The experts behind the Going Out Guide post daily on news and trends in D.C.'s arts and entertainment scene, upcoming events and restaurant and bar openings.
MCCXXIII Is Closed
The club MCCXXIII, known as 1223, has closed its doors after a decade on the popular Connecticut Avenue strip north of M Street. "In short, we were there for 10 years, the lease was up and the new fair-market value of what the rent should be was a lot higher than we could afford," says David Karim, one of the partners who ran MCCXXIII. "Being an old club, we have to move on."
The situation may sound familiar to former fans of Red, the nightspot that closed under similar circumstances when its lease was up in 2005. (That space is now home to Fly.)
MCCXXIII was one of Washington's first pricey bottle-service clubs, and its upstairs VIP lounge, Spank, was the first local club to jump on the "reserve-a-bed" trend back in 2002. Once known for its upscale international crowds and open-bar weekend happy hours, MCCXXIII in recent years has been outpaced by upstarts like Josephine, in which Karim is also a partner.
With the closing, MCCXXIII's weekly parties have moved on to other nightspots: Saturday nights, run by DCNites, has moved to Muse Lounge, while the Nightlife Agency's popular Friday party is now at Eyebar.
-- Fritz
By
Fritz Hahn
| January 23, 2009; 1:10 PM ET
Categories:
Bars and Clubs
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Posted by: sglickfield | January 23, 2009 1:46 PM | Report abuse
Since in DC the d*uche bags have all the money you already know the type of over priced and over pretentous club that will take its place, just look at Red that turned into Fly, ugh : (
Posted by: devilsadvoc8 | January 23, 2009 2:07 PM | Report abuse
Change has come!
No more pricey velvet-rope exclusionary clubs in DC!
Hope has arrived!
Yeagh!
Posted by: bs2004 | January 23, 2009 3:16 PM | Report abuse
Oh boy, where is one supposed to pick up the Asian ladies now?
Posted by: thedude1974 | January 23, 2009 3:29 PM | Report abuse
D.C. clubs have been on this downhill trend. ESL (which I used to go to since it opened) is now a haven for meat heads. FLY replaced one of the best dance spots there was *sigh* Now sucky clubs will just be replaced by even suckier clubs.
Posted by: Rootsy | January 23, 2009 3:42 PM | Report abuse
I am tired of all the "pretty people" bars and ultra bars and "liquor service" type places...Give me a dive!! This isn't Vegas, fer criminy's sake!
Posted by: sigmagrrl | January 23, 2009 7:56 PM | Report abuse
Why are you even reporting on this?
1223 wasn't hot anymore, plain and simple...
Posted by: jimmydeanroundsausages | January 27, 2009 10:47 AM | Report abuse
The only good thing about 1223 was the Friday open bar happy hour. $20 all-you-can drink expensive liquor for 4 hours... you will never find anything like that in DC anymore.
Posted by: itisboy | January 27, 2009 10:51 AM | Report abuse
I take so much pleasure from this announcement, you have no idea.
FYI, all the Asian ladies will probably be at Eyebar. Shudder.
Posted by: ltoe | January 27, 2009 1:40 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
Wow! End of a 'herpes triangle' neighborhood era! Let's hope something awesome comes in its place. At least for Julia's Empanadas sake!