Madam's Organ Blues Bar is a restaurant and nightclub located at 2461 18th Street NW in Washington, D.C.'s Adams Morgan neighborhood. A local landmark, [1] the bar is popular for its nightly live music, especially blues and bluegrass. Regular performers include Bobby Parker, Ben Andrews, Catfish Hodge, and Bob Perilla & Big Hillbilly Bluegrass. [2] [3] The bar offers billiards, has a rooftop deck and serves soul food. [4] Notable regular patrons have included Euan Blair, son of Tony Blair, and the late Soviet dissident artist Alexandr Zhdanov. Hungarian Ambassador András Simonyi was not only a regular patron but also performed with his band "Coalition of the Willing" for his Washington Diplomatic farewell party attended by a Washington A-list including European diplomats, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. Barbara and Jenna Bush have also been spotted there. [5] Madam's Organ was described as a favored hangout by Playboy [6] and Stuff, [7] and was featured on the Wild On! travel series on E!. [8]
In 1992, it opened as a blues and bluegrass bar. Madam's Organ moved to its present location in 1997, after a temporary closure. [9]
This location once housed the original Children's Supermart store, which was opened by Charles Lazarus in 1948 and later became the Toys "R" Us retail chain. [9]
Madam's Organ features a large outdoor mural, which depicts "The Madam", the bar's burlesque mascot. The bar's owner, Bill Duggan, says he commissioned the mural as an artwork, but the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs ruled it an advertisement because it includes the name of the establishment. In court, the owner refused to remove the wording from the breasts, claiming that to do so would only further expose 9' by 13' breasts. Since Madam's Organ did not have a permit for the mural, the bar owner was fined. The case remains in the Court of Appeals. [10]
Washington, D.C., has been home to many prominent musicians and is particularly known for the musical genres of Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, bluegrass, punk rock and its locally-developed descendants hardcore and emo, and a local funk genre called go-go. The first major musical figure from District of Columbia was John Philip Sousa, a military brass band composer. Later figures include jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Rouse, Buck Hill, Ron Holloway, Davey Yarborough, Michael A. Thomas, Butch Warren, and DeAndrey Howard; soul musicians, including Billy Stewart, The Unifics, The Moments, Ray, Goodman & Brown, Van McCoy, The Presidents, The Choice Four, Vernon Burch, guitarist Charles Pitts, and Sir Joe Quarterman & Free Soul.
Adams Morgan is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in Northwest D.C. Adams Morgan is famous as a historic hub for counterculture and as an important arts district. It is also known for its popular entertainment district and culinary scene, centered on the intersection of 18th Street and Columbia Road.
Columbia Heights station is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C., on the Green Line. Due to successful redevelopment since the station's opening, Columbia Heights is one of the busiest Metro stops outside the downtown core, with over four million exits in 2010.
Ziegfeld's/Secrets was a dual-themed nightclub in Washington, D.C., with Ziegfeld's featuring drag queens, and Secrets featuring strippers. The entertainment venue first opened in 1980, was forced to close in 2006, then reopened in a new location in 2009. The second location was closed permanently in 2020.
WAMU is a public news–talk station that services the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. It is owned by American University, and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington. WAMU has been the primary National Public Radio member station for Washington since 2007.
The Thomas Jefferson Building, also known as the Main Library, is the oldest of the Library of Congress buildings in Washington, D.C. Built between 1890 and 1897, it was initially known as the Library of Congress Building. In 1980, the building was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third U.S. president. In 1815, Jefferson's donation of his own book collection formed a core foundation for the library's collection.
Signatures Restaurant was a Washington D.C. restaurant opened by Jack Abramoff. Expensive and lavishly appointed with expensive memorabilia, Villeroy & Boch chargers and Christofle flatware, Signatures was used by Abramoff in coordination with his skyboxes and foreign trips to spend money primarily given by Indian tribes on politicians. During 17 months between 2002 and 2003, Signatures gave away $180,000 of food and drinks. The restaurant was located at 1727 Connecticut Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.
Alexandr Pavlovich Zhdanov was a Russian avant-garde painter.
Bullfeathers of Capitol Hill is a restaurant and bar on 410 First Street SE in Washington, D.C., in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Its name comes from President Theodore Roosevelt's favorite euphemism for "bullshit." The logo of the restaurant is a depiction of Roosevelt. It was founded in 1979 by Gordon King. It has achieved some degree of fame for its association with congressional staffers and members who have been patrons, and as a place where "lobbyists take Hill staffers to down martinis.". It has since reopened under new ownership. The new owners are Tony Harris and William Walls.
18th Street Northwest is a prominent north–south street thoroughfare in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C.
The Bayou was a music venue and nightclub located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. The club occupied an old building at 3135 K Street, NW, in Georgetown, under the Whitehurst Freeway for forty-six years. The club opened in September 1953 on the site of a former Dixieland nightclub called The Pirates Den which featured Dixieland jazz until the early 1960s when the format changed to rock and roll. Performers included Count Basie and Woody Herman.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, dubbed the D. C. Madam by the news media, operated Pamela Martin and Associates, an escort agency in Washington, D. C. Although she maintained that the company's services were legal, she was convicted on April 15, 2008, of racketeering, using the mail for illegal purposes, and money laundering. Slightly over two weeks later, facing a prison sentence of five or six years, she was found hanged. Autopsy results and the final police investigative report concluded that her death was a suicide.
The Washington Hilton is a Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C. It is located at 1919 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., roughly at the boundaries of the Kalorama, Dupont Circle, and Adams Morgan neighborhoods.
Kinkead's, An American Brasserie was a fine dining restaurant in Washington, D.C. open from 1993 to 2012, named for its chef and owner Bob Kinkead, primarily featuring seafood and New American cuisine.
Michel Richard Citronelle was an American restaurant located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. The chef and owner of Citronelle was James Beard Award-winning chef Michel Richard.
The Mama Ayesha's Restaurant Presidential Mural is a 2009 large mural in Washington, D.C. featuring eleven American Presidents, starting with Dwight D. Eisenhower and ending with Barack Obama. Created by El Salvador-born artist Karla Rodas, the mural was funded by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. It has been described by locals as being DC's "largest postcard."
Mary's, originally called Mary's, Naturally and sometimes referred to as Mary's Lounge, was an iconic gay bar located in the Montrose neighborhood in Houston, Texas, in the United States. The bar opened in 1968, and by the time of its permanent closing in November 2009, it was the oldest gay bar in Houston and one of the oldest in Texas. In addition to being one of the most popular and well-known gay bars in Montrose, Mary's was a hub for gay political activism. In 2011, OutSmart said that the bar "anchored" Houston's gay community in Montrose during its nearly forty-year history.
Montgomery Blair Sibley is a former American lawyer who had his Florida Bar license suspended in 2008, and is best known for defending Deborah Palfrey, the "DC Madam", in 2007–2008.
A jumbo slice is an oversized New York–style pizza sold by the slice to go, especially popular in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and Morningside Heights, a neighborhood of New York City. A circular pizza pie from which jumbo slices are cut may be up to 36 inches (90 cm) in diameter, and individual slices can be more than 1 foot (30 cm) long. As a phenomenon, the jumbo slice has been covered by local and national media for their unusually large size, the late-night crowd they tend to attract, and the ongoing rivalry among pizza proprietors claiming ownership of the term and of the largest slices.
DC9 Nightclub is a nightclub and restaurant in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is known for its indie music scene, dance parties, and karaoke. DC9 has a capacity of 250 people and is a venue for live music and DJs.
38°55′19.3″N77°2′32″W / 38.922028°N 77.04222°W