D Magazine's SideDish relays the news that M-Crowd, parent company of Mi Cocina, will open a location in 2013 at "The Collection at Chevy Chase," a somewhat pretentiously named luxury shopping center that features a lot of fancy retail brands.
A press release from the Chevy Chase Land Co. compares The Collection at Chevy Chase to Dallas' Highland Park Village, where Mi Cocina has a location.
"The Collection is the perfect location for Mi Cocina. Our guests are the very same guests who shop at The Collection and appreciate quality and style,” Mi Cocina founder Ray Washburne (who is part owner of Highland Park Village) says in the release. “I look forward to the opening next spring." Mi Cocina, of course, also has locations in less hoity-toity places than Highland Park Village, such as Fort Worth's Sundance Square, Chapel Hill Shopping Center and Alliance Town Center, as well as in Southlake Town Square.
Noting that The Collection at Chevy Chase is about 10 minutes from the White House -- Google maps puts it at more like 17 minutes in good traffic -- and that Washburne is a friend of former president George W. Bush -- D's Nancy Nichols muses as to whether Washburne might have more up his sleeve with this move. "Perhaps Washburne is planning to spend more time in the nation’s capital and I don’t mean making tacos," Nichols writes. "Could happen. He’s the kind of guy politicians like to court over strong margaritas." (Note that the many tags in her post include "I'm a rumor monger" and "I want to be just like Michelle Obama.")
Mi Cocina is running with this, and has posted Nichols' entry on its Facebook page. And the D empire has noted Washburne's political connections before, such as in this 2010 profile of Washburne. If you're short on time, here's a key paragraph:
"Washburne is definitely politically connected. He’s the co-founder of the Legacy Fund, a group of 55 business executives that financially backs GOP candidates around the country. On August 10 of[2010], five U.S. Senate hopefuls—including Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio—came to Washburne’s home to connect with potential donors. The Washburnes have also had a new Dallas-area neighbor over to dinner: former President George W. Bush. 'But, really, Legacy is just a group of people interested in supporting GOP candidates,' Washburne says. 'We’re only active around election season, and then we go back to our families and businesses.' "
So maybe Nichols has something here. Then again, the D.C.-area Mi Cocina won't open till after the current presidential election (the election just seems endless). But hey, Washburne will be in the neighborhood ...
