Sticky Fingers Diner is closing its H Street, Northeast restaurant in D.C., citing declined sales over the past year and the rise in neighborhood crime, even as growth for its much larger wholesale and retail baking business is soaring.
“The Council is now trying to address the issues around crime, but businesses like ours can’t hang on long enough for the changes to hopefully do some good,” said Sticky Fingers founder Doron Petersan. “As soon as people starting reading and hearing about the crime problems in the city and around H Street, Northeast, sales plummeted almost overnight, and it was a snowball effect.”
Petersan, a two-time winner on the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, opened Sticky Fingers Diner at 406 H Street, NE, in 2016. Its last day will be Feb. 25.
While the closure is the latest blow to D.C.’s H Street Northeast corridor, Sticky Fingers’ main bakery business is booming.
The company, founded 2002, opened a new, flagship bakery facility last month at 314 Carroll Street, Northwest near the Takoma Metro. The larger facility replaced its original bakery in Columbia Heights, and the growth was needed to keep up with the company’s wholesale and retail demand for its products.
In Takoma, customer response to the new location has been overwhelming, according to Petersan. She said it has been selling out of baked goods faster than they can fill the shelves.
The Takoma location is in space formerly occupied by Soupergirl. It carries those soups as part of a grab-and-go section.
Sticky Fingers also has a satellite bakery it opened last fall inside of Streets Market at 51 M Street, NE.
Sticky Fingers’ vegan cookies, brownies, cupcakes and cakes are sold at more than 100 retail outlets in the mid-Atlantic, Northeast and South, including Foxtrot Markets, Streets Markets, Whole Foods Markets, MOM’s Organic Markets, Yes! Organic Markets, Peregrine and Odd Provisions.
The H Street closing adds to a growing list of small businesses souring on the neighborhood.
Last month, D.C. Craft Beer Cellar closed after seven years. Pursuit Wine Bar & Kitchen, a victim of multiple break-ins, closed its doors in December. Brine Oyster and Seafood House closed its H Street location in November, citing crime. Its owners also closed their Biergarten Haus beer garden on H Street last summer.
DC Harvest closed its H Street restaurant last month after almost a decade, saying on social media, “Unfortunately the neighborhood has changed and nobody is coming out.”
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