In the wake of a fight early Friday morning outside Mood Lounge in Mt. Vernon during which two men were stabbed (both suffered non-life threatening injuries), Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) has demanded that the venue be closed.
In a statement released today, Evans said he is backing MPD’s request to the Alcoholic Beverage Control board for a three-day emergency closing of Mood. Other establishments that have been the scenes of violent crimes—most recently Heritage India—have been temporarily shuttered on the authority of MPD Chief Cathy Lanier. (According to MPD, Lanier has used the power 38 times since 2007, nine times in 2011 alone.)
A Metropolitan Police Department spokesman told DCist that the two victims suffered serious lacerations—one was cut in the abdomen, the other in the lower back—and taken to a nearby hospital by a friend. The incident happened about 1:15 a.m., and the victims were admitted in critical but stable condition.
Since opening its doors in February, Mood Lounge has been the subject of numerous noise complaints by its neighbors in Shaw. A July post on the Prince of Petworth blog featured one such complaint in a letter sent to Evans’ office:
Does the Mood Lounge have permission to operate on Sunday through Thursday nights? Because their website indicates they are only open on Friday and Saturday nights, and these are the only two nights of the week we as neighbors are subjected to torture on a regular basis
In a response to those letters, Evans wrote back saying that Mood is licensed by the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration to operate as a bar, not a nightclub, and that he would explore what “can be done legally to get it closed.”
Despite its ABRA status as a tavern, Mood’s hours of operation—it’s open Friday and Saturday nights until 3 a.m.—are more in line with those of a nightclub.
Ward 2 is home to about 75 percent of the city’s liquor licenses, said Evans’ spokesman Andrew Huff. While he said there are no problems with a vast majority of the ward’s alcohol-serving merchants, “one percent are bad neighbors.” There have been complaints about Mood Lounge’s refuse overflowing the back alley it shares with residents of Naylor Court, and other crimes reported outside the establishment such as attempted carjackings, Huff added.
“These guys are clearly not interested in being part of the community,” he said.
Abeba Beyene, who owns Mood Lounge, said she doesn’t know anything about the stabbing and that her establishment has nothing to do with what happened Friday morning. She told DCist she was tending bar and closed up about 12:30 a.m. Though the lounge is usually open only on Fridays and Saturdays, she does open it for special events some weekdays. There were 50 to 60 people in the 300-person capacity space last night, she noted.
“I don’t see a reason why we should close,” she said.
Beyene also says that the incident endemic to the neighborhood than attributable to the lounge.
“This area, someone’s always getting jumped,” she said. “It’s happened to me. This is common for this street. You can’t walk even during the day. This is the most dangerous area.”
The MPD spokesman said there are no suspects yet in the stabbing.
