The brothers and nightlife impresarios behind many bars and restaurants stretching up 14th Street NW and down U Street NW will close seven establishments for the foreseeable future on Halloween.

Eric and Ian Hilton say they fought for six months to keep American Ice Company, The Brixton, Echo Park, El Rey, The Gibson, Marvin, and Players Club running through the COVID-19 pandemic, but ultimately couldn’t.

Each bar had a personality. The Gibson, a candlelit lounge behind an unmarked door on 14th Street NW, helped ignite the District’s craft cocktail culture when it opened in 2009. Next door to The Gibson, Marvin got D.C. dancing and played host to countless Grilled Cheese Socials. Washingtonians loved to hate The Brixton on U Street NW, with its three-deep lines to score a beer on the rooftop. Relative newcomer Players Club in Logan Circle gave people a place to let loose in a space styled to look like a 1970s rec room. 

They’ve all played host to a steady stream of first dates, bachelor and bachelorette parties, milestone birthday celebrations, new job toasts, and drownings of sorrows. Ian says he doesn’t yet have enough information to gauge whether any of the bars could reopen in the more distant future or whether he’ll be turning over the keys for good.

The establishments that remain operating from the Hilton’s hospitality group, H2 Collective, are more food-focused. They include Cafe Colline in Arlington, Chez Billy Sud in Georgetown, Parc de Ville in Northern Virginia’s Mosaic District, The Brighton at The Wharf, and Victura Park at the Kennedy Center. Ian says the future of Chez Billy Sud and The Brighton are also uncertain.

Bars are uniquely disadvantaged by the rules and regulations implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19. Mayor Muriel Bowser closed bars and restaurants to on-premise consumption on March 16. They could only welcome patrons in Phase One of reopening, which kicked off May 29, if they had outdoor seating and found a way to serve food. 

Phase Two of reopening allowed indoor bars to fill their spaces to 50 percent capacity starting on June 22. Patrons couldn’t sit at the bar if a bartender was present, nor could they stand in the bar area and be served. Bar owners were frustrated when they initially had little representation on Bowser’s reopening committee, which left them without a platform to advocate for their needs. 

Meanwhile, most forms of aid that could be utilized to tide bars over until better days has dried up. Bars and restaurants have exhausted their Paycheck Protection Program loans, D.C. already handed out its microgrants, and there’s little indication that more assistance is coming from Capitol Hill before the election in November. 

Ian Hilton says there was no real final straw with his establishments. “With colder weather a few weeks away and no prospects for relief in sight, we think it makes sense to ramp things down and give potentially displaced members of the team time to look at other employment opportunities,” he tells City Paper.

The Hilton brothers provide further context in the statement below.