Palace of Wonders

A week late for the grand opening and an hour early for the doors at Showbar, I glanced up and down the busy block and stepped into the next open door. Another of Joe Englert’s newest spaces on H Street Northeast – The Red and the Black.

I liked the New Orleans-inspired bar instantly, with the red (and black) tiled counter. Picture upon picture formed a, well, picturesque backdrop to the bottles. Empty frames on a punched tin ceiling. Doors on the walls and red velvet curtains. At the end of the room, a hand-lettered sign offered the limited, thematic menu – Cajun Spiced Nuts, Gumbo Ya Ya, Jambalaya, Muffuletta, Red Beans and Rice and Shrimp Dip.

Behind the bar, the bartenders stocked the coolers and sang along to the jukebox, laughing at themselves and joking with the patrons. They, like everyone, seemed relaxed, happy. They seemed like they were having a good time. I ordered a drink and waited for my friend. A bit later, Jamy arrived, looking confused.

“Don’t we want to go next door?” she asked.

“I think so but it looks like it’s closed.”

“I don’t think I have anyone else’s phone number,” she said. I certainly didn’t. Honestly, I didn’t even have Jamy’s as I’d handwashed my Razr with a pair of capris about a month ago and had to replace the phone and all numbers. (Note to self: Save numbers to SIM card, not phone. Insure phone. Check pockets before washing.)

While we sat the counter, sipping our sickly sweet cider, musicians passed behind us. They traipsed in the front door, through the bar and upstairs, carrying their instruments one encased piece at a time, including an entire trap set. Piece by piece. The Red and the Black serves as one of DC’s newest music venues, with acts scheduled most nights of the week.

We didn’t quite make it upstairs to check out the band, but we heard from downstairs and later the street below. After our drinks, though, we went next door to try to meet up with our “friends.” We were a loosely associated group. Jamy and I were friends. She knew Amber. Amber invited her friends, who invited their friends, and we all took over the deck at the Palace of Wonders, for a while at least.

Actually, we started out inside, upstairs, but quickly outgrew the table next to bank of cabinets stuffed with sideshow props, taxidermy and costumes. I lost the conversation as I tried to see, tried to read everything in the case. I didn’t get very far – too much to see.

The friends of friends, Flickr bloggers, some of them, snapped shots of each other, the display cases, the furniture on the deck (including what looked like carousel seats) and the cat. Yes, a cat. No, not a two-headed or two-faced or five-legged cat but a real, live feline, an orange tabby, that weaved through our legs and curled contentedly on the bench beside us. A bar cat?

(Saturday morning, as I sit and type, I wait for the pictures to be posted. Do I remember it correctly? Are my words enough to convey the sense of the bar?)

We spent most of the night outside, despite the oppressive DC summer air. Hot, humid. We sipped our bottled beers and talked all of the major taboos – politics (it is DC after all), religion, sex. We talked blogs and work and travel. Music wafted from the bar next door as did the smell of fresh popped corn from the bar inside.

And the bar inside swelled and shrank with a crowd eager to see the newest place in the revitalizing H Street corridor, DC’s newest attraction. Only time will tell if the crowds keep coming back. It’s still on the fringe of the area where I’m willing to walk. Though, a man outside the bar offered to hail us a cab for some spare change and a free shuttle runs between the bar and Union Station. H Street might just be close enough after all.


Tag: Showbar Palace of Wonders The Red and the Black H Street NE Washington DC