A landmark of Arlington nightlife, Dr. Dremo's Taphouse, is preparing to close now that the owner of the property where the popular Courthouse-area bar sits is in talks with a developer seeking to purchase the land.
"It's a sad time," said Andrew Stewart, whose father, Bill, opened the place under its former name, Bardo, in 1993. "It'd be nice to stay. This is a family run place. But, it's just an evolution. It's what's going on here all over the place."
In the night spot's five-year run as Dr. Dremo's, the bar has already warded off closing once. County officials, Stewart said, ordered the doors shut for about 90 days to repair a leaking roof. Its grand re-opening saw the return of the bar's steady stream of patrons looking to shoot pool and indulge in its 35 varieties of beer. But with a direct view out its back window to the Washington monument and the Potomac, the bar sits on prime real estate surrounded by encroaching high-rise construction.
According to county planner Jill Hunger, Elm Street Development has approached the property's owner about purchasing Dremo's and the neighboring Taco Bell. The company's plans for the site, she said, are to turn it into a six- to eight-story building with 165 apartments and 33,000 square feet of commercial space. The idea has gone before the county's Site Plan Review Committee three times and goes to the Planning Commission Sept. 6. But before Elm Street can demolish the bar — a building that was once a car dealership in the late 1950s — it has to get the county to approve a zoning amendment to the General Land Use Policy. Construction, Hunger said, could begin from six months up to a year after the plan is approved.
The walls of Dr. Dremo's are a collage of paint, stylish graffiti, photographs and idiosyncratic mementos from the bar's past. Over the bar, there is one picture that stands out for Stewart, that of Neil Haygood — a regular in Arlington's club scene renowned for his encyclopedic memory for music.
"All kinds of music, Neil knew all kinds," Stewart said. "He was always putting a new tape in your hand."
Haygood died years ago, but he has a permanent seat at Dremo's, one marked by a plaque bearing his name. "Neil Haygood," it reads, "It's all good."
The fate of Dr. Dremo's brewery is also up in the air, Stewart said. Once located in the lower level, it was later moved to Warrenton. Dremo's brews are served at the taphouse and several clubs throughout Northern Virginia. Now, the components of the brewery are in boxes sitting on a dock at the Baltimore shipyards awaiting Bill Stewart's long-discussed move to Australia.
Stewart said Dremo's could relocate, but his family has yet to begin a search for its new home.
"Nothing serious, we're just looking," he said.
YET THE CURRENT home of Dremo's is part of what gives the bar its odd charm. The layout is haphazard. The pool tables are right where they were when Bardo first opened, same with the outdoor bar on the lower level, which has since been floored with sand to transform it into a mock Caribbean beach joint. A stage in the back room hosts regular open mic nights, and the tables see endless plays of Texas Hold 'Em during the bar's poker tournaments.
Elm Street's plans for Dr. Dremo's and the adjacent Taco Bell, Hunger said, are in keeping with county's planned vision for the Courthouse area. The county is encouraging development there, Hunger said, because of the neighborhood's proximity to the Metro station. The county's plan, outlined in a 2003 study looking at development for the region between the Courthouse and the Rosslyn area, calls for higher-reaching buildings near Metro stations. Building heights, it states, should taper, from a nine-story maximum to a maximum of five stories, leading away from the station areas. For the site of Dr. Dremo's, it also recommends the construction of an underground parking lot.