7-11s are expanding all over the city, and the reception in some neighborhoods has been less than warm. On H Street NE, ANC 6A is drawing the line—at chicken bones.

After negotiating with the company for several months to hammer out a memorandum of understanding for the new convenience store, members of the ANC’s zoning and economic development committee came up with the one thing they couldn’t stand about 7-11’s standard operating procedure: the bones that litter sidewalks after customers finish with their fried chicken. Last month, the committee warned 7-11 that unless they agreed to not sell fried chicken, they would recommend that the ANC protest the store’s certificate of occupancy. The company declined, and at last week’s general meeting, the full ANC voted to do just that.

The real issue, says committee chairman Drew Ronneberg, is whether a 7-11 is a grocery store (as it purports to be) or a fast food establishment, which is restricted under the H Street Neighborhood Commercial Overlay.

“It looks like you’re walking into a KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, but they’re all under one roof,” he explains. Asking for a break on the chicken bone front is a compromise position.

So now it’s up to the Board of Zoning Adjustment to decide.