Faced with opposition from neighborhood groups, plans to reopen the Brass Elephant have stalled. The restaurant's owners asked the city's liquor board on Thursday for time to regroup amid concerns that the cherished fine-dining restaurant would be converted into a nightclub.
"We would like to have legal representation," said Stuart Teper, a representative of Charles Street Restaurant, Inc., the Brass Elephant's holding company. The owners had been seeking to reactivate the Brass Elephant's liquor license but instead asked for a postponement, which the Board of Liquor License Commissioners granted.
Known for its fine northern Italian cuisine and elegant atmosphere, the Brass Elephant closed in August 2009. The postponement is the latest stumbling block in the owners' protracted attempt to sell the Mount Vernon business.
"In a predominantly residential neighborhood, we don't need another lounge at this location," the Mount Vernon Belvedere Association wrote in a letter to the liquor board. "Within one block today are six nightclub/lounges plus five restaurant-bars."
Plans for a revamped Brass Elephant space were introduced to the association on Tuesday. The town house, they were told, would be leased by Walter Webb, who laid out his plans for a lounge and restaurant called Museum. Describing his background, Webb told the association he had been involved with Love Nightclub and Park at Fourteenth inWashington, D.C.
On Wednesday, the neighborhood association sent an email to its members pointing out Love's troubles with Washington authorities, including a link to a video showing a brawl outside of the nightclub.
At Thursday's liquor board hearing, Teper appeared to distance himself from Webb and his presentation.
"We are reopening," Teper said. "That man was just our manager."
"We're not against liquor, and we're not against good committed neighbors opening in Mount Vernon," said MVBA president Jason Curtis, who added he would support the Brass Elephant's reopening if the owners presented the full membership with "their true plans" and agreed to operate as a restaurant, and not a nightclub or lounge.