After-Hours Red Fading to Black

For Red's last weekend, Ali is planning an "Irish wake," many of Red's house DJs (past and present) taking one final spin on the turntables. Ali and DJ Case handle Friday, but Saturday's marathon is the one not to miss: Burns, Smith, Oji (former host of the Underground Experience on Baltimore's WEAA-FM); Tom B and Deesko Rob, DJ Kostas and special guest Master Kev from New York City. It's scheduled to start about 10 p.m. and last until "real late, maybe 7, 8 [a.m.], maybe later," Ali says, adding that there's no cover charge. "I want to have all the residents, the ones who really made the place, I want them to be a part of it and give their best on one night. It's going to be an emotional night. We're just going to have a party, a going away party, and end on a good note."

Although Saturday is officially the final throw-down, Burns will take to the decks Sunday night for one more party before moving the Underground Soul Solution to Dragonfly. As always, Akbar will be at the door, Ed Robinson will be pouring drinks (including Red Bull and Vitamin Water for those who have to get up the next morning) and Burns will spin his usual set of sweet, soulful house. Red's regulars wouldn't settle for anything less.

WHO 'OWNS' WHAT

Red isn't the only nightclub to fall victim to Washington's booming real estate market in recent months. Neo-soul hotspot Juste Lounge relocated from Mount Vernon Square to Bethesda in September after a sharp spike in rent, which founder Juste Pehoua attributes to the opening of the convention center across the street.

"Anecdotally, we hear stories" about restaurants and bars being squeezed out, says Lynne Breaux, executive director of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

Restaurants, bars and clubs go out of business for many reasons -- a lack of customers and revenue being first among them -- but in recent years, it seems like more are being displaced for offices and housing rather than simply failing to draw crowds.

Dr. Dremo's Taphouse in Arlington (barely) survived a recent plan by developers to turn its site into a giant complex of condos and retail space, while Flanagan's Irish Pub in Bethesda closed to make room for just that kind of development. The beloved downtown dive Stoney's will be torn down to make room for a new building owned by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

The VIP Club was forced to leave 10th and F streets NW in January 2004, along with the rest of the occupants of that block; law offices and shops are going up in their place. A few blocks away, Polly Esther's and Tequila Beach could meet the same fate if plans go ahead to construct a 10-story office building on the site; Douglas Jamal owns the land at 12th and F streets NW.

Last August, developers submitted plans to redevelop Nation, the Southeast nightclub home to Cubik, Alchemy and Velvet Nation, into a 10-story office complex (it's conveniently close to the planned Washington Nationals ballpark). A number of gay clubs also would be displaced by the stadium construction.

It's not as if property owners can just terminate leases at will, but the easiest way to avoid getting evicted is to own your own land and business. So many of the people we call "owners" -- as in "this is so-and-so's bar," or that favorite rebuke to bouncers, "I know the owner" -- fit only half that description. For many restaurants, bars and clubs in Washington, the name on a liquor license is different from the one on a deed to the property. One problem, according to several bar owners, is that the capital required upfront puts property out of reach for many new entrepreneurs.

"Most people I know are on leases, but some people have managed to buy," says Mike Benson, who owns Cafe Saint-Ex and the neighboring Bar Pilar. "When 14th Street['s real estate market] went haywire, everybody wished they'd got in." Benson has long-term leases at both locations and hopes to purchase a building for his third establishment.

It's not just independent business owners who face the problem. Bedrock Management, whose portfolio includes the area's coolest pool halls -- Buffalo Billiards, Atomic, Bedrock and Continental -- as well as the Aroma lounge and two branches of Mackey's Irish Pub, owns only one of its buildings: Carpool, in Ballston. Instead, says Bedrock's Curt Large, the company relies on long-term leases with options for extra years; Buffalo Billiards is on its second lease. Getting priced out of a space "is a concern, certainly," he says.

Joe Englert, the nightlife mogul behind Lucky Bar, the Big Hunt and the coming wave of nightspots on H Street NE, takes the opposite approach. "I always own the buildings," he says.

Music fans can rest assured that a number of their favorite clubs are owner-operated, including the 9:30 club and the Birchmere. (The Black Cat's Dante Ferrando didn't want to comment on the Black Cat's status -- "I like to leave that behind-the-scenes business stuff quiet," he says -- but real estate records show the bar was sold for an undisclosed amount in May.) Marc Barnes owns the megaclub Love, while H2O has a long lease with National Capital Revitalization Corp., a public-private organization that brings businesses to underserved neighborhoods such as the Southwest Waterfront.

Peter Pflug and his partners at Clarendon Ballroom and Clarendon Grill don't own either space, but, Pflug says, they're on long-term leases, and "we have the right of first refusal if someone wants to buy the space. That's really important." But, he adds, "if this real estate market keeps going the way it is, I think a lot of people's favorite places are going to go away."