. According to real estate website Trulia, median home sales prices in the neighborhood rose $33,500, or 13 percent, in in the past year. Other major projects are in the works, including MLK Gateway, a 50,000-square-foot development that would bring retail and apartments to the neighborhood, and the 11th Street Bridge Park, which would connect Anacostia to Capitol Hill with a park spanning the Anacostia River.Īlong with the development, housing prices are rising, too. The area is just beginning to experience the interminable swell of what some call development and others call gentrification. Shallal plans to open a seventh location by the end of the year on Martin Luther King Jr. Often his restaurants serve as anchors of new developments, and additional businesses frequently follow his lead. The owner of Busboys and Poets, the local restaurant chain with an activist, community-centric bent, has opened six locations of his popular gathering spot-four in D.C. Please reload the page and try again.Īndy Shallal has a knack for inserting himself into the city’s up-and-coming neighborhoods. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Fall Arts Guide 2023! Open dropdown menu.I loved the centerpiece spiral staircase, and taking in the sunlight dining room and different types of art. Inside Busboys and Poets, the interior is just plain cool. The location is perfect- close enough to Union Station and central D.C., but far enough that tension of center city is lessened a bit. The location I visited was nestled in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood and is very much a local hangout, not a touristy destination. This mission is radical in that there are so few places founded with this clear intent and purpose, and I immediately felt this energy from the moment I walked in. What's cool about Busboys and Poets is that they pride themselves on being a neighborhood-centric space where consciousness can be uplifted, and intersecting conversations can change and empower the world.
Of all the restaurants with character I've eaten at, most pale in comparison to Washington D.C.'s Busboys and Poets, an innovative, vibrant multi-location combination bookstore and restaurant that is as self-assured as it innovative. As a gluten-free blogger, I am always seeking delicious fare that's safe, which has brought me from time to time to some pretty funkiest food joints that are as much about good food as they are about establishing a unique vibe and character.
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