Bo Blair just opened a fifth Jetties sandwich shop and he’s looking at two more restaurants in the D.C. area. (Juana Arias/for The Washington Post)
Bo Blair — Washington’s restaurateur to the millennials — is busy.
Blair owns 20 restaurants, bakeries, bars and assorted entertainment properties from Washington to the island of Nantucket, which is his habitat of choice.
Most of the action is currently in Washington, his hometown.
Aside from hosting the NHL Spectator Plaza at the Fairgrounds across from Nationals Park during the league’s Winter Classic on Jan. 1, he recently opened his fifth Jetties sandwich shop, this one located on Connecticut Avenue NW, just south of Chevy Chase Circle.
The other Jetties locations are in the District’s Foxhall and Macomb neighborhoods; Bethesda; and downtown D.C. A sixth location is to open this spring in the Penn Quarter.
“We are trying to expand our existing fast-casual concepts carefully into top locations that serve our clientele and introduce us to new customers,” Blair said. “New fast-casual restaurants are opening every week, and we have to stand out.”
Blair is opening his second Surfside restaurant, called Surfside Dupont, Jan. 6.
He has a new southern concept — called Due South — coming to the Lumbershed Building at the Navy Yard in May of 2015. Rusty Holman, from Blair’s Bayou music restaurant/bar, will be the executive chef. The eclectic menu is to include fare inspired by places such as Charleston, S.C.; North Carolina; Texas; and Louisiana.
Finally, Blair is close to signing a lease for a second Millie’s, which will be located in Spring Valley near the American University School of Law. Around 40 families that are close to the entrepreneur have loaned Blair $25,000 each to get the District Millie’s going.
The original Millie’s is in Nantucket.
Georgetown developer/entrepreneur Anthony Lanier held his Eastbanc Partners holiday dinner at the L2 Lounge in Georgetown last week. Guests included world-class squash player and coach Amir Wagih, who is the coach of Lanier’s Squash on Fire, the District’s pay-and-play squash platform that includes courts open to the public for clinics and tournaments. Eastbanc’s non-squash guests included J. Stephen Muller of Union Realty, Dennis Darling of Clark Construction, uber-lawyer David C. Wilmot, Georgetown Business Improvement District chief executive Joe Sternlieb, entrepreneur and Microstrategy co-founder Sanju Bansal, and Richard Cohen of Willco Cos. The menu included risotto, halibut and a vegetable Napoleon. Yum.
Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) hosted his annual holiday party this month at his sprawling Potomac home. The Delaney soiree is one of the events on Washington’s holiday circuit, with a crowd that crosses politics, business, sports, journalism and the judiciary. The big cocktail topics this year included whether Washington will succeed in getting the Olympics, if Jeb Bush is going to run for president, a recent $46.5 million investment in District-based Vox Media by General Atlantic, and a $50 million investment Silicon Valley venture capital heavyweight Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in goods reseller Optoro.
This year’s cast of hundreds also included Chief Justice John Roberts; Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and wife Dorothy, who stopped off after attending the Army-Navy Game in Baltimore (their son attends Navy); Russ and Norma Ramsey (Ramsey is leading the D.C.-area Olympics bid); investor and Wizards/Capitals partner Raul Fernandez and wife Jean-Marie; Fox News Channel host Bret Baier and wife Amy; Carlyle Group Managing Director Peter J. Clare; David Dupree of the Halifax Group; Revolution LLC President Donn Davis; Washington Kastles owner Mark Ein and wife Sally; Jimmy Reyes of Reyes Holdings; Washington Nationals Principal Owner Edward Cohen; and former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark and Washington real estate mogul Stuart Bernstein and his wife, Wilma.
1 MThat’s the number of poinsettias Burtonsville-based Bell Nursery will sell this holiday season at 178 Home Depot stores from Philadelphia to North Carolina, and from Delaware to Ohio. Bell produced two dozen varieties of poinsettias this year, ranging in price from $5.98 to $19.98.