Sam’s Park & Shop would seem the ideal setting for neighborhood-based retail — a small strip shopping center on busy Connecticut Avenue adjacent to the Cleveland Park Metro station and catty-corner to the Uptown Theater.

The Cosi sandwich chain thought it had found a prime location there for its newest D.C. outlet. But after a wearying struggle over zoning regulations, the lunchtime staple has opted to move on, and now a mattress store is pursuing that vacant storefront.