Goodbye, Old Friend…

dc_josh — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 10:19:38 +0000

This week marks the end of an era for me. Visions Cinema Bistro Lounge, my first job in DC and the place where I met many of the people who would become close friends, is closing.
For those of you that didn’t know about it (and that’s apparently a significant number), Visions was a combination art-house theater, restaurant and bar. While the restaurant never quite clicked, the theater always had a great selection of off-beat and risky films (I was first introduced to the work of Takashi Miike there, via his edgy masterpiece Audition), and the bar was one of the most fun in the District – energetic & friendly bar staff, a varied crowd – the perfect antidote to the meat market flesh press of 18th St. or the desperately-trying-to-be-hip crowd at the Cat on a Friday night.
It’s a shame that DC can’t maintain a truly independent theater, even bolstered with food and alcohol sales- but honestly, that’s not the reason this news saddens me. The real reason is that Visions was MY place, MY bar, MY movie theater. It was where I got a job when I arrived here, penniless. It’s where I rang up an $800 bar tab on my 26th birthday. It’s where almost everyone I know here worked at one point or another. I loved going there, I loved the people who worked there, I felt at home there. But no home lasts forever, I guess?
Say goodbye to Visions for the next few days, til the landlord locks the doors and/or the booze runs out. 1927 Florida Ave NW. Now showing: Donnie Darko Director’s Cut, the Brown Bunny. All showings $5, and there are plenty of drink specials.

Washington D.C. Metblogs » dc_josh

Goodbye, Old Friend…