When you walk into Dixie Liquor today, the first thing you notice is the smell. It’s not a particularly enticing aroma, but it’s a good one. It smells fresh, clean, sterile. It has that brand new, fresh-out-of-the-box smell.

The bottles are new, the shelves are new and the ceiling is new. A new ID scanner sits on the counter, and a new Apple computer rests behind it.

The store’s three new owners, Jody Kurash, Ron Leoni and Michael Marucci, have completely redone the place since they purchased it in June. The store went out of business last January and finally reopened under the new ownership on Dec. 21.

“We have a nice new Web site now, and that’s just the beginning,” Kurash says. “You’re going to be able to reserve your kegs over the internet, e-mail us orders and come pick them up.”

The store even started its own Facebook page last week and has quickly acquired 110 friends.

Technology aside, there is also something undeniably old-fashioned about Dixie. From the outside, it looks like a store from the 1940s or ‘50s, with the paint cracking off of the painting of Jack the Bulldog on the wall by the entrance. Despite the recent renovations and technological advancements, Dixie remains one of the most historic businesses in the area.

“The place hasn’t really changed much over the years,” Ronnie Miller, the building’s owner, says. “It’s pretty much the same, only modern.”

Miller has worked at the store since he was 12 years old. His parents purchased Dixie in 1951 when he was just two, and the business has remained in his family — to a certain extent — ever since. He and his brother Stewart took over the business in 1977, but bankruptcy forced them to sell Dixie last year. In addition to owning the building, Miller continues to oversee the store’s wine selection now.

“It was the oldest established family business in Georgetown,” Miller says. “You can still say part of it’s still in the family, but we don’t really throw that out there. It’s not totally run by the family anymore, so we can’t say that.”

The building was originally occupied by two different shoemakers from 1910 through the 1920s. After prohibition ended in the 1930s, it became a liquor store.

Miller, who just returned from two weeks of wine tasting in France, says that countless celebrities, politicians and athletes have walked through Dixie’s doors during his lifetime. Some of the store’s famous past customers include John F. Kennedy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sen. John Warner, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Madonna. In fact, an old Georgetown shopping guide brochure on display at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. calls Dixie Liquor “John Kennedy’s favorite liquor store.”

“Everybody at one time or another has strolled through here,” Miller says. “If you’re a figure in Washington, sooner or later you come in here. It’s a convenient store.”

Dixie has also catered for many local concerts, including performances by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys. Miller said the Beach Boys’ concert was the first on the National Mall.

“We supplied all the sodas and the ice and the spirits and everything for backstage for the performers,” Miller says.

Miller also credits Dixie with always putting students first. He says that after he graduated college, he and his brother made Dixie the first store in Washington, D.C., to carry kegs. And he claims that Dixie Liquor was “the first advertiser Georgetown basketball ever had.” In posting signs above the team’s exercise equipment that explaining how to use the machines ,he served as one of the first sponsers before the team became nationally known.

According to Miller, Dixie’s relationship with Georgetown students has always been a positive one. He recalls catering for the senior class parties in a tent outside of McDonough Gymnasium and staying there until 5 a.m. with the keg trucks.

“Georgetown students helped us keep things afloat over the years,” Miller says. “We’ve always catered to the students. That was our first priority.”

The biggest change to Dixie over the years, however was caused by, of all things, ATMs, Miller says. Before ATMs became prevalent in the early 1980s, Georgetown students went to Dixie to cash their checks.

“We were the bank for the university for the kids,” Miller says. “My father would charge them ten cents to cash a check. And if it bounced we’d have to come chasing you. Now they’ve all got credit cards and ATM machines, so there’s no need to have a check cashing place.”

Though the liquor store’s three new owners did not work at Dixie during its check-cashing days, they too have an appreciation for the store’s history. They all agreed after purchasing Dixie that their first order of business would be to restore the store’s distinctive neon signs — and they held to their promise.

The signs have been affixed to the outside of the store since at least the 1940s. Photographs of the store from the 1950s show the signs in place. However, the neon lights stopped working at some point in the 1980s and were never fixed.

In order to get the new neon lights installed, Dixie’s owners had to get them approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which oversees any changes made to buildings in Georgetown, a national historic district.

“They had to be exact replicas,” Kurash says. “We had to have detailed drawings and it all had to be approved.”

On Dec. 20, the signs, which Kurash calls “the only big neon signs in Georgetown,” were lit for the first time in over 20 years.

“You can see them from halfway across the Key Bridge,” Kurash says.

In many ways, the bright signs represent what Dixie Liquor is all about. On the one hand, the neon lights are brand new. On the other hand, the signs themselves have been there for as long as anyone can remember. The neon lights of Dixie are just another reminder of the Georgetown milestone that has played an invaluable role in the lives of Georgetown students.

“Dixie is a landmark,” Miller says. “I can’t believe it, but it is.”