Farewell to Laliguras: On August 12th, Laliguras Indian & Nepali Bistro posted this message on its Facebook page: “With a mix of emotions, we bid farewell to an incredible journey. Laliguras Indian Bistro – Van Ness has permanently closed its doors today. We are immensely grateful for your unwavering support throughout the years.”
The restaurant attracted a following soon after it opened at 4221 Connecticut Avenue in 2014. And in 2015, Washington Post restaurant critic Tim Carman praised chef-owner Dawa Tamang for giving Nepali cuisine equal billing on the menu. He also said the Indian food at Laliguras was almost too good – diners would not be tempted to stray from the familiar.
Businesses are opening, too: The Laliguras closure adds a retail vacancy to the Connecticut Avenue corridor just as landlords make substantial progress toward filling the gaps. Those include UDC signing leases with Dog Haus and The Whale Tea at 4340 Connecticut, and MOM’s Organic Market working toward a December opening at 4250 Connecticut. In addition, an art gallery is moving into the former Headliner Salon at 5008 Connecticut. And at ANC 3F’s July 18th meeting, Van Ness Main Street executive director Gloria Garcia hinted at “exciting news to come” at the former Uptown Market space at 4465 Connecticut.
Forest Hills Connection is an editorially independent program of Van Ness Main Street.
Sprucing up the place: Van Ness and upper corridor businesses have been working to update and upgrade their storefronts. Those include the Days Inn, which “is undergoing a more than one million dollar renovation – both interior and facade and landscape,” said Garcia on July 18th. “Shortly we hope that we will be announcing some tours so people can see what what it looks like inside.”
ZIPS Dry Cleaners sports a new awning. The business at 4418 Connecticut was one of the 2023 winners of DC’s “Robust Retail” grant, and received $5,000.
Shemali’s has received the sidewalk cafe permit it requested last spring. The business is also working to add a grill inside, in order to serve hot food. And now, customers have a place to sit and enjoy their orders on the premises.
Rosemary Bistro Cafe’s streetery at 5010 Connecticut has undergone a major upgrade, which ANC 3F commissioner Courtney Carlson praised on July 18th. Owner Fred Darricarrere “has really done an amazing job of investing in his streetery,” Carlson said. “He cleaned the top, painted it, installed Plexiglas on the side. It really opens up that side of the avenue while still allowing his business to have a lot of extra outdoor seating in the summer months. So kudos to him, and I think it’s a great addition to how that streetscape looks on that side of the street.”
And Van Ness Main Street and Gopuff have announced the winners of their window art competition.
The artwork will be displayed in Gopuff’s currently blank windows at 4221 Connecticut, and the unveiling will happen at Art All Night on Friday, September 29th.
Our own Little Italy on the 5000 block of Connecticut Avenue: Sister restaurants I’m Eddie Cano and Italian Bar are hosting a Little Italy summer bash on Saturday, August 26th with drink specials, live music and more. The restaurant group is also promoting “Sicily in September,” with pasta-making classes and wine dinners and tastings.
In other news: The Chevy Chase Starbucks is the second in the District to unionize. Other Chevy Chase businesses contributed a song to a summer/fall Spotify playlist put together by Chevy Chase Main Street and Chevy Chase News & Notes.
Learn food photography with two local businesses at 1pm on October 8th. https://t.co/hYvUCvzOyl
— Forest Hills Connection (@foresthillsnews) July 31, 2023
🎉SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT🎉
Captain Cookie & the Milkman’s Grand Opening in Cleveland Park is on September 9th from 10am-10pm. Finally! 🥳✨🍪🍦
You are all invited to join us in saving the world, one cookie at a time – 10% of the sales on our Grand Opening Day will benefit @dcck pic.twitter.com/T0qUWCBQSE
— Captain Cookie (@captaincookiedc) August 12, 2023
David Jonas Bardin says
Laliguras served us excellently and will be missed.
David Jonas Bardin
DCdog says
Add Laliguras to the long list of failed businesses at 4221 Connecticut Ave.. The Taco Bell and Blockbuster are the only ones with any longevity there that i can remember. Not sure what could do well there when even a 7-11 couldn’t survive.
Mat Gonzales says
Laliguras was comically overrated. I definitely got served a bowl of frozen vegetables there that they hadn’t thawed out entirely and were swimming in water. There was a reason the place was constantly empty.
Green Eyeshades says
ANC3F finally posted a link to the YouTube video of its September 19 meeting; see top of upper right column at this link:
https://www.anc3f.com/archive
That link opens this YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aZFUDhsu6c
At time stamp 01:11:33, Commissioner Baer introduced DC Water, starting off with questions and warnings to DC Water about having construction vehicles and a fire truck on Audubon Terrace that evening (Tuesday, Sept. 19) without having given anyone advance notice that such vehicles would be in the community.
From 01:11:33 through 01:15:52, Commissioner Baer extracted several apologies from Peter Tinubu, the construction manager for DC Water for the sewer repair, but I didn’t hear any questions (or DC Water apologies) about DC Water’s brazen coverup of chemical releases from the sewer repair.
DC Water then started its update on the sewer repair project at about 01:15:56.
At 01:16:40, DC Water’s slide of its “schedule” for sewer repairs showed details for the weeks of October 2 and October 9 which were deleted from the official DC Water schedule below sent out by email today, Sept. 26. The new official “schedule” sent today omits any reference to Shot #10, reflecting complaints during the Sept. 19 ANC3F meeting about when and how DC Water intended to perform Shot #10.
At about 01:22:20, Commissioner Baer reminded DC Water’s construction manager, Peter Tinubu, that DC Water promised ANC3F that it would host a “call” or a “Zoom meeting” with (1) tenants of Park Van Ness, (2) tenants of Park Connecticut, and (3) the Montessori School in the 4400 block on the east side of Connecticut Avenue, when DC Water was getting close to installing Shot #10, because it is within “ten feet” of the property line of all three buildings.
Commissioner Baer asked Peter Tinubu, when would that call or Zoom meeting take place? Peter Tinubu started to deflect the conversation toward some communication DC Water had with some party other than those three buildings, whereupon Commissioner Baer asked again “When are we going to have that call?”
At that point, Peter Tinubu suddenly began having “connection” problems, so DC Water’s engineer Will Elledge jumped into the conversation at 01:24:30 with the opening comment that “I can’t answer that question specifically but I’ll make sure that we have that meeting.” It does seem that DC Water’s construction manager was just as careless about breaking his promises to hold a “call” about Shot #10 as he has been about covering up DC Water’s dangerous chemical releases. At 01:24:49 Commissioner Baer said “okay Will, I will coordinate with you,” meaning Commissioner Baer would coordinate with DC Water’s engineer Elledge instead of Peter Tinubu.
In the middle of DC Water’s construction manager’s comical breakdown in communications with our ANC, the construction manager for DC Water’s CIPP installer, known as “IPR,” broke into the conversation at 01:24:53 through 01:25:12 to tell ANC3F that IPR was “not in a position to be doing Shot #10 any time in the immediate future.”
Green Eyeshades says
There were important disclosures during ANC3F’s monthly meeting on September 19 regarding DC Water’s continuing coverup of the dangerous chemicals released by DC Water’s sewer repairs, as recorded in this YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aZFUDhsu6c
At time stamp 01:25:54 through 01:27:21, Marjorie Share asked DC Water three questions about the laboratory testing results for the “Shots” of Cured-in-Place-Pipe (CIPP) that DC Water had done so far:
(1) when will you (DC Water) post the laboratory test results for Shot #3, Shot #4 and Shot #5?
(2) how soon after you (DC Water) do Shot #6, Shot #7 and so forth, will we see the laboratory test results for those Shots? and
(3) At what point will you (DC Water) know that Styrene is showing up and showing up in greater quantities than Cumene is showing up?
Peter Tinubu again managed to be disconnected just exactly at the moment those questions were asked, so DC Water engineer Elledge restated the questions starting at 01:27:48. Whereupon Peter Tinubu just brazenly lied again about the laboratory test results for Shot #3, Shot #4 and Shot #5 being already up on the project website. Which they are not.
See for yourself: click on the label “Project Documents” at the bottom of the photograph at the top of this project website:
https://www.dcwater.com/projects/soapstone_sewer
There are still only these documents posted in that window pane, and they all describe Shot #1 or Shot #2, none of them describe or relate to Shot #3, or Shot #4 or Shot #5:
Project Documents
GD23-068 Results.pdf
GD23-067 Results.pdf
GD23-066 Results.pdf
CUIRE-Soapstone Air Monitoring Form-Field Report-03-16-2023 – F.pdf
CUIRE-Soapstone Air Monitoring Form-Field Report-03-14-2023.pdf
There are no other “documents” there. There are links to two YouTube videos at the bottom of that project website, but no other “documents” or laboratory test results. One of the YouTube videos is a recording of the August 17, 2023 public meeting about the Soapstone sewer repairs. DC Water’s construction manager for the sewer repair lied about the laboratory test results during the August 17 public meeting and he lied about the laboratory test results during the September 19 ANC3F meeting. DC Water’s construction manager for the Soapstone sewer repairs lies repeatedly every time he is asked about the laboratory test results for Shot #3, Shot #4 and Shot #5.
During the September 19 ANC3F meeting, DC Water’s engineer Will Elledge repeated the lies, possibly not understanding what DC Water’s own project’s website proves — nothing has been posted about the chemicals released by Shot #3, Shot #4 and Shot #5. According to the YouTube auto-generated “transcript” of this portion of the ANC3F meeting on Sept. 19, which is consistent with what I heard when I watched that video today, this was what Elledge said from 01:28:25 through 01:28:50:
“The way we put it up on the website … apparently it is a little bit hard to find so we’re gonna fix that to make it easier to find…. [W]e’ll include instructions on how to find it …. First, we’ll make it easier to find and then second … we’ll give you a click-by-click of how to get to it.”
The DC Water engineer claimed “it’s a little bit hard to find ….” It’s not “a little bit hard to find” the laboratory test results for Shot #3, Shot #4 and Shot #5. It’s impossible to find them, because they are not there.
The discussion about the third question, when will DC Water be aware that Styrene is being released and when will DC Water be aware that Styrene is being released in greater quantity than Cumene is being released. will have to wait for another comment. Suffice to say, Marjorie Share pointed out that Will Elledge’s explanation to ANC3F on September 19 contradicted what the engineer for IPR (the CIPP contractor) said during the public meeting on August 17, 2023. The YouTube video for that August 17 meeting is posted at the bottom of DC Water’s project website; it is available here:
Green Eyeshades says
DC Water, DOEE and ANC3F will eventually be forced to respond to the mounting evidence that DC Water personnel are constantly lying to the neighborhood and to ANC3F. They can’t stonewall the neighborhood forever. There are laws that require DC Water and DOEE to produce the information that DOEE’s air quality permit required DC Water to produce. DOEE is directly responsible for DC Water’s constant lying because the director of DOEE is the chair of DC Water’s board (by DC law).
DC Water produced a small part of that information more than five months ago — for just two of the Shots of Cured-in-Place-Pipe (CIPP). DC Water and DOEE have stonewalled the neighborhood and ANC3F for more than five months by refusing to produce that information on the Shots done since the first two Shots.
DC Water’s CIPP contractor (known as IPR) installed two more Shots (Shot #6 & Shot #7) during the week of September 18, the same week as the ANC3F monthly meeting and installed two more shots the week of September 25 (Shot #8 & Shot #9). I assume that DC Water and its contractor adhered to the “schedule” they told ANC3F at the September 19 meeting they would follow and the “schedule” DC Water included in its email “updates” about those Shots on September 17 and 26.
DC Water and DOEE will have the lab test results for Shots Six through Nine within a few weeks from now. They must produce them promptly so that tenants in Park Van Ness, tenants in Park Connecticut, and the children, teachers and staff at Franklin Montessori will know whether dangerous carcinogenic chemicals were released from those first nine Shots. Because the next Shot, Shot #10, will be installed directly behind their buildings.
(DC Water’s contractor said at the September 19 ANC3F meeting that it was not ready to install Shot #10 and DC Water has released no further information about Shot #10 since September 19.)