For this week’s S&T, I spoke to Bill Duggan, owner of Adams Morgan anagram bar Madam’s Organ. Since 2000, Duggan’s been sparring with the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration over the issue of occupancy in his bar: ABRA said he was limited to 99 patrons, the number of seats on his restaurant license’s certificate of occupancy; Duggan contested that he could pack up to 393 patrons in, his fire marshall approved capacity. Earlier this month, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in Duggan’s favor.

This isn’t the first time that Duggan has dealt with issues of occupancy. For the past decade, Duggan and Madam’s Organ have organized a beach trip for area kids to Dewey Beach, Delaware. Each year, Duggan takes 20 to 40 District kiddies, along with 10 to 15 adult volunteers, for a weekend of bonfiring, crab-hunting, and beach-housing.

Dewey Beach didn’t always like that. “The second year of the trip, I was arrested for disorderly conduct,” says Duggan. “I made sure to tell the local [authorities] that the kids were coming, and they said it would be fine. They said ‘Hey, this is 1999, not 1969.’”

But Duggan says the beach cops were ready and waiting to kill the party. “Sure enough, there they were, hiding in the bushes, waiting for us,” he says. “They didn’t like having a bunch of black kids on the beach … The beach cop, he was like the leader of the Aryan nation: starched shirt, blonde hair, white eyebrows. He kicked us off the beach.”

That’s where Duggan’s pint-sized occupancy issue comes in: “Technically, the permit said only 25 kids at the bonfire at one time. And we had 35. But they were coming and going! Some were playing on the beach, others were at the house; they weren’t all at the bonfire at one time.”

But unlike the D.C. Court of Appeals, the beach cops didn’t buy Duggan’s maneuvering. “They put me in the paddywaggon,” says Duggan. “I said, ‘Fine, but the kids are coming with me.’”

After a brief lock-up and some negotiation, Duggan was released to continue spearheading the kiddie beach adventure. According to Duggan, the experience didn’t put a damper on the kids’ summer trip. “Oh, they loved it,” he says. “They kept shouting, ‘Mr. Duggan! You got locked up!’”

Photo by Charles Steck

Last week, we reported that D.C.’s Best Dance Night would be moving on up to Club Five this Saturday. Now, it looks like the event will by moving across the street to MCCXXIII, at 1223 Connecticut Ave. NW. Club Five had its license suspended earlier this month after a stabbing occured in the club. Five was set to open again June 18th; according to ABRA, that suspension has now been extended indefinitely.

Miami Horror and Gameboy/Gamegirl are still set to play on the Nouveau Riche bill, but the move to MCCXXIII brings some changes in the event’s time, cover charges, and dress code, says DJ Gavin Holland. The details: The show starts at 10 p.m. Entry begins at $10 and jumps to $20 at midnight. The dress code, while relaxed to include sneakers, does stipulate some no-no’s. Writes Holland:

They have relaxed their normal dress code for us, sneakers are okay. However, no shorts, no sandals, and sadly no totally wacky shit. Basically, dress well by your own standards, but you don’t need to wear fancy shoes or any of that silly ‘club’ attire. You should be lookin’ snazzy for Nouveau Riche anyway, so this should be no different. My heart goes out to Life Preserver Dude from the 9:30 Club, you will not be able to wear your life preserver.

On Tuesday, downtown D.C. nightclub Platinum surrendererd its Alcoholic Beverage Control license in a hearing in front of the ABC Board. Platinum, located at 915 F Street NW, is owned by Abdul Khanu, who also owns Southwest Waterfront club H20 Restaurant & Lounge. The decision has also put a chill on Khanu’s proposed third nightclub, The Big Chill.

According to a memo from Sgt. Joseph Massey of MPD’s 1st District, which covers the neighborhoods of both Platinum and H20:

At the end of hearing, Platinum surrendered their ABC license and officially closed for good. The ABRA board decided that Mr. Abdul Khanu can hold only one ABC license in the District of Columbia (currently H20). This action places a hold on the new establishment which Mr. Kahnu was attempting to open in the 5th District (The Big Chill).

ABC Board-Packing Raises Eyebrows: So a round of Alcoholic Beverage Control Board nominations are up for first reading today. In March, LL wrote about how the ward makeup of the nominees (three of seven members are from Ward 1) seemed fishy, considering the board is overseen by Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, who has long taken a special interest in the board’s operations. The noms are all going to pass safely, but Ward 8’s Marion Barry, Ward 2’s Jack Evans, Ward 7’s Yvette Alexander, and Ward 5’s Harry Thomas Jr. are all taking issue with the lopsided geographic balance on the board. —Mike DeBonis

Today, Don Juan’s restaurant in Mount Pleasant will make its case before the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board that it deserves to have live music and dancing reinstated, just as Don Jaime’s and Haydee’s did last week.

Don Juan’s is a different animal than the other two, and so its case will be harder to make. Over the years it has gained notoriety as a haven for drunk Latino men, getting drunker by the hour.

But Don Juan’s owner, Alberto Ferrufino, has taken extraordinary steps over the last year to change his restaurant’s image. Working with Hear Mount Pleasant, the neighborhood group working to overturn the live music ban, Ferrufino has spent thousands of dollars to install double-paned windows, a new roof, and soundproof insulation. After firing three DJs for refusing to turn the music down, he eliminated the problem by getting a new jukebox with smaller speakers and putting a limiter on it so it can’t get too loud.

The ABC Board requires yearly trainings for bar managers in responsible alcohol management, but for the last decade Don Juan’s has been sending its entire staff to the trainings. And recently, they’ve contracted with a well-known consultant from the Responsible Hospitality Institute to provide much more intensive training on responsible alcohol service and security.

Several neighbors have been making a concerted effort to bring families with children to Don Juan’s on a regular basis, trying to change the all-male composition of its clientele to be more family-friendly. After all, with the wave of gentrification in Mount Pleasant and the recent fire which effectively evicted 200 Latino residents from the neighborhood, Don Juan’s needs to expand its client base in order to survive.

I live directly behind Don Juan’s, and while I’m a big fan of their tamales, I usually get them to go because I don’t like being the only woman in there. I also didn’t like having a drunk guy pass out on my feet on a Sunday afternoon in there a few years ago. But I’ve got to hand it to Don Juan’s for cleaning up its act and making an effort to engage the community. I’ve been a supporter of Hear Mount Pleasant since their inception – I’ve even got their silk-screened “Bring Back Live Music” sign in front of my house – and I think they’ve done a great job listening to the community’s concerns and working with Don Juan’s to address them.

And as for live music, as far as I can tell men don’t like to dance alone, so more music will mean more women, and that can only be good for the place. We’ll see if the ABC Board agrees.

The Examiner’s Yeas and Nays has the scoop: Ted Loza, longtime chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, gets pounded by bouncer at Marvin. In a police report, Loza threatens Marvin with “possibly bring[ing] up whether Marvin’s liquor license should be suspended” (the Examiner’s words). —Mike DeBonis

Call him the Franklin Delano Roosevelt of liquor regulation!

Last year, Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham held up a pair of nominations to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board submitted by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. In February, Graham explained his power move by playing up his plan to reduce the board’s size from seven to five members.

This week, Fenty sent down some new ABC board nominations. Two of the names—Ward 8 engineer Herman O. Jones and Ward 6 statistician and civic leader Nicholas Alberti—are somewhat familiar: They were the two that Graham had obstructed. Two new names show up, however: Charles L. Brodsky and Donald C. Brooks.

And here’s another place they show up: Graham’s donor rolls. Brodsky, an Adams Morgan businessman, gave $100 to him in 2002; Brooks, a longtime city health administrator and also an Adams Morgan resident, gave the same amount, along with his wife, Christine Brooks.

Currently, only four board seats are filled, and two are set to be vacated come June. The board’s current chair, Peter Feather, is a Ward 1 resident (and also a Graham donor), which means that assuming all four of the new nominees are approved, three of six board seats will be occupied by Graham constituents/donors.

But Ward 1 has a lot of liquor licenses, right? Not that many: Only 16 percent of the city’s almost 1,500 active on- and off-premises liquor licenses are located in Ward 1. (If any ward were entitled to multiple members, it’s Ward 2, with 609.)

Back in February, Graham told LL that he and Fenty had worked out a deal, though he didn’t disclose the details at the time. Graham has not responded to a call for comment, but from these developments, the dimensions of the deal look something like this: Graham stopped pressing his bill to shrink the booze board; Fenty reciprocated by nominating two Ward 1′ers.

More to come.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Early Sunday morning, a gentleman was shot at the Island Cafe on the 800 block of Upshur Street NW. You know what that means: Cops shut the place down, the city liquor authorities shut the place down for even longer, and the politicians come out of the woodwork.

Within the next few minutes Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser will appear in front of the restaurant for the ritual posting of the club’s upcoming booze-board hearing date.

From Bowser’s press release:

“I have heard from Petworth residents, ANC Commissioners and members of the Metropolitan Police Department about their concerns about this club.” said Councilmember Bowser. “This club has been cited for violations for a number of years. I commend the Chief of Police and the ABRA Board for taking swift action with this club until the investigation is complete. This is an action that will keep our residents and neighborhoods safer.”

Grahamstanding: It’s not just for Jim Graham anymore.

D.C. Tunnel will be able to dole out drinks again following a decision by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board yesterday. Police chief Cathy Lanier suspended the club’s liquor license after a gun battle erupted between a group of men and four police officers outside the club early Saturday morning. The alcohol board decided to return the club’s license on a provisional basis. It must also hire reimbursable detail police officers to patrol the area outside the club, alcohol administration director Maria Delaney says.

D.C. Tunnel, also called Club Envy, was hosting a promoted event Friday night featuring TCB, Backyard Band, and Project Pat. According to an alcohol administration report, shortly after 3 a.m., four males exited the club and began shooting in the air towards MPD officers. Officer James Sulla then shot back, hitting one suspect in the foot and one suspect in the hand. Four men jumped into a Dodge Charger and sped away. The police followed them to the Edgewood Apartments at 600 Edgewood Street NE where they chased the suspects on foot. Two were apprehended, a police report says.

It looks like Ron Hunt, the flamboyant owner of Nexus Gold Club and the Edge/Wet strip clubs, is first in line for a coveted spot in Ward 5.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control board determined Aug. 1 that Hunt had submitted a liquor license application for 2127 Queens Chapel Road NE well before his fellow strip club owners, Deloris and Ronald Dickson, submitted theirs for a space at 2122 24th Place NE.

That’s relevant because, under current law, two nude dancing clubs can’t be fewer than 600 feet apart, and the properties Hunt and the Dicksons have been eyeing are 19 feet apart at their nearest point. Only one of the displaced clubs can relocate to the spot, with the prized license going to the one who got there first.

According to an alcohol administration official, that’s Hunt, who, barring any formal protests from the neighborhood, seems poised to move forward with his application.

Adams Morgan tavern moratorium passes D.C. Council.

As the Washington Post reported Sunday, a collection of Adams Morgan residents are lobbying to cap the number of restaurants able to acquire tavern licenses in their neighborhood.

These licenses are coveted along 18th Street NW, where restaurants like Madam’s Organ, according to the Post, are having trouble meeting the 45 percent in food sales that is required of restaurants. Taverns have no such requirement.

And time is running out. The retooled food-sales requirement for restaurants went into effect in 2004, but the council built in a two-year grace period before auditors could begin checking on compliance. In December 2006, auditors arrived at the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration to begin tabulating food sale receipts, and enforcement could begin sometime early in 2008, agency director Maria Delaney says.

But, despite the proposed moratorium on tavern licenses, scheduled to come before Council today, the struggling restaurants might have reason to be hopeful. Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham is introducing emergency legislation, the “Restaurant Audit Sufficiency Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2007,” that would delay enforcement of restaurants’ food sales requirements for another six months.

Rob Halligan, president of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association, says that any delay would be “another step in the wrong direction.”

“We spent 4 years coming up with a compromise law to stop this,” he says in a statement. “We don’t need to push that enforcement out any further….They’ve known since 2004 that this was coming. The law is not designed to protect failed business models. If a restaurant can’t make 45% of its sales in food or $2000 per seat, they are not a restaurant.”

Mayor Adrian Fenty has nominated Peter B. Feather to become the next chair of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, the agency that oversees the city’s alcohol administration.

The board is an adjudicatory body charged with approving, suspending, and revoking alcohol licenses. Of late, it has conducted high-profile hearings on violence at area clubs such as H2O Restaurant & Lounge and Smarta/Broadway. It must also approve most changes to liquor licenses, including any expansion of licensed establishments and even the introduction of entertainment there.

If approved, Feather’s term would be slated to last until May 7, 2011.

“Peter will be a welcome addition to the ABC Board as chair,” Delaney says. “He would be able to implement a lot of ideas that would…help ABRA meet some of the agency’s mission and the mayor’s objectives.”

According to his résumé, Feather has spent 10 years in nonprofit governance and 25 years in the corporate sector, including working with Adams Morgan Main Street. Feather, a four-year board member, would succeed Chairman Charles Burger, who joined the board in 2000, Delaney says.

In March, Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, who conducts oversight of the board as chairman of the Committee on Public Works and the Environment, called the Burger board “duds, initially,” stating that they were “slow to act” on violence at Club U and Kili’s Kafe & Lounge.

But, he said, the board changed over the years. “Today the board is much more aggressive. Prudent, but aggressive.” Burger could not be reached for comment, but Delaney says that “Chuck was a dedicated a chair who never missed a meeting and always greeted staff with a smile.”

H2O Restaurant & Lounge can stay open, providing it adheres to earlier closing times on Friday and Saturday nights for the next 30 days, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board ruled on Wednesday.

On May 27, a patron was fatally shot outside the waterfront “restaurant” after an argument that allegedly began inside the establishment’s VIP room. Later that day, police chief Cathy Lanier issued an emergency suspension of H2O’s liquor license.

Then, on June 6, the board allowed owner Abdul Khanu to reopen on a provisional basis, requiring him to close his doors by 1:30 a.m. (prior to the shooting, the restaurant could stay open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights).

In a statement before the Board Wednesday, H2O attorney Roderic L. Woodson requested a reinstatement of the restaurant’s original hours. “If the business is restricted from its hours of operation, it might not survive,” he said.

But the Board stopped short of granting Woodson’s wish. For the next 30 days, H2O must close by 2:30 a.m., the Board ruled. “We do this conditionally,” Board chair Charles Burger said, noting that the Board was “impressed” by Khanu’s efforts to enhance security.

Meanwhile, late last week, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells sent a letter to Maria Delaney, the alcohol administration’s director, saying he was “concerned to learn that H2O is substantially out of compliance” with its required food sales quota.

“I have just seen a report stating that only 12 percent of the total sales for H2O for the last quarter are related to food,” he wrote, which is “well below the required 45 percent for a ‘CR’ [restaurant] license. It appears H2O operates more similarly to a nightclub than a restaurant, also charging a $20 entrance fee well after midnight—not a known standard practice for city restaurants.”

Delaney said the agency is currently conducting audits on food sales at area restaurants.

UPDATE, 1:14 P.M.: According to a Council staffer, Wells’ bill failed to get the nine votes required of emergency legislation.

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans seemed to put the kibosh on recent efforts to tighten restrictions on kids in nightclubs when, on June 5, he motioned to table the Taleshia Ford Memorial Amendment Act of 2007.

The bill, introduced by Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham after Ford was fatally shot at Smarta/Broadway in January, would prohibit unaccompanied minors under age 18 from hanging out at alcohol-licensed establishments that provide entertainment after 11 p.m. on school nights and after 12 a.m. on weekends or during the summer. It has been sent back to committee for revisions.

Now Tommy Wells has reportedly introduced a measure changing the District’s curfew laws and enforcement that has D.C. club owners shaking in their summer sandals. (Wells’ staff was unable to immediately confirm the legislation is pending.) The following e-mail was circulated by a Black Cat staff member early this morning:

From: “Vicki / Black Cat”
Date: June 21, 2007 1:22:38 AM EDT
Subject: Emergency legislation = Ban on all-ages venues

Hi all,

Councilmember Tommy Wells proposed emergency legislation today that would change DC’s summer curfew laws. As the law currently stands, the curfew applies to those 16 and under, with curfew hours beginning at 11pm on the weekdays and midnight on the weekends. Wells’ new proposal would up the age to 17 and the time to 10pm on weekdays and 11pm on weekends. And, add that to the fact that club owners have recently been told that any curfew law on record will now be enforced by the ABC Board and by the police at all establishments with liquor licenses.

So, Wells’ proposal would, in effect, create a ban on all-ages shows - as it would prevent anyone 17 and under from being at a show or club (or restaurant, party, house show, etc.) after 10pm on weekdays and 11pm on weekends. In other words, it’s a back-door method of achieving the very outcome that people so roundly criticized and fought against months ago. The worst part of this is that the meeting on Wells’ proposal is being held tomorrow at City Council (Thursday) and there will be no public comment as this is “emergency legislation.”

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