The Philly Pizza saga continues. Readers will remember the Potomac Street takeout that attracted top District officials to support for Georgetown neighbors who had fought a long organizing, expensive regulatory battle to shut it down for trash, noise, zoning and other violations.
“We listened to our Georgetown residents and it was clear this business was not being a good neighbor,” Mayor Adrian Fenty said at a March press conference. He was joined by Ward 2 resident Attorney General Peter Nickles and Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs Director Linda Argo. The ever-feisty Nickles compared the Philly Pizza closure decision to shuttering to closing brothels and used car lots.
However, owner Mehmet Kocak has not given up. He applied for a sandwich and prepared food shop in the old storefront, one that would feature, according to Marty Sullivan, the lawyer for the neighbors, a 3-foot.-by-3-foot conveyor oven that would heat food at 550 degrees for ½ hour. This is not the warming-of-prepared-food in a toaster or microwave contemplated in DCRA’s regulations. “In two great leaps” the owner is trying to turn a toaster into a toaster-oven into a conveyor-oven, and “still call it a toaster,” said Sullivan.
A recent meeting at DCRA clearly demonstrated the careful consideration being given this application. The participants included Kocak and his lawyer, the neighbors and their lawyer, Commissioner Starrells, DCRA Director Argo and a lawyer from Attorney General Nickles’ office
Bill Starrells, who represents the community on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, remains adamantly opposed to this application. “A flower shop, yes, but this is a lousy spot for a restaurant,” he said. “This guy has burned his bridges.”
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