Bill’s owner Don Stevens (Image: CHS)
If you think what happened to Bill’s off Broadway’s windows on May Day was bad, wait until you see what they do to the building after summer when most of the structure is torn down to make way for this seven-story mixed-use apartment building.
In addition to the outflow of support Bill’s owner Don Stevens and his staff have received following the May Day vandalism, there’s more good news for the longtime Capitol Hill business.
“I only know how to do it one way,” Stevens says of his plans for a second bar and pizza joint that he plans to open by September at a yet-to-be-disclosed location off of Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, the Bill’s original location at Harvard and Pine will close down at the end of July before returning to its rebuilt space sometime in 2016 2014. “We are coming back,” Stevens said. Emphasis on the “are.”
[mappress mapid=”64″]Stevens said the effort to find an interim home on Capitol Hill during the construction never panned out. CHS wrote about his search here in fall 2012. The new plan is to open the second bar by September — in time for the start of the NFL season, Stevens says — and continue to operate it when Bill’s returns to its longtime home as part of the new development.
We checked into the development project that will preserve and restore much of the facade of Bill’s and the neighboring garages as its backers have decided to continue with the project even as a massive neighboring project has been put on hiatus due to financing issues.
As his crew prepares to wind down Bill’s off Broadway and prepare for wherever secret local Bill’s *way* off Broadway lands, there are efforts to support the bar and other small businesses impacted by the May Day 2013 vandalism. The grassroots “Impromptu Benefit for Bills Off Broadway and Sun Liquor” is one way to help out.
The Stranger also has details on efforts from local anarchists to help pay for the damage. We know. Anarchists supporting capitalists and paying for damage that many claim wasn’t done by anarchists at all is confusing. But we’re also talking about a world where Bill’s leaving Capitol Hill for three years is good news. It can all get a little strange sometimes.
Is anyone getting really tired of all the construction of the same building over and over with ground floor retail and six floors of apartments/condos on top with buildings not differing at all from each other?
More tired of people complaining about it and not doing anything about it.
Yes very!
By following that formula the developers get the most bang for their buck due to city zoning regulations and incentive plans, so I guess you could blame the city, but you raise an interesting question: could the rules be improved so we don’t get version 199 of what is basically the same building?
Bill’s should move into the Grill on Broadway space! It would be perfect!!!
More ‘mixed use’ more ‘mixed use’. Fake facades and ‘mixed use’ build character and community!
I’m thinking the same thing, DR. Bills ON Broadway would be nice. I love their pizza and it’d be nice to have it closer to home!
[…] off Broadway is headed way off Broadway. But will be […]
I just want to clarify one error in this article. Bill’s will be closing at the end of July but will be re-opening in the fall of 2014 (at the same location) not 2016. We expect to be down about 14-16 months. Our second location will open on September 1st of this year.
Cheers,
Where, Don, where? I’m hoping Wallingford/U-District.
Not too far from Wallingford. We will be opening at 8560 Greenwood Ave North. Our plan is to open on September 1st. The menu will be essentially the same with a few additions but otherwise it will be Bill’s. Bill’s on Greenwood!!
We should only be down 1 month.
[…] at Harvard and Pine is about to undergo a major redevelopment. Instead, owner Don Stevens told CHS, the new plan was to open a new Bill’s away from the Hill where available spaces were either too small, too ill-equipped or too expensive and wait for the […]