The future of Call Your Mother in Georgetown remains uncertain. DC’s Board of Zoning Appeals held its latest hearing Wednesday in a longstanding dispute over the popular bagel chain’s O Street location, which some residents contend runs afoul of the neighborhood’s zoning laws. The board did not make a final decision on the matter, instead scheduling a vote for October 23. The restaurant is seeking two permits to continue operations just blocks away from the Georgetown University campus: one to operate as a “corner store” under DC law, and an exemption that would allow them to continue to sell prepared food at the location. Meanwhile, some residents argue that Call Your Mother’s popularity has brought undue crowds—President Biden even stopped by once—and trash to their once-placid neighborhood. “I want you to take a look at these photos,” Georgetown resident Mal Caravatti said during Wednesday’s hearing, showing the appeals board a picture of a group of younger women sitting on a street corner. “And, tell us that they’re not objectionable conditions—that it’s okay to turn a residential area into a de facto streetery.” The hearing gave both parties a chance to update the board on progress since a contentious, seven-hour meeting in June, which also ended without a resolution. RelatedCall Your Mother Georgetown’s Zoning Hearing Got Trashy—Literally Much of the debate during that meeting was over garbage—specifically, was the bagel shop’s presence and popularity resulting in overflowing public bins? At one point, Call Your Mother attorney Martin Sullivan presented four screenshots of CCTV footage showing a figure who appeared to be dumping trash into a city receptacle at 1:30 AM. Sullivan then claimed the shots depicted George Washington University professor Melinda Roth—the lead plaintiff in an earlier suit challenging the bagel shop, which resulted in its original permit being vacated—disposing of her home waste in order to blame the restaurant. Retorted Roth: “It’s me throwing rat carcasses away. But I’m not the one responsible, on a daily basis, for overflowing trash cans…I tend not to want those dead rats in my own house.” At Wednesday’s hearing, Call Your Mother co-founder Andrew Dana told the board that the bagel shop has enlisted an employee to shoo straggling patrons away from sitting on neighborhood stoops—and also hand out maps that show available public seating. So far, Dana said, the shop hasn’t had any issues with telling people to leave: “These are morning people eating bagels. It’s not people leaving a nighttime club where you’d need a heavier hand.” Chris Ittelaig, a Georgetown resident who spoke in favor of Call Your Mother, said that since the June meeting, the neighborhood’s Advisory Neighborhood Committee had voted to drop its opposition to Call Your Mother’s permit. “We think that says everything about what Call Your Mother has put forth this summer,” Ittelaig said. Roth told the board that Call Your Mother’s bagel bouncer hadn’t led to fewer people in the neighborhood—instead, she said, they’ve just migrated further up the street. “While they have made this effort in hiring this hall monitor, it has not changed a single thing,” she said. “What they’re saying is…since we’re not doing it at night, you shouldn’t be bothered by what’s happening during the day.” Crystal Myers, a representative from DC’s Office of Planning, told the BZA that her office continued to support Call Your Mother’s permit, testifying that her office had visited the site during the lunch rush recently and that their crowd mitigation and trash pickup procedure were effective. “The applicant’s conditions would sufficiently mitigate the establishment’s impact on the neighborhood,” Myers said.The post Call Your Mother’s Georgetown Location Lives on—for Now first appeared on Washingtonian.