Herb White; D.C. Restaurateur Was Arts Patron

Herb White, a convivial Washington restaurateur and real estate investor who was a prominent patron of the arts, died June 8 at Sibley Memorial Hospital of complications of lung cancer. He was 71 and had homes in Washington and Montevideo, Uruguay.

Mr. White, a cultivated man who once studied art and served as a stand-in for actor Peter O'Toole, had been a major player in the Washington real estate market since the 1960s. But he gained his highest profile in the 1980s and early 1990s with two popular restaurants -- both called Herb's -- near Dupont Circle.

Almost as soon as his first basement eatery opened in 1982 at 2111 P St. NW, Herb's was seen as Washington's answer to Elaine's or Sardi's in New York. Considered a place that nourished the soul as well as the body, it was called "Algonquin South" by The Washington Post and even had a round table reserved for writers. On the table sat a plaque that paraphrased Samuel Johnson: "Nobody but a fool ever wrote for anything but money."

Mr. White sometimes presented art exhibits at his restaurants, and his waiters, cooks and bartenders often doubled as painters, actors, musicians and dancers.

"I just like the people in the arts better than politicians," he told The Post in 1982. "Their minds are more interesting, and they're not so self-centered or power-centered."

Mr. White, who built his fortune in real estate, bought and restored the Ontario Theater on Columbia Road and owned apartment houses and commercial buildings in Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle. After briefly running a disco in Baltimore in the 1960s, Mr. White entered the Washington restaurant business in the 1970s with Cafe Don, a popular spot in Adams Morgan.

"He was a major mover and shaker of the development of Adams Morgan in the '70s and '80s," said D.C. Council member Jim Graham, who knew Mr. White for 25 years. "Herb was a real estate developer with a conscience. The conscience manifested itself in arts and culture."

Mr. White staged countless benefits for theaters, ballet troupes and writers' groups at his restaurants and served on the boards of many arts organizations. He founded the D.C. Arts Center, with an art gallery and theater, in a building he owned in Adams Morgan. He charged an annual rent of $1.

He collected the works of more than 50 Washington artists, offered studio space to many -- sometimes in his home -- and quietly paid others a monthly stipend for years on end.

"He gave me a place to live," said sculptor David Mordini, who had a studio in Mr. White's house for two years. "He never asked for anything in return."

Acclaimed artist Joe White (no relation) moved to Washington from New York in 1976 after Mr. White offered him a studio in exchange for portraits of his family.

Jessica White said her father's sizable art collection "is a history of Washington. It's a very eclectic mixture of art, which represents a very eclectic mixture of friends."