Pulling An All-Nighter

The diner next to Dan the Man’s Teriyaki on 9th Street near U had an Open 24-Hours sign, but that was a few months back, and it’s hardly Penn Quarter.

Your best bet is probably the hotels with kitchens that are open late. How late is Harry’s Bar in Hotel Harrington open?

I think Clydes (1 a.m.) and now Green Turtle (2 a.m.) are the kitchens that close the latest. I would literally mess myself if we got a 24 hr diner or something like that.

I’d also be curious about late night (drunk) food options. A few Fridays ago we left the Chophouse bar at about 11 in search of food. We struck out the Fudd and ended up at Hooters, which was a huge disappointment. What are the other options?

Chinatown used to have a whole bunch of late night eateries. I’m pretty sure Eat First and Full Key are still open until at least 2 during the week and later on weekends.

Full Key on H between 5th & 6th is open until like 2:30 AM on weeknights, and I think 3:30 or 4AM on weekends.

great photo !

Yep, Chinatown has several Chinese restaurants open late night on H Street that I’ve hit up after a big night out. Might not feel so good the next morning though — or maybe that was the 10 mixed drinks.

C’mon guys we live in the worst city on teh country _ we are discussing clydes, druck, cvs, kinkos! There will never be anything better to eat late night because there isnt a population demand for it! Same reason we dont have deli’s, grocery, butcher, retail, boutiques…

Full Kee has great food and it’s open late…

It’s not even really like living in a city if you ask me…we get all the drawbacks of city living (bums, crime, pollution and high cost of living) but none of the convenience benefits. Thankfully my job is sending me back to London next month!

I agree. this city will never achieve greatness. My wife was hungry the other night at slightly after 8pm(!). The Cozy Corner Cafe (10th and L) was closed, Potbelly (11th and F) closed, Cosi (E between 10th and 11th) closed. You can’t even get a freak’n sandwich in this town after 8.

It’s called lack of city character. I applaud many on here for trying to create such a city vibe, but DC is never going to be a New York, London, Tokyo, Chicago, etc… Look at the caliber of people who run our neighborhood and city in general.

Glad someone else agrees how busted up this city really is. Question – if you want a real italian sand where do you go? Decent pizza outside of Matchox? Any delivery food outside of Chinese, a butcher other than WF. Maybe my fellow GP residents can help me out because I have been seatching for 5 years.

Actually I forgot – you can get a great sand in the neighborhood. There is a deli next to Proof on 8th and G. Great quality meats and cheeses. Only problem is like the rest of the city they are only open Mon-Fri.

There is also a deli across from the VDA fitness/Verizon Center on F St that I believe is open at least on Saturdays. Never ate there, so I can’t vouch for the quality.

yea – Calimes it is really bad. A chain like Potbelly but WORSE

I’m actually a fan of Camille’s Deli. Pretty healthy food; friendly staff.

its pretty amazing what people expect of DC and its population of less than 600,000.

for that number of residents i think its pretty hopping.

i mean charlotte is a bigger city than DC, but you rarely hear it compared to there. nope. we compare our city to the finest cities in the world.

despite what we lack, thats saying a lot.

I think a lot of people forget where DC is coming from… From being the murder capital in the 90’s, DC’s population was continually decreasing for decades. After it got a little better, Anthony Williams got developers to build here… now people actually want to live here. Now DC is doing the same thing with retail/businesses…. it takes time, but if you actually look at whats developing (the new convention center, ballpark district, SE/SW waterfront, the new L’Enfant Plaza, NoMa) there’s a lot thats going to be here in the near future. All you people saying DC will NEVER be a great world class city, that’s just stupid… NEVER is a long ass time. And everyone saying nothing is open late or on weekends must never go north of K St.

Right on, jyoun88!

I think a lot of the statements people are making about the “City” are really specific to our neighborhood (at least based on the examples I read). Our neighborhood has been an area for office workers for a long time. Only recently has it started to have more 24 hour demand. That is why a lot places cater to lunch only. In general I agree DC is more conservative than a lot of cities, and our zoning laws and residents make it difficult to create 24 hour zones. You have to state your hours when you apply for a liquor license, and if it is anything out of the ordinary, rest assured there will be a complaint from a few residents that will ensure the restaurant changes its hours before the license is approved. Even the plans I have seen for neighborhood development state the goal of an 18 hour neighborhood, because they want it to be clear 24 hours is not welcome. Many residents here don’t want to live somewhere that is loud and partying at 4AM on Wednesday night, and an area like that with no residents tends to be a magnet that draws in trouble from everywhere around it. Just this weekend I heard Tom Sietsma refer to the downfall of Adams Morgan because it was not as desirable as it once was for new restaurants since it has catered to the 24 hour crowd which has attracted trouble. If they were allowed to, I’m sure a number of bars would stay open until the sun came up.

If you are willing to go outside the nieghborhood (but still in the city) you can find 24 hour cafes (a few in adams morgan and georgetown for sure) as well as things like a butcher. I’ve said it many times on here, but people keep saying there is no butcher in DC. There is more than one, but the best quality I know of is at Wagshal’s Market on Mass Ave:

http://www.wagshals.com/Market/beef.htm

Thanks so much for keeping the Penn Quarter/G Place/Shaw area informed with these comings and goings, blog people.

My two cents on DC- look at it as a bottle half full and getting more full by the day. Don’t take out of my “DC Bucket” with your comparisons to other cities in a negative light. Add to this bucket but looking at DC as endeavouring to become a world class city.

Live long and prosper, DC peoples.

DC will never grow and prosper like other cities because of the 180 foot height restriction. For all you know it alls – population density drives retail/business/rest/ect. With the 180 foot height restriction NO neighborhood will ever have a worthy population density to make this city great.

Anon: Paris and London don’t have NYC style skyscrapers either.. I think that DC just needs to convert a few of its office buildings to residential to obtain sufficient population density.

Population Density = Retail/ Businesses/ Restaurants/ Etc.?? Who would’ve known!! We’ve found the magic equation!! A real know-it-all!!!Like previously stated, look at Paris and London. It’s not the height of the buildings, it’s the mix of uses. There are plenty of downtowns in this country that have much taller buildings than DC, but are much less lively. This is usually because the really tall buildings are commercial use, and they usually are filled up during the day by people who live outside the urban area. That being said, even with the height restriction, with the right mix of residential/ofice/retail, DC is becoming more dense and lively everyday. Enough anonymous bashing.

If you understood the DC real estate market you would understand that the market is driven by commercail real estate. DC year after year has the lowest commercial vacancy rate always performing below 5%. With that said it is the exact same reason that DC is the second largest commuter city in the nation. Our daytime population increases and decreases 73%. Obviously this is one of the main drivers out of a slew of issues to resurect this extremely under developed city

DC once had a population well over 800,000 people. That was when our neighborhood housed the largest market in the city, department stores like Hechts and Lansburg’s opened up, and taverns spilled out into the streets. I think our city is well on it’s way back to that lively, urban center. It’ll never be NYC, but that’s fine with me.

Want more people to move back in the city, lower the crime and get police out of their cars and on street corners. DC has come along way in that area but there is still room for exponential improvement.

I’m tired of the claim that “There is no demand for [fill in the blank – groceries, 24-hr diners, etc., etc.], otherwise it would be there already.” Do people who say this really believe that we live in that kind of market utopia, where as soon as a demand arises, it is met? I mean, seriously? There are plenty of reasons retailers don’t instantly pop up to meet every need – even if they would, in the end, make money: they may be overly risk-averse, have financial problems, be unable to pay high rents (or the right space for their business may be unavailable), have imperfect information, etc.

More power, CBD! I’ve agreed for some time now that developers and business owners don’t magically step in to meet every unmet demand as soon as it arises. Given the lines at TJ’s in West End, they could open a dozen in DC and probably still have long (but fast moving!) lines at all of them. Same situation with 24-hour restaurants. DC is somewhat lacking in the entrepreneurial spirit, and rents are high due to commercial tenant demand, and that has a lot to do with the unmet residential amenities demand.