The ABC Board ends the bans on live music and dancing in Mount Pleasant restaurants


On April 23, 2008, the ABC Board issued its decision concerning live music in Mount Pleasant restaurants. As expected, it is a compromise, allowing not as much live music as the advocates, Hear Mount Pleasant and the ANC, had requested, but far more than the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance would have allowed.

Here are the ABC Board statements concerning Haydee's and Don Jaime's Restaurants. The observations of the ABRA (Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration) investigator confirmed what I and others had said about Mount Pleasant Street late at night. "During Investigator Scurlock's visits in the evening hours, he observed little to no activity at Haydee's or the surrounding establishments." Our problem has been too few people on Mount Pleasant Street late at night, not too many. ". . around 10 or 11 pm, Haydee's is less than half full." There's no threat to "peace, order, and quiet in the community" here. Furthermore, "with regard to parking, Investigator Scurlock noted that the majority of patrons either walk to Haydee's from a residential dwelling or use public transportation traveling by bus." Hence, neighborhood parking will be little affected by increased patronage due to live music.

Given those observations, and the testimony of numerous residents that they wanted to have live music in Mount Pleasant, the Board might have allowed the full complement of live music requested by Hear Mount Pleasant. They chose not to, but they allowed far more than the MPNA would have.

Until very recently, the MPNA wanted to allow no live music (or dancing, or cover charges), fearing the "morphing" of our restaurants into night clubs. Their "voluntary agreements" (VAs) with recently opened restaurants, Marleny's and the Pupuseria San Miguel, were explicit: "There will be no live entertainment, cover charge, or dancing" (Marleny's); "licensee shall permit no live music, DJ or live entertainment, . . . and shall not provide an atmosphere for dancing, or a dance floor for dancing, or permit the moving of tables and chairs for the purpose of dancing" (Pupuseria San Miguel).

In 2007, perhaps feeling the pressure from live-music advocates, the MPNA relented, allowing this absurd pittance to the Tonic Restaurant and the Marx Cafe:

"B. Live entertainment will be limited to Sundays for brunch between the hours of Noon and 3:00 pm. The nature of the live entertainment for these events will be music, consisting of no more than 3 musicians, and shall be performed at a volume level that allows patrons to talk at a conversational level.

"C. In addition to Sunday brunch, applicant may offer live entertainment on special occasions no more than twelve (12) times per year between the hours of 9:00 pm and 11:00 pm. The live entertainment shall be primarily in the form of music which shall be performed at a volume level that allows patrons to talk at a conversational level. Additionally, the live music shall be performed by no more than 4 musicians."

That's ludicrous, and the MPNA has never explained why it insists on a ban on dancing, or why music inside the restaurant must be played at "conversational" levels. No one is forcing them to patronize these restaurants, and certainly people outside are unaffected by patrons dancing, or by music that is loud indoors but inaudible outdoors (as noise regulations require). This isn't about controlling restaurants to prevent disturbances to neighbors. It's about the MPNA imposing their middle-American notion of what a restaurant is on everyone else, even if other residents would like to have loud music, entertainment, and dancing in their neighborhood restaurants. Mount Pleasant is famous for its diversity, but the MPNA seems to be intent on imposing its own standards and values on everyone.

At the ABC Board hearing, the MPNA relented further, perhaps realizing that their conditions were ludicrously restrictive. They testified that they would permit music on Tuesday through Thursday evenings until 10 pm ("nobody eats dinner after ten pm," claimed one live-music opponent), and on Friday and Saturday until midnight. Sunday and Monday, none. No dancing, ever. And the music must be provided "at a conversational level".

The Board decided to permit live music on Sunday through Wednesday nights until 11 pm, Thursday until midnight, and Friday and Saturday, until 1 am. They also rejected the MPNA's bans on cover charges and dancing, and ignored their specification that music be limited to "a conversational level".

Thus, after close to a decade of a total ban on live music in Mount Pleasant restaurants, live music will return, and patrons of restaurants will be allowed to dance, too. The long night of rigid MPNA bans on live music, entertainment, and dancing in Mount Pleasant is over.

Marc Fisher wrote up his evaluation of this outcome shortly after the ABC Board decision, appearing first on his on-line blog, and shortly thereafter in print in the Washington Post. His conclusion: "the decision by the ABC Board has demonstrated that a committed group of neighbors can make reason prevail and can beat back the bullies--not every time, but often enough to get people to keep pushing for what's good and right."



Page created May 4, 2008