Around noon Aug. 30, there was a wait to be seated at the Florida Avenue Grill in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest D.C. At the counter, friends David Levy and Latrice Johnson met for breakfast. He lives nearby and has visited the restaurant three times this year – “not nearly enough,” he says. She remembers dining at the restaurant as a child and continuing as a student at Howard University.
“It’s a permanent fixture in D.C.,” she said of the establishment nicknamed “the Grill.”
Three bar stools over sat John DiPaolo and his 3-year-old daughter, Claudia. It was his first time at the grill since moving back to the city in 2010. They eagerly awaited his biscuits and sausage gravy and her apples and hotcakes. “You can’t find this kind of food at many places,” DiPaolo said.
A few feet away at the carry out line, James Hawkins, known to the Grill staff as “Cowboy,” waited for his to-go order. Earlier this year, he celebrated his 80th birthday at the Grill.
The walls are filled with signed photographs of celebrities who have dined there over the years.
Almost as old as Hawkins, the Grill will celebrate its 70th anniversary Oct. 4, at Cardozo High School in Northwest D.C. “If you think about it, where else can you see a Congress person sitting next to a trash truck operator – actually sitting together, talking to each other and having fun?” said Owner Imar Hutchins. “There’s not many places you’ll see that and it’s a testament to the way The Grill is welcoming to all and has evolved over the
years.”
Hutchins purchased the building in 2005 from Lacey C. Wilson Jr., who purchased the property from his parents, who opened the shop in 1944. Hutchins’ intent was to develop on the land, but he was careful not to demolish the neighborhood landmark. Instead, he built a 26-unit building on the former parking lot of The Grill, and to pay homage to the founders, he named the complex Lacey Condominiums. “It was important for me to keep the Grill because it’s such an important part of DC history and indeed part of African-American history, period,” Hutchins said.
Today, a well-balanced mix of ethnic groups flood the restaurant at any given hour, but, in the ‘40s, The Grill served as a safe haven for Blacks who were not yet allowed to dine with Whites in public establishments. It was the booming spot where the food was cooked like mama made it and the parties did not stop until the moon surfaced high above Florida Ave. and 11th St. NW. “They had a lot of things for Blacks on U St., then we’d come to the Grill afterwards,” recalls Hawkins, whose first time at the grill was in 1946.
A well-balanced mix of ethnic groups flood the restaurant at any given hour.
Throughout the years, the Grill has survived everything from racial segregation, to the crack epidemic, to crime waves and gentrification. A major threat came in 1968 when riots broke throughout the city after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While businesses burnt to the ground around him, Lacey Jr., according to legend, stayed up every night at the front booth with a
shotgun. The grill was firebombed, but he put out the fire and saved the family business.
As the current owner, Hutchins said he sees himself as a steward of the restaurant, an establishment whose walls are filled with signed photographs of celebrities who have dined there over the years. “In a sense we have a duty to all the people who came before us to honor their tradition,” says Hutchins. “It’s a slice of the real D.C. and there’s not a lot of that left.”
