D.C. is filled with architecturally interesting public spaces. To get an idea of how people are using these spaces, Curbed writers are spending twenty minutes in a given location and taking note. Want to nominate a place for this series? Hit up our tipline. Here's what happened between 5:00-5:20 p.m. today at the new Giant anchoring City Market at O.
It's still November, but it looks and feels like the Ice King from Adventure Time has put a terrible winter weather hex on the District. That said, Thanksgiving is still tomorrow and not everyone has collected all of the necessary ingredients, so the city's largest Giant still has a steady flow of customers.
The store doesn't feel overly crowded, but conversely, the store is enormous. There are people in every aisle, but it's difficult to determine whether a moderately busy O Street Giant would equate to a very busy Columbia Heights Giant. Either way, the old fashioned street posts with direction arrows pointing to different areas of the store are very helpful.
Whether it's the new social gathering place has yet to be seen. There are several people on their own, one of whom walks out of the door with a large foil pan, presumably for their turkey or tofurkey. However, the customers are primarily families. There are a handful of strollers and one little girl rides a purple and yellow plastic car in front of her mother's grocery cart, but for the most part small two and three person clusters of adults roam the aisles. The closest thing to a social collaboration comes when seven people gather around the bin holding the ham and start to discuss dressing with pineapple dressing. All of them disperse in different directions.
There's only one person in the cafe right now and they're eating ice cream directly from the container using a plastic fork. Then again, this place is surprisingly busy considering that it's a cold evening before Thanksgiving and nobody yet lives in the adjoining condos that would take advantage of the grocer's free WiFi.
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