Georgetown’s favorite pizza place is trying to come back—again.

Philly Pizza & Grill, which D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles once compared to a brothel, recently filed a demolition permit with the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) for its Potomac Street location. However, don’t start dreaming of late-night, ranch-drenched pizza just yet.

According to the recently-approved permit, the building is zoned as a “prepared food shop.” Philly Pizza originally closed because it violated zoning laws about prepared food shops; even if owner Mehmet Kocak reopens the eatery, it can’t be the late-night pizza peddler it once was.

The permit allows for “limited interior demolition” that focuses on equipment that would be needed to make food on the premises. The building’s “kitchen hood, ductwork and exhaust system” are all being removed.

Shortly after Philly Pizza was closed via court order in March, owner Matt Kocak filed papers with the DCRA for a new certificate of occupancy. While the DCRA has yet to approve the application, the renovations suggest that Kocak is angling to reopen his restaurant.

However, those who fought to close the restaurant, such as ANC Commissioner Bill Starrels, are disappointed with the new developments.

“I don’t think [Kocak] has earned any credibility,” Starrels said. “I hope that Peter Nickles will do everything in the law and his power to protect my constituents from having to suffer under these people again and from this place reopening.”

Even if Philly Pizza does reopen, neighbors shouldn’t expect large crowds of customers—the permit lists the proposed maximum occupancy at 18 persons.

Today saw the end of a long campaign to shut down Philly Pizza’s location on Potomac Street, which has been operating illegally since its license was revoked in mid-February. Its doors closed last night, and today, they remain shut.

After a February 19 Board of Zoning Adjustment ruling that barred its continued operation and a subsequent order to vacate the premises failed to shutter the late night drunk food joint, Philly Pizza got taken to D.C. Superior Court, where a two day hearing that concluded this afternoon ordered the establishment to remain closed, or else find itself in contempt of the court.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Vice-Chair Bill Starrels said that as a result of the ruling, at today’s hearing, Philly Pizza agreed to remain closed. An e-mail from D.C. Office of Attorney General’s Michael Stern that Starrels provided to Vox reiterated the hearing’s success at shutting down the pizza joint for good:

“I am pleased to report that after a hearing for most of the day yesterday, when we returned to Court this morning Mr. Greenberg, the attorney for Philly Pizza & Grill, Inc., conceded our point to the Court and voluntarily agreed to close the establishment. We reduced that agreement to writing, and made it an Order of the Court.”

Well, almost certainly for good. Starrels said that Philly Pizza owner Mehmet Kocak has filed with the D.C. Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs for a new certificate of occupancy.

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