Located at 1103 Bladenburg Road (most recently Liberty Tax) Jimmy Valentine's opened its doors on Friday night at around 10pm. It features a full bar and bottled beers (no tap). Pizza will also be available (but I don't know if they have any yet). The inside is cool (I saw it during construction, but haven't been in since it opened) with lots of red and a very special surprise staring up at you from the floor. I'm not sure of the hours, but I think they may be sticking with the late night thing for now. I did hear excellent reviews from the friends who have made it in (cool space & good beer selection). Please note that the bar does not accept credit cards, so bring your cash.
18 comments:
i'd love to hear a candid review of the joint, if anyone here drops by. this place doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar outside of this blog.
i'm guessing this place will cater more to the rock n roll hotel hipster scene, but i could be wrong.
Went on opening night-very very cool place. Funky and ecclectic decorations, spacious & amazing counter top. Bar stools were comfortable. The skull floor mosiac is the best thing I haver seen at a bar. It is well stocked with alot of great liquors and beers. Don't know about the food cause I didn't try it. The whole place has a great vibe. THe hard work they put ino it shows.
Time will tell who will patronize the bar. It has great potential for being a local hang out. The owners are wonderful people and live in the area-that is always a plus.
Try their Black Irish Mexican drink special
cheers
Has anyone been here yet? I am trying to find it and CANNOT. Maybe I am crazy. The map shows it at Bladensburg and L Street NE. Unless it does not have any signage....If I can find it I will go!
Windows, the address is 1103 Bladensburg Road. There is no sign. It isn't the kind of bar you can just happen into. You have to know that it is there.
I live right above 50 on 20th/Queens Chapel. I'm going to try and go there sometime this week with my camera and check it out. I'll make it my first post on dcproper.com.
I hope it's ok I put my blog link on here...
Roy, I think they are a bit publicity shy right now, so I would suggest leaving the camera at home.
OK. I'll think I'll just travel light then.
Thanks for the tip =)
friends and neighbors-
much thanks to so many of you who have found us since we opened three weeks ago. we have to give a very special and sincere thanks to elise 'the commish' bernard, who- dating back to february- gave so much of her time and quality direction to help us open our business. it's not easy :)
elise went well beyond our expectations of a public servant and all of her advice proved correct. so many more of you helped as well (and certainly we are remiss in not detailing everyone's special efforts on our behalf), but obviously this is the perfect forum to publicly thank elise and it would be a tragedy if we forgot to mention someone in an attempt at a grand list.
as for our bar, neither do we cater to 'hipsters' (whatever they are) nor do we cater to any purported style. we're small, chill, dark, and comfortable (many say it "feels like home"), with a full bar, an extremely diverse list of 20 bottled beers, and 10" pizzas (cheese, or prosciutto w/ jalapenos). we're NE residents of many years- 2 of us live right across the street in Trinidad- and we're currently open from 10 til close on wednesdays thru sundays. we and our close friends built our bar completely by ourselves and we'd love for the rest of you pioneers to come hang out and chat away the night in our 'fascinating' 'hood :) we're not hanging a sign out front and we're not advertising, so you'll have to discover us the way we all found this wacky section of DC that we love so much.
1103 Bladensburg Rd NE- that's enough hint right?
much love and see you soon,
troy & dawn & mark
I stopped by Jimmy Valentine's last night and had a couple of beers with Mark and Dawn, cool people and a cool space. I guess the hipsters weren't out last night because I was the only customer there.
i stopped by friday night. the exterior sets up the entrance to the bar perfectly. the beers were cheap, the mosaic on the ground was cool, and it looks like eventually they will have an outdoor patio on the roof?? a guy on an apple was mixing music from kanye to depeche mode to indie rock...nice mix. it was about 30 people in there, a little dancing space, and enough seats to go around. got to speak with troy (an owner?) outside afterwards, real cool guy. the place is personable, low-key, fun, and laid back. wonder how the pizza is....
Sorry, no rooftop deck. Troy is one of three partners in the business.
The artwork in JVLHC is easily the coolest collection of unique stuff you'll see anywhere in in DC, and perhaps even anywhere you've ever bellied up to a bar in any city in the world. The floor mosaic is absolutely magnificent - what a creative masterpiece! Other businesses in DC could learn a thing or two from this place, in terms of putting a 'personal touch' into their environment. Just a hair off the beaten path, but do yourself a favor and make the effort... visit this truly unique, very cool spot to see it all for yourself.
Don't forget to ask for a ride in 'the shuttle' ...what a groovy ride.
I went there a while back and the place is full of fucking assholes. I went outside to make a cell phone call and was harassed by some women telling me I couldn't talk on the phone outside. After brushing her off another man came out with my beer that I had left inside and pour it out and then smashed the bottle next to a trash can... I'll tell you what, the guy is lucky that was my first beer. All in all a horrible experience. I think the place is operating illegally, that's why is so hard to find and the employees are so rude. Also what a shitty location. Felt like i was going to be mugged and or sold drugs the entire time I was outside the place.
3 hours of dancing later... I heart Jimmy Valentines. Did I mention the tuffted, blue velvet chairs? And the friendly crew working there?
Ironically, it turns out that faux nightlife correspondent and token culture vulture "Anonymous" was the asshole, and everyone else en scene was just 'keepin it moving.'
Normally I'd let bullshit blog comments like that slip through the cracks and die, completely alone and ignored. But either this dude is playing games for some reason, or he just doesn't get it.
Could he really be so thick as to have NO IDEA why maybe drunk white boys shouldn't be all yappin on they cell phone outside the venue?? Late night, Bladensburg Rd. I'm no pathologist but I've put in many many hours working at shifty venues down on Queens Chapel and beyond.... and yes, you could very well be some dude's next meal if you do dumb shit in the hood! Not common as much these days as in the 90s, but hey - shit happens when nobody's around to notice shit happening.
Fugggit. That's exactly the demographic we ALL are trying to avoid in the city we grew up at and love, privvy cats who simply want to get in on whatever's "hot" at the moment. If this douchebag had a shred of credibility or self-awareness, he would have avoided the handle "Anonymous" like maybe he stands for what he types even after he's away from his computer and visible to the naked eye...
Aside from all that bullshit, if Mark and them are just a bunch of rogue 'assholes' operating outside the law or wasting their valuable time to single YOU out and do all this particularly lame shit to YOU like you're something special, I kinda have my doubts that they could have re-emerged on H Street (PRIME LOCATION for any up-&-coming nightlife proprietor in DC right now) a few months later....
Not only have they re-emerged, they STILL keep Jimmy's running so they can better diversify their clientele and NOT be assholes, i.e. to promoters who might want to do something major at venue A but can't perhaps due to scheduling conflict. Or whatever.
anyways. fuck that guy. in general, if you want to appear credible or to "have balls" maybe try and go legit and use something closer to your actual identity than 'Anonymous' when leaving such scathing criticism on blogs such as this.
See ya @ Festivus this wednesday, everyone else who matters! Yup, on H Street.
versi0n s0und selector
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