Alice Despard: Goodbye, Galaxy Hut

For Hoffman, it's a dream come true. "I've just really always wanted to do this," he says.

But he's under no illusions about the task he's facing. "I'm taking over a bar that doesn't always make money," he says. Changes are in the works, including a number of cosmetic fixes, a revamped menu and, for the first time, a cover charge during live music. At the moment, bands are paid with a percentage of the evening's sales, which Hoffman disagrees with. "I understand why Alice kept it free," he says. "But I can't give away $20,000 a year to bands. This isn't a community center."

Despard and her then-husband Bill Stewart got into the nightlife business in the late '80s, throwing parties in what Despard calls "an abandoned building -- basically a crack house" near Logan Circle.

Despard's band, Hyaa!, would play, and Stewart would pour his home-brewed beer. "My band's practice space was nearby, so we'd run an extension cord over," Despard says. The success of those underground parties led the couple to open a legitimate venue called the BBQ Iguana in a warehouse near 14th and P streets NW. It only lasted about a year because of repeated break-ins and licensing issues.

So they came to Arlington in 1990 and opened Roratonga Rodeo, a South Seas-themed place with brews, simple food and a jukebox fashioned from a '59 Cadillac. Six months after opening the bar, though, the marriage dissolved. Despard kept Roratonga, and Stewart went on to open a slew of nightspots, including Amdo, Bardo Rodeo and Ningaloo, which eventually became Dr. Dremo's Taphouse.

In the early days, Despard says, the bar was "event oriented," hosting live music several nights a week. Then it all got to be too much. "For two years, from 1991 to 1993, we didn't have live music. I thought we needed to get a reputation as a pub. People were saying, 'We can't go to Roratonga and get a drink and talk and hang out because there's always a band.' That's why I only wanted music on certain nights of the week.

"Saturday's a good night to have bands, and Sunday and Monday were slower, so I thought I'd put bands there."

That balance between being known as a cool pub and a cool live music venue is one of the reasons that Galaxy Hut has remained free over the years. "We so needed to have our regular pub customers in there that I just did not want to charge a cover. They'd come in and drink their beer and listen to whatever was thrown at them. There's no excuse not to check out the band if it's free. And if you like them, you can buy a CD or whatever."

The return to live music led Despard to change the look, feel and name of the bar, from Roratonga Rodeo to Galaxy Hut. She got rid of the tiki-hut decor in favor of a cleaner look and tables and walls decorated by local artists. It's also when it became known as one of the region's premier venues for small indie rock bands. "As soon as we opened as Galaxy Hut, I started booking indie. That's what I liked," she says.

"Between [local record labels] Teenbeat, Simple Machines, DeSoto and Dischord, there was plenty of talent in Arlington. I gave [Teenbeat founder] Mark Robinson a tab. It was like, 'We're a venue, we're in your neighborhood, we want you to look at this as your place.' Then word got out. For me, it was all about building a community."

Despard has been a den mother to dozens, maybe hundreds of musicians, offering them shows, letting them sleep on the floor of her house, recommending them for gigs at larger clubs such as Iota or the Black Cat when she thinks they're ready. All the while, she has been playing in her own bands, most notably Hyaa!, the Beggars and the Alice Despard Group.

She's preparing another album, which will be released in mid-September; look for the album release party at the Hut.