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| The chair of the Dupont Circle ANC said he expects the commission to approve a
license change for Cobalt, which would exempt the establishment
from having to obtain 45 percent of its income from the sale of food, as long
as the bar doesn’t convert its first-floor restaurant and outdoor café
into a saloon. (Photo by Rudy Lawidjaja)
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
The Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission voted on Dec. 8 to oppose a
request from the gay bar Cobalt to change its license from a restaurant to a tavern.
But the commission’s gay chair, Darren Bowie, said the commission expects
to approve the license change — which would exempt Cobalt from having
to obtain 45 percent of its income from the sale of food — as long as
the bar agrees not to convert its first-floor restaurant and outdoor café
into a saloon.
“I am confident we will be able to work out an agreement to allow Cobalt
to change from a restaurant to a tavern,” Bowie said this week.
The D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board will make the final decision on whether
to approve the Cobalt license change. City law requires the board to give “great
weight” to the recommendation of ANCs, which are unpaid, elected bodies
created to represent neighborhoods throughout the city.
City nightlife advocates say they are watching cautiously the Dupont Circle
ANC’s action toward Cobalt’s request for a tavern license. In past
years, the ANC strongly opposed all tavern license requests for restaurants
with outdoor space, saying outdoor taverns would lead to excessive noise and
other neighborhood problems.
In the case of Cobalt, the current ANC no longer follows an automatic policy
of rejecting tavern licenses for outdoor spaces, according to Bowie.
The Dupont Circle Citizens Association, which critics have accused of being
hostile to nightlife businesses, expects to join the ANC in supporting a tavern
license for Cobalt, according to the group’s president, Bill Glew, who
is gay.
Like dozens of other bars in the District that operate under a restaurant license,
Cobalt has two years to comply with a city law that requires restaurants to
obtain at least 45 percent of their gross revenue from the sale of food. Although
the law has been on the books for more than a decade, the city’s Alcoholic
Beverage Regulation Administration has not strictly enforced it.
A change in the liquor law approved recently by the D.C. Council requires the
ABRA to take steps to enforce the law after giving the city’s restaurants
a phase-in period to either increase their food sales or apply for a tavern
license.
“We can’t meet the restaurant requirement,” said Irv Morgan,
Cobalt’s general manager. “Like many other businesses, we would
be forced to close if we had to comply with that law.”
According to Morgan, Cobalt is seeking the license change but would continue
to operate exactly the way it has since it opened. The first floor space and
sidewalk area would continue as a full-service restaurant, currently Food Bar.
The second and third floors would remain as a bar and cocktail lounge, he said.
Morgan said the economics of the restaurant and bar business and the preferences
of his customers dictate that far more revenue is generated through the sale
of drinks than the sale of food.
During the Dec. 8 ANC meeting, when the commission voted to protest Cobalt’s
proposed license change, some members of the audience spoke out against the
proposal, saying Cobalt’s large crowds create excessive traffic and noise.
One nearby resident, Frank Hornstein, called Cobalt a “nightclub masquerading
as a restaurant,” according to an account by the Dupont Current, a weekly
D.C. newspaper.
Hornstein and others attending the meeting also said noise generated from Cobalt
sometimes keeps them awake at night during weekends, the Current reported.
Morgan, a former member of the Dupont Circle ANC, said he was troubled that
those who raised issues of noise at the ANC meeting never contacted him before.
He said he and his staff would take immediate steps to address any concerns
of nearby residents.
“I find it interesting that this is coming up now when we’re applying
for a license change,” he said.
“I don’t consider Cobalt to be a problem establishment now,”
said Bowie. “We expect to work out an agreement where the outdoor section
remains a café or a restaurant.”
Once that agreement is reached in writing, Bowie said, the ANC will drop its
protest and ask the ABC Board to approve the license change.
“The law has changed and Cobalt is doing exactly what is intended to
happen under this change,” said gay nightlife advocate Mark Lee.
Lee has criticized ...
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