Tom Sietsema reports that Sidra Forman and Derrick Bullock, the former chef and general manager at Viridian in Logan Circle have moved to Vegetate, an upscale vegetarian restaurant in Shaw. the first chef at Vegetate, who reportedly is not a vegetarian, left the restaurant at around the same time Forman, who reportedly is a vegan, left Viridian. are you following all of this? long story short, these changes seem to be a good thing all around.

i think Vegetate is a great addition to DC. it was ridiculous that DC had no upscale vegetarian restaurant in town before Vegetate opened. unfortunately, under the first chef, the food and service had been uneven. i hope these changes mean that the food and service at Vegetate will be consistently excellent. i’d love to see Vegetate become a world class vegetarian restaurant on par with my favorite restaurant Millennium in San Francisco.

now if they can only get their liquor license straightened out. how you can help, after the jump…

in addition to having potential as an excellent vegetarian restaurant, i think that Vegetate has a lot of potential as a low key dj lounge. the space is really tranquil and attractive, and Vegetate would be a great place to relax, listen to a dj, and have a nice cocktail. if only they had their liquor license. owners Jennifer and Dominic Redd (a/k/a DJ Dredd) have been locked in a battle with the Shiloh Baptist Church for months over the issue. apparently, the problem is that DC law mandates that no liquor license can be issued for an establishment within 400 feet of a school, and Vegetate does not meet that requirement.

as DCist reported earlier in the week, Jennifer and DJ Dredd are asking the community to email Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans and let him know that you want him to support Vegetate by introducing legislation to amend title 25-314 of the D.C. Code, which prohibits issuing liquor licenses within 400 feet of a school.

DCist has done a great job of reporting on Vegetate’s struggle, so i won’t repeat the arguments and issues here. i’ll just say that it is pretty obvious that the DC law in question was not meant to keep a upscale, low key restaurant from helping to anchor the revitalization of a rundown neighborhood. there aren’t going to be loud, violent drunks hanging around outside of Vegetate during school hours (or any hours) victimizing the poor school children. although there may well be loud, violent drunks hanging around outside the abandoned houses owned by Shiloh Baptist. which would you rather have near your child’s school?