Bar None

heh heh heh – thanks, man, I needed a good joke to start the day – heh heh heh

I refuse to patronize Hard Rock until they stop blasting music into 10th street and E street early in the morning.

Hopefully it will turn into a place that does not attract busloads filled with teenagers on spring trips to DC

my drinking establishments of choice in the neighborhood are Gordon Beirsch and the Chop House for their in-house-brewed beers, Matchbox for their delicious belgian beers on tap and (although outside the bounds of PQ) I’m dying to try out Bistro Beck’s bar (more belgian beer).

I think it’s OK to have a place in the neighborhood for busloads of tourists to go. Diversity is a good thing (plus it keeps them out of the good places).

We’ve started frequenting the wine bar at Bistro D’Oc. They have great wines and great food. the environment is a bit sterile, but it feels more “local” than anything else in the neighborhood. Christophe, the bartender is great. They opened the bar for me on my birthday, and we had a great private party up there. They’re also working on making the place more of a neighborhood hangout.

The Hard Rock Cafe serves the important function of giving busloads of tour groups a place to eat and shop in Washington, DC. Almost all the groups we bring to the Hard Rock Cafe are students, so don’t worry about them taking over local bars.

Far too often we get tour groups who stay in the suburbs and then travel back out to the suburbs to eat (all you can eat buffets and bus parking are attractive features). No wonder the students ask “Does anyone live in Washington, DC?” Not to mention the lost tax revenue when they stay, eat, and shop in the ‘burbs.

Thanks to the Hard Rock Cafe (plus ESPN and California Tortilla) for hosting student groups in Penn Quarter!

Adult groups occassional have reservations at Gordon Beirsch. My experience is that these appointments are very early 4:45pm or 5pm, so the conflicts with locals would be small.

Down at the waterfront, both students and adults enjoy Phillips Sea Food, but who knows how much longer they will be around. Ditto for H20, which also serves bus groups in the late afternoon/early evening hours.

Tourism … our second largest industry. What a joy to share our nation’s Capitol with them!

A joy to share our neighborhood with groups of loud teenagers who clog up the sidewalks and scream and do their school cheers while waiting in line to get in to these resturants? Not to mention the noise and pollution caused by the tour buses since they don’t turn off their engines as they idle waiting for their customers to return? Yes — people do live in DC and while sharing the city with tourists is part of the deal, the tour industry needs to understand that this is our home — not some Disney recreation of a city that is there only for tourists convenience. Show us some consideration — and if that means more tour groups stay in the suburbs, so be it.

#8 – You forgot to add, “And you kids stay off my lawn!”

I remember sitting in Hard Rock years ago having a beer, or two, or five. Anyway, I was at that point where deafening music didn’t really matter. A bunch of kids who looked like second or third graders walked in and all of them covered their ears and looked like they were in intense pain, and not just because Aerosmith was playing. They all turned around and left.

Anyway, moral of the story: either bring earplugs or get so hammered you can’t hear anyway.

Some bitter people on here. Maybe you should move to the suburbs instead, and not the tourists. #2 – It is the “Hard Rock” Cafe – they are known for showcasing music, so they may want to play a little music sometimes. This city needs a little more light and sound to liven it up. Walk down a different street if it bothers you so much.

I understand slightly about the video boards at 7th and H being annoying, but give me a break on the Hard Rock Cafe and tourists. Yeah the tourists are annoying when they stand to the left on the Metro escalators and gather around the Visitors Center at 10th and E. But they bring much needed $$ to the city, so I can get over their stupid suburban annoyances and idling tour buses.

I don’t mind the tourist groups so much – actually like a little activity down here – but it would be nice if they were a little more considerate of the sidewalk.

The tour buses on the other hand I could do without. It drives me crazy that they think its perfectly acceptable to just park in the middle of the road.

I really do not understand the gripe with tourists, tour buses, etc. at all. Don’t get me wrong, I could stand to do without them everywhere. But, I really have no legit complaint.

We all chose to move to the center of our nation’s capital. In case nobody realized, our homes just happen to be surrounded by the exact monuments and museums that appear on postcards around the world. Is anyone really shocked that tourists *may* just want to come visit all of it?

Tourism was here before any of us residents, and it will be here long after all of us are dead. Deal with it, or . . . nevermind. I cannot finish that sentence or they may not publish this post.

Blaring commercials, amplified rock music and crowd noise do not make a vibrant neighborhood.

The tour buses are a real problem — In addition to parking where ever they feel like it — they leave their engines idling for hours while they are empty adding pollution to the air we all breathe

The issue is late night noise. When planning a downtown, night noise does not work next to the residential units. Bars and condos do not coexist well. People need to SLEEP!!! It is not rocket science.

#14 hits on the thing that bugs me the most, idling tour buses. And it’s not just in the PQ. Despite the signs threatening $500 fines for idling buses, they do so every day outside the Washington Hilton in Dupont. I’m sure they do it at Iwo Jima, and numerous other spots in & around DC.

Back to my post though: I was really hoping Hard Rock could become a bit more like House of Blues, and maybe start having some bands play there. Even just local bands, I’d love to have live music somewhere in the neighborhood.

Just under not believing that those illegal billboards still play TV commercials – none stop and not having a grocery store in PQ, is my disappointment in not having the House of Blues come to PQ. We would have cool tourists come in very everywhere for it. The only thing I heard was that the city decided against it. Whay is there anything we can do? We do vote and pay taxes ya know! How can we have our say?

Anon #15…you DO live downtown. I could do without the blaring video screens at 7th and H myself, but it’s hard for me accept that people moved to downtown DC for some peace and quiet.

Speaking of live music, has anyone heard any updates on the House of Blues opening a venue in the neighborhood?

I’ll take those tourist teens outside the Hard Rock any day over the “local” teens who hang out around the McDonald’s and Chiptole on 7th. Something tells me those tourists aren’t the ones responsible for our neighborhood’s crime issues.

As for a neighborhood bar, RFD all the way.

Once again, the root of one of the major complaints here is: the DC government’s refusal to enforce its laws. As Columbo notes, there is a law, with a stiff fine. Yet instead of enforcing the law, which would either bring needed dollars into the city’s coffers or stop the idling noise & pollution [or both], the city does nothing.
Tourists are critical to the local economy. Sometimes it can be irritating, but most of the complaints are minor. The idling buses issues isn’t minor – we mostly use natural gas buses in the city core to reduce pollution – well, a few idling tour buses offset that effort quickly.
As with the homeless problem, and the thugs at 7th & G [there was a drive-by at 7th & N yesterday], and so many problems: We just need the laws enforced.
Maybe Cary Silverman & other neighborhood leaders have some thoughts…
PS More live music in the neighborhood would be great – after all, the 9:30 Club started here. Fado has bands on most Thursdays…

House of Blues is not dead. It is just not being located under people’s bedroom windows. A more appropriate site like the old convention center parking lot is being considered. We need to plan for an urban downtown and not just create chaos and conflict.

Yeah, is anything being done about the teenagers who hang out on 7th street on the weekends? My male friend and I were walking back from the movies this weekend and he commented that it seemed quite unsafe.

Regarding the site where House of Blues was rumored at one point, the city has put out an RFP but that type of venue is very unlikely. keep in mind there are residential units on the ground floor & up right across the street at 555 Mass and the RFP takes this under consideration. Plans for the site have been extensively discussed and there will be community meetings with potential developers in about 2 months.

http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2008/1/31/5th–I-up-for-development

http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2007/11/21/5th–I-RFP-Feedback

Maybe Jemal might be into House of Blues or soemthing similar on the 600 block of NY.

ENOUGH with the “illegal” video signs. The volume has been muted since that article ran in the Post (at least every time I walk by which is 2-3 times a day).

They are not going anywhere. They were part of the plans for the building. And more are scheduled to be installed throughout the neighborhood. All the information is widely available (here, other blogs and sites), so there should be no surprises.

You don’t like it? Don’t live here. The signs are not going anywhere. Adjust.

BYTW: I hate them too. But it is part of the fabric which is defining this neighborhood. Just as are box stores and crappy chain restaurants. But its better than it was when I moved downtown 5 years ago — and much better than any suburban nightmare past the city borders.

As I understood it, most people’s complaints regarding the 7th and H video screens was the noise created by the (unnecessary) speakers installed with the screens. If the speakers are turned off, I don’t imagine most people will complain about them…

…and, yes, I did say *most* people.

#23 – your friend’s concern re the thugs at 7th & G is well founded. There are fights, harassment, & general thuggery there quite often – it’s best avoided by walking along the west side of the Seventh Street [unless you’re leaving a movie at 9:30, of course]. It’s still surprising to me that the BID or Clydes or the other restaurants & merchants don’t hire effective security to police that spot, since the DC police do virtually nothing & the situation worsens each week.

The signs are not turned off for good. There are problems regulating them. It’s not just the sound, the signs are to bright and the light patterns bounce into our windows; no window treatments don’t help. Keep in mind that those advertisement billboards are illegal.

Re the thugs at Seventh & G: a police camera at least would help, since the police refuse to do anything.
There’s a good article today on page two of the Post’s Metro section about the gang war that is going on between the 7th & O and the 5th & O gangs. Apparently a peace treaty has quieted that dispute recently, but a third gang is now warring with the 7th & O gang, resulting in the drive-by shooting Monday & an earlier shooting. Cary Silverman is quoted extensively in the article.
The #1 problem in PQ is crime. Is there a PQ crime blog?

#29-joe – please don’t lump the Penn Quarter at 7th and G in with Shaw at 7th and N or 7th and O. they adjoin each other but they are worlds apart and are not the same neighborhood.

that said, the proximity of the two areas facilitates loitering and the existence of some (not all) of the PQ’s issues as does the fact that 7th and H is a transportation and transfer hub (bus and subway). sadly for them, the effects of any gang war have been mostly borne by Shaw and Mt. Vernon Triangle.

we’re also straying a bit off topic for a post about the crowd attracted by the Hard Rock Cafe.

It is sad that Penn Quarter residents have to dodge gunfire to get groceries from the nearest market.

Perhaps Jack “do nothing” Evans will take action after a convention-goer is hit with a stray bullet and files a $50 million lawsuit against DC. The problems on that stretch of 7th street are not new, are not unknown to the MPD, are not unknown to Evans, and are not acted on by anyone. Sitting a few police cruisers in the neighborhood simply will not do the job. Just like the same problem outside of McDonalds/Chipotle, the officers need to get off their ass, get out of their car, and do a foot patrol or two. And if any officers are reading this, “foot patrol” does not mean standing idle outside of your car chatting with three other officers.

In the MPD defense though, Jack “do nothing” Evans has not exactly taken affirmative steps to help toughen the laws in this city re: loitering.

joe – How would a police camera help? If they can’t be bothered to move the thugs along, do you think they’ll waste time looking at surveillance footage?

Actually MPD just announced that they will have live monitoring of the crime cameras, one of which is at 7th & O. Additionally PSA 308 (the one north on 101 – which covers PQ) has a new Lt. Micah Pate, and just got a few new officers assigned. PSA 101 also has a new Lt. Gary Durand. Hopefully these changes will yield some good results. We are still waiting for Shotspotter!

There is a persistent theme in some these posts that dismisses any concern with some variation of “It’s the city, get over it”. We aren’t going to get over it. Residents have legitimate concerns about noise from crowds, music venues going in next to their homes, crime and yes, video screens. We didn’t move downtown for “peace and quiet” to quote one post. However, there is a balance between a “dead” downtown and living in the center ring of the circus. PQ has changed for the better over the last 10 years. Continuing that positive change means acknowledging problems, not just shrugging shoulders and saying, “it’s the city”