A Week Later, a Look Back at Dog Days; Plus, Imminent Opening for the Mid-City Caffe

I had hoped to have a brief recap of last week's successful "Dog Days" event up sooner, but family obligations and the always-present "life" continued to get in the way.

Last week's Mid-City "Dog Days" celebration--the annual event showcasing artists, businesses and nonprofits located in the 14th and U street area--was a resounding success, featuring more participating businesses, and attendees, than ever before in the 10 year history of the event. Mr. and Mrs. 14thandyou spent a couple of hours wandering up and down 14th and U, doing some window browsing, enjoying some of the confections from local establishments (Cork's lemonade was a winner) and generally taking in the ambiance of the afternoon.

The attendance at this year's event was of particular importance for local retailers, many of whom could use the boost in sales for what has been, to date, a down year.

"There were more people in/through the store on Saturday of 2009's Dog Days Sale than on any single day of Millennium's 17 year history that we can remember," exclaimed a representative from Millenium Decorative Arts.

Scipio Garling of Big Monkey Comics noted that ""Everything put out -- and we put out a lot -- at the Sidewalk Sale sold. Every single thing. In one day!"


Area restaurants saw a significant uptick in business as well.

"We were so excited to see so many of our regulars out enjoying the day," said Cork's Khalid Pitts. "People even lined up to try Cork's lemonade."

Eric Nelson of ACKC noted that ice cream sales were certainly up at his chocolate shop. ""Dog Days was great for us at ACKC--particularly with sales of ice cream desserts. Given the heat that weekend, [it was] a huge hit."

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A small bit of news to pass along: those of you who participated in Dog Days might have noticed that the MidCity Caffe was up and running that day. Alas, it was but a soft pre-opening.

According to Caffe manager Judith Mandel, an opening for the much -anticipated second-floor purveyor of "fine coffee and pastries" is imminent. "At this time we don't have a firm date, but it is looking to be within [the next] week" she said.

As to the Dog Days experience, Mandel thought that it portends of good things to come for the Caffe. "The customers were so warm and receptive to our business and the weekend setup of Dog Days was a great medium for us to quietly host a pre-opening."

We'll be certain to alert our readers when Mid-City is officially up-and-running.