Commercial Rents and Their Impact on the Food Scene

[the resident09]

I get that on price point, and it's largely true about current DC. But the specific example I brought up about "Milk and Honey cafe" on H Street, a staple that started last decade in Laurel, MD and has expanded throughout multiple locations in the DMV and even to Atlanta. In their specific case, they have some bomb breakfast food, and it's pretty widely known, as well as Black owned. So at least in the case of that place, and comparing to any "hole in the wall", or mom and pop breakfast spot, in any location, that may have been open 50-75 years, I don't see the other places of having any type of advantage, beyond pricing. I mean technically Milk and Honey originated as a "mom and pop" business it's just expanded to multiple locations and is newer.

[BajanYankee]

Originally Posted by the resident09

I get that on price point, and it's largely true about current DC. But the specific example I brought up about "Milk and Honey cafe" on H Street, a staple that started last decade in Laurel, MD and has expanded throughout multiple locations in the DMV and even to Atlanta. In their specific case, they have some bomb breakfast food, and it's pretty widely known, as well as Black owned. So at least in the case of that place, and comparing to any "hole in the wall", or mom and pop breakfast spot, in any location, that may have been open 50-75 years, I don't see the other places of having any type of advantage, beyond pricing. I mean technically Milk and Honey originated as a "mom and pop" business it's just expanded to multiple locations and is newer.

The advantage is that other cities have more places like that and they are cheaper. It's not that DC has ZERO places. It's just that it has few places that fill that space between higher end, sit down establishments and lower end, carryout establishments.

Compared to SF, Chicago, LA, NYC, Philly or maybe even Seattle, DC is not a place where I'd recommend anyone visit just for the food. The higher end options (ex: RPM) are things you can get in any large city while there are few good diners, delis, pizza parlors or ethnic restaurants that are both good and deliver at a reasonable price point. Arlington wipes the board with DC when it comes to the latter.

[908Boi]

When I think about urban cuisines, one thing most cities known for good food have are ethnic enclaves, cheap COL and/or histories of large scale migrations. DC doesn't have a cheap COL nor ethnic enclaves (DC was never a popular immigration destination until recently and the only true enclaves in 2022 are the Hispanic and Ethiopian areas of NW and the remnants of Chocolates City EOTR and in NW/NE). The most important migration in the past 100 years to Washington DC has been African American migration (which continues but has now been eclipsed by upper income white gentrification over the past 20 years). The second most migration pattern in DC more recently has been black flight. The largest and most important ethnic group in the city has largely left for the suburbs so I'd imagine many mom and pops restaurants left with it. Now, the cheapest foods in the city are mostly fast food establishments, carry outs, soul food spots, and Salvadoran/Mexican spots. Distinctive foods are half smokes, mumbo sauce, (associated with the AA community), and Ethiopian food. I suppose jumbo slices and pupusas (Salvadoran).

I also think DC is one of the best cities for East African food (Horn of Africa, Kenya, etc.)

So DC not having a boatload of cheap intermediate foot options like a Baltimore, Philly, or NYC makes sense in this context.