Updates

EXCELLO LICENSE RENEWAL: ANC Commissioner Michael Musante (6A05) and I met with the owners of Excello and N-A Minit on Monday at the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration offices, along with an ABRA mediator. Excello owner Sung Bang and his attorney, Simon Osnos, responded to various provisions that protestants are asking be added to the store's current voluntary agreement. Excello said it would agree to 1) clarify that beer must be sold in packages of four or more (the agreement currently says the store may not "sell single serving containers of alcoholic beverages"); 2) establish a specific time in the morning, before Excello opens when someone from Excello will clean the 400 block of 13th up to the alley next to the store; 3) donate a few hundred dollars, as a one-time gift, for neighborhood-watch equipment; 4) possibly donate somewhere around $200 a month to an alcoholism rehabilitation program of the community's choice; and 5) offer and provide receipts for each sale of an alcoholic beverage. The protestants will be deciding over the next few weeks whether to accept these offers. If no new agreement can be reached by Sept. 24, a protest hearing will be scheduled sometime after that. At such a hearing, both sides present their cases to the Board, and the Board decides whether or not the license should be renewed.

EXCELLO LICENSE TRANSFER: Mrs. Lee, owner of N-A Minit, and Mr. Pascal, her attorney, said Monday that an application will be filed within a few weeks to transfer Excello's liquor license next door to N-A Minit. Excello owner Sung Bang and his attorney, Simon Osnos, said Excello is planning to sell both its building and its license to Mr. and Mrs. Lee, the owners of N-A Minit. Once the transfer is complete, N-A Minit intends to close Excello and lease out the space to a noncompeting business. N-A Minit would put its current class B (beer and light wines) license in safekeeping and begin using Excello's class A (alcoholic beverages, spirits, beer, wines and light wines) license. In addition, N-A Minit will be arguing to the city that because there will be only one store on the block selling alcohol, the city should amend Excello's voluntary agreement to allow the sale of any singles except 32-ounce and 40-ounce containers. (Excello's voluntary agreement prohibits it from selling any singles; by law, voluntary agreements are attached to a liquor license and get transferred along with the liquor license.) N-A Minit is asking that Excello's street-cleaning requirement be changed to omit reference to cleaning Duncan Place. Also, N-A Minit said any significant provisions added to Excello's voluntary agreement this year would have to be removed. Once the application for the transfer is in, the stores will be putting up placards notifying residents that they have 45 days to send letters to the city protesting the transfer. Mr. Pascal said the whole transfer transaction between Excello and N-A Minit is contingent on Excello's voluntary agreement being amended.

CORNER FORUM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The following people helped produce or distribute the Aug. 10 issue of the Corner Forum: Marc Borbely, 536 13th St. NE (editing, folding, distributing); Tammi Cioffi, 536 13th St. NE (folding); Sharon Cochran (photo of Theiel Jackson, 1309 Emerald St. NE); and Dustin Piccolo, 524 13th St. NE (production). There are 69 households in the Corner Forum area that are subscribed to the newsletter (25 on E Street, 22 on Emerald Street, 17 on 13th Street, and 5 on Duncan Place).

COMINGS AND GOINGS: According to the Long & Foster Web site, viewed Friday, the real estate listings for the Corner Forum area are the same as reported in last week's issue.