By Annie Groer and Jura Koncius
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 19, 2005

Behold Cady's Alley, Washington's sexiest design district.

Seven years in the making, this once-derelict stretch of M Street near Key Bridge, and an equally neglected rear byway, have become the city's "it" destination for high-end home furnishings: A place to see and be seen, whether arriving in a chauffeured limo, jeweled flip-flops or, in the case of First Lady Laura Bush, shadowed by a Secret Service detail.

The lure is a roster of prestigious stores, including Waterworks, famed for trophy bathroom fixtures; Baker, home to classy, pricey sofas and tables; and three -- yes, three! -- makers of sleek German uber-kitchens: Bulthaup, Poggenpohl and Eggersmann.

For shoppers, it is home-bling heaven: a $7,500 carved-bear German cane stand at Hollis & Knight; an $11,190 B&B Italia sectional sofa at Adlon; $2,600 giant clamshells at Gore Dean; $3,000 leather daybeds by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at Design Within Reach.

The ambience of the place evokes a street of shops tucked away in some old European city: cobblestones, window boxes, urns of geraniums, rooftop terraces, colorful restaurant umbrellas and great people watching.

When bags get heavy and feet get tired, a just-opened indoor/outdoor Austrian cafe at the foot of the stairs connecting M Street to the alley entices the weary with Viennese tortes, flutes of champagne or a full dinner. (California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has visited the alley, has promised to return for schnitzel.)

On warm afternoons, casual strollers and serious shoppers include tourists and locals, stylistas and spenders, matrons and metrosexuals -- exactly the crowd impresario-developer Anthony Lanier was counting on.

As president of EastBanc Inc., a major real estate developer, Lanier pushed his pet project to create a hip urban village complex. He hired five local architects to turn rundown 19th- and 20th-century buildings into luxury condos, offices and home-decor shops on either side of the pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare.

With all but two of its retail spaces now leased, Cady's (rhymes with "ladies") Alley has achieved critical mass. One recent afternoon Lanier, a Georgetown resident, sat back, sipped a cappuccino at his cafe, Leopold's, and surveyed his freshly swept cobblestone empire.

"In D.C. we are latecomers on everything that is good, yet there is a ton of money here. People don't spend the normal ratio of their disposable income on hedonistic pleasures. Who do you know who would buy a $50,000 painting? In a way, we offer higher standards."

Perhaps, he muses, Cady's is for "the person who enjoys a social arena" as part of the shopping experience.

The merchant community, which numbers 18 with the opening of Collectibles Gallery last week, is joining forces to add momentum to the venture. June 2 marks the debut of "Wine and Design," scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month through October. There will be canapes and drinks in the stores and live music in the alley. "We wanted a relaxing, fun way to bring people down to discover what the stores at Cady's Alley have to offer," says Beth Aberg, who owns Random Harvest Studio. "It's like a roving cocktail party."

Some customers aren't waiting for the party. Program manager Jay Jackson recently brought a fabric swatch from his khaki microfiber sofa to Aberg's shop in search of accessories for his Clarendon condo. He spent $235 on two striped silk pillows. "I've been coming here since the beginning. I like to come to the stores to get ideas, to see the displays."

Down the alley, a guy in a black Mercedes dropped $350 on pale green hydrangeas at Relish, a designer clothing boutique and flower shop. "I knew the place was a little hidden and I liked that," says Relish owner Nancy Pearlstein of her move to Cady's Alley. "Everyone here has a certain sense of style, and they care about what they put in the stores and how the stores look. You want a place people enjoy coming to that has entertainment value as well."

Aberg already has noticed a different breed of customer from those who shopped her stores a few blocks away on Wisconsin Avenue. They are not "just stumbling around, but are coming armed with measurements, photos and fabrics at the ready. . . . These are people who have moved on from the chain stores. They are ready to buy the pieces they want to live with for the rest of their life."

Meanwhile, the design community has taken note of the new style resource.

Debra Lehman-Smith relocated her architecture and interiors firm Lehman Smith McLeish from downtown to new quarters across M Street from Cady's shops last December. "We underestimated how great this part of Georgetown is. It's not touristy, it's very private, and it's only going to get better," she says.

Until now, the city's only major concentration of high-end home furnishings shops has been at the Washington Design Center in Southwest, where a customer must go through a designer or architect to buy in most of the 70 showrooms. Since its opening in a converted refrigerated warehouse more than 20 years ago, most of those showrooms have remained "to the trade," open only to design professionals during the week, closed on weekends. (About a third of the showrooms now allow "consumer browsing," but purchases must be made through a designer or architect.) In 1998, the building added a dozen kitchen and bath showrooms downstairs that sell directly to the public, six days a week.

James F. Caughman, vice president and general manager of the center, says he welcomes Lanier's venture. "I live in Georgetown, and I find Cady's Alley to be a charming retail experience. The more exposure to good design that the consumer has access to helps to cultivate an aesthetic sensibility."

Cady's Alley lacks one major draw of the Washington Design Center: a showroom of high-end designer fabrics and wallpapers. Although a few of the alley shops sell fabrics, Lanier is openly coveting one of "the big fabric houses" that the WDC seems to have locked up.

To be sure, the Cady's Alley experience is not without its kinks. Take Georgetown parking. Lanier offers valet parking at a stiff $20 a pop; but so few have used it, he's planning to drop the price next month.

Moreover, shopping days and hours vary. Despite their commonality of place, merchants do not want to be saddled with uniform schedules, so there are none. Certain shops are open every day, others are closed on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. "They can do whatever they want to do," says Lanier. "I don't want to be a mall manager."

For Georgetown resident Dale Loy, a walk through the alley is its own reward. "It's like something in the most beautifully redone part of Munich or Copenhagen. It's on a human scale. It's got sexy shops and great contemporary design. We hope it brings a lot of people here, but not so many that we can't come back."