O Salon Moving to O Street
O Salon will move from its Wisconsin Avenue home to 3212 O Street by mid-June.
After 10 years at 1079 Wisconsin Ave., O Salon will move to another Georgetown location at 3212 O Street. Though a slightly bigger space, the new location came about largely due to rising rents at the current location.
"Soner and I decided to move after 10 years because of a skyrocket increase in our rent," said Guillaume Philippe Choquet, co-owner of O Salon.
O Salon will be moving next door to its former neighbor, Fuel Pilates, which moved from 1081 Wisconsin Ave. to 3214 O St. at the end of May.
"Landlords in Georgetown are always telling you they want small and independent business, but when you look at the past eight years in Georgetown, big franchise stores have replaced us, small businesses in the main street. Georgetown is becoming Mall of America."
Though not on the Wisconsin Avenue main drag, the O Street location has its up sides including an additional 150 square feet of space that will offer new amenities for clients, said Choquet.
The rear patio courtyard will be open to clients to enjoy tea or coffee before their appointments.
"We hope to attract a new stylist with a beautiful space and state of the art color area," explained Choquet.
The new space's style is "France meets Turkey" with shades of grey on the walls and bleached white wood floors, said Choquet.
Natural light will fill the space, which strikes a balance between classic and modern. Antiques like a Louis XV desk in the entrance and Bergère chairs are mixed in with modern club leather chairs.
Despite the stress of running a business, the salon keeps its focus on the clients.
With the right color and cut "a woman can be transcended, feel like a complete [sic] different person, bring more of her personality," explained Choquet.
O Salon will move over the weekend Sunday, June 12 and Monday 13. It will be closed Tuesday, June 14 for licenses and inspection. The owners hope to reopen at the new location Wednesday, June 15.
Dave Roffman
9:12 am on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
This block of O Street used to be the most fashionable block in all of Georgetown. From the 1950s to 1980s, the tree shaded block was home to fashion house Dorothy Stead's, art gallery Georgetown Graphics, gift shop The Pineapple, an Indian jewelry store, Le Sorbet for French ice treats, and always one or two excellent antique shops (Georgetown Antiques remains to this day). And Doc Dalinsky's drug store anchored the corner for 100 years. Movies were filmed here (Burt Lancaster in "Scorpio," for one. Somewhere along the way the block fell into disrepair and fast-food stores. I'm glad O Salon is coming here.
Shaun Courtney
9:25 am on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Thanks for the history lesson, Dave. I love hearing about what the neighborhood was like in the recent past. So glad the block is redefining itself and embracing its fashionable past!