Although DCist isn’t necessarily surprised that Visions Cinema Bistro has been at risk of going out of business (with Landmark opening its E Street multiplex), but we are surprised about a possible replacement tenant. A DCist tipster says that he “wouldn’t be surprised if Grover Norquist tries to turn Visions into a Reagan museum.”
Say what? We’re a bit confused.
Think about it. Since Reagan was shot around the corner at the Washington Hilton, it would make sense for Republicans to try to snatch up Visions’ prime real estate and turn it into an assassination intereactive museum.
This sounds like bit far-fetched for a number of reasons. Assuming that Visions is closing, it holds a highly-sought after full liquor license, which would make its transfer to a restaurant a highly likely possibility. And anyway, would Democratic-leaning Dupont Circle approve of a site memorializing the Gipper?
Historic sites associated with the Lincoln assassination in 1865 are over on 10th Street downtown (Ford’s Theatre and the Peterson House) and on H Street in Chinatown (the Surratt House, where John Wilkes Booth rented a room in Mary Surratt’s boarding house).
President Reagan was shot in 1981 at the back side of the Washington Hilton, near where T Street and Florida Avenue intersect.
