Eastern Market burned

Since most aspects of my life now revolve around The Boy, I missed this news item this morning. Thanks to AC for pointing it out on his blog.

The Eastern Market building behind Capitol Hill burned overnight. From the news stories, it sounds like it was pretty well gutted.

I'm bummed about this. Eastern Market is one of my favorite places in DC. Rachel and I have gone there many times to walk around the flea market and farmer markets. We've taken friends there -- some of whom subsequently admitted that DC is a cooler city than they'd thought.

At one end of the building, there was a Jewish-pseudo-kosher-deli/bakery, with hand-painted signs that looked to be at least 50 years old. They sold a few varieties of kosher meat, although it wasn't a kosher establishment. But I occasionally bought a coffee and a danish from them.

Here's Marc Fisher's blog (Washington Post), I concur with his hope that the produce, art, and other vendors that setup outside the building should be open for business this weekend.