No Flagpole for Georgetown’s Dog Tag Bakery

It’s not a setback, only a disappointment, but the owners of the new Dog Tag Bakery
say they will scrap plans for a flagpole on their building to meet a design request
by the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission. The bakery, scheduled to open
in Georgetown in February, will be a training center for wounded warriors and their
spouses as well as a full-fledged bakery. Its location is 3206 Grace Street, just
off Wisconsin Avenue, and it is founded by Father
Rick Curry of Georgetown University.

The ANC addressed Dog Tag’s design plans at its meeting this week and questioned the
plan for an elevator on the side of the building. According to a bakery spokesman,
who was at the meeting, the elevator would have been installed to help wounded veterans
get to the rooftop to raise and lower the flag on a planned flag pole. The ANC did
not like the elevator idea.

“There will no longer be a flagpole,” said
Adam Mortillaro, the bakery’s director of development, in a phone conversation with
Washingtonian. “We would have loved to have had it, but we want to be good neighbors. We will make
the changes the ANC asked for. They didn’t issue a binding ruling—only an opinion.”

We asked whether they considered a flag perched on the front of the building over
the bakery’s front door. Mortillaro says architect
Rich Markus explored the idea, but “we ran into difficulties with that idea, so unfortunately
it won’t work.” The ANC had suggested a similar alternative, according to commissioner

Tom Birch.

Mortillaro says he hopes construction will begin in early November. “We’re looking
at a 90-day construction,” he says. “Bottom line for us is we’re really anxious to
get this up and running so it can be a benefit for the veteran community. We’ve had
an incredible welcome from our neighbors. We understand the design process is a process.”