Initial hours of operation will be 11 am to 7:30 pm Monday through Friday, and 11 am to 4 pm on Saturday, but closed Sunday--with plans for longer hours in coming months.

For those who have never come across TaKorean's truck or Union Market space, the menu takes classic Korean items like Bulgogi, Dak Galbi, Bo Ssam, and tofu and gives them a "Mexican twist" -- served taco style or in bowls with rice or slaw (including a kimchi-style offering) and with an array of toppings ranging from lime crema to Siracha sauce to sesame seeds.

The Twelve12 location also will have draft beer, sake, and soju.

The company pledges 1 percent of all gross sales to local environmental and youth-based nonprofits.

(And now I shall apologize for going AWOL this month. I drove to and from Wyoming to deal with various aspects of my mother's estate and to breathe the fresh air--sneaking in some touring of festive places like Lincoln, Neb., Scotts Bluff, Fargo, N.D., and Cedar Falls, Iowa, along the way. The house had no internet connection, except for my smartphone or if I set up my laptop close to a window and caught a neighbor's unsecured WiFi signal--all of which made it easy to go off-grid. So I'll be playing catch-up over the next few days. And I'll be disappearing again at the end of the month for what is hopefully just a brief stint on the DL. Getting old stinks.)

The aforementioned smidgens:

And, in other news worth noting, TaKorean at Twelve12 has its sign up and doesn't look too far from opening, and the first hints of vertical construction have peeked out above the fence at the Hampton Inn site at 1st and N. (That's how fast things can go when you're not digging out three levels of underground parking.)

At Twelve12, where the first residents have begun moving in and Sweetgreen is now open, TaKorean looks to be making progress toward its own launch:

Up above TaKorean, VIDA Fitness's signs have gone up, with an opening looming probably in August.

(And, no photos, but 100 Montaditos at the Boilermaker Shops appears to finally have its building permit.)

Over at 1st and L, fence signage has sprouted for the River Parc apartment building (announcing a web site at, you guessed it, riverparc.com, though there's nothing pertinent there just yet). Plus the leasing trailer is now landscaped and outside the Akridge fence.

In grocery store news, I haven't yet posted photos of the fun artwork hanging on the historic brick wall outside of Harris Teeter's space at 4th and M (below left). And below right, the Whole Foods/800 New Jersey hole in the ground is indeed being dug. (Never say I withhold important information.) Teeter is expected to open this fall, while Whole Foods is not going to be seen before 2017.

But of course, the showiest action in the neighborhood continues to be the long (LONG) farewell to Spooky Building 213, which is starting to edge into How Can We Miss You If You Won't Go Away? territory. But the very south end of the structure began its march into the sunset this weekend, which means that, yes, the bat is about to vanish.

Finally, given the vagaries of both Mother Nature and the summer calendar, it's possible I might not get too many more shots of St. Matthew's church at New Jersey and L, with its raze permit now approved and demolition expected to get underway in the next couple of weeks to make way for 1111 New Jersey. So, maybe a final before-and-after, comparing the view eight years apart:

As scheduled, Sweetgreen opened at Twelve12 a little over a week ago. Here's the outside looking in, and the inside looking out:

As for Twelve12 itself, work is still on-going at the Vida empire, the Teeter, and the upper levels of the residential, but the streetscapes are finished, and the northeast corner of 4th and Tingey now looks well filled in:

(Judging by the ads, it appears that the opening date for the Penthouse Pool club has been pushed back to August.)

First, the obligatory Building 213 demolition shots. Let's compare the state of things on June 2 (left) and June 14 (right):

It's also fun to move back a block and get a better view from the east side, from November 2007 to this weekend. Where did all that sky come from?

And of course there's your basic Om Nom Nom shots:

There's also more peeks at other spots. First, I bring you the holes in the ground at the Hampton Inn on 1st Street (left) and the new residential building at Yards Parcel N (right):

Next, the still-papered over Sweetgreen at Twelve12, in advance of its opening this week, and a nose-pressed-up-against-the-dirty-window shot of the progress at the Harris Teeter in the same block, scheduled to open Oct. 1:

And I'll wrap up with the two photos below. At left, Twelve12's all-but-completed new service nestled between the new building and Building 202. And at right, on 1st south of K, the trailer that arrived this week, which is the one I posted about on Friday--and my guess that it is to be the leasing office for River Parc across the street has been confirmed.

The links to the project pages will show you these photos and many more....

The purveyors of food that is more healthy than should be allowed by law* are planning a soft opening on Wednesday, June 18, from 11 am to 4 pm, where you can pay what you want for food ordered during their test run, with proceeds going to FreshFarm Markets.

Then it's anticipated the restaurant will open on Thursday, June 19 for regular business, with hours of 10:30 am to 10 pm seven days a week.

This is Sweetgreen's twelfth location in the DC area. It's in the same block as Vida Fitness, TaKorean, and Harris Teeter, all of which should be opening over the coming months. Twelve12 expects its first move-ins this month.

I put a hard hat on my hard head for the first time in what feels like forever, and got my first look inside the soon-to-open Twelve12 apartment building on 4th Street at the Yards.

There's still a lot of finishing touches underway, but I got some photos of the model unit as well as some of the other parts of the residential portion of the development.

Forest City says that the building is somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter leased, with the first move-ins coming later this month. Current prices range from $2,100 to $3,100 for studios/1 BRs, and from $3,500 to $4,500 for the two-bedroom units.

I didn't get inside the various retail offerings (though I did press my nose up against the windows). Sweetgreen, TaKorean, and the various components of the Vida Fitness empire (including Aura Spa, Bang Salon, and the Penthouse Pool Club) should be opening over the next few months, and the Harris Teeter Twitter account recently pegged Oct. 1 as the opening day for its new home at 4th and M.

Go look at the entire gallery for lots more shots.

* MORE NEW NEIGHBORS: The move of CBS Radio to 1015 Half Street, rumored in February, is now confirmed, both in my inbox and now in WBJ. Mayor Gray is holding a press conference with various officials at the building Monday mornng. The radio folks are taking about 33,000 square feet on the second floor, and WBJ says they "will also lease about 3,000 square feet on the building's ground floor for use as a performance studio to host talent planning to play other venues during tour stops in D.C." (Maybe passersby will get to press their noses up to the glass to see who's there!) CBS Radio will be joining the National Labor Relations Board at 1015 Half, which announced its lease of 143,000 square feet in January.

* MORE BEVERAGES: Today's DC Register has two notices of alcoholic beverage license applications of note, both at the Yards. One is for 100 Montaditos, the Spanish small sandwiches restaurant coming to the Boilermaker Shops, and TaKorean, which will be bringing its Korean-style tacos to Twelve12. The apps say that Montaditos will have 74 seats, and TaKorean will have 60 seats, along with a 14-seat sidewalk cafe.

Now I shall return to watching the rain.

Ground zero for the new offerings is 1st Street between M and N (coincidentally, right where all those fans going to Nats Park will see them!).

Skanska has put up a new fence on the west side of the street and big ads for its 99 M office building (which also now has a web site, and the first clear rendering I've seen of the building). Click to enlarge:

Then, across the street, the Yards folks have unveiled their new logo along with other avatar-ready design elements and hipsteriffic promo photos:

A few blocks away, on the Tingey Street fence that will partially prevent me from watching the construction of Parcel N (boo), ads for the Twelve12 apartment building offer several tweet-appropriate slogans, though I will try to not add a magic marker-ed hashtag to "Find Your (#)Awesome."

I also got updated photos of the under-construction Park Chelsea and River Parc apartment buildings, but since they don't have new pretty signs on their fences they don't make the front page this time.

* CSX II: ANC 6B writes to Mayor Gray: "We have serious concerns about the VAT project proposed in the draft environmental impact statement, and we urge you to ensure those concerns are adequately addressed before the District issues the requisite approvals for the project."

* POCKET CHANGE: The Wall Street Journal reports that "Investors who own the storied Hawk ‘n’ Dove bar and other Capitol Hill eating spots owe more than $9 million to D.C. restaurateur Xavier Cervera and his partners who sold the restaurants to them in late 2012." An earlier WSJ piece gives a wider view of the mess of financing this all appears to be.

* FOR THE RECORD: In Precinct 131 (Near Southeast), Muriel Bowser received 40 percent of the vote, Tommy Wells 30 percent, and Vince Gray 24 percent. And in the Ward 6 council race, Charles Allen beat Darrel Thompson 57-43. A grand total of 444 people cast ballots out of the 2,085 registered voters in the precinct. So, yay to 21.29 percent of you!

* BLUEJACKET AND BASEBALL: It seems like the brewery has already been here forever, but Bluejacket is about to embark on its first season of providing refreshments to Nats fans. They've announced that they will be "tailgating" on their patio at 10 am Friday for the season opener, and that their new outdoor grill will be open for business "weather permitting, all season long Thursdays through Sundays from 11 am until 10 pm and on all game days beginning two hours before the first pitch."

* SWEET!: Sweetgreen has gotten its tenant layout permit to begin the buildout of its space in Twelve12, on 4th Street across from Bluejacket.

* THROWBACK THURSDAY: I did a bit of purging in my office over the weekend, and found at least two museum-worthy items (here and here). That's in addition to the Canal Park groundbreaking shovel I still trip over on a regular basis.