From the ANC6A listserv (please note that the Argonaut will go into the space formerly occupied by Ledbetter's -which already served both food & alcohol. Note also that Mr. Englert is planning to feature outdoor seating at the Argonaut. The other establishments will open in spaces that have long been vacant). UPDATE: Mr. Englert states that The Beehive is a restaurant license, not a tavern license. This is not a new decision on his part, just a correction to the email I posted.:
At the next ABL (Alcohol Beverage Licensing) Committee meeting, we will discuss the four new liquor license applications which have been filed for the 1200-1400 blocks of H Street. The meeting will be held June 21, 7PM at Sherwood Recreation Center (Corner of 10th and G). A representative of the establishments has been invited to the meeting to provide information.
There are three CT applications (those are on-premises tavern licenses) and one restaurant (CR) license filed for these three blocks. If you have an opinion about these applications, please attend and let the Committee know what you think. After hearing community comment, we will send a recommendation to ANC 6A on each application to either negotiate a voluntary agreement or to protest the application.
Here is a summary of what was filed with ABRA:
1) The Argonaut, 1433 H Street, NE - Restaurant
# of Seats: 88 Inside with Sidewalk Cafe of Additional 39
Hours of Operation: Sun-Thurs 5 PM-2AM, Friday 4PM to 3AM, Sat 5 PM to 3AM
Hours of Sale of Alcoholic Beverages: Same
Hours of Food Service: Sun-Thurs. 5PM-12AM Friday 4PM to 1AM, Sat PM to 1AM
American Grill Food/No dancing/No live entertainment
2) The Beehive, 1224 H Street, NE - Tavern
# of Seats: 99 Inside with Summer Garden of Additional 38
Hours of Operation: Sun-Thurs 5 PM-2AM, Friday- Sat 5PM to 3AM,
Hours of Sale of Alcoholic Beverages: Same
Hours of Food Service: Sun-Thurs. 5PM-12AM
Neighborhood tavern serving appetizers and burritos/no live entertainment/jukebox/billiards electronic games.
3) The Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H Street, NE - Tavern
# of Seats: 399
Hours of Operation: Sun-Thurs 5 PM-2AM, Friday- Sat 5PM to 3AM,
Hours of Sale of Alcoholic Beverages: Same
Hours of Food Service: Sun-Thurs. 5PM-12AM
Hours of Live Entertainment: Thurs-Sat 8-1PM
Appetizers, Burgers, American Food/Eleven Themed Private Dining Rooms/Regional and local bands on Thurs-Sat/Occasional DJ/Rock and Roll Music/Billiard Tables/Video Golf/Video Bowling
4) The Red and Black, 1212 H Street, NE - Tavern
# of Seats: 99
Hours of Operation: Sun-Thurs 5 PM-2AM, Friday-4PM to 3AM, Sat 5PM to 3AM,
Hours of Sale of Alcoholic Beverages: Same
Hours of Food Service: Sun-Thurs. 5PM-2AM, Friday 4PM to 3AM, Sat 5PM to 3AM
Hours of Live Entertainment: Thurs-Sat 8-1:30 PM, Friday-Sat 9PM to 2AM
Snack Foods/Two levels- First level tavern, 2nd floor live rock and roll music/Billiard table/Jukebox
I welcome comments or questions to my email address at mbeatty6a05@verizon.net.
Mary Beatty
ANC 6A ABL Chair
8 comments:
I have to say I'm psyched about the idea of having an outdoor cafe-type scene going on. Maybe R&B would put out some tables and chairs as well.
What world do you live in Rob? Just yesterday, on my way to R&B, I came across a guy pissing on the Atlas theater... This was at noon.
As for the new bars, I 'm bummed that they will only be open at night. I don't see how this will help other types of businesses open up on H.
H Street is in a funny place right now. We are soon going to see a fair number of new businesses openning up, but we still have lots of boarded up buildings and cleanliness issues. I agree that litter & public urination are both problems on H Street. I agree that it would be nice if the Argonaut, or one of these establishments were open and serving food during the lunch hour (at least on weekends). I think that the demand is there. I am pretty certain that I heard Joe Englert say that Show Bar would have some daytime hours (but maybe daytime means 5-8pm). I would suggest that you go to the up-coming ABL meeting (where I'm sure more information will be made available, and you could ask Mr. Englert about his businesses). Even if these restaurants & taverns are only open at night I still believe that they will have a major impact on H Street. Part of the goal is to change people's impressions of H Street. We (and others) need to be convinced that H Street can be a fun (& safe) place to spend time. Hopefully the crowds (& the cleaning efforts that are planned) will help discourage public urination and other anti-social crimes. H Street as laboratory for broken windows theory. I think it will work, but we are not going to see it over night. Look at 14th Street NW these days.
The answer is "critical mass."
These particular restaurants will help other businesses open by making H St. look less derelict, and therefore, more attractive to us and to decent investors. One of the owners has appeared in the Washington Business Journal and other publications touting his investment on H St., which is likely to get all sorts of other investors to jump on the H St. bandwagon, but these things take time.
On the subject of daytime hours, there aren't yet enough other businesses attracting daytime customers to make keeping a restaurant open during the day very profitable. I'm sure the proprietors will gladly expand their hours as the number of potential daytime customers are there for other reasons, but it will take time to build up that critical mass. Alfonso at R&B deserves a major pat on the back for staying open during the day even though I'm sure mid-day business can be really slow at times. It would be a real shame if R&B and 3 other restaurants had to split the limited number of current lunch patrons with R&B. If that happened, none of the places would survive.
If you'd like to see other kinds of businesses open, take charge. Contact DC's business resource center and learn how to open the kind of business you'd like to see on H St.
One thing to consider with all of these licenses is that nice guy Joe may not always own these places. Once a license exists, it seems impossible to take it away in this city. One only has to look at Club U, where a guy was stabbed in the club, and the bouncers drug his body out doors, to see a bar gone bad. The Club U liquor license has not been taken away.
By the way, residents near H Street should check out the SW Waterfront on weekend nights to hear the sound of restaurants staying open to 3 and 4 in the morning. H2O AND Zanzibar have restraurant licenses.
There is always the possibility that an owner might sell. Does that mean that we should never grant CR or CT licenses? I'm pretty sure Club U is going to lose its license very soon (obviously it should). I don't know/remember if Club U had a voluntary agreement (I'm sure one of the ANC commissioners would probably know). Club U is one of two establishments (the other is U Turn) that always get dragged out everytime there is opposition to granting a liquor license. But look, these are two places in an entire city. Pointing to these ill managed clubs and saying "look what happens when you grant alcoholic beverage licenses" is as absurd as pointing to the Titanic and saying "look what happens when you try to sail ships." Obviously we should look at what went wrong in those situations, and work to avoid those mistakes. But I think it is horribly unfair when people point at those establishments and pretend they are anywhere near the norm.
I haven't been to Zanzibar, or H20, but I pretty sure you'll find standing dance floors at both locations. I can tell you that neither of these places is going to look much like what we're going to see in these new places on H Street. Plus, just because the license says the owner can keep them open that late doesn't mean he will. Maybe it's just me, but I somehow doubt that nights like Sundays and Tuesdays are going to bring in the crowds.
Remember the Heart & Soul cafe that used to be at 8th & Pennsyvania SE? Can you list even one revoked liquor license?
We are not talking about a single bar or two. We are talking about eight new licenses. We are not being given the chance to see how the first four or so work out. Afterall, his current places don't look all that great.
I'm not really familiar with the issue in the Heart & Soul Cafe. You can find a list of recently revoked or suspended licenses here.
To be fair we are talking about 7 new places (Ledbetter's already serves alcohol), and only seven of the 8 total places are associated with Joe Englert (the Martini Lounge is the brainchild of Clifton Humphries). And while you may not care for the laid back dive bar feel of Joe Englert's bars, I think you'd be hard pressed to call any of them magnets for trouble. Also, I would have to agree with Rich Luna's answer regarding critical mass. We have got to get enough stuff open to make it worth it for people to choose H.
Post a Comment