On the snow day, my buddy suggested we check out his new favorite neighborhood spot, a little neighborhood bar called Bravo Lounge. Located at Georgia and Hobart (near Columbia) I’m glad we did, it was a cool spot. It’s just a small, no-frills, relaxed neighborhood spot. And sometimes that’s all you need.
The place is basically one big room with a bar along one end. There’s a few dark wood tables in the middle and some booths along the windows, which fill two sides of the bar (it’s on the street corner.) It has a dark, relaxed vibe and 38 seats. Their alcohol license has finger/snack foods too, so it sounds like you can get a bite there. And like many other new spots on Georgia, they have a buy one-get one free deal until 9pm — call that the DC Reynolds Rule, maybe.
The place has been open since mid-December, and right now they’re only open Thursday-Sunday. They have a patio space too, but it’s a little chilly for that now. Park View DC has a little bit more.
The space used to be Enterprise Jazz, a place which sounded neat but didn’t last very long. The City Paper wrote about their strange saga, including that Enterprise’s owner, Charletta Lewis, sued building owner Michael Ressom for discrimination and over building modifications. Interestingly, the discrimination argument by Lewis’s lawyers was that Ressom discriminated against them because he was Ethiopian and not African-American. The lawsuit was dismissed when Lewis declined to file certain paperwork, and Enterprise’s owners said they hoped to open elsewhere.
That owner, Michael Ressom, still owns it the building, but the bar seems to be run by different folks. I’m not certain, but judging from the CP article, Bravo seemed to have bought a lot of their furniture and fixtures, which is nice, dark wood furniture and a red bar back. The place also used to house Jim Graham’s campaign headquarters in 2006.
But anyway, that interesting tidbit aside, it’s a nice little spot. Sometimes you just want to have a drink and chat, and this is a great spot for it.
