Flee!

Customers and employees of Georgetown Cupcake were briefly evacuated from the store’s M street location after people inside smelled something other than the sweet smells of baked goods and overdone stardom. Fortunately, the smell didn’t originate inside the store, but rather from a manhole explosion about two blocks away on the 1000 block of 33rd st. that happened minutes before. The store was given the all-clear and has been permitted to reopen.

No one was injured in the manhole explosion, though, at one point, onlookers reported that fire was coming out of the hole. Pepco was notified and the street was reopened at about noon.

Photo: Kevin Harber via Flickr

Update, Sunday: The lien against the company has since been released less than a day after it was levied.

Original post: Georgetown Cupcake, which has happily provided the D.C. area with high calorie snacks and general happiness for the modest price of $5 since 2008, has recently found itself at odds with the taxman.

According to the Washington Business Journal, in August, September, and October of 2012, Georgetown Cupcake failed to properly file its tax returns. However, the District finally caught up with the Kallnis sisters earlier this week, and, following an unsuccessful negotiation period with the deviant cupcakery, filed a tax lien against Georgetown Cupcake amounting to a grand total of $189, 282.71.

Georgetown Cupcake’s attorney said that Georgetown Cupcake had filed tax reports for those months, but the returns had been submitted without checks. Georgetown Cupcake has rectified the situation, and, in a statement to News4 earlier today, explained they have paid the fee and expect the lien to be terminated as early as this evening. “The misundertanding [sic] regarding the lien has been resolved, the lien is in the process of being terminated, and we expect confirmation of the termination later today.”

Nice try Georgetown Cupcake: Even though TLC is willing to grovel for your cupcakes, no bakery is above the law.

Read the lien against Georgetown Cupcake after the jump.

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Free stuff is great, whether it’s t-shirts of groups we have no intention of joining or left-over GUGS veggie burgers, we’ll take it! Vox is starting off the summer to remind you of the usual free delights you can find around campus.

From froyo to free soda

Cupcakes are still trending. Let’s start with our friendly neighborhood Georgetown Cupcake. If you like their facebook page and participate in their daily trivia competition you can potentially win a dozen free cupcakes. Pinkberry on M Street rewards its loyal customers with a free frozen yogurt if you drop by and pick up a stamp card. Also, Thomas Sweet’s on Wisconsin gives free toppings with Student Advantage.

For a more organic, savory alternative, make sure to get your Sweetgreen card to win the occasional free salad. And then of course there is the free soda we all often forget to claim at Chipotle with your GoCard.

Museums, concerts, and…historical fashion shows?

If your interests are more cultural than culinary, there’s still a lot to do! The National Gallery of Art hosts a series of “classic cinema, documentary, avant-garde and area premieres” every weekend. This weekend features a screening of “The Cherry Orchard”-a movie by acclaimed Greek director Michael Cacoyannis on May 20th, as well as the yearly Robert Flaherty film-making seminar on May 19th. Check out the NGA’s calendar for more details.

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It’s a Saturday afternoon, you’re headed down M Street, and there’s a massive line outside of Georgetown Cupcake. You’re probably wondering, “Who are these people and why are they willing to stand in that line? Are they fans of D.C. Cupcakes? Are they even from D.C.? Had these customers ever heard of Baked & Wired?”

At least, that’s what we think.

In September, we performed a thoroughly unscientific survey of people standing in line outside of Georgetown Cupcake. The surveys were done at both busy and slow periods of the day in order to have a more accurate picture of all types of customers.

The charts above illustrate the make-up of the average Georgetown Cupcake line, and after the jump, we’ve got some of the highlights of our fact-finding mission. Enjoy!

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Although we really, really wanted NBC Washington‘s story about cupcake bouncers to be true, it isn’t.

“Because of the long line, we posted employees outside to greet customers and hand out menus,” Georgetown Cupcake co-owner Sophie LaMontagne said. “I don’t know about this whole bouncer rumor. They’re sixteen-year old girls!”

The alleged bouncers, originally spotted by Eating Around DC, also hand out water bottles to customers waiting in line.

We can’t help but imagine the ramifications of cupcake bouncers. Maybe they would deliver forearm shivers to Midwestern tourists. Maybe Julian Vaughn could work two jobs. And maybe, in our wildest dreams, they would assault a DC Cupcakes cameraman.

If you haven’t had your fill of D.C.-centric reality food shows, then make sure to clear your plans for tonight.

At 10 p.m. EST, TLC will premiere its six-part series “DC CUPCAKES” with back-to-back episodes. The show follows Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis, sisters originally from Toronto who opened local hotspot Georgetown Cupcake on Valentine’s Day 2008.

According to the Washington Post, the store sells a whopping 5,000 cupcakes a day, and TLC jumped on to the store’s bandwagon along with its loyal customers. The high sales volume, combined with a unique story—the sisters left successful corporate careers to venture into the dessert business—convinced TLC that a show could be created.

The show has its own page on the TLC site complete with preview videos. Our favorite is the “Cupcakes and Puppies” clip. (Because who doesn’t love both?)

Just in case you happened to be in the store when the camera crew was around, Vox recommends you call your parents … they’d love to see you on television.

And if you refuse to give up your Friday night for a television show because you’d rather go out, why not create your own cupcake-themed drinking game. Here’s a the first rule: drink every time someone complains about a cupcake costing $2.75.

Photo from the TwitPic account of Leslie Sanchez.

Update 12:19 p.m.: Commenters are right—Vox took a walk down to Georgetown Cupcake and there are camera crews there already. But Vox thinks it may be a stretch to call this a reality show the same caliber as, say, Real World—owners Kallinis and LaMontagne are being asked to repeat their conversations several times before the cameras.

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Want to be on TV? You could be, if you hang out at Georgetown Cupcake in the next couple of weeks. Local resident Carol Joynt is reporting on her blog that the Georgetown Cupcake reality show starts filming this Saturday.

“This is no Real Housewives type of production. Instead of boob jobs, cleavage, French manicures and bitch slaps, it will be buttercream icing, the secrets behind a great red velvet, the importance of one shredded coconut vs. another, and how to please all those brides,” wrote Joynt, who has been in contact with Georgetown Cupcake owners and sisters Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne. Sounds awesome.

When Vox caught wind of the show earlier this month, we couldn’t confirm a network or name for the show. Joynt’s got both—TLC, home of Cake Boss, is producing the show, which is called Cupcake Sisters

Fine, but we still like Georgetown Cupcake: Unfrosted.

Photo from Flickr user mastermaq used under a Creative Commons license.

Bake and Wired may be gaining grassroots support in the Ward 2 cupcake wars, but so what? Sisters Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne, who started Georgetown Cupcake just about two years ago, are getting their own reality TV series.

Local blog DC Fab! says that the show “will be an educational, how-to show that will probably showcase the special Georgetown community along with going behind-the-scenes in their bakery.” (So, less Buddy Valastro and more Paula Deen?)

So far, no one has established which network is offering these local pâtissières a show. But on her blog Oh My Goff WUSA 9′s Angie Goff said an “industry insider” told her that the show will be on TLC, the same network that hosts Cake Boss. Production is scheduled to start this month, she wrote.

This may just about make up for the loss of Blond Charity Mafia, a show about brats who fund-raise and drink in Georgetown. Vox is terribly excited to see the trailer for this one, and we can’t wait to find out what the show will be called. Georgetown Cupcake: Unfrosted? Behind the Sprinkles? Endless possibilities.

Photo from Flickr user mastermaq used under a Creative Commons license.

NBC Washington has been hosting a series of face-offs to award local superlatives—the best live music venue, best people-watching spot, best pizza, etc.—and they finally got around to addressing the real big conflict: who has the best cupcakes in Georgetown, Baked & Wired or Georgetown Cupcake?

Both cupcakeries put up a strong fight, but ultimately Georgetown Cupcake came away with a decisive 56 percent of the vote.

Finally, our local cupcake controversy is resolved!

After a little more than a year and a half at their Potomac Street location, Georgetown Cupcake is relocating a block away to M Street, according to the Washington Post. The new flagship shop will be less cramped than their current digs and will allow for sit-down seating. They’ll also be opening a new outpost in Bethesda, Maryland.

According to former Nathan’s owner Carol Joynt’s blog, the cupcakery will be keeping its current shop to use for delivery and storage.

Joynt for one thinks the move will be a positive development for M Street:

This is such good news for our challenged main thoroughfare, which desperately needs more quality independent retail operations. The clothing chains aren’t cutting it and bring too much down market “mall” vibe to the boulevard – generally. There are odd sketchy places, and a few remaining restaurants. [Georgetown Cupcake] will lift it up considerably.

Photo from Flickr user InspirationDC, used under a Creative Commons license.