Inside “Neighborgoods” at 4300 Georgia Avenue NW

by Yuliya Panfil

Here’s one more reason to wander a little past the Upshur drag during this the Celebrate Petworth Festival on September 23rd: Neighborgoods, a foodie-themed home goods shop, is holding an open studio and selling items onsite from noon to 5pm.

The studio, located at 4300 Georgia Ave NW, typically serves as a staging and production site for owner Jodi Kostelnik’s lines of dish towels, tote bags, greeting cards and other gifts and knicknacks, which she sells online and at several area farmers markets. But after regular knocks on her front door from curious passers by, Kostelnik decided to open her shop for a few hours next Saturday so the neighborhood can stop by.

A mock-up of the outside of the store (to come!)

Neighborgoods has existed for nearly a decade, in one form or another. It started in 2015 as a wholesale business that Kostelnik, a designer by trade, founded after falling in love with screen printing.

Kostelnik had always drawn inspiration from food and farmers markets, and so her first creations were a set of pickle-themed dish towels and other food centered items.

Jodi Kostelnik with the keys to the new shop.

The business slowly started taking off and in 2018 Kostelnik closed her main design practice to sell Neighborgoods wears at farmers markets (including the weekly USDA farmers market, which she continues to sell at) and online. In 2019, Neighborgoods opened its first brick and mortar location inside the Atlantic Plumbing building in Shaw.

But then Covid hit, and the store shuttered. Fast forward a few years and Kostelnik, who now lives in Petworth, found a new space in June across from the Petworth library.

“I was adamant in being part of the community I live in,” she says. “We found the space on Georgia Avenue and it was perfect. We moved in June and we’ve been working on getting settled in, shelves stocked. It took a while and we finally feel like we’re settled.”

Kostelnik is excited to show the neighborhood her wares, and hinted that as the holidays draw near and depending on how Saturday goes, she may host a few more open studios. In the meantime, you can purchase her new mushroom-themed dish towels line and other culinary-inspired items through their website, at the USDA farmers market, on Instagram and at the upcoming Downtown Holiday Market.