Another H Street loss: Sticky Fingers Diner is closing, citing crime

Jeff Clabaugh | jclabaugh@wtop.com
February 13, 2024, 10:50 AM

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.

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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.”

Jeff Clabaugh
Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

jclabaugh@wtop.com
@wtopclabaugh