Night Life in Mount Pleasant
One might
fairly ask, "what night life in Mount Pleasant?" In sharp contrast to the active
nighttime-entertainment neighborhoods of Adams Morgan and U Street/Cardozo,
quite nearby, Mount Pleasant goes quiet by early evening.
The Marx Cafe is one of the few nightspots in Mount
Pleasant, popular among young professionals and college-age youths; or so
I'm told, I'm much too old and stodgy for this sort of thing. Marx offers
recorded music, and a disk jockey, for evening entertainment.
The
name, by the way, stems from the original owner, Mark Peters, who plays up
the Karl Marx implication ("revolutionary cuisine"). Recently the Cafe has
been purchased by Aleks Duni, proprietor of Heller's Bakery, and a Greek
immigrant, so some changes may be on the way.
Don Juan's Restaurant
is another Mount Pleasant night spot, especially popular among
Salvadoreans. Alberto Ferufino, the proprietor of this restaurant and of
Don Juan's Carryout, likes to provide karaoke, which his
clientele enjoy. This has proven contentious, because certain
nearby neighbors characterize karaoke as "live music", and have objected.
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board decided that karaoke is "live
entertainment", but not "live music", a rather subtle distinction.
Currently Alberto
is seeking an "entertainment endorsement" so that he can again offer karaoke. He
was required to file for this endorsement after the neighbors again complained
about his karaoke, because Alberto's brother, visiting from El Salvador, and a
professional mariachi singer, sang the karaoke a few nights. That, said
the complaining neighbors, made it "live music", and hence a
"violation".
This is the Mount
Pleasant Mariachi Band, which is allowed to perform out on Mount Pleasant
Street, but Mount Pleasant restaurant owners cannot engage them to perform
inside their restaurants. To my knowledge, only in Mount Pleasant is live music
banned.
Why all this contentiousness over live music? It's not
about loud music disturbing the neighbors, because recorded music can
be just as loud, and because there are legal limits to how much sound can
emanate from any establishment (not much, certainly not enough to be
troublesome, even to the nearest neighbors).
In truth, the
prohibition against live music is based on a fear that these restaurants
would surreptitiously morph into night clubs, drawing large and noisy
crowds onto the street, far into the night. Basically, live entertainment
draws more customers, which the restaurant owners want, while certain
nearby neighbors want their streets quiet, and free of people talking or
reveling or otherwise causing disturbances far into the night. Currently
the author of the "live music" prohibition is extending that prohibition
to include both Don Juan's karaoke and the Marx Cafe's disk
jockey.
Everyone agrees, I think, that we don't want the noisy
late-night crowds that afflict Adams Morgan. But we're very far from that,
and with only a few small restaurants even capable of offering
entertainment, no significant crowds will ever come to Mount Pleasant. No
buildings here are suitable for the big night clubs that draw crowds to
the streets of Adams Morgan.
How do
a few neighbors impose such draconian regulations on our restaurants? This is
the infamous "voluntary agreement" process, by which as few as five residents
can impose their rules on any alcohol-serving establishment, holding the liquor
license hostage until the business owner yields to their demands. That a handful
of people can control this process is clearly unfair to the thousands of
residents who may disagree, wanting some entertainment possibilities close to
home. Our restaurant owners also have a rough time, because they get little
lunchtime business, and a single dinnertime seating won't cover their expenses.
The regulation imposed by a
handful of neighbors is this, in its most recent form: "Licensee shall permit no live music, DJ or live
entertainment, cover charges nor charges for admission to the establishment, and
shall not provide an atmosphere for dancing, or a dance floor for dancing, or
permit the moving of tables and chairs for the purpose of dancing."
In short, patrons are allowed only to eat quietly in restaurants, and
must not sing or dance. No fun allowed, not in Mount Pleasant!
I believe that we have to relax these
regulations, so that Mount Pleasant residents can find some evening
entertainment in their own neighborhood, and our restaurant owners can
have a chance at making a living. I am currently proposing that the
business owners be allowed some live music and other entertainment, with
self-regulating mechanisms so that any problems that do crop up can be
quickly dealt with.
About "voluntary agreements"
In July, 2006, the Mount Pleasant ANC passed a
resolution calling on the
ABC Board to relax these stultifying conditions imposed on Mount Pleasant
restaurants by these "voluntary agreements".
As the time for the renewal of Mount Pleasant's restaurant liquor licenses approached,
residents in support of live music founded a neighborhood organization dedicated to that end:
Hear Mount Pleasant.
This group has done an outstanding job of collecting neighborhood
sentiment in favor of ending the MPNA's ban on live music in Mount Pleasant.
The April, 2008 issue of DC North has
a well-balanced story on the live music dispute, and the battle between the MPNA and Hear Mount
Pleasant.
An update: on February 13, 2008, the District's Alcohol
Beverage Control Board held an all-day hearing concerning entertainment
endorsements, for live music, live entertainment, dancing, and cover charges,
for Haydee's and Don Jaime's Restaurants. I spoke for the ANC in this hearing,
supporting a termination to the live-music ban, and permits for live music, et
cetera.
On April 23, 2008, the Board issued its decision: live music returns to Mount Pleasant! A little bit, anyway; just two restaurants, Haydee's
and Don Jaime's, whose proprietors were brave enough to battle the anti-music
crowd.
On July 30, 2008, the ABC Board issued its ruling concerning karaoke and live music at Don Juan's. The restaurant has been given permission
to have karaoke (and dancing) into the early morning hours. Live music is limited to "roaming mariachi bands",
a restriction that has supporters of the restaurant puzzled.
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This page last updated September 9, 2008