Opinions
Duplex Diner pioneer hands over the keys
Hirshfield sparked an ongoing renaissance on high-profile block
Eric Hirshfield opened the 18th & U Duplex Diner in June 1998, which quickly caught on with gay patrons who dubbed it the ‘Cheers for Queers.’ (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Eric Hirshfield, the founder and now former owner of 18th & U Duplex Diner, has proven to be, above all else, a gracious and dedicated gentleman entrepreneur.
His recent announcement that he had sold the business spread like a wildfire among the Duplex’s network of neighborhood patrons and gay community movers-and-shakers alike. An appropriate reaction for a venue attracting a bevy of local gay men and lesbians and their friends where a portion of deceased LGBT and AIDS activist and Clinton administration official Bob Hattoy’s ashes are kept in a martini shaker on a shelf behind the bar.
Following a 13-year anniversary “BAR mitzvah” celebration on June 25 heralding a month-long closure to “refresh” the venue and after a series of weekly “Road Trip” signature Thursday night events currently underway at neighboring establishments, long-time Duplex Diner bartender and new owner Kevin Lee will re-open the venue at the end of the month and continue the popular and well-regarded landmark enterprise.
Referring to his decision to quit his job sporting a pocket protector as a civil engineer to open a community restaurant and bar “a seduction” that began three years prior to the Duplex Diner’s June 1998 opening, Hirshfield jokes that the hospitality industry is the “world’s second oldest profession” — if not the first.
Like a teenager constantly riding his bike down the street in front of a cute neighbor boy’s house, Hirshfield would walk by the abandoned property just north of 18th and U streets at the intersection with Florida Avenue, N.W., on the way home from his downtown office, pressing his face against the glass and dreaming of what it would be like to feel passion, excitement and commitment in his professional life.
It didn’t matter to him that the object of his affection was more than a little rough around the edges. In fact, the conjoined structures at 2002 and 2004 18th St. had seen better days. The weeds inside the building would grow to the height and thickness of trees in the summer and the hollow shell was rapidly deteriorating.
As a young man intent on chasing his desires, Hirshfield threw caution to the wind and told himself that this was the moment to make his move.
Disapproving neighbors
But the challenges involved in consummating such a relationship in the District often prove to be a cruel mistress, indeed.
Despite the fact that he was proposing to rehabilitate a prominent eyesore located at the southern gateway to the Adams Morgan neighborhood where it rubbed shoulders with Dupont Circle, a small group of area residents was quick to disapprove of this new prospective venture.
In a scene re-enacted to this day across the city, they insisted on intervening in this affair. They knew that local tradition allowed them the opportunity to interrupt the courtship and bestowed upon them the potential to call the whole thing off.
Several years later, Hirshfield would join with hundreds of other local business owners in opposition to small citizens groups and Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) members advocating even more onerous restrictions on local businesses, describing the nearly two-year-long ordeal he had endured under the city’s cumbersome alcohol licensing process.
First testifying before the D.C. Council in 2004 during public hearings on the proposed Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) law revisions, Hirshfield captured the attention of city officials by detailing the outlandish elements of a lengthy so-called “Voluntary Agreement” he was forced to sign with a small group of liquor license protestants in order to move forward with his contingency lease and property renovation, eventually opening for business.
The document stipulated, among other things, the hours he could open the front windows facing the steady stream of buses, cars and trucks filling this major transportation artery and commercial intersection lest his patrons generate too much noise. It dictated the exact location of his trash containers and required that he install an “airlock” double entrance chamber leading into the small 1,000 square foot establishment.
Confessing his ‘sins’
Council members sat up in their seats in rapt attention as Hirshfield freely “confessed his sins” and announced in a characteristically devilish manner that he was in violation of a number of these stipulations.
His only defense: common sense.
Plus the fact no one had noticed, owing to the reality that these intrusive and nonsensical requirements clearly provided no real or ongoing benefit to those complaining about imagined problems in advance of their existence. Hirshfield learned first-hand that local hospitality business operators in Washington are deemed “guilty” until proven “innocent” in the eyes of the few neighborhood nannies necessary to manipulate and abuse the regulatory system and impose their will with ease, regardless of the actual merit or fairness of their supposed concerns.
Hirshfield went on to illustrate how the arbitrary sales percentage requirements dictating the amount of revenue derived from alcohol vs. food sales are counterintuitive to his business model as both a small neighborhood restaurant and bar.
Explaining that his patrons could order an entire homestyle meal for which the restaurant operation was well-known – with signature dishes like meatloaf and mac ‘n cheese and its popular tater tot side, of which a large number of patrons are worried will not make the new menu version (they will) – for a modest price, Hirshfield totaled the cost of an adult beverage with the meal and, heaven forbid, another drink (or two) at the bar either before or after.
A guest enjoying the evening and visiting with friends was, in fact, making it harder for the business to comply with the law the longer they hung around. All this despite the patron wanting to support this community business and help it succeed.
Although providing a robust and popular neighborhood eatery serving a wide swath of local demographics — Hirshfield often describes the actual bar top as being “not a gay bar, not a straight bar, but a curved bar” which, in fact, it is, and will remain — to this day the business struggles, along with many others, to meet these abstract revenue formulas.
Unintended consequences
Hirshfield’s impassioned public articulateness regarding the issues facing local community small business owners over the years has helped create a virtual industry standoff with alcohol licensing opponents. These efforts have contributed to a growing understanding among city residents that the entire license approval process has remained seriously out of whack.
Looking back on the licensing process he underwent, Hirshfield said that his naiveté was his most advantageous attribute, along with persistence and tenacity — otherwise, he might have just given up. After all, he now reflects, a rational businessperson would have simply moved on.
And therein lies the rub. For all the grousing about unruly crowds and late-night drunken revelers clutching pizza slices at the end of a weekend night overwhelming the sidewalks and spilling onto the streets of Adams Morgan, it is the extraordinarily obtuse and out-of-balance licensing process that discourages both sanguine and successful hospitality industry players from locating in the area.
Cumbersome licensing obstacles and hostile regulatory hoop-jumping required by groups such as the long-notorious Kalorama Citizens Association (KCA) and its miniscule active membership are the creators of these unintended consequences, according to Hirshfield. Add the small ad hoc license protest groups formed to oppose local business applicants along with neighborhood ANCs all too eager to extract their own pound of flesh — all wielding what he refers to as an “Involuntary Agreement” as their weapon of choice and demanding acquiescence to their demands — and soon seasoned and savvy community business operators begin looking elsewhere.
Hirshfield contends that it is these licensing opponents who have, in fact, “manifested what they sought to eliminate.”
Without a marketplace mix of hospitality businesses contributing to each other’s success and providing a blend of offerings, Hirshfield argues, those operating on the edges resort to cheap drinks, plastic cups, and college-age promotions to reap volume sales, larger margins and the ability to pay the bills.
Hirshfield points out — from his perspective as a neighborhood resident, consumer and business owner — that the diverse neighborhood enjoys a long tradition as host to a broad range of responsible establishments and a rich history offering an eclectic mix of cuisines and environments and continues to be a vibrant destination for well-regarded dining and entertainment options.
He believes that the neighborhood’s best days are yet ahead, and that the community will successfully confront the problems it is currently experiencing as a result of the misguided policies of the past.
You might think that a business owner would fear the presence of alternatives in close proximity or be concerned with competition from other establishments.
Not the case in Hirshfield’s mind, as he is quick to point out the long-time contribution that the also gay-owned L’Enfant Café and Bar French-inspired bistro with its comfortable outdoor seating area next door, the adjacent Bobby Lew Saloon on the opposite side, and the addition of several recently refurbished new businesses across the street, including The Blaguard and the Jack Rose Dining Saloon.
Hirshfield is proud to share in the ongoing development that has transformed this southernmost neighborhood area since those early days of entrepreneurial romance.
That is what it takes to grow a neighborhood and expand the amenities available to residents, Hirshfield said, quoting the adage “a rising tide lifts all boats.”
Many would credit his vision and hard work and perseverance with being the anchor that has allowed this to happen over time along the once abandoned and neglected high-profile block that many now refer to simply as “LoMo” (for Lower Adams Morgan).
Hirshfield’s future plans
After taking some time off, Hirshfield plans to expand his involvement with business development activities in the area, sharing the lessons he learned the hard way and continuing to be an important part of the neighborhood he loves.
He takes some comfort in observing both that the city government has made progress in streamlining its business permitting departments and that the ABC Board has recently begun to cast a wary eye on those who seek to stand in the way of economic development and a fair and equitable application of alcohol licensing law without undue delay due to frivolous protests.
He hopes that Mayor Vincent Gray will encourage the continuation of these advancements when appointing new members to the ABC Board.
Although not yet detailing any specifics, what most excites Hirshfield is the opportunity to continue to be a part of a dynamic urban locale with a long-irreverent spirit and business camaraderie more akin to collaboration than competition.
In the meantime, his legacy will continue at the soon-to-reopen Duplex Diner under the stewardship of proprietor Kevin Lee — along with the familiar faces that have been key to the venue’s longstanding success continuing to serve appreciative “stakeholder” patrons. Both Hirshfield and Lee have been quick to assure inquiring customers that the popular and long-serving staff personalities “conveyed” with the sale.
New owner Lee has undertaken a “micro-renovation” to give the place a “Diner 2.0” facelift, some menu tweaks, and an expanded wine list. The “Tater Tot” lobby has proven as effective as any big-name K Street special interest advocacy firm, the Madonna-themed bathroom stays, and patrons are invited to submit suggestions on the diner’s Facebook page for a new theme for the other bathroom. Images of the venue’s renovation progress will be available on the Facebook page.
An excited Lee wants to honor the successful formula that Hirshfield introduced and nourished while adding some new touches and creating traditions of his own. Most of all he wants to continue what Hirshfield lovingly refers to as a “cool space at a great location, where a popular restaurant and bar happened along the way” — a sort of “Cheers for Queers” where everyone feels welcome and it doesn’t take long for them to remember your name.
Mark Lee is a local small business manager and long-time community business advocate. Reach him at [email protected].
Commentary
Survivors of sex crimes are unsung heroes
Taking trauma and turning it to their advantage
(Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part story. Click here to read the first installment.)
Last month, I started watching “The X-files.”
For the most part I loved the show, with Agents Scully and Mulder as the primary reasons why. Yet what I found most frustrating was watching their investigations. As early as episode one, set in a small town of scared people guarded by scary men, Agent Scully proposed coincidences while Agent Mulder proposed aliens. Despite the episode having “cult” written all over it, both agents seemed none the wiser.
Recently, I learned the FBI has an open process for writers and other creatives to learn how the agency works. I also discovered the FBI has a history of monitoring writers. In fact, the FBI is about as image-conscious as your typical D.C. gay, making me wonder how the “X-Files” moved forward with little pushback. That’s about as interesting as UFOs being discovered in New Mexico as we tested the atomic bomb.
But if you’re reading this, you likely want me to shut up about the “X-Files” and get back to my story. When I left off, my friend had disappeared and my work cleared me of any wrongdoing. That said, I was mysteriously fired in September 2022—nearly a year after the initial incident—and just six weeks after my boss learned that I wrote books.
The process of my firing was strange, to say the least. First and foremost, I was never given a reason. To this day it remains a mystery. My now-former employer—a high-profile lobbying firm—then bullied me into signing an NDA to access my severance.
By the way, I negotiated up. While I don’t know what I did, I had a feeling I had that power. I was right.
Just prior to the firing, they asked me to bring in my laptop so they could download my files. This rang an alarm for me, primarily because they never gave me a laptop. So, they wanted me to bring in my personal laptop. As a writer with original materials, I reasonably asked what constituted a work file. I never received an answer.
Coincidentally, I met my ex-boyfriend exactly one week before I got fired. He is the same ex-boyfriend from my religion piece, in which I mentioned he fell into hard times. Specifically, I was referring to concerning signs I spotted last April, primarily on the gay apps, and with memories of the last boy still fresh on my mind, I refused to let another slip from my grasp.
So, what did I do? I dove headfirst into hell in a messy attempt to rescue him. After playing this new game of cat-and-mouse in which I was said mouse, allow me to share what I learned: Over the course of several months, I spotted sketchy characters at my ex’s place—characters I suspected dealt hard drugs, which was highly out of character for him. Moreover, I found online accounts promoting extremely suspect pornography and, yes, pimping services on X (formerly Twitter), some of which looked a lot like my ex. While I didn’t know what exactly was happening, I knew something was off, but when I confronted my ex, he denied it.
Being the stubborn asshole that I am, I decided to check these sketchy characters out for myself. It turns out I was spot on about their sketchiness. I learned they not only drug unsuspecting young men in a coordinated manner, but once drugged they sexually violate them and—if drugged enough—begin recording videos. It’s all made to look random yet safe; for example, there always seems to be a nurse in the group who is “experienced” in administering needles.
Once I had proof these people were unsafe, I took further action for my ex. In mid-November, I reached out to someone in his personal life, which was a tough decision since he was closeted. I was strategic and chose someone who knew he was bisexual, and after connecting with her on Instagram, spoke on the phone with her the next morning. Upon hearing my concerns, she agreed based on her own observations.
Apparently, she spotted signs of him being physically harmed over the summer. She and I spoke for hours on end about the situation and how we could help him. Then, just a week later, I lost contact with her and my ex. I haven’t heard from either since.
I eventually grew concerned enough to contact the police and the FBI. In the meantime, particularly following my trauma article, sex workers approached me to share their stories—primarily stories of rape and abuse alongside a power structure rooted in it. As for those who try to oppose this system? They’re often written off as mentally ill.
I don’t know about you, but I refuse to live in a world where young queers are shepherded into this system. That’s the opposite of what I envision for the queer community.
Mid-Atlantic Leather weekend arrived in January, along with more sex workers. Once again, some approached me to share their stories—about their aspirations, about their art, about their perspectives on the world. And once again, about the system of abuse designed against them from the start. I heard stories of young boys raped by their fathers, or friends of their fathers, or about the drugs used to coerce them into sexual activity. Sadly, just like a UFO witness, they are usually written off and never taken seriously, especially if they have a record of drug abuse or mental illness. Seems to be a pattern, doesn’t it?
That said, these men are not solely victims. If anything, they took their trauma and turned it to their advantage. I’d like to take this moment to thank them. They’re unsung heroes—each and every one—in a nation that often shames them.
Yet as proud as I am of these sex workers, my heart was equally broken. These stories were painful to hear, to say the least. I quickly grew paranoid of people around me, even friends at times. There were other times I sat alone in my apartment, bawling over the men I had lost, along with the pain others had experienced. This only strengthened my resolve to end it.
To top this all off, my final discovery came just two months ago. Turns out there’s an X account publicly teasing me about this entire affair. The account even references this column and, according to the receipts, started well before I noticed concerning signs about my ex in the first place.
Hello there, dear X account. It appears you’ve been observing me. Consider this my proverbial tapping back on the glass.
Wow—there seems to be a lot of time, energy, and effort spent on little ole me. Why is that, I wonder? I’ve mentioned before I’m just a measly little barback who has been fired twice. Although looking back, those firings were strange too, weren’t they?
Is it the abuse I uncovered? Is it the details of my lover’s past? Is it something I wrote? Is it a combination of the three? And is it possible that the little dark cloud that’s been following me in D.C. is more intentional than I once thought?
I may never learn the truth on my own, but I can pose another question: what’s the only thing scarier than UFOs? To me there’s just one answer: that UFOs were never real in the first place. Occasionally, answers to unsettling mysteries simply unearth more unsettling mysteries.
I mentioned before in this column that I arrived to D.C. naïve about the world, perhaps just as naïve as Agents Scully and Mulder. Yet in my naiveté I tripped on something: the rot hiding beneath the surface of our nation’s capital. No, it isn’t coincidence. It isn’t aliens, either. But whatever it is, I alone cannot identify it.
Throughout my time uncovering this story, I’ve come across friends, acquaintances, and even relatives who suffered abuse, along with threats or shaming to keep them quiet. They come from all races, creeds, backgrounds, and orientations, and as it turns out, some of the infrastructure of power in D.C. and in towns across this nation are built around it. While I’m ready to tear it down, this isn’t just my story. I might be the one starting it, but it’s not on me to finish.
The most I can do is hand the pen over to the victims. I’ve shared my part. Now it’s their turn. As for the audience: I hope you’re now ready to start believing.
Jake Stewart is a D.C.-based writer and barback.
In two previous articles for the Blade, I enumerated how Elon Musk is a rampant transphobe and a danger to society. My position on Musk, since then, is nuanced. In one of these articles, I mildly applauded his brilliance, as I will enumerate now that he was able to create a payment company (PayPal), a car company (Tesla), and a rocket company (SpaceX), all with extreme success. Musk, in this regard, is a Renaissance man of sorts, able to use his Wharton accolades and other courses in physics, math, and coding to his will, and revamping companies to earn billions of dollars in profits. Nowadays, it’s a common brag among best friends to own a “Tessie” – slang for a Tesla – and to ride around for fun. “Tessies” have seeped into popular culture. And on the streets of LA, from the suburbs of D.C., to the outskirts and roads of Manhattan, Teslas are a common phenomenon, and are skyrocketing in sales. And PayPal, to Musk’s credit, is also still a platform that millions use regularly to send money to friends or other businesses. Meanwhile, SpaceX is preparing for the future, creating an infrastructure for space exploration.
Musk is undeniably successful. Yet two things should counter his fame and cause serious alarm. As I have spoken about in the past, Musk’s relationship with his transgender daughter is nonexistent, as Vivian Wilson, the daughter, states that he was an absent parent who harassed her as a child. Musk’s transphobia has been on full display: he banned the word “cisgender” from X.com, which led many LGBTQ rights groups away from the platform. I was no stranger to this word ban: a conservative journalist covering my stories had to use c*isgender in asterisks to avoid having her post deleted. Word bans were and are common symptoms of fascist regimes. Hitler and the Nazis infamously banned words and books from the public realm, and Musk is doing the same thing.
The second cause for alarm in Musk’s rise to power is his heading of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. At first, hiring Musk as the leader of DOGE seemed like a good idea, even with someone who harbors transphobic complaints about him. As the richest man in the world, and as a man who has led multiple companies with billions of dollars in revenue, it would seem that a private sector tycoon like Musk would have the merits to lead DOGE.
Yet almost immediately, such merits came into question. In early February of 2025, Musk essentially axed USAID, the State Department’s aid wing, an organization tasked with giving funds to needy countries and doing other life-saving work like vaccine promotion. The axing of USAID spoke right away to Musk’s sheer ignorance of USAID and the good it has done for decades across the world. In effect, he created, almost overnight, a dystopia in American international aid development. Without USAID, the United States can’t fund foreign countries to engage in beneficial mutual partnerships with us.
The axing of USAID from U.S. foreign policy will surely not be the only toxic decision that Musk makes. Down the line, and even already, we can expect a significant reduction, or just outright banning, of DEI initiatives. DEI initiatives are important for marginalized communities to have a voice and funding through government. For instance, studies that analyze the wellbeing of LGBTQ youth would presumably be axed. More studies analyzing racial discrimination in the workplace could be axed as well.
Overall, Musk shows a demonstrated brilliance in almost every endeavor he touches, with the exception of DOGE and Trump-related decisions. And the rampant transphobia that he has shown toward his child has painted his character in murky colors.
Isaac Amend is a writer based in the D.C. area. He is a transgender man and was featured in National Geographic’s “Gender Revolution” documentary. He serves on the board of the LGBT Democrats of Virginia. Contact him at [email protected] or on Instagram at @literatipapi.
Opinions
Trump is a carnival barker masquerading as president
Throwing the world into chaos by cozying up to Putin
Trump is a carnival barker, who masquerades as a president. He is a racist, felon, found liable for sexual assault, and in many ways a danger to the LGBTQ community. What he is not, is a credible president. He is a grifter and a liar. He sees himself as an entertainer, which accounts for his speech to Congress. He thinks nothing of lying and using props, even a brave young cancer survivor, to get applause, and feed his ego.
The real danger of his second term in office is he is surrounded with some people worse than himself, but with more brains. The first is hard to be, the second is easy. His best friend and co-president, is a Nazi sympathizer, the richest man in the world. Contrary to Trump, who has declared bankruptcy multiple times in his businesses, Musk has made a real fortune. There are those who claim he has paid to be Trump’s co-president. First helping fund the campaign, others even suggesting he has promised Trump billions after he is out of office. I don’t know that to be true, but clearly not beyond belief. While Trump sees himself as a king, Musk sees himself as an emperor, controlling the world. Trump has allowed him unlimited access to the Oval Office, from which to carry out his goals. Trump’s attitude to people here, and around the world, suffering because of him, is that they be damned.
Now we know Trump and Musk, have bought off, or scared off, any opposition from Republican senators and congresspersons. They have gotten them all on their knees. The only hope for our democracy is the courts. We will see if they hold, and actually perform their constitutional role, as the third arm of our government. Will they stand up to the two despots in the White House? Will they be willing to take the glare, and threats to their lives, from MAGA supporters, and do the right thing? The right thing is not what I want, but what the constitution of our country calls for.
People are being fired willy-nilly, without any thought to the repercussions. We know this as they have fired people, and been forced to rehire them when they realized what they did. From the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons, to those trying to deal with bird flu at the CDC. They have in a short time thrown the world into chaos, by moving away from all our allies and cozying up to Putin, a dictator, who seems to be holding something over Trump’s head. Musk is posting on X and whispering in Trump’s ear to leave NATO, and populate Mars. A megalomaniac with thoughts of being the next Hitler, and taking over the world using Donald Trump as his stooge.
Musk has eclipsed the vice president, who then tried to reclaim his role by embarrassing the United States at the meeting with Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy. Vance made the president look weak. Then when Trump spoke to Congress, thanking Musk, all Vance could do was sit behind the president with a stupid grin on his face, jump up to applaud every few minutes, at the spectacle taking place in front of him. If he wasn’t so venal I would have actually felt sorry for him.
Last week was the ninth anniversary of Nancy Reagan’s death. It reminded me she was the one who ran the country, while hiding her husband’s dementia from the people. Even with all that, in some ways I longed for those days. A time I could disagree with just about every Republican policy, but could sit and talk to Republicans and have a rational conversation. In those days I could, and did, actually meet the leadership of the Log Cabin Republicans for lunch, and not end up feeling dirty like I would with some of those leading them today.
It may sound funny to say, but I yearn for a two-party system where we can debate issues with intelligent people. I know how bad Reagan was, and that he caused the death of thousands by not being willing to deal with HIV/AIDS. But then there were Democrats like Ed Koch, mayor of New York City, who did the same. I hope we can get back to a day when we can really debate policy, everyone telling the truth to voters, and not have a Republican Party that believes lying, and fighting culture wars, is the way to go.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.
Advocacy group calls for WorldPride boycott
PHOTOS: “Passports”
Former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson, longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights, dies at 93
Doechii to headline WorldPride closing concert
D.C. drag queens proudly join Trump resistance
Survivors of sex crimes are unsung heroes
Elon Musk’s mistakes
InterPride issues advisory for transgender, nonbinary people traveling to US
Array of queer events on tap for D.C. this spring
