Tavern from DGS Team Coming to H Street

1337 H St. as it appeared in 2004

A new bar, as yet unnamed, will set up shop at 1337 H St. The new tavern will hold an on-premises Retailer Class C license. The application comes to us from Bespoke 1337, LLC, which Borderstan reports consists of the team behind Dupont Circle's DGS Deli (cousins David and Nick Wiseman). As Borderstan notes, the paperwork once refers to the bar as the Butcher's Word (interestingly, a Nick Wiseman has a Pinterest Board by this name). It also makes it clear they plan to have occasional live music indoors (so they are requesting an entertainment endorsement), where they plan to have seating for 65. The application includes a summer garden with seating for 15 patrons (total occupancy load of 199). The protest petition deadline is Jan. 16, 2017, with the roll call hearing scheduled for Jan. 30 at 10 a.m., and the protest hearing set for March 29 at 1:30 p.m.



There have been other proposals for businesses at this location over the years, including a bar called the Spirit Room from the Hilton brothers, that never came to fruition. My personal favorite story about 1337 H St. takes us back nearly a decade to 2007 when District officials took action to shutter what they said was an illegal (unlicensed) funeral home. As explained in this Washington Times story, investigators acting on an anonymous tip discovered two embalming machines at the site. The owner claimed the business was not actually operating at the time, and blamed the tip on competitors, whom the he referred to as “the funeral mafia” or “funeral cartel.”

There's also an old Washington City Paper piece on an art event gone awry in 2011 when an artist group called Kool Raunch Collective "staged a show in which ensemble members dressed in togas, threw red paint, and wrestled in the ensuing mess; skinned calves’ heads were also involved."