Thursday, May 20, 2010
Roll Call Reviews Liberty Tree
Over all it's a decent review, but not without complaint, and the author manages to take a swing at "many" of the other bars and restaurants on the Corridor for being "over-the-top gimmicky and kitschy." I think she loved much of the sea food, but not so much the pizzas.
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25 comments:
We just have different over the top gimmicks and kitsch. Apparently when people opened up places like Clydes and JPauls in Gtown it was fashionable to make stuff look like it was 1850.
Very few places, especially new ones, don't have a theme. When you decorate and hang shit on walls, a theme develops. If one doesn't, your theme is that you are eclectic don't have a theme. Do any bars open up with blank walls and just hang up stuff they collect over the years?
Of course the places are gimmicky. You have to make people want to come here...it's not the easiest place to get to and certainly was not on anyone's radar when all this started taking off. You need a gimmick to stand out. Rock and Roll in a former funeral home, burlesque and side shows, sushi and tater tots, Food Network celebrity chefs, indoor mini golf...all unique and intriguing enough to draw people from all over.
The newer places benefit from their predecessors so Souk and Liberty can be far less gimmicky. But every restaurant has to have some kind of culinary focus.
Hey all -
Just FYI, looks like a bad, traffic havoc creating accident at 12th & Florida. - MH
Decent review. They should prob widdle down the pizza offereings and increase the seafood offereings. Gimmicks are cool.
The accident looked bad. Their something over that intersection, it's prone for really bad accidents.
Those places aren't gimmicky because they are good and don't need a veneer of schlocky crap in order to draw attention to themselves. I have been to each of the "theme" bars on H exactly once, and would rather sit at home and push thumb tacks into my scrotum than go again. To say that these ticky tack excuses for bars paved the way for Souk, Liberty Tree, etc., is quite a stretch.
yeah, those places on h street are too gimmicky, unique, creative, and fun. I much prefer to spend my dollars at corporate chain restaurants - why can't we have a fuddruckers and a ruby tuesday like chinatown!
dan, 15th st
@anon 8:40- I would have to disagree with you on the whole gimmick thing. I wouldn't say that R&R Hotel uses gimmick, they don't pump up the fact that it was a funneral home. People go for live shows. Granville Moore's didn't need the Food Network either, their beers and mussels speak for themselves. I don't necessarily think that sushi and tots are the big pull that draw crowds to Sticky Rice. These places definitely are not the norm but that's a good thing.
@Tubbs- you should take your thumb tack scrotum show to the Palace of Wonders, gets you out of the house and to H ST, they may pay you too!!
Dear Tubbs: Please stay home with your thumb tacked scrotum. All the bars and restaurants suck so bad that they're always packed. You home with your kink leaves more room at the bar for the rest of us.
@anon 10:04 and others that are heavy on chains- check out The 3/50 Project:
- http://www.the350project.net/home.html
-http://www.the350project.net/eat_down_the_street.html
Straight from The 3/50 Project website: "For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here." Just something to think about :)
I was trying to wait for the announcement but this blog has compelled me to go public. On the 6 th friday of every month, the pug will be holding a kid friendly, scrotum tacking happy hour. Leashed dogs, raccoons, and possums drink free from noon 'til two.
tonyt
the pug
ps it's a boxing themed happy hour.
It does not surprise me that the author resides in Clarendon, which has a bar scene that can best be described as asceptic.
And it does not surprise me that the author has only lived in the Metropolitan Area for a few (perhaps three) years...she would otherwise be all too familiar with dozens of "gimmicky" establishments across the District (The Big Hunt, Madhatter, Reef, and Pharmacy Bar come to mind).
It does not surprise me that the author resides in Clarendon, which has a bar scene that can best be described as asceptic.
And it does not surprise me that the author has only lived in the Metropolitan Area for a few (perhaps three) years...she would otherwise be all too familiar with dozens of "gimmicky" establishments across the District (The Big Hunt, Madhatter, Reef, and Pharmacy Bar come to mind).
I wouldn't say the places on H are too gimmicky, but they are getting close.
H Street Country Club is the best example. What the eff is up with that place?
I'm afraid the gimmick bars have a limited life span--I just hope more quality, cool-without-gimmick places open up before the kitsch collapses.
anon 10:28 (i.e., 3/50 Project guy), I guess I didn't lay on the sarcasm thick enough...I thought when I described H St. as "unique, creative, and fun" it'd be clear I was joking about fuddruckers.
So, just to be clear, read my lips: No new taxes...Oh, I mean, I love H street.
dan, 15th
Tony T. you are so funny! Palace should have pin the tail on the burlesque dancer and Argo should have pirate water balloon fights! I could go on for days but I have work to do.
I absolutely love the themed bars in our area. I don't find it "kitchy" as much as I do unique. I think our themes are at least pretty unique and make it way more fun than--especially--Clarendon any day. I appreciate new places like Liberty Tree balancing it out, but I am thrilled with our choices here. It fits my personality just fine.
Yes, if somebody writes anything I don't agree with, I like to attack them on the basis of where they live.
aseptic: free of pathogenic organisms (Webster)
Gee, maybe that's why I like Iota, Galaxy Hut and Jay's Saloon, which are all in Clarendon.
Gee, maybe that's why I like Iota, Galaxy Hut and Jay's Saloon, which are all in Clarendon.
aseptic: lacking vitality, emotion, or warmth (Webster).
Iota, Galaxy Hut and Jay's Saloon are minor elements (at best) of the Clarendon bar scene.
Yes, if somebody writes anything I don't agree with, I like to attack them on the basis of where they live.
It's abundantly clear the author doesn't know the neighborhood.
She calls the area "hipster paradise" (it's not), repeatedly identifies the area as the "Atlas District" (which any FroTro reader knows is a moniker that nobody uses) and goes on to identify Scott Hamilton as "a longtime resident of the Atlas District" (which doesn't make sense, as the Atlas District isn't a neighborhood -- and Scott no longer lives in the District).
But this is nothing new...
THE Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up;
They looked upon the Creature with a loathing undisguised;—
It wasn't Disinfected and it wasn't Sterilized.
They said it was a Microbe and a Hotbed of Disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as Banished Hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.
In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And elected it a member of the Fumigated Band.
There's not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a Hygienic Cup—
The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup.
Arthur Guiterman. 1871–I assume he's now dead.
Sorry,
I couldn't resist. A lot of our local spots have personalities. Some of that personality derives from themes, but much of it comes from the employee and the patrons. I kind of like it and I don't find it overly gimmicky. Though I have no scrotum, I've yet to find a place that drives me to self-mutilation of any sort.
But if you can actually drive tacks into your scrotum, I second the call for an appearance at Palace of Wonders (though I'm not sure they can show that much skin).
You can definitely find a way to show scrotum. Havent you ever played "nut? no nut?"
Raccoons have scrotums.
i was very surprised that none of the pizzas had seafood.
personally, i'd rather have a lobster pizza than the lobster roll.
maybe shrimp and pesto pizza?
or something with a clam sauce?
i really did seem like the pizza was a bastardchild afterthought.
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