Across town, they’re planning a new tavern on H Street NE. Hilton and his business-partner brother, Ian Hilton, are also investors in another nearby venue, U Street Music Hall. A couple more are in the works for the same neighborhood: the British pub-themed Brixton and the taqueria El Ray. There are five establishments located close by the U Street corridor: American Ice Company (barbecue), Blackbyrd (sandwiches), Gibson (cocktails), Patty Boom Boom (Jamaican) and Marvin (Southern-cum-Belgian). There’s still Eighteenth Street Lounge, located just across Connecticut Ave NW from the old sushi spot. But the burgeoning roster of Hilton spots has grown. But, it’s a good bet that, given the current sad-sack state of the recording industry, liquor remains the primary economic engine.ĭragonfly shuttered in 2007. The sonic side of Hilton’s enterprise, the D.C.-based recording label ESL Music, has since attained a respectable level of international acclaim, while the boozy side of the business has become a significant driver of local economic redevelopment, particularly along the U Street NW corridor.Īt this point, it’s hard to say exactly which side is sustaining the other. Hilton, of course, is half of the Grammy-nominated duo Thievery Corporation, who, alongside fellow DJ Farid Ali, famously opened his own club, Eighteenth Street Lounge, in 1995 in order to create a viable stage for his music. The boom speaks to D.C.’s robust appetite for stylishly designed boozy boîtes and its not-so-robust attention to the quality of the accompanying nibbles. My total recall of the vibe and fuzzy recounting of the food neatly sums up the Hilton brand of hospitality, which is currently spreading across Northwest D.C.-all the way up to Chez Billy’s location on a formerly uncool stretch of Georgia Avenue in Petworth-at an unprecedented rate.
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