If you’ve lived in D.C. long enough, you know the story of 1801 Columbia Road. In what should be a good location to open a business, right at the top of the 18th Street corridor on the way to the Metro, the large storefront cycles through businesses every few years, with each owner chastened by the experience, proclaiming the truth of the curse rumors.
As the legend has it, there was nothing wrong with 1801 until the early 1970s, when the storefront was occupied by a pizzaria. A killer worked there, tossing dough in the air when he wasn’t terrorizing Greater Adams-Morgan. Ever since the pizza place closed, no business has ever been able to succeed, perhaps due to the ghosts of the pizza man’s victims.
Strange things happened to businesses in 1801. During a short-lived turn as a tapas joint, I went in for sangria, lured by the big sign advertising a special on sangria. There were out of sangria on a Wednesday night.
Right now, 1801 is occupied by a Starbucks, which has survived longer than the average business, probably due to support from the head office, which does not have a history of shutting down branches. No matter how much money they lose, Starbucks is not going to shut this place down.
The ghosts have other plans.
Yesterday morning, I went into the cursed Starbucks and ordered a venti coffee. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? If they can make an iced quadruple-venti soy nonfat caramel white mocha with whipped cream, they can fix me a cuppa joe.
“We’re sorry, but the coffee machine hasn’t been working all day. We don’t know why and we’re still trying to fix it.”
It isn’t an urban legend if it’s true, you know.
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31Dec
One Response
I get such a kick out of cursed locations. There’s one near my hometown in East Aurora, NY. Not exactly a thriving metropolis, but it’s affluent (home to a couple Buffalo Bills, I believe) with a cute main street where lots of businesses do a pretty brisk trade, including a Tony Rome’s that’s been open forever. Yet this place at the first stoplight in down right out on Main Street has been about 10 different things since it was Don’s Spaghetti House in the ’80s. It’s currently a restaurant/bakery/craft store–that oughtta break it out of the slump.