Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Such a flop. I love walking distance and was looking forward to lunch options other than Chipotle and Potbelly’s. Unfortunately nothing was ever really appealing or affordable there.

In other news, excited for the new Trader Joe’s to open in the old J. Crew space and TJ Maxx to reopen…

IT IS NOT A FLOP! YOU ARE JUST A STUPID MAGA

LOL what?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Such a flop. I love walking distance and was looking forward to lunch options other than Chipotle and Potbelly’s. Unfortunately nothing was ever really appealing or affordable there.

In other news, excited for the new Trader Joe’s to open in the old J. Crew space and TJ Maxx to reopen…

Wait, another Trader Joe's?? Won't that be like 3rd one within a 3 mile stretch?! Not salty at all about our one in the entire county!

Yup! And this one will have alcohol because it’s on the DC side.

Anonymous wrote:Such a flop. I love walking distance and was looking forward to lunch options other than Chipotle and Potbelly’s. Unfortunately nothing was ever really appealing or affordable there.

In other news, excited for the new Trader Joe’s to open in the old J. Crew space and TJ Maxx to reopen…

Wait, another Trader Joe's?? Won't that be like 3rd one within a 3 mile stretch?! Not salty at all about our one in the entire county!

To add: When The Heights first opened, I think GEICO, nearby, was fully staffed. There are also other large-ish businesses, including Metro staff, and Metro riders. I don’t know if the Heights ever reached out to any of these potential sources of customers. I will say that as someone who occasionally takes the bus and the Metro trains, I never saw any posters or other information that would alert me to the presence of a food hall immediately at the top of one of the Metro station exits. If they didn’t want to pay to put up a poster in the tunnel leading directly to the exit just steps from the Heights, they could have done something with the building — like posting menus — to indicate to the thousands of commuters that the Heights was open, eager for business and sold prepared food inside.

Ok, I think I’m done now. This is a loss for the neighborhood and for the vendors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was there closing night last Saturday. The bartender's opinion was they didn't do much marketing to bring people in.

I agree with the bartender. I very much wanted this place to succeed — to the point where I actually emailed the management, suggesting very simple, free ways to reach out to the nearby Friendship Heights Village community. I heard nothing back.

Can you post your suggestions? I'm very curious

Friendship Heights Village is a very dense community of high rise condo and apartment buildings with a community center. The community center has a free monthly newsletter available in online and print versions. They could easily have contacted the center to print an article announcing their opening and listing the restaurants and describing some of their menus. Any changes could have been followed up with update articles and notices of upcoming activities. Most if not all of the nearby buildings have internal newsletters and bulletin boards. Imagine if they had posted announcements or even offered 10% off coupons to alert residents to their presence — and welcoming them with invitations and even discounts. All of these things would have been free — or very inexpensive ways to directly reach thousands of people who live and/or work within walking distance of the Heights.

The Village Center has quite a few activities where food would be welcome, including a mini-taste of the town type of event. As far as I know neither the Heights as a whole nor individual vendors participated in any of these types of events — which would have allowed people to try out their menus — and learn more about convenient meal options just a block away from the center.

I’ve said this in at least one previous post. I live nearby, I’m a walker, and I followed one of the restaurants that eventually opened at the Heights. I shop frequently at Whole Foods — on the street level below the Heights, and often walk by the Heights space on the plaza where the shops are. I’m describing this in detail to emphasize how difficult it was to know that the Heights was even open. It was hard as a pedestrian actively waiting for them to open, and would be almost impossible for someone driving by. It took a long time —with multiple delays— for them to open, even after they set up an outside seating area. Once they actually did open, nothing changed. The worst part is that the side of the building most easily seen by pedestrians headed towards the elevator or steps — that had been PF Chang’s front door — had a locked door, and blank windows, and looked either empty or under construction. No signage, no directory of the eating options, no menus — nothing to entice pedestrians or even to indicate that the food hall was finally open. Even a bunch of balloons attached to the door would have indicated signs of life — and maybe called attention to a tastefully framed list of food stalls and menus.

The short version is that even a pedestrian eager for their opening would have a hard time knowing that they were there —and what they offered. If they had wanted to step things up, they could have done neighborhood mailings or coupons, but the biggest issue is that they were located in a very dense neighborhood, eager for restaurant options— and never bothered to tell us that they were open — or what they sold. Each building has management, and most have condo boards or some type of residents groups. All of these groups have been very concerned about the future of the community, the viability of the neighborhood businesses, and the continuing conveniences available in the neighborhood. Again —as far as I know — the Heights did nothing to reach out to a relatively small number of buildings to alert them to their presence in the neighborhood. I could say more, but the suggestions that I made when I reached out to the management by email were all free or inexpensive. I never heard back from them. I even spoke with a couple of the vendors, but there was no representative of the management on-site when I was there, and I was referred to the website for contact info.


If the Heights were still open, I would have been purchasing a ton of takeout to celebrate this Labor Day weekend. Oh well.

I do have other criticisms, but all of them would have been pretty easy to address — if the Heights management had simply made some very basic, inexpensive efforts to reach out to a large, nearby community hungry for varied eating options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was there closing night last Saturday. The bartender's opinion was they didn't do much marketing to bring people in.

I agree with the bartender. I very much wanted this place to succeed — to the point where I actually emailed the management, suggesting very simple, free ways to reach out to the nearby Friendship Heights Village community. I heard nothing back.

Can you post your suggestions? I'm very curious

Anonymous wrote:Such a flop. I love walking distance and was looking forward to lunch options other than Chipotle and Potbelly’s. Unfortunately nothing was ever really appealing or affordable there.

In other news, excited for the new Trader Joe’s to open in the old J. Crew space and TJ Maxx to reopen…

IT IS NOT A FLOP! YOU ARE JUST A STUPID MAGA

Anonymous wrote:I was there closing night last Saturday. The bartender's opinion was they didn't do much marketing to bring people in.

I agree with the bartender. I very much wanted this place to succeed — to the point where I actually emailed the management, suggesting very simple, free ways to reach out to the nearby Friendship Heights Village community. I heard nothing back.

I was there closing night last Saturday. The bartender's opinion was they didn't do much marketing to bring people in.

Anonymous wrote:They are closing after less than 2 years. Just saw the sign when I walked by. Worthy attempt to revive FH but ultimately doomed by the geriatric demographic. Sad, I was rooting for that place!

I think they were doomed by lack of promotion and outreach. The demographic you’re dismissing tends toward the educated and well-traveled, and would have supported the place — if they had known that it was there — and finally open after years of false starts. Oh well.

Anonymous wrote:Not surprised. There was no promotion of it. We went when it first opened and then never were inspired enough to go again. Not enough indoor seating, weird food options that didn’t really go together (hard to mix and match from a couple of places). We ended up at urbano only because it’s the only place we could get a seat.

The food at Urbano was great but it's hard when you don't have a street-facing storefront. No one passing by really knows it's there or gets curious to peek in.

Anonymous wrote:They are closing after less than 2 years. Just saw the sign when I walked by. Worthy attempt to revive FH but ultimately doomed by the geriatric demographic. Sad, I was rooting for that place!

I’m sorry, but not surprised. I live within walking distance — but, at least in my experience, they did nothing to reach out to nearby residents and even walking nearby, there was little to inform people that the food hall was open. Some of the options were odd: with “creative” menus that lacked familiar standards. I’d love an Indian restaurant, or a Thai restaurant, or a Deli sandwich spot — but wasn’t thrilled with the high-ish prices and less usual options. My ideal would have been to order more familiar dishes, then return for the more unique options — but the menus and perhaps the kitchen spaces weren’t set up for that. The standouts IMO, were the Cuban spot and the barbecue place — which were among the first to leave. I will be tracking down Supreme Barbeque’s other locations.

Two new spots opened fairly recently, including the excellent Claude Have Mercy. I’m bummed that The Heights has closed, but also angry that in a neighborhood literally hungry for interesting food options, the management did nothing to promote the place.

Not surprised. There was no promotion of it. We went when it first opened and then never were inspired enough to go again. Not enough indoor seating, weird food options that didn’t really go together (hard to mix and match from a couple of places). We ended up at urbano only because it’s the only place we could get a seat.

Such a flop. I love walking distance and was looking forward to lunch options other than Chipotle and Potbelly’s. Unfortunately nothing was ever really appealing or affordable there.

In other news, excited for the new Trader Joe’s to open in the old J. Crew space and TJ Maxx to reopen…

Sorry to hear but not surprised. I went in late May hoping to go to Mimi's but it was closed earlier than the posted hours and it was pretty dead inside.