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Whale of a makeover
Locally renowned Middle Eastern chain Moby Dick recently closed its Georgetown location in order to give the 27-year-old kebab shop (1070 31st Street NW) a full-on refresh. The company is shooting to reopen on August 11 or 12, according to a representative. Its other D.C. location, in Dupont Circle, remains open. “We gutted the place and are rebuilding from scratch,” the rep says, adding “we didn’t want to just do a facelift here ... structurally and operationally [it will be] a much safer, cleaner and presentable facility.” Mike Daryoush, the Iranian immigrant owner who founded the chain 30 years ago, died this spring at 66.
Float on
Key Bridge Marriott is celebrating 60 years in Rosslyn by selling classic root beer floats and retro Cherry Smash floats for $5 today. All proceeds benefit the Children’s Miracle Network of Hospitals. The offer runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m, at Rosslyn’s Central Place Plaza (1800 N Lynn Street Arlington, Virginia). Tomorrow W hotel’s newly opened beer garden, Corner Office, will offer an A&W Root Beer float for $7. An optional shot raises the price to $10. All sales will also go towards the hospital.
Fun fact: Marriott founder J. Willard Marriott and his wife, Alice, founded the first-ever franchise of an A&W root beer stand in D.C. in 1927.
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Shopping for a new lease
Homegrown pop-up stand Shop Made DC, which already announced plans to vacate its home at 1330 19th Street NW at the end of the month to make way for building renovations, just found out its planned Dupont Circle lease fell through after two months of negotiations. The brand, which highlights local purveyors selling bagels, tacos, coffee, and beer, posted a call to action for leads and introductions (stacey@shopmadeindc.com) to find a new home in the neighborhood. Shop Made just opened a Georgetown location (1242 Wisconsin Avenue NW), but unlike Dupont, it doesn’t have a cafe inside.
New happy hour alert
The Willard’s Café du Parc is now offering a daily happy hour menu from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., featuring discounts on mini croque monsieurs, black angus burgers, lump Maryland crab cakes, wine, and beer. And downstairs at its historic Round Robin Bar, mixologist Jim Hewes is reimagining the barrel-aged cocktail with a Negroni or a Boulevardier aged for three months in a bourbon barrel and Manhattan aged in a Caribbean Cask Rum barrel.
