"We wish the next business owner brave enough to try supporting his or her family through a local business all the luck in the world," Captain Cookie's owner Juliann Francis wrote in a farewell note that PoPville published in July. She was writing about 3411 Connecticut Avenue NW. Three months later, the next business owners are showing up on that stretch of the 3400 block.

The west side of the block now has a run of empty storefronts, plus one new rooftop. At least one of the shops that just closed signed its lease, did its buildout and opened while the old service lane was still a construction zone. Highlands Tavern, the business that opened this fall, chose the block after the promenade was finished.

Four doors on one block

This is where the 3400 block stands as the calendar turns to November.

Fat Pete's announced its farewell weekend without saying why it was closing. SakuSaku said goodbye with a parting note that PoPville reproduced as an image. Captain Cookie is the one business on the row that explained itself in detail, and its explanation goes back to the street.

A lease signed before the promenade existed

Put the Captain Cookie story next to the promenade's own history and the two line up almost month for month.

1. December 2021. Captain Cookie's owners sign a 10-year lease at 3411.
2. Between lease and opening. In the owners' telling, "years of construction followed." In the owners' words, it was slowed by "DC's absurdly complicated and slow permitting processes," the historic parcel, supply chain problems and "street-level construction that timed poorly with our own project."
3. June 2023. The service lane had been closed to cars during the pandemic. DDOT decides to keep it closed and open it to pedestrians, restaurant patios and farmers market pop-ups, as PoPville reported.
4. Fall 2023. Captain Cookie finally cuts its ribbon.
5. February 2024. WTOP reports that the old lane between Macomb and Ordway streets has been raised level with the sidewalk and turned into a patio-like space with landscaping and seating. More plantings and seating are expected that spring.
6. April 6, 2024. A celebration with a ribbon cutting, live music, restaurant happy hour deals and vendors marks the finished space, according to PoPville.
7. April 2026. A reader tells PoPville the Captain Cookie storefront looks shuttered, with its sign down.
8. July 2026. The owners say they "could not bring in enough revenue to support the astronomical and rapidly rising costs of labor, utilities, insurance and supplies."

So Captain Cookie spent close to two years of a 10-year lease getting open. It opened only a few months before the promenade was finished, then closed about two years after that. The owners list operating costs, not foot traffic, as the reason. They didn't blame the promenade for the closure, only the construction that happened to overlap with their buildout. They're still baking at Western Market in Foggy Bottom, at the Tastemakers incubator kitchen in Brookland and from their food trucks.

DDOT's Cleveland Park Streetscape and Drainage Improvement page lays out what the corridor from Macomb to Quebec was built to include: native plantings, permeable pavers, curb extensions, new crosswalks, street furniture and ADA curb ramps. Every business looking at the block today walks into that finished version.

Highlands Tavern signed on to the finished block

The clearest example is the corner space at 3421. The former Cleveland Park Bar & Grill space has been rebuilt as Highlands Tavern. In an August press release covered by PoPville, the tavern describes itself as a family-friendly, multilevel neighborhood restaurant and bar.

Here's who's behind it, according to that release:

• George Grau, a D.C. native and Culinary Institute of America graduate, runs the scratch kitchen.
• Ki Yoon, co-owner of Magruders, is a co-owner.
• Jeffrey Diaz, an industry veteran, handles daily operations and the beverage program.

The menu covers wood-fired pizzas, sandwiches, burgers and a kids' menu. The bar has signature cocktails, 12 draft taps and a dedicated non-alcoholic list. The rooftop bar is back. That release first aimed for a late-August opening. A later PoPville update quoted the tavern announcing "Saturday, Sept 5 at 11am" instead. By mid-October, the Highlands Tavern website had a posted menu and an online reservation link, and its homepage pitches the rooftop as "your neighborhood gathering spot in Cleveland Park."

A kids' menu, a zero-proof list and a rooftop are a choice about who the tavern expects to walk in. That matters on a block where the space out front is now a pedestrian plaza with seating instead of a lane of parked cars.

Bagels and doughnuts, if the tip holds

The two storefronts between Fat Pete's and Highlands may be the next to light up. On Sept. 25, PoPville ran a tip, filed under "Scuttlebutt," saying Over Doughs Bagels would take the former Captain Cookie space at 3411 and Handcraft Doughnuts would take the former SakuSaku space at 3417. PoPville promised updates on both, so for now they're reports, not confirmed openings.

Handcraft is a known name in the city. Its own site describes handmade brioche doughnuts made daily. Its current shop is at Union Market. Founders Kara Terrell and Ike Emejuru tell the shop's story on the brand's site.

If both tips hold, 3411 and 3417 would become morning businesses. Neighbors who have watched the promenade fill up mostly at happy hour would get a breakfast reason to walk the block, just as the afternoon light gets short.

One more tip sits farther up the avenue. A PoPville tipster reported in October that Buffalo Wild Wings GO may take over the former Tigi Salon at 3505 Connecticut Avenue NW. The outlet noted that the space would need substantial buildout and that the opening wasn't confirmed. After the Captain Cookie timeline, "substantial buildout" is the part of that report most worth keeping an eye on.

Friday night on the promenade

The block's established bars get the spotlight tomorrow. Cleveland Park Main Street's 21-and-over Halloween bar crawl runs Friday, Oct. 30, from 7 to 10 p.m., in three stops:

• 7 to 8 p.m. Atomic Billiards, 3427 Connecticut Ave NW
• 8 to 9 p.m. Taco Cantina, 3321 Connecticut Ave NW
• 9 to 10 p.m. Nanny O'Briens, 3319 Connecticut Ave NW

Highlands Tavern isn't on the crawl route. Going by the addresses, anyone walking from Atomic Billiards at 3427 down to Taco Cantina at 3321 passes 3421, then the empty storefronts at 3417 and 3411.

If you own on one of the streets off this stretch of Connecticut Avenue and want to talk about how the promenade's next tenants could fit into your plans, schedule your neighborhood consultation with Conway Group.