by Gabrielle Blue­stone | Spe­cial Contributor

Store Open­ing Fur­ther Delayed By Snow

Delayed by the snow­fall that ground the Dis­trict to a halt this month, Foggy Bot­tom Gro­cery still has no set open­ing date, but the own­ers say the mar­ket and deli should be up and run­ning by the first week of March.

Though the store, which is partly owned by GW alum­nus Kris Hart, was last set to open in mid-February, the snow­fall delayed con­trac­tors’ work and deliv­ery of store essen­tials, like the shelv­ing units which cur­rently line the store.

And now, it’s all being doc­u­mented for a poten­tial real­ity TV show. Con­nected by a for­mer employee from Hart’s other busi­ness, Relaxed Tans and Spa, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Nancy Glass Pro­duc­tions, a com­pany that pro­duces real­ity shows for chan­nels like Home and Gar­den Tele­vi­sion, have been film­ing the new man­age­ment team with two hand­held cam­eras to make a “siz­zler reel” to pitch to net­works, Hart said.

It’s a lit­tle weird, I went to run down
the National Mall and there were cam­eras
fol­low­ing me,”… Hart said, but added
that it has been a cool experience.

And the store has had no short­age of obsta­cles since Hart obtained what used to be a bright pur­ple town­house from ten­ant owner Meseret Bekele last spring.

Hart and his part­ners have bat­tled the com­mu­nity group West End Cit­i­zens Asso­ci­a­tion since Sep­tem­ber 2009, when WECA Sec­re­tary Bar­bara Kahlow charged that the store’s pro­posed hours would be inap­pro­pri­ate for the neigh­bor­hood and that Hart would vio­late zon­ing orders by serv­ing pre­pared foods.

After months of medi­a­tions and lit­i­ga­tion, Hart won an alco­hol license from the D.C. Alco­holic Bev­er­age Reg­u­la­tion Admin­is­tra­tion, which also approved his oper­at­ing hours from 7 a.m. to mid­night, seven days a week.

Though the store has a few D.C. gov­ern­ment hur­dles left to clear — a Depart­ment of Health inspec­tion and a hear­ing before the D.C. Board of Zon­ing Adjust­ment — Hart said his cer­tifi­cate of occu­pancy has been affirmed and he will be able to open the store before the BZA hear­ing. Hart said he expects the DOH inspec­tion will occur this week, and the team is prepar­ing to order non-perishable items to stock the shelves later this week.

“It’s been three years since I con­sid­ered buy­ing Foggy Bot­tom Gro­cery, it’s been a year since I actu­ally bought it and had to go through all the gov­ern­ment and bureau­cratic things, but it’s been a really good expe­ri­ence for my career,” Hart said. “It was def­i­nitely some­thing that will really teach me as I move on, and I’m very excited to open the doors.”

To gear up for the open­ing, Devlin Keat­ing, co-owner and fel­low GW alum­nus, said he has already hired 20 stu­dent employees.

Var­i­ous stu­dent groups will soon be tar­geted with “back­stage passes,” invit­ing them to check out the store at a cer­tain time, Keat­ing said, allow­ing the new employ­ees to gain expe­ri­ence before the store’s offi­cial grand opening.

“We’ll give a big dis­count and when they walk out, myself or one of my man­agers will be stand­ing there and they can give us really hon­est feed­back,” Hart said.