By Jonathan O'Connell, The Washington Post

February 27, 2013

Shortly after Andy Shallal opened Busboys and Poets on 14th Street NW in 2005, he said he began receiving a stream of e-mails and phone calls from residents of the Takoma neighborhood of D.C. and its Maryland neighbor, Takoma Park, a neighborhood long known for its counter-culturism.

Would Shallal, an Iraqi-American whose opposition to the invasion of Iraq helped put Busboys on the map, consider opening a location there?

The e-mails never stopped, and on Tuesday, Shallal decided that he would answer them by signing a lease to open a 6,500-square-foot Busboys in a new retail-and-apartment project at the corner of Carroll and Maple streets NW, near the District-Maryland line and the Takoma Metro station.

The project, by Federal Capital Partners and Level 2 Development, will have 150 apartments upstairs and is currently under construction.

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