Eat Stay Love: Lebanese Taverna

Q and A with Francisco Beltran and Angel Betancourt
by Beth Herman


Very much a family affair, the revered late 1980's-era Lebanese Taverna in Woodley Park, at 2641 Connecticut Avenue NW, is one of six restaurants, four cafe's and a market in the industrious Abi-Najm kin's epicurean gallery. Undergoing a complete demolition, Principal Francisco Beltran of Design Republica and project manager Angel Betancourt of Potomac Construction Services reimagined the 165-seat, 4,300 s.f. space. DCMud spoke with Beltran - veteran of more than 100 restaurant designs - and Betancourt about the venue, which reopened in early November.

DCMud: From a general perspective, what did the renovation entail?

Betancourt: It was a total demolition resulting in a more open feeling and contemporary design.

DCMud: Did anything survive the former design?

Betancourt: We did retain the cross-vaulted ceiling, though removed a lot of beams so the ceiling looks higher.

Beltran: The cross-vaults were something the family had invented back in '88, and that became the heart and soul of the restaurant. However previously, they'd had bulkheads that concealed air ducts and crossed the dining room horizontally that connected at points of the cross-vault. When we removed them, the illusion of a much grander ceiling, though it was already at 15.5 feet, was created. Removing the bulkheads gave a lot of verticality to the space as it's very linear and narrow.

DCMud:Was the space reconfigured in any way, and if so for what purposes?

Beltran: The restaurant had taken over an adjacent space in the mid-90s, making it into the private dining room - but it had no connection to the front of the house and people felt they were not dining in the heart of the restaurant. In the new design that space became the kitchen, and the new private dining room was conceived as a part of the main dining room.


DCMud: There appears to be a lot of sumptuous custom mill and tilework.

Beltran: The way we chose to finish the walls, floor surfaces and more was based on the Lebanese tradition of using hardwoods like walnut, much of which is reclaimed wood.Tabletops throughout are reclaimed walnut.

The main floor is assimilated wood plank flooring that's made of porcelain. It provides the illusion of warm hardwoods but is much more durable and non-slip. Custom concrete tile was used on the bar faces, and will be used on the storefront facade later on.

Carpet tiles in the restaurant are recyclable and have an oversized print and more of an antique look, which gave a warmth and character to the main dining room.

DCMud:  The private dining room appears to be swaddled, if you will, for luxury and sound.

Beltran: In that space, we used a floor-to-ceiling striping pattern where we alternated walnut hardwood planks in between 18-inch wide fabric panels, actually Homasote boards with batting, for dimension. We wrapped green tea leaf velvet fabric. All three major walls are encased in wood and velvet panels.

In the other part of the restaurant, we used copper velvet fabric for the banquettes treated with Nanotech stainguarding.

DCMud: Can you speak to the lighting?

Beltran: All lighting is LED. Chandeliers were custom made in Egypt specifically for this project. The chandeliers in the wall that divide the private dining room from the main dining room are Moroccan lanterns that we find in most Lebanese Taverna restaurants.

DCMud: Does the new restaurant resemble any of the others?

Beltran: From the time I first starting working with the family, in 2000, it was clear they didn't want their spaces to look like anything cookie-cutter, or a franchise. Each restaurant is specifically designed and detailed within the community - each has a different look and feel. And it's always a team effort, as the family, chefs and staff are deeply involved. The food, service and friendliness may be the same, but the experience of the surroundings is completely different. And the family treats each restaurant like it's their only one.

DCMud: More like Louis Sullivan's contextual architecture, perhaps.

Beltran: Each speaks the language of its community or neighborhood.

DCMud: You began working for family in the restaurant business when you were 14 years old, something that evolved to later experiences with renowned chefs/restauranteurs Victorio Testa, Roberto Donna and others. Is your hospitality design work a strategic outcome of this?

Beltran: I knew in junior high school I wanted to be an architect. Combining food and design was more of a coincidence, though, when the first architecture firm at which I worked  did a restaurant. I said, 'I know all this,' so it was a natural blending and I never looked back.

DCMud: Is there a particular D.C. building that has impacted you as an architect?

Beltran: It has to be the Holocaust Museum. It's not so much the displays but the actual path through the building - the lighting. It's the way the walls enclose and direct you to experience the space - something very successful, very powerful and moving. I try and do that with my restaurants. I want to tell a story and give a different experience in any point of the restaurant - not just have it be one big open space where you see everything and know what it is. If you sit in different areas, they should evoke different feelings and emotions.

Washington DC retail design news

JBG's Woodley Park Residential Tower Reborn as 2700 Woodley

Construction on The JBG Companies' long-planned residential tower in Woodley Park, just east of the Marriott Wardman Park, is well underway with excavation nearly complete, and the project - formerly known as Wardman West - has been rebranded as 2700 Woodley.
Upon completion (delivery is anticipated in Q1 2014), the upscale David M. Schwarz Architects-designed tower will offer 211 rental residences. Ongoing speculation has centered on whether the project would be condos or apartments, and it turns out that developers have decided to go the "premier apartment community" route, a savvy decision considering the almost complete absence of new high-end rentals in the immediate area. Matthew R. Blocher, Senior Vice President at JBG, said a full-scale marketing campaign will launch in the fall. (Possibly from New York-based SeventhArt?)

A new rendering acquired by DCMud (top) shows a building structurally similar to the Esocoff-designed concept depicted in the earlier renderings (below, right), but with a vastly different, and more attractive facade. Whereas the previous design verged on minimalistic (if not outright post-Soviet Eastern Bloc), the new facade is more texturally interesting, and much more in keeping with the character of the nearby hotel.

While the 2700 Woodley tower will likely be successful, the building also represents something of a defeat for JBG. After buying the nearby Wardman Park hotel and its 16-acre parcel for $300 million in 2005, JBG and partner CIM planned to convert the hotel into residences, in addition to building the new tower. Marriott objected, the project stalled, and then the recession hit. The project lay dormant for some years before resurfacing in seemingly unrelated litigation between JBG and Marriott over a new Marriott hotel at the Washington Convention Center. After a JBG-affiliated entity filed suit to block construction at the Convention Center, a Marriott countersuit claimed JBG's suit was a mere tactic to force them to renegotiate regarding the Wardman Park hotel. JBG denied this, and eventually all suits were dropped.

Regardless of what it was really all about, the Marriott Wardman Park, the city's largest hotel, and onetime home to three former U.S. presidents (I'll buy you a drink if you can name all three without looking on Wikipedia), continues to operate, even as construction kicks into high gear just to the west.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Debonair Development Coming to Woodley Park

Woodley Park may soon become still more debonair now that the owners of the Debonair Cleaners at 2610 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Shahram and Maria Taginya, have taken on Annapolis-based developers Ashbourne Developments LLC to construct a four-story residential building directly behind their storefront. Entitled, surprisingly enough, the Debonair Residences, the project will include "up to" 14 residential units and span the length of the existing one-story commercial outlets on site - Fusion's Alley restaurant and Baskin Robbins, to name a few - from 2608-2612 Connecticut Avenue, NW, directly next to the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro. A rear-entry garage will be built at basement level for residents coping with the scarcity of parking along the retail strip and be accessible from 24th Street. Plans by Studio 27 Architecture include balconies overlooking 24th, with a fourth-story roof terrace, but the historically protected commercial building facing Connecticut will be simultaneously “renovated and restored to a condition respectful of the original architecture” - i.e. the original height and roofline will remain along Connecticut Avenue. According to Ashbourne President Crispin Etherington, a June 15th meeting with the local ANC 3C went “swimmingly,” though the project’s scheduled appearance before the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) has been pushed back to July for unspecified reasons. Ashbourne is currently projecting a third quarter 2009 start date for the Debonair “with delivery in the spring of 2010,” though a final construction schedule is contingent on HPRB approval. Monarc Construction will serve as general contractor.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

"Historic Adaptive Reuse" for Woodley Park

Woodley Park will soon have another condominium development, when the Woodley-Wardman project breaks ground later this year. Named after Harry Wardman, the man who developed much of its neighborhood, the Woodley-Wardman development will build approximately 36 units by restoring four historic townhouses and adding a 7-story building in back, between the public alley and the townhouses. Murillo/Malnati Group’s 33,000 s.f. residential project at 2814 Connecticut Avenue was designed by Bonstra/Haresign Architects, with interior design by Carina Lopez, to restore and subdivide rowhouses into condominium units. Plans for the four brick townhouses envision restorations of the three-story structures with gardens and front porch space. The tower behind the townhouses will include some brickwork, but will have a contemporary, rather than historic appearance, with long stretches of white and metal-framed rectangular windows and similar rectangular windows in the upper penthouse units that offer private terraces. The historic buildings, two of which are original Wardmans, will be reconfigured to offer several new units as well as entryway for the courtyard and midrise in the rear. The 37-unit condominium building will include approximately 22 underground and at-grade parking spaces, as well as private roof terraces and balconies. The project received approval from the Historic Preservation Review Board, as well as the Board of Zoning Appeal, for the development. Completion is slated for early 2009.