Well, that’s how the police knew to investigate the place. The place had actually got a really good review in the Washington Post. I was a regular there and kind of knew the owner, but it just kept getting worse and worse. I think at some point the owner realized that his dream was dying and he probably thought that he could dip his toe into fronting for drug dealers and then get back out again. He’s still in jail, the last I heard (and of course the place lost all its liquor and business permits), so I don’t think he could reopen when he gets out. From looking in the windows, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a walk in fridge filled with rotting meat as it looks like the power was cut off.
Missed the edit window, but here is a short article about the place http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2010/09/23/was-there-something-better-than-dessert-at-el-limeno/. It was great because it’s a short walk from my house and there is only one other sit down place on that street.
Is it on Western, or Howard? I’m navigating around but the interface is slow and I think I’m missing it.
If it was a front operation, why did they let you in at all?
I guess it’s possible they were expecting somebody the security guard didn’t know by sight, but if that’s the case they’re incompetent criminals. Did it seem like the kitchen was in operation?
Never mind, found it! (It’s on Western, south of Howard.) Yeah, that’s… not exactly an inviting storefront, is it? Tightly drawn blinds, plain glass door with (at the time) tape from a taken-down sign right in the middle of it, slot in the door, rusty little mailbox mounted next to the door. No store hours posted that I can see, nothing.
Money laundering is likely. They have the door locked because they are not set up to actually make many burgers maybe.
I have a friend that was a revenue officer for the IRS. He constantly told stories of golf shops with locked doors that have a small area out back to hit golf balls against a bare fence…and make 6 million dollars a year. To those that don’t know…if you have an illegal revenue stream you can get in trouble spending it because you spend much more than you earn risking the wrath of the IRS. Therefore, you set up a sham business that makes a ton of money and you pay taxes on it. Illegal money is now clean.
He got involved because even though they were money laundering, sometimes they didn’t want to pay the taxes 
Hijack potential or maybe a spinoff thread: images from Google Maps with Street View of peculiar places like this. If such already exists, a link to it/them?
That’s a good idea.
The thing about that storefront that WhyNot mentioned is that it doesn’t look abnormal - for a place that’s out of business and just left the awnings and sign up. However, it in no way resembles a bakery that’s trying to have customers come in!
Here. My guess is that they’re just out of business.
I was at the 24 hour Walgreen’s across the street from here last night. Small world.
Your first hint should have been that the place was called “Legitimate Businessmen ‘N Burgers.”
Thanks for that! The Walgreens looks like Fort Knox.
Here’s another view. Note the 7-digit phone has no area code, making the sign at least 17 years out of date.
Bakery.com lists them, though.
Anything’s possible, but I lived around the corner for 5 years, and it always looked like that. Someone’s at least clearing out the junk mail every day. The signs and awnings, old as they are, are still in good repair. Lights inside go on and off. The red van is removed at night and returns every day (although I suppose it could belong to someone who works at Midas.) It doesn’t appear/feel closed, just not real open.
Yep. It’s even mentioned on the SDMB here in the thread “Cool stuff that’s gone”:
Also mentioned in this thread on LTH forum (a local food & dining message board.)
There is one not too far from my place that’s more of a take out joint, it’s the same building as a car and dog wash but I’m not sure if the same people own the whole thing. Probably, because I never see people in the food place and I’m too afraid to try it.
Why? Because they can’t decide what to sell. All over the window they advertise their food, pizza, bubble tea, schwarma, Tom yum soup, sushi and I can’t recall what else. If it were one or two cuisines I’d be all right and try it but having so many cuisines coming out of this tiny shop makes you question if any of them will even be ok. Maybe I’ll brave it for bubble tea one of these days but that’s about it.
How come your links link and my link last night didn’t? 
Oooh, puly - so it was once a functioning bakery? Huh. Neat. I wonder who’s squatting in there now. And why they haven’t taken down the signs.
Just a guess: barely legal (if that) “custom massages.”
Well, it is a multi-family unit (5.5 baths, according to Trulia, sold in 2001), so presumably there are at least some legal renters in there. Maybe.
There is an establishment in my town that has been there forever and is very mysterious. No one I knew had ever been in it, there was no advertising ever, just a small sign on the door. It sounds a lot like the place your mother worked. When I was in my early teens for some reason my parents decided to order a pizza from there and sent me in to pick it up. I was maybe 13 or 14, and walked in, and it was a big, dark, shabby looking bar populated by a half dozen men who clammed up as soon as I opened the door. They watched me in utter silence while I got the pizza, and I was SO creeped out. I took the pizza out to the car and told my mom, ‘this is a bad place, I think those guys in there are mafia’. I just knew something was ‘off’. Don’t know if they were mafia or just a bunch of friends hangin’ out, but the vibes were bad.
There is also a similarly shabby bakery where they make cookies and Italian bread. That’s it. Cookies and bread. They never advertise, ever. The bakery has no set hours, sometimes its open, sometimes mysteriously closed. They are always out of the one kind of cookie I go there for, too! Either that place is some kind of money laundering front, or it’s manned by one or two guys who seem to go to work on a whim.
I remember a restaurant that looked like that a couple decades ago outside Boston. However, in that case it was a legitimate restaurant that I’d have placed in the top 10 in Eastern Mass. at the time. You almost had to be “in the know” to try it and realize what a gem this dark room next to a sub shop was.
After a couple years in the tiny, uninviting space they found investors and moved into a large, modern building and you had to have reservations a month in advance. I missed the old days but was very happy for the owners who deserved their success. I just looked them up and after almost 20 years in their new location they’re still getting great reviews.