Bandolero Closes

The Washington City Paper announced yesterday that Bandolero has closed. This would appear to bring to close a long troubled history of restaurants at that location.

Jessica Sidman details the tumult that accompanied Bandolero’s last year. It had it’s liquor license protested by its own landlord in 2013. That same landlord started trying to evict them that same year. Mike Isabella, who was supposedly came up with the restaurant’s concept, quickly wanted nothing to do with it.

But the troubles preceded Bandolero. The owners of Bandolero, Jonathan and Bethany Umbel, owned the previous restaurant to occupy these properties: Hook.

Hook was the last restaurant to open in Georgetown and generate buzz until the most recent crop of buzzy restaurants finally came along (i.e. Chez Billy Sud, Grill Room, Fiola Mare). That was way back in 2008. And helming the ship was Barton Seaver, then a young hotshot chef preaching sustainability and conservation.

But after a labor dispute at Tackle Box got ugly, Seaver walked. The two restaurants limped on, but a fire finally 86’d Hook. It never reopened until it became Bandolero.

It’s sad really. Hook was a nice restaurant. Hell, GM held his rehearsal dinner there. And Tacklebox was just the sort of cheap casual eats that is disappearing from Georgetown. Bandolero seemed cursed from the beginning, and the opening of El Centro just around the block must have sealed its fate.

Now the page can be turned, but what chances are there that a restaurant will take either one of the spaces?