Apple fanboys, we hope you’re sitting down.

Earlier today, Washington Business Journal writer Jeff Clabaugh broke the news that Georgetown’s Apple Store is set to open on Friday, June 18. Apple’s flagship D.C. store, located at 1229 Wisconsin Ave. NW, will publicly open at 5 p.m.

The store’s opening, which was rumored to occur in “the third week of June,” comes more than a year after the Old Georgetown Board approved the design plans for the building.

For those who don’t remember, the Old Georgetown Board granted approval in March 2009 only after rejecting Apple’s four previous design plans.

The fifth plan, which toned down Apple’s traditional minimalistic design to better fit in with surrounding buildings, was “beautifully executed,” according to Old Georgetown Board Chairman Stephen J. Vanze.

We’ll be adding the Apple Store to our list of “places in Georgetown to ogle products we can’t afford.” Don’t judge us—we know you’ll be doing the same thing.

Georgetown Wing Co. had its soft opening this Sunday on the second level of 3291 M Street above Crêpe Amour, and it looks like all are welcome. Commence the great wing wars of Georgetown!

But not really. Glancing at Wing Co.’s menu, they offer pretty different fare from Wingo’s—like ‘mango caliente’ or chili lime sauce on your wings. (Sorry, I only know ‘mild,’ ‘abusive,’ and ‘nuclear.’ Can we get a conversion chart?) To celebrate their opening week, they’re having several beer specials, with $1.50 Miller Lite & Yuengling bottles and $3 Sam Adams Seasonal and Sierra Nevada bottles. This Friday, they’re even kicking off a brunch menu when the World Cup starts. Mimosas and crêpes! At a wing joint!

Still, Vox prays that this leads to an epic face-off between Wing Co. and Wingo’s, with escalating deals and specials for students à la Qdoba and Chipotle. We’re just salivating at the thought of half price Wing Wednesdays and we have lots of clever lines at the ready, like “All’s fair in love and wings.”

Earlier today, FoBoBlo reported that News Café on M St. will close this Saturday, only to be reopen as Thunder Burger & Bar.

Big changes are coming to the soon-to-be-former Italian restaurant—News Café General Manager Ryan Clarke told Vox that the ownership is just about the only thing that isn’t going to change at the restaurant.

When it reopens “on Thursday night or Friday night next week,” Thunder Burger & Bar will depart from News Café’s cozy, date-friendly atmosphere with a completely new interior, customized bar, and kitchen.

“We like innovating. We’ve been an Italian restaurant for 12 years. There are six different Italian restaurants in [the immediate area]; we decided that it’s gotten a bit stale,” Clarke said. “We decided to do something different.”

Thunder Burger & Bar plans to specialize in 10-ounce, grass-fed beef burgers, but will also offer venison, bison, Kobe beef, salmon, and portobello mushroom burgers. Clarke added that the restaurant hopes to make tuna burgers and veggie burgers soon after opening.

(And fret not, of-age denizens of Georgetown. The restaurant’s bar will be stocked with 23 beers on tap, with a focus on American craft beers.)

“We’re going to have a fully rounded-out menu, but 95% of the focus will be on the burger,” he said.

Clarke claims that Thunder Burger & Bar is unlike DC’s established burger joints—Good Stuff, Five Guys, and BGR, to name a few—because it’s aim is not to become a fast-food restaurant.

“We want to bring quality burgers back to a sit-down restaurant with a sit-down experience,” he said.

Photo taken from News Café’s website.

Good news for all those iPhone, iPad, and iPod owners at Georgetown—we’re going to have an Apple Store of our own soon.

Georgetown Metropolitan reported yesterday that the Apple Store on the 1200 block of Wisconsin Ave. will likely open in the third week of June. The construction of the store should wrap up in the next week, according to an earlier post by GM.

“[P]eople hired to work the store will be receiving training for the first two weeks of June,” wrote GM. “There’s no guarantee that the store will open up the third week of June, but it sure looks like that’s the plan.”

It’s been a long journey for the Apple Store, which received approval to build from the Old Georgetown Board more than a year ago after rejecting the four previously proposed designs.

Ristorante Piccolo, a cozy Italian restaurant in Georgetown that a fire shut down in 2008, has finally announced that it will reopen in the last week of April, Georgetown Metropolitan reports. This is welcome news, since the restaurant’s grand re-opening had been pushed back several times.

Ristorante Piccolo has been renovating ever since a fire in early October of 2008 caused $1 million worth of damage and drew over 110 fire fighters and 50 pieces of fire-fighting equipment.

“Before the fire, the upscale Italian restaurant, which was established in 1986, featured a second-floor balcony overlooking the C & O Canal, hardwood floors, three fireplaces, and a strolling violinist to lend a romantic atmosphere to the dining experience,” the Voice’s Alisha Crovetto wrote.

But initially the owners of Piccolo had ahard  time getting some of their plans for renovation approved by various local government groups.

At a January Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting, ANC Commissioners gave the owner and her mother a hard time about a streetside outdoor dining area. A few months ago, the Old Georgetown Board also rejected designs for the streetside balcony the restaurant had before the fire.

Via Georgetown Metropolitan.

Photo by GM.

Ever wondered why the Shops at Georgetown Park, which sits on some of the best land in the best-trafficked shopping district in D.C., is nearly half-empty? Dueling kings of real estate, that’s why. And the situation may come to a head, the Washington Post is reporting, when the behemoth structure is sold at auction next month.

The Shops at Georgetown Park is going under foreclosure after its owners defaulted on a $70 million loan. But the owners of the Shops have actually been in litigation for years, nearly since Herbert S. Miller and his company, Western Development, bought the Shops in 2006 for $84 million. Anthony Lanier, a Georgetown developer who owns like, half of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, commenced suing Miller, saying they had agreed to buy the Shops together.

The litigation made tenants nervous and they began to bail on the Shops, and Miller’s company lost the deal with Bloomingdale, which was supposed to anchor the Shops at Georgetown Park. Now, “56 percent of the property, or 168,000 of the 300,000 square feet, sits empty,” writes the Post. And attorneys for Western Development are very clear about who’s to blame.

“He’s destroyed that property,” [Western attorney Scott Morrison] told the Post about Lanier. “He’s driven down the value on that property by probably $30 million.”

So look for a brawl at the upcoming auction, where Lanier could attempt to buy the structure. Morrison, Miller and Western Development’s attorney, said Miller will probably retain ownership, but then there’s the $50 million lawsuit with Lanier to deal with—which would still leave the Shops at Georgetown Park half-empty.

When Ed Hardy opened up at 1250 Wisconsin Avenue last February, it was the company’s flagship D.C. location. Now that Ed Hardy is closed, reports by Be A Socialite, District residents are left without a tattoo-art-inspired clothier to patronize. We’re so sad?

Not really. Ed Hardy didn’t seem like the kind of store that would ‘take’ with a Georgetown shopping crowd, and time bore that out. Although it opened with a bang—the store marked its grand opening with a party attended by Christian Audigier, the French designer who turned Hardy’s tattoo art into a brand—Ed Hardy didn’t last a year in Georgetown.

Be A Socialite‘s author, who said he was an employee at Ed Hardy, said that the D.C. location got off to a rocky sales start, and that the store often tried to boost its sales with promotions and events.

So long, Ed Hardy. Georgetown may not be less for losing your confetti-colored storefront (by the way, how did that pass Advisory Neighborhood Commission muster when the Apple Store’s first design concept was rejected?) and your skull-and-roses t-shirts, but at least local bodegas still carry your wine.

Oh yeah. Ed Hardy has its own wine label.

Despite its 2 a.m. closing time, if you’re looking for another late-night hotspot for drunken food binges and shouted conversations, the recently-opened Morso Express isn’t it. Nestled in a sliver of real estate along on M St. near Rhino Bar and Dean and Deluca, this place is classy.

Gawk at the mod-style lamps! And the awkwardly shaped bar stool-chair hybrids! But the decor—and the trendy vibe Morso seems to be after with its Facebook page and Twitter feed—is ultimately at odds with the restaurant’s authentic Turkish offerings.

Anybody unfamiliar with Turkish cuisine may feel a bit overwhelmed by Morso’s menu, replete with kabobs, mezes, and pide. Luckily, the employees seem eager to help. (And if you’re stubborn enough to order on your own, like I am, the recommended meat, topping, and sauce combinations printed onto a sheet of paper at the register are helpful guides.)

I tried two of the wraps yesterday when I visited: the lamb and pistachio kabob wrap, filled with ground lamb and topped with tangy sumac onions, grilled tomatoes, and tahini yogurt, and the grilled chicken wrap, topped with grilled onions, hummus, and a mayonnaise sauce.

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Vox always sensed that something was missing from Georgetown’s already ample smorgasbord of restaurant offerings, but we were never sure what it was.

Maybe it was a casual Mediterranean restaurant where you can make your own kebabs? In any event, this Friday, Morso Express, a dine-in and take-out Turkish-influenced restaurant, is opening its doors at 3277 M Street, across the street from Dean and Deluca and down the street from Rhino.

And the best part is, according to Jeanne Gumbleton, a promoter for Morso, Georgetown students can initially get a discount on food.

“During the months of March and April, Morso Express will offer Georgetown University students a 20% discount when they show their Hoya ID,” Gumbleton wrote in an e-mail.

The Washington Business Journal writes that in addition to DIY kebabs, Morso Express will offer mezze and flatbread-style pizzas. “A more upscale sister restaurant, Morso, will follow in April,” WBJ‘s Missy Frederick wrote.

Photo from Morso’s Facebook page.

This week, Georgetown Metropolitan, ever more meticulous in his reading of long, boring Advisory Neighborhood Commission agendas than Vox Populi is, discovered that UGG Australia is opening up a shop on Wisconsin Avenue.

The store of the eponymous bootmaker (or as GM likes to call them, the “purveyors of a canklefied silhouette”), will be located at 1249 Wisconsin Avenue, which was formerly home to clothier Diesel. But GM is not as concerned with UGG’s future location or impending arrival as he his with the curiosity that is UGG fashion:

“If there’s one thing GM doesn’t get, it’s the appeal of Ugg boots. They’re bulky and not particularly flattering for most women,” he wrote.

Seriously, ladies, do not dress down around GM.

Photo by Flickr user UggBoy (photographer without borders) used under a Creative Commons license.