A proposed cafe on King Street in Old Town will head back to the Board of Architectural Review next month after being deferred in the spring.
Business owner Kahan S. Dhillon, Jr., wants to open Kingsley Cafe at 910 King Street, currently the site of a three-level, 1850s-era townhome. The board deferred the cafe in May, and it is now slated to return for consideration during a public hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
The board postponed the plan after historic preservationists pushed back against the proposal, which included adding flood lights, painting the exterior of the building and adding a roof deck to the 900-square-foot space.
At that May meeting, Old Town Civic Association President Yvonne Weight Callahan said the building is not appropriate for flood lighting “up to 3,000 lumens.”
“This just needs a lot of work and a lot of input,” Weight Callahan said. “We would really ask that it be deferred so that new designs, new alternatives, perhaps other matters, can be — perhaps if we’re lucky — agreed upon.”
The plans also include creating a small cafe with 10 indoor seats, a tearoom, a kitchen area, a single bathroom and a housekeeping area.
If approved, the cafe would have some nearby competition along King Street, including Misha’s Coffeehouse and Roaster, Turkish Coffee Lady and ESP Tea and Coffee.
Gail Rothrock of the Historic Alexandria Foundation voiced opposition to painting the building. In May, she told the board the building’s principal facade is unaltered and “quite handsome.”
The cafe proposal, however, notes some instances of graffiti occurring on the exterior’s west elevation and northeast corner.
Architect Romana Sanchez said in May that she and Dillon would compromise with city planners on proposed revisions, including lowering the height of a roof deck, having a wood front door instead of steel, and reducing the intensity of the proposed lighting.
Plans for the project also include the following exterior work:
- Painting the existing exterior brick on the east, south and west elevations, while the King Street facade would be cleaned and restained
- A new front door and hand railings with a wrought iron design would be installed in the existing entrance
- New metal ornamental roof feature on top of the existing knee wall
- Replacing the existing cornice coping and repainting the wood coping at the north roof line
- Repainting the metal gates around the building
- New sign brackets for the business
- New wall-mounted lights would be installed on both sides of the existing front door
- Small gooseneck lights would be installed on the café sign
- Ground-level spotlights would be installed on the front elevation at the base of the bay brick piers and at the piers flanking the front door
- Flood lights would be installed to light the building sign and roof
- Five-to-six floodlights would be installed to light up the walls on the sides of the building. The new spotlights and floodlights may include light inserts
ALXnow has reached out to Sanchez for more on information.
