Hill Businesses Short on Winter Supplies But Not Food and Drinks

Capitol Hill residents in search of shovels and sleds won’t find them at Frager’s Hardware for the rest of the day, but food and drinks are plentiful at restaurants and shops open despite the snow.

Winter weather supplies at Frager’s are gone or going fast, said Harold Maupin, manager of “odd bits and other things” at the 1323 E St. SE location. The store has sold hundreds of bags of ice melt since yesterday.

“It’s been brisk, but not crazy,” Maupin said. “Last night was crazy.”

A few blocks away at Eastern Market, about a dozen people perused the grocers’ meat, fruit and vegetable displays this morning. Bill Glasgow, owner of Union Meat Co. at the market, said short ribs and stew beef have been among the best sellers since yesterday.

Mark Rozanski, who lives on Capitol Hill, was on the hunt for vegetables for a soup he planned to make.

“It’s nice to come to the market and have business as usual,” he said near Thomas Calomiris & Son’s, which sells produce.

Bluejacket (300 Tingey St. SE), Ted’s Bulletin (505 8th St. SE), Matchbox (521 8th St. SE), The Argonaut (1433 H St. NE) and other restaurants also were open, some with specials. Deals include $13 pitchers of domestic beer at Capitol Lounge (229 Pennsylvania Ave. SE) and $4 Narragansett cans at Hank’s Oyster Bar (633 Pennsylvania Ave. SE).

District Doughnut (749 8th St. SE) is serving up blueberry, brown butter and vanilla bean sweets. Co-owner Greg Menna said the storm gave him time to experiment with frying fresh doughnuts even faster.

“This interruption of snow gives a little bit of room to test the processes we’re looking to put in place,” he said.