They had such a hard time defining what they were doing that one of the partners, Bedrock Management, pulled out. Inside MCI Center itself, the Velocity Grill struggled to find an identity on weekend nights. ESPN Zone is planning to open a location later this year near the FBI building, and look for that enormous bar/restaurant/interactive game hall to do what MCI Center couldn't: bring thousands of people downtown at night. Sure, Polly Esther's expanded, and that "authentic" Irish pub Fado opened, but high rents along Sixth and Seventh streets scared off lots of would-be club owners. Downtown, the nightlife boom promised by the folks who built MCI Center didn't materialize. He's also taken over the Rhino Bar (Winton's to you old-timers) in Georgetown, but says it will stay a neighborhood bar. Boyle, who just sold the Bayou, looks to make a splash with his million-dollar-renovations to another of his properties, the Ballroom, hoping to make it a major showcase club when it reopens with a new name. But that looks to end now that John Boyle has bought the space and dubbed it the Garage, with an opening planned for early February. Across the street from those spots, Ozone closed, returning as Club Alcatraz, notable mainly for its fun Popstars nights on Fridays. Connecticut Avenue got the chic sushi/dance club Dragonfly to complement the same block's Lucky Bar, a block also being served by the new high-end restaurant/lounge MCCXXIII. The "Hangout Gap" went a long way toward being filled with the openings of the 18th & U Duplex Diner (finally! decent late-night food!) and Tryst in Adams-Morgan, Eleventh Hour along 14th Street NW., Kingpin at 9th and U Streets NW and Politiki on Capitol Hill.
Balancing those losses were a huge list of nightspot gains. Their absence makes Washington's after-dark world that much darker, as does the closing of Planet X, Ozone, Foxtrappe, the Circle Bar, Samantha's, Quigley's, the Blue-and-Gold Brewery and the upcoming closing of Food for Thought (see The Circuit, this page). The biggest nightlife news of 1998 was the closing of two of Washington's most celebrated nightclubs, Twist & Shout in September and of course the Bayou on New Year's Eve. Now, let's look back on what 1998 wrought on the area's night landscape, and check our tea leaves for what 1999 may bring. NIGHTWATCH resolution: The phrase "Party like it's 1999" will never appear in this column, except for this sentence.
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