Hearn

This is about the coolest piece of restaurant-related trivia I have read on this board in a long time. Thanks for chiming in, and hope you de-lurk more often.

HA! Thanks. 1211 U Street has a really fascinating history. Former Washington Bullet's Center Manute Bol also owner and operated it as The Spotlight Club in the 1980s.

Yep, I think that's the only bar in the city longer than Masa 14's.

I'm a LONG time lurker to this excellent board, but as the architect for both CENTRAL and BEN'S NEXT DOOR, I couldn't help but chime in with a little insight into BEN'S Bar. The building itself (1211 U Street) was the former home in the mid-thirties to the famous jazz pianist, Jelly Roll Morton. When the Ali family decided to expand, they wanted to pay homage to that history partly by replicating the size of the bar in that time period (I believe it was called The Blue Moon back then)

Tiki+ App by Jeff Beachbum Berry is fantastic