Wednesday, August 31, 2011

CP: A Benefit & Artists Coming to 1337 H Street

Phish Tea
1337 is the middle building shown in this old (undated) photo that I suspect is from 2005.

The City Paper has an interesting piece on an upcoming (September 9th and 10th) benefit/art installation/music experience at 1337 H Street. Proceeds to go the new artist (live, work, and studio) space at the same location. The City Paper gives the size as 7900 sqft, which is much larger than I would have guessed. The building belongs to restaurant owner (and Thievery Corporation member) Eric Hilton. Hilton has his hands in Marvin, Patty Patty Boom Boom, and American Ice Company. According to the City Paper he plans to open another restaurant or bar in the basement of 1337 H Street.

Bonus points if you can remember when 1337 was an illegal funeral home.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember! I love the old posts swapping gossip and shared hopes about someone opening something on H street. We've come a long way.

Anonymous said...

Phish Tea Cafe?

Anonymous said...

Yea, what's the picture of? Excited for the new addition!

reflexive said...

it's an old photo of a place that's closed. it's now h street country club

curmudgeon said...

Heh. People excited about Phish Tea.

It closed years ago, and it was a dump. But folks ate there, because at one time (after the Ohio closed after Betty Ayele was shot) it was the only sit down restaurant option.

Kenny G said...

Got any pics of the Onyx -- the club that pre-dated Phish Tea?

inked said...

Kenny G,
Sadly no photos of Onyx. But I do remember it.

inked said...

I'm not even sure when I took the photo above. The Flickr date is 2002, but that can't possibly be right considering that Onyx actually occupied the space at that time. Phish Tea opened in the spring of 2004. It operated until at least late-2006. Not totally sure when it closed. The owner recently opened the Roadside Cafe at 2101 Benning Road. It's worth a visit. The food is very reasonably priced, and service was quite good when I had dinner there with a friend.

tonysmallframe said...

A correction to the city paper article - West Indian Auto Body is still open - they are in the alley behind H street and have the address 1337 H St Rear

inked said...

tonysmallframe,
I am aware of them. Do you know if they will continue to operate? I think they have to be included in the deal if the square footage is actually that large.

Anonymous said...

Curmudgeon, I agree we all ate there out of absolute necessity. Gosh, I wanted it to work but it didnt (on any level). My timing may be off but Ohio was probably open during some of the time that Phish Tea was open but then it closed THEN, after Phish Tea closed, the Ayeles re-opened the Ohio as new owners and ran it until Betty was shot.

curmudgeon said...

Anon 9:07 -- I think your timing is a little bit off. Betty Ayele was murdered in October of 2006, in the Del Ray part of Alexandria. We moved into the neighborhood the next month (oddly enough, I moved from Del Ray, 3-4 blocks from where Ms. Ayele was shot). It wasn't until after moving into the neighborhood that I went to Phish Tea; I don't know how long after that it was around, but I don't think it was a full year.

tonysmallframe said...

American West Indian is still on and running today - and it doesn't look like anything is packed or in the process of moving.