U Street’s El Rey is one of the seven restaurants closing after Oct. 31.

Mykl Wu / El Rey

Update: Ian Hilton, one-half of the Hilton brothers’ hospitality duo, tells Washingtonian that the pair is planning to reopen five of their popular bars that shuttered last year.

Echo Park opened its patio on Thursday, and American Ice Company and the Brixton will reopen later this month. (According to Washingtonian, Hilton says the Brixton’s days as a night club are over, though). The Gibson is reopening in a newer, bigger location this spring, as Washingtonian reported in February, and the Player’s Club will also be making a comeback at a date still unknown. The fate of Marvin remains hanging the balance.

The taco spot El Rey never ended up closing its doors, thanks to community support following the Hiltons’ grim announcement of the closures in September.

Update Oct. 17:

In a surprising twist of fate for 2020, there’s a bit of good news for fans of the Hilton brothers’ U Street taco joint, El Rey.

The restaurant tweeted Saturday that thanks to “overwhelming” support from patrons, the beloved U Street spot will not be closing on Oct. 31 with six of its other D.C. nightlife venues. El Rey will stay open for “as long as [it] can.”

The duo’s announcement in September of the closures of American Ice Company, El Rey, The Gibson, The Brixton, Echo Park, Marvin, and Players Club, dealt a huge blow to D.C. bar-goers.

Original:

D.C. hospitality icons Ian and Eric Hilton will be closing seven of their popular nighttime spots for the foreseeable future. Washington City Paper first reported the news.

American Ice Company, El Rey, The Gibson, The Brixton, Echo Park, Marvin, and Players Club will shutter their doors indefinitely on Oct. 31 — marking a sad Halloween for D.C. bar-goers who enjoyed frequenting the pairs’ watering holes, and the people who staffed them. Echo Park, a late-night pizza joint situated across from the concert venue 9:30 Club, had only just opened in February.

According to Washington City Paper, the brothers struggled to keep the bars alive during the past six months of the pandemic and don’t know when they could reopen — if ever. Ian Hilton did not immediately return DCist’s request for comment.

“When the crisis began, we knew this year would be tremendous challenge,” reads a statement from Ian Hilton. “While we have done our very best to meet those challenges, we no longer have the capability to keep that fight going. Day after day, we and our staff are operating at a loss, under duress, and with little relief in sight.”

The imprint of the pair’s nightlife empire can be felt across the D.C. region — up and down 14th and U streets, in Georgetown, outside of the 9:30 Club, and even in neighboring Northern Virginia. Satellite Room, which closed at the end of 2019, was a go-to spot for 9:30 Club patrons, and El Rey was U Street’s staple taco joint, complete with a late-night walk-up window. In July 2019, the pair extended their outposts in Arlington with a second location of El Rey, adding to their efforts to grow the area’s burgeoning bar scene. Their other Virginia eateries, Cafe Colline in Arlington and Parc de Ville in Fairfaix’s Mosaic District, will both remain open, according to Washington City Paper.

Their remaining D.C. locations (The Brighton at The Wharf, pop-cafe Victura Park at the Kennedy Center, and Georgetown’s Chez Billy Sud) are here to stay for now, but Ian Hilton told City Paper that Chez Billy Sud and The Brighton are also struggling.

The closures come as the city grieves the loss of the Dupont mainstay Eighteenth Street Lounge in July (which Eric Hilton co-opened), and the dozens of other D.C. area restaurants and bars that have closed their doors during the pandemic. From February to July, 34,700 employees in D.C.’s hospitality and leisure industries lost their jobs — making up 60% of the city’s total net job loss in the private sector during those months — according to the latest report from D.C.’s chief financial officer.

As cold weather approaches, the outlook for restaurants this winter could be grim. Paycheck Protection Program loans must be used by October, and additional federal funds are stalled in congressional gridlock

This story has been updated to reflect that El Rey will remain open after Oct. 31. This story has been corrected to reflect that Eric Hilton co-opened Eighteenth Street Lounge.

Filed Under: american ice company, el rey, hilton brothers, The Brixton,