WASHINGTON — Cleveland Park has seen more than its fair share of longtime restaurants close in recent years, because of rising rent, declining customer traffic, new competition in other neighborhoods or a combination of all three. And now it’s calling on its neighbors to bring back more business.
The rallying cry is led by Nanny O’Briens, a Cleveland Park institution for 24 years, with a push for making Thursdays what it is informally calling Cleveland Park Day.
“Things have been tough here,” Nanny O’Briens owner Curt Large wrote in a Cleveland Park Listserv post.
“Over the past few years — and, in particular the past few months — as the face of Cleveland Park has changed and competition throughout DC has grown, foot traffic has gone down while the cost of rent, goods and labor have increased. This beloved neighborhood institution — owned by three Cleveland Park natives — is struggling to break even on some months,” Large wrote.
Large is enlisting neighbors for support, and is now offering a Thursday Neighborhood Discount of 20 percent off the bill for patrons who live in the 20008 and 20016 ZIP codes.
And, in what he called the spirit of a rising tide lifting all boats, neighboring businesses will also be running Thursday specials, including Atomic Billiards, Spices Asian Restaurant, Cleveland Park Bar & Grill and Fat Pete’s Barbecue. “We hope that by offering these specials, it will inspire the community to show its support for us at Nanny’s and our fellow, local, small businesses,” Large said.
The loss of restaurants, especially along Cleveland Park’s five-block stretch of Connecticut Avenue, started about three years ago. Dino closed in 2014. Palena closed a few months later. So did French restaurant Lavandou.
In June, Ripple closed its doors. So did the 20-year-old Vietnamese restaurant Nam-Viet.
Cleveland Park’s restaurant drain can be blamed partially on what has been a five-year explosion of new restaurants on the DC scene, and in more up-and-coming neighborhoods like 14th Street and Shaw.
More than 100 restaurant concepts opened in the fall of 2016 in DC alone, according to Eater.
