Al Tiramisu manager Nadjia Belkhobja is bracing for a decline in business when an ongoing streetscape project rolling down P Street’s Restaurant Row reaches her popular eatery in coming weeks.

“It’s going to be bad,” Belkhobja said.

Business has declined because a D.C. Department of Transportation project to renovate the roads, sidewalks and curbs along a stretch of the street has led to less foot traffic and vehicles in the area, restaurant employees and area residents reported.

“Traffic is going to be disrupted, there’s going to be no parking,” Belkhobja said. “It’s going to be a mess.”

This story continues below
Advertisement

P Street between Dupont Circle and Georgetown is populated with well-known eateries and is a destination for many tourists and locals.

The project, announced in January, is expected to be completed by April 2008 at the cost of $3.5 million. DDOT spokesman Erik Linden said in an e-mail to The Examiner that the agency has closely worked with the businesses.

“The bottom line is that this work will help revitalize this corridor,” Linden said in the e-mail. “There may be some short term pain — but ultimately long term gain for the corridor.”

As construction continues, residents have begun encouraging customers to continue visiting the eateries through a neighborhood e-mail list.

The businesses continue to do OK during the week because of neighborhood support, but on weekends, when the city is flooded with out-of-town visitors, people have been deterred because of construction, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Mike Silverstein said.

“The problem is that, obviously, people from the ’burbs don’t want to drive down there,” Silverstein said.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com