Eighteenth Street Lounge opened in 1995.

Sandie Clarke / Unsplash

Popular Dupont nightlife spot Eighteenth Street Lounge announced Monday that it will be closing indefinitely as uncertainty remains over when it can reopen due to the pandemic.

While D.C. has entered Phase Two of its reopening plan today, as a nightclub, Eighteenth Street Lounge cannot lay out the doormat to guests until Phase Three, according to the city’s report outlining recommendations. Even then, nightclubs cannot have more than five people per 1,000 square feet. (The lounge is about 10,000 square feet.) Clubs cannot return to their previous normal until Phase Four, the final stage of reopening, which will only occur when there is either a cure or vaccine for the coronavirus.

“I am taking time to listen to the science on public health and rethink strategies for the future of how we can deliver the best experiences to patrons moving forward,” said owner and co-founder Farid Nouri in a statement.

Nouri told Eater that he couldn’t reach agreeable terms on a lease renewal with the lounge’s landlord once the current lease expires this summer. “Staying idle for the foreseeable future, it makes sense to wrap up,” he told the outlet. (He has not responded to our request for comment.)

Nouri was among the D.C. club operators who wrote an open letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council calling for aid, legal protections, and the ability to renegotiate leases. “We are effectively closed with zero revenues and mounting rent dues and insurance premiums, that will set us so far into debt we will not be able to reopen our businesses,” the letter said, adding that 80% or more of nightlife businesses could become obsolete.

Also known as ESL, it opened 25 years ago — an incredible span of time for a club to remain relevant. On the lounge’s 20th birthday, a Washington Post article sought to discover why the venue was still kicking even as it became “geriatric in nightclub years” and landed on a mixture of its vintage aesthetic, relatively cheap drinks, and excellent, diverse booking. It remained a pillar of the city’s nightlife even as other neighborhoods replaced Dupont Circle as the city’s go-to location.

Eighteenth Street Lounge has been a place that attracted a mix of locals, tourists, and even celebrities (not just D.C. celebrities, either — Robert Downey Jr. was reportedly rejected at the door once). The three-floor spot was also a place where patrons could be surprised — remember when Dave Chappelle and Ed Sheeran performed a duet of Radiohead’s “Creep” back in 2017?

Nouri opened ESL in 1995, alongside partners Yama Jewayni, Aman Ayoubi, and Eric Hilton, a DJ who would go on to open a handful of bars around the city with his brother Ian, including The Brixton, El Rey, and American Ice Company. Hilton’s electronic duo Thievery Corporation also used ESL’s back room as a recording studio. That space was later turned into the bar-within-a-bar Addendum.

ESL isn’t the first D.C. establishment to announce its closure amid the coronavirus. Many restaurants and bars that have closed during the pandemic have said that COVID-19 isn’t the only cause for their shuttering, but often served as the last straw amid broader disputes with their leases.

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