Wingos restaurant at 3207 O Street, NW in Georgetown suffered catastrophic damage in an accidental kitchen fire on June 26th and is closed indefinitely (see WTOP article). Why is this relevant to Glover Park? On February 28th, 2018 Wingos' application to purchase the Class 'C' liquor license held by Mad Fox Taproom was approved by DC Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA). Mad Fox had closed their Glover Park location due to a history of sub-par attendance and low sales (see prior blog article). Wingos will rise from the ashes like a phoenix to open a store in Glover Park at 2218 Wisconsin Avenue in the near future. The Georgetown restaurant was a no-frills, fast-food takeout restaurant popular with Georgetown University students and late-night weekend revelers. They plan a sit-down restaurant in Glover Park, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as their traditional take-out and delivery service. It is unclear at the moment if this will be order-at-the counter or waiter/waitress service.
In addition to the liquor license, Wingo's obtained a Certificate of Occupancy on April 20th for a 127 seat restaurant. Some neighbors and neighborhood officials have expressed concern that no neighborhood review was requested and no Board of Zoning Adjustments approval was sought, as was the excrutiating case for Domino's Pizza up the block a few months ago (see prior article on Domino's). If they get labeled as a fast-food restaurant, they may very well need to go through the same zoning variance/exception process as Domino's. So far, no building permits have been identified to build out the space, so an opening is not imminent, but stay tuned.
On a side note, Wingo's also puchased the liquor license previously held by Angels Bar & Billiards and Little Fountain Cafe at 2339 18th Street in Adams Morgan. They plan to open this store very soon (build-out has been much slower than expected), and according to Wingo's twitter, at the moment they are planning to re-open the Georgetown store eventually as well! Three locations - quite an undertaking....