After 22 years in business, Fado Irish Pub in Chinatown has shut down.
Owners Kieran McGill and Greg Algie attributed the closure not to the coronavirus pandemic that has temporarily shuttered bars across the city, but to leasing issues, according to an April 27 Facebook post.
“Like many others in D.C., the reason for our closing is ‘progress,’” McGill and Algie wrote. “We have negotiated quarterly extensions to our lease for the past two years, while trying to negotiate a long term-agreement. And, after years of trying, we have been unable to do so. There will be many restaurants that will not reopen after the current closures. Ironically, ours is not about COVID-19, we just could not renew our lease.”
Fado’s owners did not return requests for comment.
Popville reported rumors of Fado’s closing on Monday. The restaurant confirmed the news later that day with its own Facebook post and Eater confirmed its closure with the property’s listing broker. By Wednesday, fans of the pub had left more than 300 comments mourning the bar’s closure.
Fado closed its doors the day before St. Patrick’s Day, after Mayor Muriel Bowser suspended seated service for restaurants. When the bar first opened in 1998—also on March 16, 22 years to the day before it closed—D.C.’s downtown sports arena was just a year old.
Over two decades, Fado became a popular destination for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and World Cup watches. Expats and American rugby fans gathered in the morning to watch rugby games while munching on the pub’s signature Irish breakfast of black-and-white pudding and brown bread. The kitchen prided themselves on sustainably-caught cod from Iceland and an unconventional corn beef and cabbage featuring potato dumplings and kale.
The chain counts eight pubs across the U.S., as well as one in Abu Dhabi, including an Annapolis location. Yet the pub maintained a well-worn and authentic aesthetic: Like many Irish pubs, its entire interiors were built in Ireland then shipped in pieces to the site.
Fado isn’t the first to exit Chinatown due to rising rent in recent years. In 2017, the craft beer bar Regional Food and Drink—also known as RFD—closed after 15 years. At the time, RFD owner Josh Alexander told DCist that his business couldn’t keep up with a 10 percent rent increase. The Philadelphia-based stir fry chain Honeygrow also abandoned its Chinatown location in 2018 due the area’s high rents, according to Eater.
Last August, arena patrons lost another watering hole with the closure of Penn Commons. While 2019 dealt a significant financial blow with the government shutdown, the bar struggled throughout its five years of service, David Wizenberg, partner at Passion Food Hospitality, told DCist last year. Wizenberg noted that the oversaturated restaurant market and rising rents in D.C., particularly in Chinatown, made it difficult for businesses to survive.
Meanwhile, sports bar Greene Turtle, located at the corner of 6th and F streets, shut its doors last spring after Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the company behind Capital One, bought out the location’s lease. Monumental has plans to turn the space into a sportsbook: a facility to place bets on sports.
Also set to open in Chinatown: Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar. The company was set to open a new location in the former Ping Pong Dim Sum space in April, but has been postponed by the pandemic.
