After Nathan’s closed in July, the building at Wisconsin & M has remained empty, with plenty of rumors as to who would be moving in. Looks like we need wonder no longer!

According to local blogger K Street Kate, popular New York restaurant Serendipity 3 will be opening a branch in Georgetown as soon as this Spring. Local owners Rodrigo Garcia and Britt Swan have reportedly already signed a lease for the building.

Serendipity 3 is known and loved for its decadent desserts, but also has a wide selection of savory menu items, including macaroni and cheese pizza and footlong hotdogs.

Let’s hope it opens before the semester ends so we can try it out!

Photo from Carol Joynt’s Blog

Plans for the interior of the renovated Georgetown Library

Georgetown Metropolitan has a writeup of all the new and returning restaurants, businesses, and attractions that we can expect to open in Georgetown in 2010. The post, inexplicably entitled “2010: The Year That Will Be,” lists the following as establishments that will open this year:

• Safeway – 1855 Wisconsin Ave – May 2010 – Originally slated to open in March, Social Safeway is supposed to make its grand, green reopening in May. And this one will have gelato, a sushi bar, and a Jamba Juice!

• Apple Store – 1229 Wisconsin Ave – May 2010 – After months of doing battle with the Advisory Neighborhood Commission and the Old Georgetown Board, who together rejected four drafts for an Apple Store on Wisconsin Avenue, an Apple Store was approved to build in March. So far, builders have demolished the French Connection building that formerly stood there.

• Georgetown Library – 3260 R Street – Fall 2010 – A new library with superior facilities will replace the old one that burned down in a huge fire in May of 2007.

• Ristorante Piccolo – 1068 31st Street – 2010 – This cozy date spot was ravaged by a fire in October 2008. Armed with plans for new rooftop seating, Ristorante Piccolo is supposed to open any day now.

Georgetown Metropolitan also lists a number of spots which may or may not see change in the coming year. Something may open up in the old Nathan’s restaurant location, possibly a steak frites place and the old Georgetown Theater property is for sale. And Pottery Barn is closing its Georgetown Store, he reports.

The Washington Business Journal has also reported that a new cafe will open in what used to be a gallery space at 1639 Wisconsin Avenue.

Photo from DCLibrary.Org

I’ve wanted to grab a burger at BGR The Burger Joint ever since the Voice‘s Cyrus Bordbar gave their Dupont location a rave review.

But I’m nice and cosy in my Georgetown bubble, thank you very much. Which is why I was excited when a source told Vox they’d heard that BGR was a candidate to fill the old Nathan’s location at Wisconsin and M St.

Alas, BGR founder Mark Bucher emailed Vox this morning to tell us that it’s never to be. But there is some good news:

“Unfortunately, BGR isn’t going into the old Nathan’s spot.  We are scouting [G]eorgetown very hard for a site, and that’s probably where the rumor started,” he wrote.

Vox will keep you posted on the BGR situation. Until then, make do with the torturously tantalizing slideshow of burgers BGR displays on its website.

Photo from that damn website.

A week ago, Carol Joynt, who owned Nathan’s on Wisconsin Ave. and M Street before it closed this past July, wrote on her blog that she’s heard that a restaurant is moving into the Nathan’s space—and trying to illegally assume use of her liquor license in the process.

“You might think that can’t happen in our communal village but unfortunately it can, with many underhanded assists, especially from folks downtown,” she wrote. “My rights have been getting stomped on like the grapes in a barrel after harvest.”

Since then, attempts to transfer the license that were before the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board have been stopped.

The real mystery is, what’s moving into to the location? Georgetown Metropolitan has heard that it’s “a steak frites place run by Tom Gregg, president of the Alexandria-based … Cuisine Solutions.” A BGR The Burger Joint is another possibility.

Neighborhood leaders who are involved in the process are keeping mum on the potential restaurateur, and neither rumored buyer has denied or confirmed that they are moving in, but Vox will keep you posted as it learns more.

Photo from Carol Joynt’s Blog

Joynt interviewing Dan Rather at Nathans during a Q & A Cafe session

Nathans Restaurant, a veritable Georgetown institution located at the intersection of M Street and Wisconsin Ave, will be closing this Sunday.  Owner Carol Joynt has been publicly struggling with her landlords recently, and announced the closing on her blog yesterday:

After 40 years of serving millions of happy and loyal customers, and opening its doors 365 days of every year, Nathans will close at last call on Sunday, July 12. This ends an era of delicious, interesting and often outrageous moments at what Zagat called “the quintessential Georgetown saloon.”

We hope over the next week you will find the time to come in and enjoy a last drink and meal with us. We wish we could give it away, but economic reality is that we need your dollars. Also, if I may, I ask you to please be generous with the staff.

I do this with a heavy heart and much gratitude toward Nathans staff and customers.

Nathans was founded in 1969 by Carol’s husband, Howard.  When he passed away in 1997, Carol took over the restaurant (as well as a huge amount of debt).

In 2001, Carol, who had worked as a producer for Larry King Live before taking over the restaurant, started hosting the weekly “Q & A Cafe” series which allowed prominent Washingtonians and politicians come to Nathans and be interviewed alongside diners.