Monday, March 05, 2012

WP: Beard Dinner To Preview Union Market Redevelopment

The Washington Post reports that a developer in the Florida Ave Market (rechristened with its orginal name "Union Market") plans to host a James Beard Association dinner in one of its Market buildings. The dinner will take place in the DC Farmers Market (1309 5th Street), which was damaged in a fire this past Fall. The developer, Edens, will use the dinner to kick off their redevelopment plans.

From the article:
Edens, the South Carolina-based developer of retail at CityVista in D.C. and the coming Mosaic District in Merrifield, plans on “preserving the authentic culinary story of the market itself and reopening it with a very high-quality market that will serve both wholesale and a retail need in D.C.,”

Tickets are $240 a seat for the general public, and $200 for James Beard Foundation members.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great to see this news. Changes to the market will be a long-term project, but it'll be interesting to see what announcements Eden makes over the next thirty days.

Any word on Gallaudet's plans for its properties?

Gonzo said...

$240/meal= General public. Um... bad choice of adjectives?

Anonymous said...

"reopening it with a very high-quality market"

i.e. double the price

tonysmallframe said...

Moving from $5 hotplates to $240 meals - DC Progress at it's best!!

Anonymous said...

What's with the negativity? It's a fundraising dinner for a foundation.

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing people don't feel the need to support the James Beard Foundation. What do they do? Do they pay for cooking classes for french chefs? Peolpe may want to use their money for local causes instead.

Anonymous said...

The foundations mission:

To celebrate, nurture, and preserve America’s diverse culinary heritage and future.


Food matters. You are what you eat not only because food is nutrition, but also because food is an integral part of our everyday lives. Food is economics, politics, entertainment, culture, fashion, family, passion...and nourishment. The James Beard Foundation is at the center of America's culinary community, dedicated to exploring the way food enriches our lives.

A cookbook author and teacher, James Beard was a champion of American cuisine who helped educate and mentor generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. Today, the Beard Foundation continues in the same spirit by offering a variety of events and programs designed to educate, inspire, entertain, and foster a deeper understanding of our culinary culture. These programs include educational initiatives, food industry awards, an annual national food conference, Leadership Awards program, culinary scholarships, and publications. In addition to maintaining the historic James Beard House in New York City’s Greenwich Village as a “performance space” for visiting chefs, the Foundation has created a robust online community, and hosts tastings, lectures, workshops, and food-related art exhibits in New York City and around the country.

Annoyingmous said...

Anon 9:03 -- there's an unwritten rule that nothing can be posted on Frozen Tropics without *someone* bitching about it.

Kenny G said...

Geez, why is everyone complaining so much about all the negativity? Also, I don't get why you have to have a beard to attend this thing...

ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

I have a beard and I'm proud to be part of the 1% who do! Gets me in to all the best exclusive fundraisers...

...

...

...and her name is Cindy!

Ba-dum-bum!

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here live on stage all week, don't forget to tip your bartenders.

Anonymous said...

well, if the union market ends up being transformed into what it is planned to be, i think most people will eventually be very happy. yes, it will probably be an expensive market, but it'll be better than what is there now.

Anonymous said...

...not for the lower income folks who had depended on the old market & reasonable food prices, it won't be better. But I guess there's always Aldi, or they can just accept the inevitable and start making plans to move to PG County.

Progress is in the eye of the beholder, and going upscale has its downsides

Anonymous said...

also, there will always be the h street walmart, and giant for that matter. just because the union market will be updated, doesn't mean low income folks need to move to pg. i don't see the logic. the place is blighted. it deserves to be updated.

Anonymous said...

I am willing to bet more low income people go to safeway that a wholesale food market.

Anonymous said...

It may have been blighted, but on any given weekend, it was absolutely PACKED. It may not have been for everyone, but there is definitely a population that found something very attractive about that market that led them there over Safeway or other options. Personally, it wasn't for me, and I never quite saw the attraction, but it sure drew crowds.

Dave B said...

The florida ave market is much cheaper than Safeway, etc, at least for produce. you probably have to get there early to get the good stuff though

the time i went there last year, limes were like 10 for a dollar. they are like 60 cents at a grocery store. i think avocados were a dollar or less. oranges were like 20 cents

inked said...

Prices in the Florida Ave Market vary widely. Certain produce at David's Farm (formerly MS3000, formerly Kang's) is pricier than at a normal grocery store. I often found stuff in the DC Farmers Market to be overpriced (depending on which of the roughly 100 vendors you visited). But places like Sam Wang, Mexican Fruit, and Caribbean Crescent can offer substantial savings over Safeway. It just depends on what you are buying. The crowd I see at the Florida Market strikes me as pretty immigrant heavy (particularly West Africans and Latin Americans).

The produce selection is also very different from what you find at Safeway. I'm also not so sure that there was huge overlap between the people shopping the DC Farmers Market and the crowd hitting Caribbean Crescent or Sam Wang. You would have some overlap, but not 100%. The Florida Ave Market is pretty diverse in its offerings.

Anonymous said...

...but once "redevelopment" happens it will be all cupcake shops, fine cheeses, and gourmet cuts o'meat!

Kiss those goat heads goodbye!

Anonymous said...

Huh. Several of the posts here earlier disappeared.

inked said...

5:39,
What's missing? I didn't yank anything.

Anonymous said...

Inked: the post at 9:08am and the first post at 9:09am (the one describing the Beard Foundation) weren't being displayed for some period of time, but seem to be back now. Maybe a glitch with blogger?

inked said...

Anon 1208,
Prob. I will say that Blogger's spam filter grabs things. I hesitate to turn it off bk some spammers hit me with 300+ comments on different posts in under an hour. that's a time consuming clean up.

MtOlivet'sMyHome said...

How do you describe low-income? There are nice houses no more than 5 blocks from the market which can be purchased for less than $200k which means someone with good credit and a salary range of between 30-35k a year can be pre-qualified for. Not to mention the DC tax abatement program which enables people within this income demographic to not pay property taxes for the first 5 years of occupancy. Nothing is forcing people that want to stay in the city out. If "low-income" people buy now they'll have a real asset when the market actually does re-develop. Now, if by "low-income" you mean those that depend exclusively on govt programs for their subsistence than I agree with you. You see, it's only the cruelest kind of compassion that creates dependency in the name of kindness, that gives a handout but robs people of their most important assett, their dignity, self worth and sense that they have something to give back to the community. Sadly, the "safety-net" and it's secondary consequences, its disincentives, are the real villain in gentrification.