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=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: ggw on December 17, 2007, 06:53:00 pm
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From the NY Times Sunday Travel section:
December 16, 2007
Day Out | Washington
H (as in Humming) Street (http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/travel/16DayOut.html?em&ex=1198040400&en=9174de3a07ac41e9&ei=5087%0A)
By CLAY RISEN
ITâ??S been almost 40 years since riots ripped through Washington in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.â??s assassination, and few areas were hit harder than the H Street Northeast corridor. Running from just north of Union Station toward the Anacostia River, H Street never fully recovered, even as other riot-scarred neighborhoods began picking up in the 1990s.
Over the last few years, though, H Street, also known as the Atlas District, has seen a marked revival. Four years ago, half of the streetâ??s 300 storefronts were empty; now only about 45 sit unoccupied. The areaâ??s anchor is a collection of bars and music clubs opened last year by a local entrepreneur named Joe Englert, who also helped drive the night-life explosion in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood.
<img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/12/11/travel/16day600.1.jpg" alt=" - " />
One of Mr. Englertâ??s venues, a popular stop-off for indie bands called the Rock and Roll Hotel (1353 H Street; 202-388-7625; www.rockandrollhoteldc.com), (http://www.rockandrollhoteldc.com),) has become a neighborhood hub, with a wide range of acts and a spacious upstairs bar and lounge, outfitted with worn-in sofas and winged guitars hanging from the ceiling. A few doors down is the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H Street; 202-399-7993; www.atlasarts.org), (http://www.atlasarts.org),) a renovated Art Deco movie house with two 250-seat theaters and two smaller spaces and performances from plays to cabaret to to jazz to light opera.
The 1200 block is home to the Palace of Wonders (1210 H Street; 202-398- 7469; www.palaceofwonders.com), (http://www.palaceofwonders.com),) a bar that doubles as a vaudeville theater, and the Cajun-inflected Red and the Black (1212 H Street; 202-399-3201; www.redandblackbar.com), (http://www.redandblackbar.com),) another Englert enterprise, which offers Abita beer ($5) and a spicy chicken jambalaya ($8) downstairs and rock shows upstairs. At the H Street Martini Lounge (1236 H Street; 202-397-3333; www.hstreetlounge.com), (http://www.hstreetlounge.com),) bar-hoppers can enjoy jazz acts while sampling from a 60-drink martini menu.
Perhaps just to see how many bars one block can handle, the 1200 block is also home to the Pug (1234 H Street; 202-388-8554), an inviting neighborhood bar, and Dr. Granville Mooreâ??s Brickyard (1238 H Street; 202-399-2546), a cozy two-floor pub featuring Belgian beers, a range of mussel dishes and enormous bowls of twice-fried frites (mussels start at $14; large frites are $7).
Clubgoers looking to check out go-go, the D.C. homegrown dance music style, should stop by Roseâ??s Dream Bar and Lounge (1370 H Street; 202-398-5700; www.rosesdream.com), (http://www.rosesdream.com),) where the go-go veteran Little Benny takes the stage every Friday night.
The one drawback to H Street is its lack of Metro access. Fortunately, local proprietors offer a free shuttle service (301-751-1802) Friday and Saturday to and from Union Station, where patrons can catch the Red Line.
H Street gets less hectic during the day, with little commercial activity beyond a Payless shoe store and an auto parts store. But that is slowly changing, too. A few art galleries have opened recently, including Dissident Display (416 H Street; 202-332-3346; www.dissidentdisplay.com), (http://www.dissidentdisplay.com),) as well as Sidamo (417 H Street; 202-548-0081; www.sidamocoffeeandtea.com), (http://www.sidamocoffeeandtea.com),) an airy coffeehouse with a roaster on the premises.
In Washington, wherever night life flourishes, high-end condo development is never far behind. The streetâ??s first luxury condo building debuted recently, and local developers are quickly buying up land along the entire strip.
If H Street is anything like 14th and U, the now-trendy neighborhood that was the center of the 1968 riots, in five years it will be completely made over â?? and jam-packed. For those who want to see the area before it really takes off, get to H Street now.
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H Street NE feels eerily like U Street did in the early 1990s...