New French Bistro in Mount Vernon Triangle Gets Liquor License Endorsement

At its regularly scheduled meeting February 3, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6E/Shaw endorsed the request for a liquor license by restauranteur Hakan Ilhan, who plans to open a French Bistro named "L'Hommage" at 450 K Street NW, across the street from the mixed-use City Vista building.

450 K Street in June 2014 (Google Street View)

Attorney Stephen J. O'Brien of the law firm Mallios & O'Brien introduced Ilhan as a person well known to the ANC and the community. Ilhan is the owner of the nearby Alba Osteria (425 I Street NW). ANC6E Chair Marge Maceda (Commissioner for district 05) suggested at the meeting that there might be a third restaurant from Illhan in the area soon.

L'Hommage will be in Maceda's ANC district.

The liquor license request had been examined by ANC6E's liquor-licensing affairs committee before the meeting. The parties had negotiated a settlement agreement, which was signed at the meeting and will become part of L'Hommage's liquor license. At the meeting, liquor-licensing committee chair Alexander Padro (Commissioner for district 01) said the applicants had agreed as part of the settlement agreement to close the 80-seat outdoor patio at midnight and also to limit the number of evenings in a year with live entertainment. This, Padro said, is to make it more difficult for L'Hommage to convert or evolve into a nightclub, as sometimes happens with restaurant-category liquor licensees in the downtown business district.

See an September 2014 from the Washington Business Journal about L'Hommage here.

Of the seven Commissioners, four voted in favor of the liquor license. There was one abstention and two Commissioners were absent.

ANC6E videos its meetings in their entirety and posts them on its YouTube channel. The discussion of the liquor license for L'Hommage can be seen by following this link to the first part of the February 3 meeting, starting at time 24:30.