Results tagged “bars>”

At 11:30 a.m. this morning, the Black Rooster Pub will reopen its doors at 1919 L Street NW. The pub had been closed for several weeks after the building's landlord declined to renew its lease, but a combination of online petitions and intervention from local politicos ultimately helped save the business.

On Saturday we posted about Dr. Dremo's, the much-beloved and missed Arlington bar that closed in January 2008 -- they were looking for investors for a potential new location in Clarendon. Since then, a few others folks picked up on the story: you can read interviews with owner Andrew Stewart by blogger Tom Cizauskas and our own Missy Frederick in the Washington Biz Journal.

Joe Englert's H Street NE bar The Argonaut was closed last night, thanks to a dispute with the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue, as Frozen Tropics reported earlier this morning. Englert tried to explain his side of what happened in a statement to the neighborhood blog, outlining a process that started with being notified that three of his businesses owed tens of thousands of in back sales and use taxes. He said two of those accounts were quickly resolved, but The Argonaut's was more complicated, and "even though we kept in daily contact with the Department and even though we were told repeatedly that we were working in compliance, they came any way and shut us down," Englert wrote.

Potentially great news for Black Rooster Pub loyalists. The longtime downtown watering hole served what it thought would be its last drinks on October 16, after the bar's owner, Jody Taylor, learned at the end of September that his had landlord had declined to renew the Rooster's lease. Heartfelt farewell stories to the pub appeared in the media shortly thereafter, and we chalked the whole sad story up to accepting that nothing, not even a popular, 40-year-old Washington bar, lasts forever. But earlier today, the BlackRoosterPub twitter feed provided the first glimmer of hope:

Good news for the Black Rooster! We are making headway getting back to business.. Details soon. #rally4therooster

Reached by telephone, Rooster Pub kitchen manager Phillip Turner confirmed that the bar does indeed hope to reopen in the next two to three weeks. Turner said that as he understood it, the leasing agent and the building owner "were able to work out something."

Beloved Dupont neighborhood watering hole Fox & Hounds returned to its roots this month, permanently bringing back its old, standard jukebox almost three years after the machine was replaced with a newfangled digital version.

Punch Club is returning this Sunday at 5 p.m. at Room 11. Earlier this year we told you about Punch Club at the Warehouse Theater. Bartender Dan Searing used it as a practice run for Room 11. This Sunday's punches will include Glogg (mulled wine) and Rocky Mountain Punch (sparkling wine, rum, and maraschino liqueur).

D.C. taxicab drivers made good on their promise to boycott the busy Adams Morgan nightlife district between the hours of 1 a.m and 4 a.m. on Saturday night. WJLA covers the reaction, and at least one friend of DCist told us he nearly managed to flag down a taxi on Columbia Rd. during that time, but then the driver, apparently suddenly remembering the strike, abruptly pulled away before he could enter the cab.

If kickball is simply too sporty for you, you've got two new ways to drink a whole lot and not feel guilty about it. The city's growing bocce league has announced that their fall season will take place indoors at the American Legion and Pour House on Capitol Hill. Instead of forcing participants to actually walk from the usual outdoor fields of play to the bar and then drink, the new arrangement -- on astroturf and with lighter balls -- will allow both to happen at once without the peskiness of Mother Nature or laws regulating public drinking to get in the way. Similarly, Frozen Tropics is reporting that a Skeeball tournament will be starting up at the H Street Country Club this Sunday, with a complete league set to kickoff this Winter. With only two Skeeball machines at the bar though, we have a hard time imagining this will be able to include a lot of people.

Sad news for workers in the 19th and L area: the old standby watering hole Black Rooster Pub will be forced to close its doors by Nov. 3, the Washington Business Journal is reporting. The bar, located at 1919 L Street NW, is being kicked out by the building's owner, who has decided to lease the space to the Peace Corps. instead. Since opening in 1970, Black Rooster has long been the sort of place that's no one's absolute favorite bar, but that anyone would feel comfortable going to. Regulars describe the Rooster's charm as having a lot to do with the diversity of the crowd – older folks, full-time drunks, young office workers, lawyers – everyone ended up at the Rooster at some point or another.

It's only natural to want to top off a grueling afternoon or evening of sporting competition – in this case, mini-golf – with a couple of cold ones. Luckily for cocktail fans, at H Street Country Club, that post-game refreshment isn't limited to a selection of beers shoved in a cooler on the back of the golf cart. Thanks to the bar's newly expanded drinks menu, and the magic touch of mixologist turned consultant Gina Chersevani, revelers and competitors alike can sip on a Pebble Beach, a Mr. Hendrick's and a few other hand-crafted cocktails that include fresh and unique ingredients.

Nice scoop from Fritz Hahn: the empty basement space at 1115 U Street NW, formerly occupied by Cue Bar, will be taken over by an all-star group of local nightlife veterans and transformed into a dance club dubbed the U Street Music Hall. Among the owners are ubiquitous local DJs Will Eastman and Jesse Tittsworth, Eric Hilton and Farid Ali of Eighteenth Street Lounge, and Marvin chef James Hilton. Nice to hear that the space, which has been the site of many a failed bar venture and been sitting empty for over a year, will see some new life. There definitely seems like there's room for something like this on U Street, as well. As Eastman noted when he spoke to Hahn, some kinds of dance nights don't fit in at either the Black Cat or the 9:30 Club, so this project could potentially fill that void.

Don’t get in Hagan Blount’s way this weekend if you run into him in a D.C. bar or restaurant. He’s got mouths to feed—or more accurately, one mouth, 24 times: his own. Blount, who blogs under the name “Wandering Foodie,” is invading D.C. this weekend in an attempt to test 24 of the area’s eateries in 24 hours. He performed a similar feat in Boston last month—video footage available here and here—and has now been scouting D.C. for the better part of the last two weeks: testing routes, interviewing fellow foodies, and talking with some of D.C. food industry insiders. Some of his interview footage is already posted here.

Freshly sworn in U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was spotted (and captured in a grainy video by a FOX camera) celebrating with friends and family at Chinatown's Irish Channel Pub on Monday night. That Sotomayor went out dancing and sang karaoke in a local bar makes us supremely happy. We have high hopes that the justice will quickly become a visible fixture in our city. But Sonia, sweetheart, the Irish Channel? The last resort of visiting hockey fans and tourists staying at the Red Roof Inn who have no better ideas of where to go? DCist will admit to knocking a few pints back at the Irish Channel in emergency situations, but nearly every time we've been chased out by the unmistakable ambiance of lonely desperation (or a painfully bad cover band). We have to give props to Sotomayor for looking like she made the best of things and had a great time on Monday, but hopefully after she settles in we can help steer her in the direction of some better bars. What say you, commentariat? Where should the justice hang out?

Everyone knows that the Townhouse Tavern is nice little spot to enjoy cheap drinks and play videoscreen touchy porn. Saddle up to the bar, order a shot and a beer, and find the subtle differences between paired images of nekkid men and women. Counting nipple tassels may not be the most distinguished way to spend an evening, but it's far from the least reputable way to spend a night at the Townhouse Tavs.

by DCist contributor Andrew Helms

If there's one complaint that I've heard more than any other about the Real World's imminent arrival in town this week, it's this: where are the alcoholic safe houses going to be for all of us that don't care about the true stories of seven strangers living together, preferring our own stories which don't involve having jobs handed to us and living in a Dupont Circle mansion?

The proprietors of Eventide restaurant and lounge have said they are essentially trying to be everything Clarendon is not. Putting aside whether that bruises your ego—we’re looking at you, Whitlow’s lovers—the lounge and rooftop bar at the four-months old restaurant are upscale yet approachable spots for happy hour that will win over just about anybody. Hoping to kick back with, say, a tasty Belgian triple from a Canadian microbrewery? Yeah, they’ve got that. Prefer your beer cheaper and more, how shall we say, in a can? Tecate it is. Like trying new cocktail creations, especially if they involve some kind of liquor you’ve never heard of? Voila. The Vieux Mot with Plymouth gin, St. Germain Elderflower liqueur and lemon juice is for you.

Rumor spread wildly last night through the drunkosphere (i.e., Twitter) that the Townhouse Tavern had lost its liquor license. Now, considering that it's the Townhouse Tavs -- the only bar in Dupont Circle to merit the word "scabrous" -- the question seemed likely not "whether" but "for what, finally?" Did Redskins fans in the end rise up against that bartender whose phone ringtone is the theme to ? Maybe the progressive interest groups that call the Tavs home mounted a brazen revolution? Or did notorious and mysteriously disappeared former bartender Jodie return to completely turn out the bar's liquor holdings in the form of free shots, the way he would, oh, any time someone put SWV on the jukebox?

The Going Out Gurus are reporting that two Adams Morgan bars, Bossa Bistro & Lounge and Bobby Lew's Saloon, have had their liquor licenses revoked by the D.C. Alcohol Control Board for low food sales. Both bars had restaurant-class licenses, which require 45 percent of gross receipts to be derived from food sales. Neither establishment has ever been in trouble regarding their liquor licenses before, but it's unclear what will happen now, as the board seems bent on sticking to the letter of the law and making an example out of the two.

It's not something we'd recommend on a regular basis, but sometimes, every once in a blue moon, it's a good idea to go ahead and get blind drunk in the middle of the day and end up in the gutter. You know, as a celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of booze. This is only more true for recent victims of the recession, the folks who have every reason to drink and nothing else to do. D.C.'s unemployment rate now sits at roughly 10 percent, so there should be plenty of takers for the Breadline Bar Crawl, a midday drunkfest being organized by a group of recently laid off D.C. lawyers.

Policy, a new lounge on 14th Street NW, opens today, billing itself as a "modern interpretation of the classic diner." Chef Brian Murphy (formerly of L'Auberge Chez Francois and Palena) takes the lead on a seasonal menu that fuses global cuisines with classics into menu items such as madras curry lamb sliders and kobe hot dogs.

Here's a story we missed last night from WJLA: as of January, bars in D.C. that are caught selling alcohol to minors for the first time now get a warning instead of a $1,000 fine and a two-day liquor license suspension. In a surprise twist, the change in the law pits Jim "Shut 'Em Down" Graham against the D.C./Va. chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), with MADD expressing concern over becoming too lenient on liquor sales violations, and Graham insisting the new law is more fair. Repeat offenders are actually penalized more now than they were before, Graham notes.

Bars will close at the usual time of 3 a.m. for the nights of Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th. On Sunday and Monday, they'll be allowed to stay open an extra hour and close at 3 a.m. And on Tuesday, inauguration day, they'll keep partying until 4 a.m. instead of the usual 2 a.m.

A number of establishments that you might not really think of as bars are liable to stay up past closing time, primarily restaurants.

It seems like just a few weeks ago we were heralding the Washington Psychotronic Film Society's return to the District. Wait, that actually was just a few weeks ago. After a scant six week run at The Meeting Place downtown, it seems that the film society has been given the boot by the bar.

Just more than one-third of the city's 1,027 bars will not be able to extend hours during the inauguration due to binding voluntary agreements with their neighborhoods, reports the Washington Post. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Attorney General Peter Nickles confirmed on Friday that no occasion — not even the election of the first black president of the United States of America — is too special to supercede voluntary agreements with neighborhood groups, many of which are 20 years old.

At-large D.C. Council member Kwame Brown (D) has just started a new blog dedicated to issues surrounding the presidential inauguration. His first (and so far, only) post concerns the D.C. Council's decision to keep bars and restaurants open 24 hours and allow liquor sales until 5 a.m., and asks the question: "Do you think DC should reverse the legislation or keep the law as it stands?" Sounds like Kwame Brown is definitely one of the Council members who Phil Mendelson referred to in a recent interview with WTOP as having "second thoughts" about the emergency legislation.

You had to know this was coming: a couple of D.C.-based political organizers have put together an online petition, Save the Parties, in support of the D.C. Council's legislation that would allow District bars and restaurants to stay open 24-hours and serve alcohol until 5 a.m.

Petition: "Mayor Fenty: The people voted overwhelmingly for change, and we want to celebrate that change big-time! Stand strong -- don't back down on 5 a.m. bar closings during Inauguration week."

There's also a Facebook group, natch. Anyone seen an online petition for the negative position?

Arlington institution Dr. Dremo's closed its doors and auctioned off everything that wasn't nailed down back in January, but the building and its neighbors (the old Taco Bell, etc.) have stood empty since then, awaiting demolition to make way for a new condo development. Well George Whelan sent in these photos showing that demolition has finally begun. Most of the surrounding buildings are being taken down today, and one construction worker said he had been told they'd do the actual Dremo's building sometime next week. So, Dremo's fans, stroll by this week to take one long, last look.

A couple weeks ago we linked to a post on popular Clarendon bar Galaxy Hut's MySpace blog announcing that owner Lary Hoffman had decided to stop accepting credit cards. The announcement sparked a number of agitated and sarcastic comments accusing Hoffman of passing on unnecessary extra costs, like ATM fees, to his customers. Thanks to the negative reaction, over the weekend Hoffman emailed us and posted a comment on the same thread saying he'd changed his mind.

There are several layers to D.C.'s jazz scene, and each boasts its own set of musicians and strengths. National acts generally play at the larger halls, such as the Kennedy Center, or Blues Alley, if they choose to play a club date. As far as the local scene, the older musicians tend to play the same rooms, or places where the crowd is generally older as well, such as Jazz Night in Southwest. The most exciting aspect of the local scene, however, is the explosion of young talent that has developed over the past five to ten years. These musicians tend to concentrate along the corridors of U Street, or 18th Street in Adams Morgan. Though only blocks apart, there are subtle variations between the two destinations that give the jazz listener in the nation's capital a surprising number of musical options.