Photo of A. Litteri by Ken Firestone. Used with permission
Rebuilding Place has a post pondering the future of the Florida Market in light of recent efforts to rebrand the area as Union Market (actually the least commonly used of three names traditionally applied to the Market). BTW, you should totally go to that big ice cream event on Saturday.
11 comments:
Umm... Won't people think that Union Market is near Union Station?
Isn't Eastern market actually closer to the front of Union Station?
maybe they should call it the Northern Market.
"Foodie Paradise" seems to over-promise, doesn't it? I think they want to start with more of the urban-explorer demo (the folks who show up for the market tours), rather than luring the Gallery Place cupcake/gelato crowd. One sighting of a dog-sized rat and those folks will never come back.
A. Litteri should set up shop on H Street. I would be in that store daily.
Union Market is one of the actual names of the market.
If I recall the history correctly, "Center Market" was built in the 1870's and was located where the current Naitonal Archives building stands near the mall. When the Archives building was built, they moved the market to Florida Ave and named it "Union Market." Since then, it's taken on a number of names, including Capital City Market, Florida Ave Market, Florida Market, etc.
It seems like they're just going back to its original name.
Anon 10:06: yeah, Litteri would get more people in if they were on H. But it's not like they're lacking in business now, and moving to H would cost then a huge honking ton of money in rent. Commercial rents on H are completely out of whack, even with its trendiness right now.
H Street would be great place for a Litteri's annex/ second location. But I agree with Chris they seem to be doing just fine where they are.
Plus, if they did open a location on H St..they would have to have longer hours especially on Saturday...closing at 3 on Sat and early during the week unfortunately doesn't always meet with schedules...
saying that people would confuse union station with union market is like saying people confuse the Ronald reagan building with reagan national. do people confuse eastern market with eastern avenue? i don't think that's an issue.
also, i believe that central market is where the archives metro station is, not the archive building. it was north of pennsylvania avenue.
I like that this older pic of litteri's with the hand written meat and cheese signs. They fancied it up a year or so ago with wood panelling and printed signs with matching fonts.
And yeah, they managed to survive pre gentrification. Whatever gentrification generated business they have received recently is just gravy. They might just be content to work limited hours. They could maybe make an h street franchise, but would really have to trust the people operating it.
They have barely any employee turnover. The only new person I have seen work there in the past 3 or 4 years I have been going there is the very young kid who started in the past year.
Maybe if the development of the market disrupts their business, they might try something new. Since they already have a following in a place off the beaten path that might be lower rent than H St, they might be able to go of it on Florida Ave. I think there are some out of business carryout store fronts up there that might be available. Its a little closer to H St and I dont think they would lose any business.
fwiw litteris owns their building in the Florida Market. It's been in the family for decades, and so the cost basis is very low.
Maybe if the kids were interested in expanding it could happen, but it's not on the radar of the current owners.
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