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End of an Era: Booeymonger Closes

from The Georgetowner: April 12, 2023 Issue

from The Georgetowner: April 12, 2023 Issue, page 31

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BY ROBERT DEVANEY

Last week, the signage was stripped off the awning and the windows papered up. The unique Georgetown deli, known as Booeymonger, ended its 50-year-old existence at 3265 Prospect St. NW.

“Yes, Booeymonger is closed,” Leslie Samuel, property owner and co-founder of the business, told The Georgetowner. “A new restaurant is forthcoming.”

It will be a French bistro, Samuel said, from the owners of Zeppelin and Chaplin’s, two restaurants on 9th Street in Shaw. He added that he understands that the new business owners, Ari and Claire Wilder, plan to call it La Bonne Vache — “The Good Cow.”

Since 1973, Booeymonger — at the corner of Prospect and Potomac Streets, near residential homes and one block from busy M Street — was a gathering spot for neighbors, business folks and Georgetown University students. The unusually named sandwiches, the “Patty Hearst,” “Fifth Avenue” and “Tuna Turner,” fit the eatery’s quirky name, taken from a student newspaper in Ohio which one of the co-founders thought was cool.

Apparently, just about everyone has stopped by —Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Patrick

Ewing and various politicians and celebs — as well as former Georgetowner publisher Dave Roffman, whom Samuel said loved to have lunch there almost every day.

But the pandemic put a strain on the eatery for Rummana Choudhury, business owner since 2018. (The occasional underage drinking violation did not help either.) Hours constricted — and employees departed. Except for three or four, including Priya, who was the subject of a recent Mapping Georgetown column in September.

An opening date for the new business — which is still going through permit processes — has not been announced.

Mark Hudson

Executive Director of Tudor Place

Thursday, April 20

Doors open at 8 a.m.

Talk begins at 8:30 a.m.

$2,700,000

3432 Lowell St NW, Washington, DC 20016

This lovely home is situated in Cleveland Park, in one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in D.C., in the shadows of the National Cathedral towers and the sound of its soothing bells. It’s ideally located fronting on the highest-side of Lowell St. A front porch and back-deck add a space and charm to this home. It is blocks away to restaurants, shops, and supermarkets.