TNG Flashback: The New U is Not for me.

The work day is almost over. We hope you use your last ounce of concentration to revisit this year-old TNG article. Originally published by Zack on 1/30/2008

Two Fridays ago I stopped by Marvin, the new restaurant/bar on the corner of 14th and U, for that evening's Guerrilla Queer Bar. I was actually pretty excited about that GQB location because I consider Marvin one of the best new bars in the area. That is, I did until the bouncer took a look at me that night and told me to "put on some shoes next time" I planned on drinking there.

For the record, I was not barefoot. I was wearing my Rod Laver's, the same green and white sneakers that I have sported every night in D.C. that I wasn't wearing a suit. I've gone comfortably from the Black Cat to Local 16 to Simply Home in those things and never once seen a raised eyebrow. So what crawled up Marvin's ass and died?

The reason I was so pissed off about this is that Marvin was a bar I really, really liked. They had a big outdoor deck with an expansive selection of Belgian and German beers, and the indoor lounge played good (albeit too-loud) music. Even the decor was perfect, dimly lit with tables lined up against a wall with baroque wallpaper. It always looked too crowded to comfortably attend on a weekend, but I was going out of my way to have my middle-of-the-week beers there. Unfortunately, though, my terrible taste in footwear means I won't be returning.

So where does that leave me to hang out in my own neighborhood? The Black Cat is a given, and Solly's is a great little laidback place, but so many venues that looked awesome when I moved here 15 months ago actually proved to be an anathema to the discerning gay man.

Bar Pilar has long lines, St. Ex gets so packed on the weekends that the combined body heat of its guests actually causes precipitation and when I was at Local 16 last weekend (for a birthday party) half the girls I saw there were wearing sunglasses. Its a wonder they didn't trip on something. Busboys and Poets is awesome, obviously, but hardly somewhere you park yourself to get drunk. A guy I met at Stetsons ended up being the only person I've ever gone home with from a bar (I'm kind of innocent that way) but I would still never go back.

I hear a lot of talk about what the U Street area was like ten years ago, mostly using the phrase "open air drug market," and I see what shape the 'hoods in currently. But was there ever an in-between phase when U Street actually was the young, fun, hip area that everyone claims it is now? Or have bars like Polly's and DC9 always been the exception to the "New U's" majority?