I got an email about Be Bar sometime ago. It too is on 9th Street and is facing opposition from a church. Yet, unlike the Vegetate Queen of Sheba vs Shiloh fight, I really haven’t had much interest. Mainly because it isn’t a restaurant. I like restaurants. You come in, someone seats you, they give you menus and people bring you food. I like those kinds of places. I’m not a bar person. Unless dragged to one, I tend not to go to them. So I’m very lukewarm if not slightly cool on the topic of non-restaurants and ABC licenses.
Be Bar is to be an “upscale tavern/lounge”, so food may be served there but it is not the main attraction. As a restaurant, for the definition of an ABC license is a place where at least 45% of its gross annual receipts are from the sale of food. A tavern sells both food and alcohol and may have entertainment of some sort and there is a limit on the size of the dance floor. Then there are nightclubs and they tend to get shot down by residential groups so I’m not going to bother to define that.
The fight between Be Bar and Cathedral Baptist Church…. Baptist Churches… ABC license fights… on 9th St… I sense a theme there. Anyway, where was I? The fight between Be Bar and Cathedral Baptist has been written up in the Washington Blade. I have really nothing new to add. Well except that the hearing for the Be Bar license will be this Wednesday, at 10am, 941 North Cap, 7th floor.