A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
We Love DC: Queen Vic Opening Nears
We Love DC sat down with Ryan Gordon of the Queen Vic (LINK PLAYS MUSIC), and Gordon indicated that the long awaited British style pub will open sometime in the last half of February. The Queen Vic is located at 1206 H Street.
29 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I'm looking forward to the opening, though I still have no idea what to expect. The official website is a brilliant study in now NOT to build a website in 2011. Or maybe they were going for retro chic?
Smith Commons website is a study in contrasts. It's weird that they clearly spent so much money on their build out, but so little money on their website.
I agree with the general sentiment: obviously the first thing the management of a new small business should be doing is spending $50k on a state of the art, Ajax-oriented website.
You guys should open a restaurant; I could use some barely-used commercial cookware and stuff.
I never understood the obsession over websites. To me, all I want to see in a bar/restaurant website are the hours, location and a menu. Bonus points if you list the prices too. You could put everything on a notepad .txt document for all I care as long as you provide the right content.
Websites are important because they are very often the first impression a restaurant/bar makes on people, and can either attract new customers or deter people who were on the fence about coming. A decent website doesn't cost $50,000. You can have a clean, simple web site designed for you for less than $1,000. IMO, that investment will pay for itself in the matter of months.
I agree that a website can be inexpensive and still look good. And, it should at least have accurate information! The Queen Vic website links to the H Street Shuttle schedule. (My apologies if I missed something and the shuttle is still running/running again, but last I'd heard, it's no longer running.)
"Websites are important because they are very often the first impression a restaurant/bar makes on people, and can either attract new customers or deter people who were on the fence about coming"
Yeah maybe if you're shopping around for a mortgage or for some kind of consulting firm. This doesn't really apply to bars/restaurants. That's just something web designers say to their clients to convince them they need an over priced website.
What most people look for are good reviews, location, and good food/drinks.
Several H st establishments have very modest websites, yet they've got lines going out the door on most weekends or certain days of the week.
What irks me on a lot of these websites are the .pdf files you need to open just to view the menus/rates. This makes it difficult to view from my phone or even my computer sometimes. Queen Vic has really gone overboard with the .pdf files. Argonaut also does this. On more than one occasion the files wouldn't even open on my pc.
My guess is that this is for ease of maintenance. Rather than edit raw HTML, or (shudder) upload a Word document, whoever's maintaining content can just update the PDF.
Easy-peasy.
Anyone know if the Queen Vic is going to serve "real ale"?
I tell ya, I had a freaking awesome website back in the day. I had to take it down after the cops and the government got on my shaft. Pete Townshend still bugs me on usenet begging for me to put it back up. He claims it's for research purposes, but I know he just wants to see if he can windmill himself hard enough to jam his privy member through his hand.
I keep saying, Pete, slow down lad! You ain't in Tacoma and that sure as hell is not a tremolo bar!
My pet peeve with restaurants is the insistence in using flash for the home page. It's irritating. I want the info as quickly as possible, not some fancy animation. Plus the website doesn't work on Blackberries, which loses you some business, folks.
I actually love the idea of a text only webpage for a restaurant. It's true - all you really need are the hours, menu and phone number, maybe an email address. That would be simple and charming. A decent website can be built on Wordpress or Drupal for next to nothing. If you pay more than $2000 you are probably getting ripped off (I design websites in Drupal - it's free). If it is being built on a non open-source CMS platform, it will most likely suck or cost WAY too much. AJAX is on most every website so whoever mentioned this should do a bit of Googling. A flash landing page universally sucks and just pisses every user off (sorry Atlas Room - love the drinks though!). Updating menus through a simple wysiwyg is far easier than uploading a new pdf through FTP - why places do this is beyond me.
jesus christ, what are you. Were you licking a battery while you thought of that and then sticking pins in your labia while writing it? Your childred are doomed.
for the record, childreds are little human babys with locust wings, delivered to autistic H street residents by syphilitic storks. Step on both of them for fun!
h st. biz owner, you're getting ripped off if you paid that much for a website. i agree with those that call for simpler websites. especially for restaurants and bars. never put a pdf on a bar website. text. text text. stuff that can be seen an a smart phone. text that is copy/pastable. and no music, unless you are a band.
Are you kidding? It was doomed when he posted about prolapsing your anus with his penis. Or did he make that special post in a different thread? His posts about genitalia and sex acts are all starting to blur together.
New Queen Vic Website is live per your feedback!!!! (event listings not yet updated) Let us know what you think and see you next week for our pre soft opening...
29 comments:
I'm looking forward to the opening, though I still have no idea what to expect. The official website is a brilliant study in now NOT to build a website in 2011. Or maybe they were going for retro chic?
That should read [how] not o build a website in 2011.
Anyone going to be at Toyland tonight?
Smith Commons website is a study in contrasts. It's weird that they clearly spent so much money on their build out, but so little money on their website.
I agree with the general sentiment: obviously the first thing the management of a new small business should be doing is spending $50k on a state of the art, Ajax-oriented website.
You guys should open a restaurant; I could use some barely-used commercial cookware and stuff.
I never understood the obsession over websites. To me, all I want to see in a bar/restaurant website are the hours, location and a menu. Bonus points if you list the prices too.
You could put everything on a notepad .txt document for all I care as long as you provide the right content.
Websites are important because they are very often the first impression a restaurant/bar makes on people, and can either attract new customers or deter people who were on the fence about coming. A decent website doesn't cost $50,000. You can have a clean, simple web site designed for you for less than $1,000. IMO, that investment will pay for itself in the matter of months.
I agree that a website can be inexpensive and still look good. And, it should at least have accurate information! The Queen Vic website links to the H Street Shuttle schedule. (My apologies if I missed something and the shuttle is still running/running again, but last I'd heard, it's no longer running.)
" You can have a clean, simple web site designed for you for less than $1,000 "
You're kidding me, right ? $1,000 for a good website. Yeah, maybe with GoDaddy, and maybe dealing with someone over the phone on a help desk.
Any good website, with good design and features, will run you $3,000 - $4,000 minimum.
H St. biz owner
Why is there a comment about Toyland on every blog entry?
"Websites are important because they are very often the first impression a restaurant/bar makes on people, and can either attract new customers or deter people who were on the fence about coming"
Yeah maybe if you're shopping around for a mortgage or for some kind of consulting firm.
This doesn't really apply to bars/restaurants. That's just something web designers say to their clients to convince them they need an over priced website.
What most people look for are good reviews, location, and good food/drinks.
Several H st establishments have very modest websites, yet they've got lines going out the door on most weekends or certain days of the week.
Anyway, I look forward to this place opening up!
@12:11:00 PM
Don't feed the trolls.
Hours.
Phone number.
Menu.
Unless clicking through the beautiful website gets you a free drink, a single page will do the trick.
Where is Toyland even at?
What irks me on a lot of these websites are the .pdf files you need to open just to view the menus/rates. This makes it difficult to view from my phone or even my computer sometimes.
Queen Vic has really gone overboard with the .pdf files. Argonaut also does this. On more than one occasion the files wouldn't even open on my pc.
@1:30:
My guess is that this is for ease of maintenance. Rather than edit raw HTML, or (shudder) upload a Word document, whoever's maintaining content can just update the PDF.
Easy-peasy.
Anyone know if the Queen Vic is going to serve "real ale"?
Maybe they should get a website like Taylor's. That way I can wait two minutes to find out what's on the menu.
definitely would be at toyland if erin or garick were still there
I tell ya, I had a freaking awesome website back in the day. I had to take it down after the cops and the government got on my shaft. Pete Townshend still bugs me on usenet begging for me to put it back up. He claims it's for research purposes, but I know he just wants to see if he can windmill himself hard enough to jam his privy member through his hand.
I keep saying, Pete, slow down lad! You ain't in Tacoma and that sure as hell is not a tremolo bar!
He's a dirty, dirty bird.
My pet peeve with restaurants is the insistence in using flash for the home page. It's irritating. I want the info as quickly as possible, not some fancy animation. Plus the website doesn't work on Blackberries, which loses you some business, folks.
Amen lou. Unless you're ESPN, you have no business using Flash on your website!
I miss when the pug only had a myspace
I actually love the idea of a text only webpage for a restaurant. It's true - all you really need are the hours, menu and phone number, maybe an email address. That would be simple and charming. A decent website can be built on Wordpress or Drupal for next to nothing. If you pay more than $2000 you are probably getting ripped off (I design websites in Drupal - it's free). If it is being built on a non open-source CMS platform, it will most likely suck or cost WAY too much. AJAX is on most every website so whoever mentioned this should do a bit of Googling. A flash landing page universally sucks and just pisses every user off (sorry Atlas Room - love the drinks though!). Updating menus through a simple wysiwyg is far easier than uploading a new pdf through FTP - why places do this is beyond me.
jesus christ, what are you. Were you licking a battery while you thought of that and then sticking pins in your labia while writing it? Your childred are doomed.
for the record, childreds are little human babys with locust wings, delivered to autistic H street residents by syphilitic storks. Step on both of them for fun!
h st. biz owner,
you're getting ripped off if you paid that much for a website.
i agree with those that call for simpler websites. especially for restaurants and bars.
never put a pdf on a bar website. text. text text. stuff that can be seen an a smart phone. text that is copy/pastable.
and no music, unless you are a band.
someone just said labia. this thread is officially doomed.
Are you kidding? It was doomed when he posted about prolapsing your anus with his penis. Or did he make that special post in a different thread? His posts about genitalia and sex acts are all starting to blur together.
New Queen Vic Website is live per your feedback!!!! (event listings not yet updated) Let us know what you think and see you next week for our pre soft opening...
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