Opened 1939 as Don Dickerman's Pirate's Den. By Joann Stevens. The Bayou was strictly a rock and blues venue, and it was UNDER K st. on Water St. down by the river. At least Quick Pita lives on!! The restaurants stayed open until sometime around 2000. Popular attractions . However, the Federal-style townhouse playing host to all those hormones was built in the mid-1800s. A very civil place six nights a week according to a 1978 Hoya article, the only exception being thirsty Thursdays, when the preppies would invade en masse to Carolina shag a dance descendent of the jitterbug and drop trou, a supposed mating ritual endemic to an era when sexual harassment didnt exist. By the 21st century, Georgetown bar culture was dying as students began going out in the Adams Morgan neighborhood instead. Though Lisa Birnbachs iconic 1980 Official Preppy Handbook was meant to lampoon the aesthetic, it instead galvanized it, and, just like the early-aughts Brooklyn hipster movement, all irony was soon stripped away. The post Revisiting the 1980s Heyday of Georgetowns Fabled Preppy Bars appeared first on InsideHook. The other big draw was the $1 hamburger night with Gregorio the bar-back flipping the nastiest hamburgers allowed for human consumption. Back on Wisconsin Avenue, Mr. Henry's of Georgetown bar and restaurant, where gays and straights mingle freely, is so demure ("We're not a cruise bar, hon," said waiter Mark Redell) that families and heterosexual couples sometimes wander in, only to look around and walk right back out. A Classic. Have you ever heard the rumors of Georgetowns bustling nightlife and bar scene in the 1980s,1990s and early 2000s? No one was coming to his restaurant any way, so Chin figured he had nothing to lose. Bros in polos and hungry clubbers start the night with massive plates of Irish nachos before climbing the stairs to the hot and heavy dance floor, wrote one review. Mr. Smiths was arguablythe second oldest continuing bar in the Georgetown neighborhood as it was founded in 1962. "Now that's a babe," he said, pointing to a picture of a blond. I seem to remember a Mr Henrys on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan as well as all the ones mentioned here. The 9:30 club . Photograph: Courtesy Blues Alley. Worked at The Crazy Horse and The Cellar Door. 2. Likewise, if in the 1970s, Georgetown was mostly known for its thrift stores (such as Commander Salamander), record shops and even a disco bar called Tramps, that too was in flux. In 1993, the Vinyard Vines store housed Britches Great Outdoors, a branch of the Georgetown-based Britches chain. [5], The club was owned from 1953 to 1980 by the Tramonte family who designed it to have an intimate atmosphere like a family. It was a dubbed the original sports bar and was a favorite with the Georgetown student body, visiting college students, tourists and residents of the DMV area. Its still just a drink, Mike says. Washingtons weird territorial placement in the American firmament also played a key role in the bar scene that emerged. Use to work for Britches Great Outdoors. Required fields are marked *. Open in Google Maps. And the location, perfect! All rights reserved. Two recent college grads, Nicky Williams and Buff McDonald, asked The Day Lilys aging owner, Jim Chin, if they could start renting his restaurant for Friday night parties. You can stand and talk and see the sights.". [My friends] and I were pretty upset about it closing, noted one Georgetown junior in reference to Chadwicks, which shuttered before the new school year of 2014, by now famous for its cheap and unlimited champagne brunches, a preppy mecca until its final days. Nightlife. "We wear our boxer shorts and some say 'Oh, my God, who are these guys?' By 1980, WaPo was offering a laundry list of the clientele to expect there: Mt. Fish Tails Bar & Grill. self-published memoir: Meet Me at the Bar, Im Hungry. Everybody went there. Three hustlers standing on the street . Channeling the immense popularity of Chidi, a so-called circuit of preppy bars soon dotted the neighborhood, giving the pastel-clad a place to party virtually every single night of the week. [4] The sound system mixing console was located on the second floor balcony, overlooking the stage. Those were the days.Let me tell you. Knew the owners Sam, Jack, Dave. Closed down long ago. Panelists include: Mike Tramonte: The Bayou Bill Scanlan: MTITV, filmmaker of "The Bayou: DC's Killer Joint" These kids are very well-behaved," Spaulding said. In 1985, The Third Edition exterior acted as the stand-in for the titular St. Elmos Fire bar in the Joel Schumacher film about recent Georgetown graduates. 11. Spilling over from sidewalks onto jammed streets, strolling in cosmopolitan chic or tour-bus casual, they stake out the shops, restaurants and nightclubs and claim the elite, historic district as their own. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. A one-square-mile neighborhood of cobble-stone streets and stately, federal-style homes centered around the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street, Georgetown nonetheless boasted more than 115 liquor licenses in an approximately 10-block area. ORileys Pub, opened in the late-1970s by two Georgetown alums one who owned an old warehouse, the other who simply had a catchy Irish name. Your email address will not be published. Chidi had been opened as this youthful preppy scene was just beginning to emerge, in 1976. Vernon College girls in Pappagallo shoes, McMullen blouses, Villager skirts and Liberty sweaters; Georgetown Foreign Service School types in some of the first Gucci shoes and Paul Stuart suits seen in Washington: tousled Irish Catholic kids in jeans and tweed sportcoats, whose great regret in life was not being old enough to have gotten drunk with Dylan Thomas at the White Horse in Greenwich Village.. Revisiting the 1980s Heyday of Georgteown's Fabled Preppy Bars In the Washington Post, January 7, 1982, there is an account of the unfathomably named Richard Hamilton Herrud Houghton III.. There are a few prerequisites [for entry], wrote WaPo. "What a wonderful place. Mike once banned a waitress from his kitchen after he heard her tell a customer that his stuffed calamari was made from testicles, instead of tentacles. I use to go every weekend for a while. All Rights Reserved. While Maryland raised its drinking age to 21 in 1982 and Virginia did the same in 1985, the District of Columbia held out, wrote Hunter Main for The Hoya Georgetown Universitys student newspaper in trying to explain the era. | The Georgetown Metropolitan, ICYMI: When Wootten Met Thompson at Jelleff. Yep, My one year in DC, 1983-84, Mr. Henrys in Georgetown was a favorite gay hangout. The spacious bar offered martinis and Sinatra music, while a preppy look acted as the cover charge. The customer wasnt charged, but he wasnt able to finish his meal, either. From 2000 to 2012, the population of 20-to-24-year-olds in Georgetown rose by nearly 40 percent, largely because of an increase in student enrollment at the university. By 1968 she was drawing such a crowd to the club that Yaffe opened a special room at his other location near Capitol Hill to showcase her talent. "It's okay for young people in their twenties. "I've heard something about the problem ," he said, "but I understand it's a tradition since Georgetown has had nightclubs." This week for Not So Long Ago, GM stops by Wisconsin Ave. just above M St. where the Vinyard Vines and Bebe shops now sit. It was buy 2 cocktails and the 3rd was free (so we just had to) and we would order onion rings,salads,burgers,and mainly light meals,then catch a cab for nights out dancing at The Pier 9. We always sat in the front room and played Barry White,(and Pier songs,) on the jukebox which was located up front at the north window. The. It's free. They go to good colleges or have good jobs.. She noted that by now the 100-plus bars in the neighborhood were starting to rankle the older, upper-crust residents with to their boisterous partying. Though Lisa Birnbachs iconic 1980 Official Preppy Handbook was meant to lampoon the aesthetic, it instead galvanized it, and, just like the early-aughts Brooklyn hipster movement, all irony was soon stripped away. This really does cap a disturbing trend in the Wisconsin/M area. Whats a Hoya with a fake ID to do these days? acid jazz and electronica, following the establishment of a variety of bars and clubs in the area, most notably The Black Cat (which was co-founded by Dave Grohl, another native of the DC punk scene). In the latest Pelecanos The Way It Was Derek Strange has Roberta Flack starting out at Clydes. And it was popular with college kids primarily because you didnt even need a fake ID to get in; it was 18 and over. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. And hes especially fond of the saloon, a style of establishment for which Georgetown home of the original Clydes became famous. There are out-of-town families trying to decide where to eat: "But I don't want steak" went the refrain recently outside Dino's Steakhouse. Half of Mikes book is recipes, scaled down for household use, and half is behind-the-scenes reminiscences. Jammed upstairs and down. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. The interior, meanwhile, was more inspired by another preppy haven popular with college kids, an underground spot called The Tombs. By the aughts, now known simply as Richard H. Houghton III, he was serving as Acting Country Director of the International Republican Institute in Baghdad. This establishment was a left over remanent of the 1970s disco scene. [My friends] and I were pretty upset about it closing, noted one Georgetown junior in reference to Chadwicks, which shuttered before the new school year of 2014, by now famous for its cheap and unlimited champagne brunches, a preppy mecca until its final days. During the Tramonte's ownership of the club, Paul Wolff was the front of house engineer. By the 1990s, Georgetown had, like most of America, entered into a grunge period, with alternative music blasting out of the doors at rock clubs like Poseurs. She directed church choirs and began taking voice lessons, concentrating primarily on opera, with Frederick Wilkie Wilkerson. 293 views, 6 likes, 4 loves, 2 comments, 1 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Preserving LGBT Sites in Metro DC: The Georgetown Grill, from 1948 to 1977, became a popular gay male hangout, especially. Elmos Fire Now it is an upscale Mexican restaurant called El Centro. 1050 30th St. NW Although many Georgetown merchants say this is the worst summer for business they have seen in years, one bartender in a popular nightclub said it can gross $10,000 on a Saturday night. The people that come here are from good families, explained one Chidi-goer at the time, differentiating them from the non-preppy riff-raff. Were not splitting the atom here.. View the menu, check prices, find on the map, see photos and ratings. She also found time for a social life during this period, culminating in her 1966 marriage to Stephen Novosel, a jazz bassist. Bros in polos and hungry clubbers start the night with massive plates of Irish nachos before climbing the stairs to the hot and heavy dance floor, wrote one review. "This is like being at home almost, like your own neighborhood," said Gary Smithwick, a 25-year-old resident of Southeast Washington who said he comes to Georgetown almost every Saturday night. But it was Clydes that the Official Preppy Handbook would list as their definitive prep bar for the DC area. James Muggy (Mike) Smith, a self-proclaimed "filthy rich" Indiana University student from Arlington, and Brian Storz, a Tulane University student from Savannah, Ga., met in the Third Edition this summer. . Reportedly decked in khakis and polished penny loafers, blond hair and blue eyes, he was a Georgetown junior at the time. Log In. But Mike always had a soft spot for the bar both sides of it. Reserve now, pay when you stay. This bar (known primarily as a gay bar) was famous for being the place where Roberta Flack launched her career. Or have you accepted the fact that M Street is an eerily too similar replica of your hometown mall? Next door in 1993 there was a branch of Roberto Donnas Il Radiccho brand restaurant. Free Cancellation. This establishment was a left over remanent of the 1970s disco scene. As for Mr. Henrys, there may have been one in Georgetown, but Id go to Mr. Henrys on Capitol Hill, upstairs, to see Roberta Flack. Topher, I hate to contradict you but there never was a Mr. Henrys at 1225 Wisconsin Ave. He's the author of a new memoir, "Meet Me at the Bar, I'm Hungry." It was a refuge for long-haired psychedelic groups as well as oddballs like Sun Country, a local garage act led by a female drummer. Born in Washington, John started at The Post in 1989 as deputy editor in the Weekend section. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Winstons was the go-to spot in the mid 80s. The Georgetown bar culture was filled with much more than loafers, gingham, pleats and shoulder pads, wrote McGovern. There was definitely a Mr. Henrys at 1225. It was kind of like Tuscany in that everyone had to go there at least once.. In my day. For one, its geographic location straddled the line between the prep schools and Ivy League institutions of the northeast, while also having a foot in the South with its fratty gentlemen and sorority belles. That didnt last long, and the old Champions returned for a little while longer before closing a few years ago. I think the infamous Maximilian Rochambeau had a club in that building back in the early Nineties. Champions closed their doors in 2002. "My dog's better'n that," replied Costner. 10. Dave Was Paramount not one of the early Washington gay enlightened restaurants? Over the years, it has moved to a few different locations in the downtown area. Remember in the 1980s, DC wasnt doing well, says Alana McGovern, a Georgetown alum who wrote about the neighborhoods bar scene over the years for a project entitled Booze to Bougie. Also loved the roof deck and, Avril, who became a fast friend with the . Bill Scanlan: MTITV, filmmaker of The Bayou: DCs Killer Joint Mike will be selling and signing books from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Boss Shepherds, 1229 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Southside 815, 815 S. Washington St., Alexandria; and as part of a dinner special Oct. 29 at Clydes of Georgetown. The customer had dared to adulterate Mikes creation with ketchup. The spacious bar offered martinis and Sinatra music, while a preppy look acted as the cover charge. We started DCs Fastest Bartender, and Monday night Mike Nardello spinning tunes during No Skin No Win naked dance contest Buddy Jenkins was Mgr. I also thought it was called Annies Paramount Steak House. Donal was a protege of Roberta Flacks. Washingtons weird territorial placement in the American firmament also played a key role in the bar scene that emerged. Tuesdays was Pendletons or Chadwicks, a K Street joint located under Whitehurst Freeway known for its hamburgers, cheap beers and late-night hours. Eventually, he went to the Culinary Institute of America and returned to Washington as a chef, creating menus at such places at T. Gregorys (Simplicity does not foreclose imagination, wrote Post critic Phyllis Richman, and T. Gregorys has some original and successful culinary inventions) and Union Street Public House in Alexandria. For the record: Dinos Paramont Steakhouse, with a parking lot to the left, and Mr. Henrys to the right, and American Cafe to the right of that. A shock to the guest, perhaps, but not as shocking as what Mike says once happened at Kellys Irish Times. lolAnyone remember Cafe de Paris and Sundowner Club? oh, but they were just south on M~ Cheers to those Great Times . John Thompson's teams made it to the Final Four three times in the 1980s and won the National Championship in 1984. Georgetown Today, July 1970 The overwhelming majority of the faculty believed that we, right on the doorstep of the national government, just could not conduct business as usual. This rare footage of Washington DC from the 1960s gives you more of a look into the fascinating history of the city. And then Bistro Francais on M, where everyone would show up at 3am and stay till dawn. October 7, 1980. Since then the location has been a sandwich shop but currently remains for rent. If Washingtonians mostly only drank at restaurants, hotels, social clubs and high-society parties previous to 1980, that was about to change, and quickly. I used to bartend at Winstons in 1990/1991. He said he comes to Mr. Henry's mainly for conversation. The Georgetown bar culture was filled with much more than loafers, gingham, pleats and shoulder pads, wrote McGovern. Storz, in Kelly green bermuda shorts, planted a noisy smooch on Smith's lips. Donal Leace, who sadly passed away yesterday in Texas from COVID19, use to play Sunday afternoon shows at Mr. Henrys on Wisconsin. This site seems to confirm that there was a Mr. Henrys at 1225 Wisconsin Ave.: Meanwhile, music remained a central part of Flacks life outside of the workplace. But 1225 Wisconsin definitely housed the American Cafe during the 1970s and early 1980s. type); blond, dirty blond or light brown hair; a polo shirt with some sort of animal or mammal applique; a pair of madras pants or Bermuda shorts; and your name on the Britches mailing list for its new fall collection.. It offered an onyx bar top, hexagonal white tiles on the floor, checkered tablecloths, draught beer and burgers. But on May 19, the Birchmere will host a reunion of people. Not exclusively gay but ahead of its time? Reportedly decked in khakis and polished penny loafers, blond hair and blue eyes, he was a Georgetown junior at the time. Georgetown was getting overrun by high-end national retailers, movie theater chains, luxury hotels and cupcake shops, though a few bars had managed to hang on into this century. http://www.angelfire.com/art2/delacroix_berthier/meet_de_la_croix.%20part%203.htm. Check out this websiteto learn more! Georgetown Billiards: GM loved this place. Quickly, Williams and McDonalds bashes, based on a Myrtle Beach frat-boy aesthetic they had grown up on in the South, were a sensation, packed with men in blazers and women, according to WaPo, who pronounced daddy as a three-syllable word. Modeled after turn-of-the-century Chicago taverns, it offered a 50-foot-long bar, gold-painted ceiling, solid oak floor and elevator doors repurposed from Manhattans Waldorf-Astoria. For one, its geographic location straddled the line between the prep schools and Ivy League institutions of the northeast, while also having a foot in the South with its fratty gentlemen and sorority belles. And yes, it was Dinos Paramount Steak House and yes it was very straight, not gay. Paul Breton, which later became the Metropolitan Community Church of DC. Pingback: From the Comments | The Georgetown Metropolitan. There are many ways to recount Georgetowns history. . This is an Appalachian family in Eastern Kentucky, circa 1964. I enjoyed F Scotts on 36th and Prospect. Garretts: GM spent many hours at this bar in his early 20s. Which brings GM to: Chadwicks: GM can speak from a brief personal experience that this bar was popular with GU students (at least in the late 90s) and that its entrystandards werelargely to blame. But to the chronic dismay of some Georgetown residents, the streets and a circuit of popular nightclubs are a commercial everyman's land. Likewise, if in the 1970s, Georgetown was mostly known for its thrift stores (such as Commander Salamander), record shops and even a disco bar called Tramps, that too was in flux. The following 13 vintage photos showcase different areas throughout Ohio during the 1970s: 1. There are a few prerequisites [for entry], wrote WaPo. I remember a Mr. Henrys in Georgetown at the same time as the American Cafe but that Mr. Henrys closed around 1980-81 (it started getting mostly straight customers when they hired a teenaged Tori Amos to play piano)and the American Cafe followed suit a few years later. (202) 387-8411. Not to forget Crazy Horse, Desperados, the Down Under. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly. The Guards: This one was more popular with the post-collegiate set, particularly in W. Bushs Washington when the formerly scuzzy basement became the still scuzzy Gryphon Room. Theres a lot of booze in the book. Eventually, Wilkerson convinced Flack to give pop music a try. What started out as a trip to bid on a collection of antique beer steins at a tax auction for the oldest saloon in the city, resulted in Stuart and John becoming its new owners. By 1982, preppy partying in our nations capital was reaching a fever pitch, with limousines crawling down M Street and bars packed eight-deep as people queued up for drinks. 4 out of 5. USA Distributor of MCM Equipment georgetown bars 1970s Chidi had been opened as this youthful preppy scene was just beginning to emerge, in 1976. Its still a lot like a frat party, except now, because of the recent prep craze, you might see a Marine or someone from [the bar] across the street just because its cool to be prep, explained another suffixed partier, Jean-Charles Dibbs III, then a barely-legal Republican political aide. (Seven-year plan, he says of his stop-and-start undergraduate career.). Free WiFi. Fourteen years in the making, "The Bayou" is a 90-minute documentary about the legendary Georgetown nightclub, which closed in 1998. "Sometimes we take our pants off and it really bums people out," Smith said, with Storz at his side, doing exactly that. 3135 K Street, Georgetown, Washington DC. There was also the gay-friendly Georgetown Grill (I may have the name wrong; it was long ago, in the 70s). Is everyone forgetting the Library? Your email address will not be published. Vernon College girls in Pappagallo shoes, McMullen blouses, Villager skirts and Liberty sweaters; Georgetown Foreign Service School types in some of the first Gucci shoes and Paul Stuart suits seen in Washington: tousled Irish Catholic kids in jeans and tweed sportcoats, whose great regret in life was not being old enough to have gotten drunk with Dylan Thomas at the White Horse in Greenwich Village.. Does that sound right? Best chocolate chip cookies. For more discriminating tastes, there are establishments like the Pisces Club, F. Scott's, the Georgetown Club, Charlie's Georgetown, Chinoiserie and Blues Alley, which are protected from the masses by understated facades and locations off the well-trodden Wisconsin-and-M pathway. Williams also was the GM at the Nissan Pavilion. Brad, you might be right, but what I read is that Flack started at the Georgetown Mr. Henrys and then the club owner, Henry Yaffe, recognized her talent and then built a room for her at his Capitol Hill location. On weekends, Georgetown is Washingtons front porch, wrote Leslie Berger in yet one more 1982 WaPo nightlife article. As for Richard Hamilton Herrud Houghton III, that original WaPo article is literally the only time his full formal name would ever be mentioned in the annals of American journalism. Espaol . Luciano was quite a character, but he didnt seem to have the business sense to make it there long-term, especially with the added challenge of not being on the street. Theres still Tombs (the other inspiration and filming location of St. Elmos Fire) and Chadwicks under a new name is still basically Chadwicks. It's what they call a "listening room," with little signs on the tables firmly requesting that customers not chitchat during performances. The protests are known as Mayday. This is the scrappy old lesbian bar Coconuts, converted last year into Waterstone -- a pretty tavern for the under-served western edge of Mount Vernon . Thursdays was E.J. Only In D.C. Facebook page for more. And, of course, it was partially the model for the St. Elmos bar in St. Elmos Fire. Channeling the immense popularity of Chidi, a so-called circuit of preppy bars soon dotted the neighborhood, giving the pastel-clad a place to party virtually every single night of the week. C/Luis Garca Berlanga, 19-21, Valencia, Valencia, 46023. Mr. Henrys was absolutely 1225 Wisc. In Blues Alley and Charlie's, jazz-lovers sip drinks and converse in muted tones. Thats because theyll often leave some behind, and since the club is cut into separate quarters, its almost sanitary to snatch a bit off the plate. They go to good colleges or have good jobs.. One of the more lively approaches is to gather some persons of a certain age, whether those of the baby boom generation or not, and swap stories about the late night scenes along Wisconsin Avenue and M Street. At one point, every place on M Street had a manager or chef who was someone from my class, Mike Soper says as I tuck into my oyster poboy at Bobby Vans downtown. From May 1- May 3, a series of large scale demonstrations were held in DC protesting the war. Here is another article discussing Garrets closing. Changed to the Bayou in 1953 with Owners Mike Munley, Vince and Tony Tramonte, The Tramontes sell the Bayou to Cellar Door Productions in 1980, This page was last edited on 2 December 2022, at 07:05. It was closed in 2015 due to high rent and is now Club Monaco, a clothing store. Where: Find: Home / Spain / Montserrat, Valencian Community / Bar Poliesportiu De Monserrat / Bar Poliesportiu De Monserrat menu; Hotel ILUNION Aqua 4. I especially remember it being packed on Half-Price Hamburger night (I think this was on Tuesdays). Thursdays were the big nights Georgetown/American University nights. Milos Forman, R. Lee Ermey: More Than Movie Originals, Questions for Chloe: Positive Reinforcement for Better Sleep. The owner sold it to a corporation and then it began to slide. By the aughts, now known simply as Richard H. Houghton III, he was serving as Acting Country Director of the International Republican Institute in Baghdad. My friends Craig and Ardith and I would go there several times a week for happy hour, for years approx 1974 to 1977-ish. Beer was king, specifically bottled beer.