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Expect a Ghost Town by Sunset
John Woodfolk, right, with Candey Hardware Store manager Bill Reed, said, "You just don't see anybody on the streets" during Redskins games.
(By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)
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In Washington social circles -- those not devoted to pizza and wings -- the playoff game probably will not cause a huge disruption. At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the musical "Wicked" is "totally sold out," and the game "hasn't had much of an effect," said spokeswoman Tiki Davies.
Carolyn Peachey, who runs an event-planning firm, said major events -- a benefit gala or a 25th anniversary -- would almost never happen this weekend, anyway.
"Too many people are still out of town. I am going to be out of town tomorrow, that's how quiet the event world is going to be," Peachey said Thursday. "That's Number 1. Number 2, there isn't an event planner in this town, I think I could safely say that, that would not check the Redskins schedule before scheduling an event."
The football fever has invaded the restaurant world in some subtle ways. At Michel Richard Citronelle restaurant, where weekend reservations need to be made four to five weeks in advance, most people don't cancel but want to eat their cake, too, said Jean-Jacques Retourne, the maitre d'.
"We have 25 tables, at least four or five tables ask me the score when there are important games," said Retourne, who tracks the scores on a computer in his office. "As a maitre d', you have to cater to the guests."
Todd Gray, chef and co-owner of Equinox, installed a discreet flat-screen television in the upper right corner of his restaurant's bar, near the ceiling, for those uniquely Washington moments. "Just Redskins games and presidential speeches," he said.
At the Brooks Brothers on Connecticut Avenue, the response was decisive.
"For us, it doesn't affect us. It stays steady whether they're playing or not," said Jason Cafarelli, the assistant manager.
The Washington Post: "So people are still buying their suits on a Redskins day?"
Cafarelli: "And sweaters."
TWP: ( hemming and hawing, trying to rephrase)
Cafarelli: "The Redskins never affect our business."
At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, football games don't make a dent in the weekend crowd -- more than 50,000 strong during the holiday season, said museum spokesman Randall Kremer.
"Not so far, and I've been here for 12 years," he said. "The Sunday afternoon visitation is the strongest ever. Other than hearing a few people talk about the Redskins in the halls, or hearing a transistor radio, we don't notice it." But like a good scientist, Kremer was not married to his conclusions:
"Should the Redskins return to the Super Bowl, we'll have to reevaluate these observations."
Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.
