It’s been nearly two years since Y&H first reported about Gillian Clark‘s Petworth project, the Georgia Avenue Meeting House, and since that time the chef’s other planned eatery, Avenue Oven in Takoma Park, has gone the way of the Adventists.

Given the lack of news about the Georgia Avenue Meeting House, I’d begun to fear that it, too, may have suffered a premature death. Not so, Clark told me today.

“The ball is rolling,” Clark says, “but very slowly.”

She and her business partner, Robin Smith, lost almost a year to arranging the financing. Apparently the partners’ funding source kept dragging out the process until one day, via e-mail, Clark and Smith learned that the source had dried up.

Clark says they now have the money, which will start rolling in once D.C. issues a building permit. Assuming she gets her permits in a timely manner, Clark thinks construction will not take long and fully expects a March 2011 opening date.

The restaurant will serve genuine soul food, Clark tells me with no small amount of irony. Everyone thinks the General Store, her American-oriented eatery in Silver Spring, already serves soul food, but now she finally will. Look for turtle soup, catfish, and frog legs, among other specialties, on Clark’s menu.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery