MCCXXIII Dance Club Closes Its Doors
The Going Out Gurus broke the news that MCCXXIII (otherwise known as 1223) has closed it's doors. The club's owner claims a rent increase as the reason the decade-old Connecticut Ave. club is pulling the plug. This club was the cornerstone of what I think my sister likes to call "The Gaza Strip." In other words, it's dancefloor was wall-to-wall Eurotrash. And Michael Jordan.
The Gurus point out that: "MCCXXIII was one of Washington's first pricey bottle-service clubs, and its upstairs VIP lounge, Spank, was the first local club to jump on the "reserve-a-bed" trend back in 2002." Several years ago, we visited Spank while working on a piece about the basketball legend. The beds were in rough shape even then. There were rips!
As I linked above, Michael Jordan was a big fan of the place. It may have been the last club he visited before he left town.
Here's what we wrote about Jordan's last days as Wizard and his last time at the club:
"Michael Jordan needed one last round. It was late, maybe 12 hours after his now-famous last cruise out of the MCI Center, riding solo in his dark Mercedes coupe. As he walked up the back stairs of MCCXXIII, away from the velvet ropes and the crowd of diplomat kids, Jordan turned to Mike, the bouncer escorting him, and blurted: 'There's a whole lot of hot-ass bitches here.'
Jordan was usually unapproachable, cold even, to the dance club's help, according to Mike and his co-workers. But in noting the hot-ass bitches, Jordan seemed determined to have a private-dude moment. He may have wanted to mark the night, maybe his last night, with special meaning. If he didn't have a shoulder to cry on, a head nod would do. Whatever, the bouncer thought.
Jordan reached his floor, the third-floor V.I.P. room known as Spank. He walked past the Abu Dhabi-meets-New York crowd, a row of white soft-plastic upholstered beds, and a bar topped with smoked white granite. He slinked up a short step, past a lighted floor, to his usual table at the rear. He was then fÍted with comped vodka and champagne, and joined by his golden-oldies act of Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley. It was Wednesday, hiphop night. Jordan doesn't miss hiphop night."
Will anyone else miss MCCXXIII?
11:05 am
Gaza=Euro? It sounds like your sis may have been talking about rich folks from farther South than Europe while invoking the name of a place inhabitated by poor people because it had the word 'strip' in it.
11:11 am
It's still funny. Lighten up Curm.
11:23 am
Euro trash or not. You have to admit that the all you can drink happy hour on weekday nights was awesome. It included top rail. I have an inkling that other clubs will be closing soon too as the rent increases all over town.
12:04 pm
When I went there that one time, the club was actually really great for what it was. It excelled at being 1223. The staff was super nice.
1:16 pm
Alright it is funny... So the Post had an article about the rents Douglas Jemal was charging downtown on 7th near E and it seemed that everyone but him thought he was charging too much. The art galleries that had been there for years are leaving. Now restaurants and yogurt shops are coming and going.
3:26 pm
Been there a few times! It's a great place to go if you want to show off to others that you can spend x amount of money like a baller. I'm not going miss it. I just have better places to go!
3:49 pm
You couldn't beat $20 cover and all you could drink. Me and my folks will miss the place - we met some cool people in there hanging out and acting a fool!