K Street's Second Shift

"We complained about the 20-year-olds in the last place," Klein says. "Now they're 60."

Thursday, 11 p.m.

Masoud Aboughaddareh, a co-owner of Lima, cited the area's central location as its biggest asset.

"Wherever you're going, you cross K and 14th," he said.

K Street has other advantages, such as easy access to Metro and on-street parking that frees up after rush hour.

Still, drivers are prohibited from making certain right turns and parking in some spots between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. The measures were put in place to discourage prostitution in the area.

"You walked down the street at midnight and there used to be women in high heels and bathing suits," D.C. police Lt. Gary Durand said.

K Street club owners like to contrast their growing scene with the District's more established nightspots, such as Adams Morgan and Georgetown.

"This isn't where you get your 25-cent beer or drink-until-you-drown atmosphere. This is corporate America," Barnes said.

"We're not looking for the person that comes in, gets two beers and calls it a day," Chung said.

Drink in hand at the Park at Fourteenth, Ajay Pathak, 48, says he and his friends used to frequent such upscale Georgetown nightspots as Cafe Milano, "but it was too far, and the parking was a headache."

Now when the intellectual property lawyer goes out, he just changes into a black shirt in his office and walks a few blocks.

"It's getting to be nicer at this end of town than that end of town," Pathak says.

He then heads home to Springfield. He has a busy day at the office tomorrow.