They haven't changed their policy on sitting outside, even during low traffic hours. We tried to sit outside for drinks around 3 pm on the Sunday of labor day weekend. Despite the fact that there were 5 empty tables and DC is dead over this weekend, when we asked if we could sit outside for drinks, they said "we don't generally do that" -- what so sometimes they do it? why not now? nice way to loose business for no reason.

i try to like the place but after my last visit i refuse to go back. it was a beautiful sunday afternoon and some friends and myself wanted to sit outside have a few drinks and maybe later we would order some food. they refused to seat us outside unless we were ordering food now. i could understand if they were busy but it was late in the afternoon after the sunday brunch crowd. also the food is just ok and overpriced and the service is hit or miss there.

This is a good place with good food... but its not cheap at all... Busboys and Poets its 100 times better on the food front...

And that's saying something, given the existence of the Black Cat. The upstairs is OK, but there's few tables and not much bar space, so the only real place to hang out is downstairs in Gate 54, which, thanks to the low ceilings, is hella smokey. Good Lord.



Music can be decent, but getting a drink is very difficult if it's crowded. It's too small to have a lot of dancing, and really should just embrace itself and put in some more tables. I want to enjoy going there, but rarely do. Still, beats some chumpfest in Adams Morgan.