Charles Kia, the owner of the popular Haad Thai restaurant at 1100 New York Avenue, NW, (which closed in October 2024 after 30 years) is opening a new restaurant at 660 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, near Eastern Market. The space was formerly occupied by Joselito. Kia said the restaurant closed after being unable to renegotiate a new lease with the landlord.
ZomTum – which translates to “papaya salad” names the new restaurant and the concept, variations of which will characterize the menu.
Kia told Capitol Hill Corner that he had been looking for a place to open near Eastern Market for 15 years and found that the space was available and leased it. He will make some cosmetic changes inside and hopes to open in July.
Here’s FreeDC continuing its unrelenting campaign calling out House Speaker Mike Johnson for failing to pass the Senate-passed bill to allow DC to spend its own money to continue essential city services until the end of the fiscal year. For more, go here: https://freedcproject.org/news/dc-wants-our-money-mike
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) currently features two temporary exhibits. First is the exhibit Uncanny – now through August 10, 2025. From the website: “A concept popularized by Sigmund Freud in 1919, the uncanny describes the psychological experience of something that is strangely familiar, yet alien, eliciting a sense of anxiety.”
Louise Bourgeois’ Untitled (with foot), 1989. The juxtaposition of a baby’s foot beneath a sphere could speak to the duality and interconnection of the wonder and trauma of birth. (One reason artists decide not to title works is to allow the vieerw to bring their own interpretation.)
Leonara Carrington’s The Palmist, 2010, is a fantastical figure of an animal/human hybrid reflecting the artist’s interest in animals, myth and symbolism. A palmist interprets the lines on a palm for insights on a person’s character and future. In this sculpture, the hands of the palmist appear to do the interpreting.
Also featured at NMWA is the exhibit Guerilla Girls, now through September 28, 2025. The art cooperative Guerilla Girls has been making text-based art since 1985.
Their subject in the late 1980s was inequality, and their message was feminism. Women in America Earn only 2/3 of What Men Do, from the series, “Guerilla Girls Talk Back: The First Five years, 1985 – 1990.
Works from the 1990’s onward broadened the scope of the cooperative to include politics, pop culture, reproductive rights, and the environment.
Recommendation: ANC 6A take no action on the following:
Renewal of a Class C restaurant license with entertainment and summer garden endorsements at Maketto, 1351 H Street NE .
Renewal of a Class C multipurpose license with at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE.
Renewal of a Class C restaurant license with dancing entertainment and summer garden endorsements at Stable, 1324 H Street NE.
Renewal of a Class C restaurant license with sidewalk cafe endorsements at Taqueria al Lado H, 809 12th Street NE.
Renewal of the renewal of a Class C restaurant license at Milk and Honey Café, 1116 H Street NE.
Renewal of a Class C restaurant license with dancing entertainment sidewalk cafe and summer garden endorsements at Bens Chili Bowl/Bens Next Door/Ben’s Upstairs, 1001 H Street NE.
Renewal of a Class C restaurant license with sidewalk cafe endorsement at Pascual 732 Maryland Avenue NE.
Recommendation: ANC 6A protest the renewal of a Class C restaurant license with cover charge and entertainment endorsements at The Upper Room, 1360 H Street NE unless a settlement agreement is reached.
Recommendation: ANC 6A protest the renewal of a Class C restaurant license with entertainment and sidewalk endorsements at Choongman, 1125 H Street NE
Transportation and Public Space Committee
Recommendation: ANC 6A send a letter to DDOT requesting a comprehensive traffic study of the neighborhood street grid bounded by 10th and 13th Streets NE and Maryland Avenue and Florida Avenue NE.
Plenary Session:
Alcohol Beverage and Cannabis Committee.
Recommendation: ANC6A protest the Renewal of a Class C restaurant license with entertainment endorsement at Lydia’s Restaurant and Lounge at 1427 H Street NE and that Commissioner Velasquez seek enforcement information from ABCA.
New Business:
Suggested Motion: ANC 6A send a letter to the DC Council and the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) to provide ABCA the authority to release to ANC Commissioners the contact info for owners of establishments seeking to renew an alcoholic beverage or medical cannabis license.
Suggested Motion: ANC 6A send a letter to the DC Council, the Directors of the Department of Building (DOB), the Bureau of Zoning Authority (BZA) and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), asking for an explanation of why residents of large buildings, with more than X units, that do not have adequate parking for residents, as determined by a ratio of X/Y spaces per apartment, are currently allowed to obtain a Resident Parking Permit (RPP) stickers. Previously, residents of buildings without adequate parking were denied RPP stickers. Also, residents of buildings with addresses on commercial streets were not allowed RPP stickers. The Council et. al. is asked to clarify the status of these previous restrictions and reinstate them if not currently in effect.
ANC6B Planning and Zoning Committee will hold a virtual meeting at 7:00pm.
ANC6D will hold a Special In-Person Meeting at 6:00pm at the Southwest Library, 900 Wesley Pl SW.
Agenda: To hear resident views and to further consider ANC recommendations for DDOT’s 2025 TOPP (Traffic Operations and Parking Plan) for handling traffic problems produced by Nationals Park and Audi Field.
ANC6D Alcohol Beverage and Cannabis Administration Committee will hold a virtual meeting at 7:00pm.
Capitol Hill Corner would also like you to know about:
Tuesday, May 6 – MPD Public Safety Meeting at Stuart Hobson School – 410 E Street, NE – 6:00pm – 7:15pm.
MPD invites the community to a hybrid (in-person and virtual) Public Safety Meeting. MPD wants to know your feelings on community safety, security, and policing From the invitation: “We are present to listen and respond.”
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 