Backlash over bagels: Will Call Your Mother’s Georgetown store have to close?

The bright pink bagel shop on the corner of O Street and 35th Street NW has lines outside most weekends. 

“This is short, one time I saw it wrapped around the whole block,” a girl told her friend as they joined the back of the queue. But depending on how the scheduled Board of Zoning meeting goes for Call Your Mother Deli on Wednesday, it might not be open much longer.

In June, Call Your Mother’s area variance and special exception to sell prepared food, in their case bagels, were up for review after some of the neighboring houses said they were creating objectionable conditions, an alleged breach of D.C. regulation. 

But after a seven-hour meeting, with ‘trash talk’ literally and figuratively from both sides, the BZA decided to delay the decision over Call Your Mother’s Georgetown location until September. 

In the intervening months, hundreds of photos, doorbell camera footage, and letters in support and opposition have been submitted to the BZA, which have been reviewed ahead of the Sept. 25 meeting. 

Danielle Naeve, a Georgetown resident, didn’t realize the bagel shop was at risk until after the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E had voted against the continuation of the variances in June. “Everyone that I knew had no idea that happened, and that’s when I got [involved in the support campaign] because there’s no way they’re doing this to these people. They don’t deserve any of this; this is crazy,” she said.

Stoop struggles

For the opposition, the two main issues are: stoop-sitting and trash. Nabil Emad, who owns the property next door to Call Your Mother, said, “he has basically turned our streets into his dining room and people are upset.” 

Andrew Dana, one of the owners of Call Your Mother, told The Wash he didn’t know neighbors were upset about the crowds and stoop sitting until that June ANC 2E meeting. He said, “The second we found out about this, we went into hyperdrive of how to fix that.” 

They hired a staff member to manage the outside area, maintaining an orderly line (behind an on-brand pink rope), picking up any trash on the street, checking neighbors’ stoops, and directing customers to public seating. Dana thinks it’s had an “enormous impact,” and is part of why the ANC changed its vote from opposition to neutral between the June and September meetings.

Call Your Mother has more data now to bring to the next BZA meeting to show it’s working, and anecdotally the manager of the cafe directly opposite, Coffee Republic, thinks it’s worked too. 

Tyler Castle, who’s been working in that location for five years, even before Coffee Republic took over, said in the last three months, “I have noticed improvement. Saturday is probably one of the busiest days, a few months ago I guarantee you would have seen people sitting on neighbor’s steps up there, or over there.”

But the opposition thinks rather than solving the problem that it has just been pushed further down the block. During the Sept. 3 ANC 2E meeting, when it was Nabil Emad’s turn to speak, he played a video from his iPad. He couldn’t connect it to the TV, so the ANC commissioners and Andrew Dana heard through the tinny speakers one of the Call Your Mother staff members telling people to “just sit somewhere where you are not near the store, where I can’t see you.” 

See the video Emad showed at the ANC meeting below. It has been submitted to the BZA as evidence.

Emad told The Wash, “Right now they’re under the microscope, and they’re not even doing what they’re saying they’re gonna do. What happens when you give them the variance?”

Dana said, “Obviously, we were not happy with that. That employee has been talked to and coached. That’s no longer happening.” But he said he wished neighbors told him earlier so he could have fixed it, rather than waiting for the next big meeting.

When I visited one Saturday, it seemed like the neighboring businesses were bearing the brunt of the customers. As customers knew not to sit on stoops, perhaps from Call Your Mother’s entertaining Instagram reel, instead they sat on the bench outside a barbershop or monopolized the outside area of Coffee Republic. When Coffee Republic’s tables ran out they sat on the floor. 

Call Your Mother actually tried to buy Coffee Republic’s seating, telling them to name their price. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t come to an agreement. But I said to them, ‘If you’re ever open to it, we’re here and ready to negotiate,’” Dana explained.

Tyler Castle, Manager of Coffee Republic, said it’s not a hassle if their business is slow, “But when we are also fully packed and we have our own customers who also want to sit outside, we have to stop the drinks or the food to go and ask them to move. Some people are like ‘Oh sorry’ but some people do give us a hard time.” 

“Georgetown has an issue with keeping businesses that thrive”

Danielle Naeve, who grew up on the same block as Call Your Mother, and still lives in the area, said, “Georgetown has an issue with keeping businesses that thrive.” She said years ago neighbors pushed back on liquor licenses, which meant lots of restaurants closed too. No new liquor licenses were approved in the area for 27 years. 

Now, neighbors are pushing back on coffee shops and bagel shops. “I cannot understand how someone could possibly find something negative to say about a bagel shop that closes early and is a welcoming and happy part of our neighborhood,” said Naeve.

While Call Your Mother’s agreed rules are particularly strict, with daily private trash pickups, including for the public bin outside, and a closing time of 2 p.m. Georgetown also has stringent  “settlement agreements” with local businesses. For example, bars are not allowed to recycle bottles after 11 p.m, and the area has a ban on fast food establishments. 

Beyond so-called NIMBYism, the area is also a designated historic district and therefore under the jurisdiction of the Historic Preservation Office and the Old Georgetown Board. 

So when Call Your Mother plugged in a window AC unit to cope with the heat of 20-plus customers inside the shop waiting to order their bagels, the D.C. Historic Preservation Office “encouraged” them to remove it. They have to make do with three weak ceiling fans throughout the summer months.

Nabil Emad, owner of the property next door said, “I am not comfortable … would you be comfortable with a neighbor who does not follow the law and does construction without getting the right permits?” Dana denies that they did “construction” saying they just plugged the AC unit in, and took it out when they were advised to. 

Emad is also concerned about fire risk for his tenants and the students who live above Call Your Mother. He said, he wouldn’t have bought his property now knowing Call Your Mother is next door, telling The Wash, “It’s better if he moved somewhere more commercial, where he could let people sit and he could have all the food he wants without risking anybody’s life there.”

Dana said he has called Emad five times over the summer to try and arrange to install the firewall Emad requested but he has not heard back. 

“Hopefully optimistic” 

Call Your Mother’s co-owner, Andrew Dana, said he’s “hopefully optimistic” ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. “We think the BZA will see all the support we have, and that outside of the small group that’s going to oppose us no matter what, they’re going to see that what we’re doing is really working,” Dana said. 

But Castle of Coffee Republic is less optimistic for Call Your Mother, “From what I’ve heard there’s no middle ground for the neighbors, they want them gone.”

Dana explained that no matter what the ruling is they wouldn’t have to close that day. They’d have time to appeal and submit a stay order, he thinks. “But I am no lawyer; I’m a bagel boy.”