In closing arguments, lawyer Andrew Kline said that's what happened in the vicinity of DC9 on October 15, when Ali Ahmed Mohammed wound up dead. When DC9 co-owner Bill Spieler and employees Darryl Carter, Reginald Phillips, Evan Preller, and Arthur Zaloga chased Mohammed down the street, after a perhaps inebriated—and definitely angry—Mohammed hurled two bricks through one of the establishment's windows (Mohammed wanted to be let into the club), Kline said, they were within their rights. "They were effectuating a citizen's arrest."

That argument seemed not to win over the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) board. The board decided DC9 was an "imminent danger" and that the summary suspension of the venue's liquor license would continue for the next 30 days. The board will convene a status hearing at the end of that period in order to decide what to do next.

The hearing that led up to that decision began with Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) investigator Erin Mathieson, the only witness called by city lawyer Louise Phillips. Mathieson cleaved closely to an investigative report she earlier submitted to the board. Mathieson interviewed MPD investigators following the death of Mohammed. They told her witnesses saw the suspects chase down Mohammed and beat him.  But there was one important difference in the way Mathieson presented her findings from the stand. The report told that Zaloga had reached Mohammed first and tackled him, while police charging documents placed Preller in that role. Mathieson demurred to cops and corrected her earlier statement in her testimony.

Next  on the stand was Joe Englert. Attempting to keep his license, Englert testified that those accused of pummeling Mohammed to death were "gentle people." He called the events leading up to Mohammed's death "extraordinary," and though the co-owner wasn't there on the night in question, he argued that the men had only detained Mohammed. Despite believing the DC9 men are innocent, Englert promised that, if his place were ever allowed to open again, there would be improvements. Surveillance cameras have already been installed in the club, and he's planning to retrain his staff. Then Englert mentioned something that seems like bad news for anyone hoping to see the club open again. He would be helping to pay for the training, as "at this point, there's no money left at DC9."

At one point, ABC board member Mital Gandhi let Englert know he wasn't impressed: "I'm not satisfied right now." Gandhi later added, "There's been a death here. This isn't someone getting a black eye."

The next witness wasn't actually there. A seven-minute interview by Channel 7  with DC9 bartender Damon Dixon was played, because Dixon was unavailable,  as he's testifying in front of the grand jury today in connection to the DC9 criminal case. In the video, Dixon contended he'd seen the chase and capture of Mohammed and that the five men didn't try to hurt him: "One was just kind of pressing him down and the other was restraining his hand."

Other witnesses for the defense mostly spoke to Englert's credibility as a club owner and what would happen at DC9 going forward. There was also an important audio recording played.

The argument that the men facing aggravated assault charges in the wake of Mohammed's death were making a citizen's arrest will probably show up in the criminal trial. According to D.C. code, a citizen's arrest is legal. If that proves to get the accused off, those seeking justice for Mohammed will likely see the law as a loophole through which Mohammed's attackers escaped proper punishment.

The lone surviving piece of political propaganda after the first Capitol Lounge fire, circa 2005

Popular H Street NE hangout The Argonaut is closed following an apparent kitchen fire on Sunday morning. Photos of the extensive damage have been posted on the place's own web site, which also dishes up some details on the Argo's post-blaze hangover:  

Most of you may not know this, but our kitchen used to be an alley. Which means that the wall separating the kitchen and the bar is an "outside wall" and is several layers of brick. We are very thankful for that brick wall – it helped contain the fire.

Prolific tavern operator Joe Englert, who owns the Argonaut, is no stranger to the inherent fire hazards of the bar and restaurant business. His lawyers just settled a lawsuit with the Hartford Casual Insurance Company over damages associated with a 2007 blaze at one of Englert's other locations, Capitol Lounge on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, according to court records. That fire also damaged the neighboring Trover Shops, which Hartford had insured.

I'm referring to the second Capitol Lounge fire, of course, not the first. Both were reportedly started by errant cigarettes. The first fire, in 2005, radically altered this reformed nightlife reporter's position on D.C.'s smoking ban (although the link to that old City Paper article is, apparently and rather regretably, no longer available).

Argonaut management is organizing a benefit at the neighboring Englert-owned Rock and Rock Hotel on June 30, with proceeds going to help repair the fire damage.

Photo by DCist/Creative Commons Attribution License

Emergency legislation passed by D.C. Council yesterday allowing D.C. bars to open as early as 7 a.m. during the World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa would seem to suggest the presence of a few footy fans in the upper eschelons of city government, right?

Well, sort of. "Soccer has enormous interest everywhere, from what I can gather," Councilmember Jim Graham, who sponsored the legislation, was quoted as saying in the Examiner.

Area boozehounds will still have to wait until the 30th minute of action or so during early morning games to legally order a frothy pint or few. A law prohibiting alcohol sales before 8 a.m. remains in place, while "[s]ome of the games will start when it's only 7:30 a.m. in D.C.," meaning futbol aficionados "won't be able to order anything stronger than coffee for the first part of the match," the Examiner notes.

Some local suds-slingers are less than thrilled with the council's fancy legislative footwork. "What is the point of me opening a bar at seven o'clock in the morning for a soccer game if I can't sell liquor?" a manager at Circa at Dupont asks local Fox affiliate WTTG-TV.

Try food, maybe? The last time the quadrennial sporting event prompted local venues to adopt quirky hours of operation (and the city similarly stymied efforts to serve alcohol before 8 a.m.) some bar owners got creative. In 2002, when the games took place in far-flung South Korea, for instance, Capitol Lounge proprietor Joe Englert unveiled a newfangled homemade donut machine for the festivities. (This reporter packed on an additional ten pounds as a result.)

For a full list of venues to catch every kickoff, consult City Paper's handy World Cup watching guide.

Video courtesy of WTTG-TV

As Joe Englert and I take a taxi (he rarely drives because he thinks it's cheaper to take cabs, once you figure in parking tickets in D.C.) to Enology, the wine bar he co-owns with Adam Manson, I ask the businessman if this indeed has been an average day for him. After all, by my reckoning, here's his day (at least the parts I witnessed):

• Eat breakfast with sons, Henry and Alex
• Call a taxi and take Alex to school
• Play tennis with buddy Matt Weiss
• Sign a few documents in his office
• Play bubble hockey with me
• Share some rum shots
• Eat lunch and crack jokes at Argonaut
• Pick out china and flatware for the H Street Country Club
• Drink a small glass of black muscat at Enology
• Make phone calls

Yep, Englert says, this is pretty much an average day, though he's quick to remind me that he did get some documents notarized at the National Capital Bank of Washington, where he traded jabs with Vice President John Gordon, who wanted to know when Englert moved to D.C. It was 1984, Englert remembered, right after he gorged on Big Macs in Los Angeles when McDonald's was giving them away for every U.S. gold medal won during the Olympics. "That explains a lot," Gordon says dryly.

But Englert says that sometimes he goes from place to place, checking on the Internet jukeboxes at his bars and restaurants. He wants to make sure that some evil music hasn't been automatically downloaded onto the machines. "You can show up one day, and George Michael is on the jukebox," Englert says. "It's just not good for your place."

Joe Englert keeps teasing me about a blog item I wrote, calling for a moratorium on stories about the H Street Country Club until the place actually opens. Englert thinks that I secretly believe the indoor miniature golf/Tex-Mex joint will never open. As if to prove me wrong, we stop by the construction site so that Englert can help select china, drinking glasses, and flatware.

It takes all of three minutes to make the choices. The rest of the time is spent cruising the three-story (including roof) structure that will, no doubt, once it's finally built and open, become the hottest goddamn ticket on H Street NE. (See sketches below of some of the proposed holes.) Part of its appeal will be the Tex-Mex menu, conceived by Ann Cashion and executed by former Cashion's cook, Pablo Cardoso, who just happens to be on hand at the Country Club to explain both the sit-down menu and the bar menu. There will be, Cardoso says, lobster tostadas, homemade tamales, Mexican slaw with chicharones, lamb shank enchiladas, snapper Veracruz, gorditos, and a dessert pineapple chimichanga with Mexican vanilla ice cream.

The joint will also serve a decent line of Mexican beers, which will be available even on the 18-hole miniature golf course (nine holes on one level, another nine on the roof). Englert plans to have a putt-putt version of a beer cart, delivering cold ones to parched putters on the course.

Later, after we cross H Street NE and step inside the office that's overseeing beautification projects in the neighborhood, I ask Englert if he's not worried that construction will do to his businesses what construction did to those on P Street NW—almost ruin them. He brushes off the question and says there's already a shuttle bus that operates along H Street and that many patrons don't drive over, but take the Metro to Union Station. The operators here, he adds, have learned the sad lessons of P Street NW.

In other words, I'm just being a pain in the ass again.

All outward appearances to the contrary, Joe Englert is not some overgrown man-child. He's a pretty serious-minded businessman, of which I was reminded when we took a taxi cab to his second office just off H Street NE. While in the cab, we had an in-depth discussion about the politics (and cash) required to get a business up and running in the District. Believe me, Englert sheds any pretense to silliness when discussing permitting issues.

Englert's success in the bar and restaurant business, it seems, merely allows him to behave as he wants. Sometimes he plays the role of middle-aged game boy; other times, he takes on the persona of a college senior perpetually looking for the next party. Englert admits that he likes hanging out with young adults in their early 20s as well as seniors, those who have a good eight decades under their belts. Everyone else seems a bore to him, just more workaday drones with no sense of humor and no willingness to drink at noon.

Which brings me back to Englert's H Street office, which was once a plumbing supply store. The space is actually more than an office. It's also the living quarters of Englert's nephew, Travis Englert, who has a very cool one-room apartment upstairs.  The first floor looks more conventional by contrast: big leather chairs and sofa, a desk, a wall of books.

But as Englert is showing me around, he pops open a bookshelf, haunted castle-style, to reveal a secret speakeasy behind the wall. There, inside, is a battered old bar. Several bottles of liquor sit on the shelves. A cooler is stocked with beer. This, says Englert, is where he conducts business when on H Street NE.

Then he insists that we have a shot. He pulls down a bottle of dark rum from Guatemala and pours a finger for me and his two construction workers/drinking buds, Steve and Josh. He pours three fingers for himself. The rum goes down sweet and smooth. It's only around noon, and I already have a slight buzz.

This, I think, is the price for hanging around Joe Englert.

When Joe Englert goes to work, he doesn't drive to some sterile office building in Arlington. After a game of tennis with friend Matt Weiss, Englert is chauffeured to work in Weiss' black Lexus. His office? It's a converted garage on Capitol Hill, where Englert's modest desk takes up a tiny fraction of the space. The rest is filled with pinball machines, Pittsburgh memorabilia (Englert's hometown), a TV lounge, a diner booth, a collection of random signs and souvenirs, a Ping-Pong table, and a bubble hockey game.

Englert does seem to perform work while in the office. He reviews extremely detailed variance reports from his various properties, trying to figure out if there's some suspiciously missing liquor. He also signs a few documents handed to him by his long-suffering assistant, Cheryl Webb, who plays the disapproving mother role to Englert's perpetual adolescent. Webb even hands Englert the latest paperwork from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which has approved licenses for three new ventures: Joe's Coal & Ice House (a barbecue joint on H Street NE), Vendetta (an Italian restaurant on H Street  NE), and an unnamed po' boy shop on Capitol Hill.

I press Englert about the po' boy joint, since I haven't heard about it before. He won't say much other than to note that it will include the services of Dr. Granville Moore's chef Teddy Folkman and a well-known local chef. I try to guess the chef. I guess right, but he won't let me print the name.

Did I mention that Englert likes to play games? He swears he's a very good table-tennis player and that, given the right opponent, he can even turn it into a work-out. But while I'm there, he challenges me to a game of bubble hockey. It takes me awhile to master the handles and knobs, which allows Englert to jump to a quick 3-1 lead. But I score again, and Englert taunts me that I need to make another soon to force overtime. I'm resigned to losing—until I flip my wrist and, much to my surprise, I score again to tie the score at 3.

Just seconds into overtime, however, Englert smacks one by my goalie. He whoops as if he just won the Stanley Cup.

He's better known for his ability to keep the District's twentysomethings entertained and well-lubricated, whether at the Capitol Lounge or at one of his playpens on H Street NE. But Joe Englert's preferred form of fun includes a morning tennis match, often against his sometime business partner and Lounge 201 owner Matt Weiss (both picture here in an extremely crappy shot).

Weiss is the superior player. He has a killer serve. He hits harder, and he's not carrying around an extra 20 pounds in belly fat, like his opponent. But Englert is a master at mind games. What he lacks in skill, he makes up for with sheer cunning. Englert knows how to get under your skin. Every time he wins a point, he releases a vocal torrent that sounds something like this: Whooo-waa-waa-waa-waa!" It's Englert's version of Nelson's two-toned taunt on The Simpsons.

But Englert has other tricks, too, particularly when he's losing. At one point, when Weiss has a seven-point lead, Englert starts his serve with this announcement, "9-2, Douche-bag."

"Did you say Jew boy?" Weiss shot back. "I'm sensitive about that."

After losing to Weiss, 15-13, when his opponent allows a soft lob to land out of bounds, Englert complains, "That wasn't sporting at all."

Englert is apparently looking for favors.

If Englert is prone to teasing on the court, he says that at least one fellow player at the East Potomac Tennis Center can dish it right back. There's a Chinese gentleman who plays in his street clothes. Seriously. This morning he was wearing black slacks, a dress shirt, and black rubber-soled shoes. He likes to give people shit, particularly Englert.

Englert says the man likes to ask him: "Why you so fat? You play every day!"