Where is the Cellar Door in Georgetown, Washington DC

In the mid-60s the Cellar Door, corner of M and 34th (?), was THE folk music club, intimate as it was, with the likes of Ian and Sylvia appearing. It was a prime destination for us Virginia high schoolers who could hit Georgetown with their fake id's showing over the 18-year drinking age in DC. We would carouse at 1776 and Tombs up the hill, The Keg on Wisconsin, Crazy Horse down the street on M, and the Bayou under the freeway, but the Cellar Door was the place for real music and known acts. It did welcome local folk groups on some nights and I performed there during the hootnany days with my groups Chatham Trio and Chatham 4, along with other local notables. Small room, tiny stage, good beer, great fun.

 

Nice recent article in the Washington Post about the club on the occasion of the release of the neil Young album:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...1da75e-6104-11e3-bf45-61f69f54fc5f_story.html

 

I moved to DC in 1980 and maybe got to the Cellar Door once. I did go to the Bayou many, many times. For some reason the bands I saw that jump into my head are The Joe Perry Project, Spyro Gyra, Big Audio Dynamite...

There was also a club in the early-mid 80s in SW DC called the Wax Museum. Anybody remember it? It wasn't open long. IIRC, it was kinda of like a small indoor amphitheater (although my memory of it is pretty foggy). If memory serves, I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn there. Somehow I got hold of a pass that allowed me into a lot of shows for free if I was so inclined...

 

Wax Museum was great. Saw Bonnie Raitt there backed up by (as I recall) Little Feat.

 

The Cellar Door is still there but vacant, the last occupant was a sandwich place. It's on the corner directly across from the Ukranian embassy. Next to the embassy used to be another legendary venue in the 70s and 80s called Desperados. I went to too many memorable shows at Desperados to list... I'm surprised that Cellar Door is getting all the nostalgia. Cellar Door had jazz and folk and later they had comedy acts, but the places that really rocked were Desperados and The Bayou.
The Bayou was where the movie theater is now on K st. There's finally a new venue on K st, it's called Gypsy Sallys. There's a documentary film on The Bayou out this year on public TV.
Wax Museum was only open from 82 to 84... It was on the corner of E and 4th SW
Since you're a GU student I'll mention that around the late 70s to early 80s there was a building on the GU campus called Hall Of Nations at that time, basically across from Tombs, that had a lot of shows, punk and rockabilly, I think I saw Stray Cats there.

 

I found some photos I took at the Cellar Door in March 1978 of a McGuinn-Clark show I saw there. You can tell from them just how intimate a club it was. Great show, too!

 

There are some guys on a Neil Young fan site Thrashers Wheat that went to the spot to try to recreate the Cellar Door album cover. Amazingly the door in the photo is now a window! Check it out below:

http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2013/12/caught-you-knockin-at-my-cellar-door.html

 

There was a place on the other corner—I don't remember its name—where this Virginia teenager living in Springfield used to go with friends; and you forgot the 1789 which was somewhere else in there. We also went to a bar in what was called, IIRC, the Fairfax Hotel. Its claim to fame was that it had every imported beer available in the USA. I haven't been to any of those places since ~ 1964.

 

I left DC in September 1969; Desperados wasn't there yet, obviously… either that or my memory is failing me.

 

Cool old thread...

One correction- Foreigner played their first US show at the Bayou not the Cellar Door. I did merchandising displays (for WEA) for the band's 10 year anniversary show in 1985 at the same spot. MTV did a live broadcast too. I had to plaster record stores like Kemp Mill, Olssons, Penguin Feather etc. with Foreigner posters and signage.

I got one freebie to the show. It was really packed that night. I always remember Mick Jones had his volume down on the guitar for the first big power chord of Juke Box Hero. Nothing came out. He smiled and cranked it up for the next chord.

I saw some great live shows at the Bayou and Blues Alley in Georgetown but the Cellar Door was before my time in the DC area.

 

I saw a few shows at the Cellar Door-Doc Watson, Lee Ritenour come to mind. Many shows at the Bayou; I have a great memory of shaking Roy Buchanan's hand and thanking him for his music. He was very appreciative. Bayou goons could be very annoying. There's a great documentary about the history of the Bayou that was aired on the local PBS station this year.

 

I used to go to Georgetown in the late 60's early 70's and I am familiar with that bar next to the Cellar Door, I think. It was called New Mac's. I still have the cover from a book of matches from there! 3403 M Street. They had cheap beer and a great juke box. Every time I went there I'd play "Stupid Girl" by the Rolling Stones. Is this the same bar?

 

Here's the trailer to the PBS Bayou documentary:

 

Cellar Door- NE corner of 34th and M. In the 1960's, the bar mentioned across M street was known as Apple Pie prior to its renaming as Desperadoes. After the Cellar Door closed, it turned into a comedy club for a couple of years, then a sandwich shop, then a Philly Cheesesteak franchise, then sold. 1st show I ever saw there- Everly Brothers in January 1969- saw Emitt Rhodes, George Carlin, Neil Young, NRBQ, Carly Simon, Mickey Newbury, Cheech and Chong, Jonathan Richman, Ursula Dudziak, Weather Report, Danny O'Keefe, Rick Nelson, and countless others over the years.

 

Another live at the Cellar Door release:

 

This bar, New Mac's, that I and a few others are referring to is on the same side of the street as the Cellar Door, just closer, like a block, to Key Bridge. At least that's the one I'm talking about and thought sgb was as well....

 

The bar on the opposite corner from the Cellar Door was Mac's. It was a real hole in the wall with newspapers for wall paper, a unisex bathroom with a questionable lock, worn out tables and chairs, etc. However, it was 'ours' (collectively, the Virginia crowd who would cross Key Bridge to drink.) During 1967/68, the owners acquired access to the lower level of the unit next door and opened New Mac's. There were a few stairs between the two places. Mac's remained the same, but New Mac's was cleaned up and even had some live entertainment trying to keep pace with the clubs closer to Wisconsin Avenue. Some of the best times of my life.

 

I preceded you by 7 years, having frequented that place many times during my Lee High School days in 1960/61, only the place wasn't called Mac's then IIRC. Unfortunately, I don't remember what it might have been called. It was 54 years ago, after all.

 

The Cellar Door was my favorite place (by far) to catch jazz acts when I lived in DC from '94 to '96. Much better than Blues Alley, the more famous club in the heart of Georgetown. I had figured once I moved away from NYC that was the end of catching my favorite jazz acts, but my experience in DC (and here in Oakland, CA) was much better than NY. For one thing, Cellar Door was the most intimate jazz club I've frequented. I caught such acts as Louis Hayes, Dewey Redman, David Sanchez and Terence Blanchard sitting only a couple feet from the piano or horn player. Granted, the bigger-name acts like McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson could fill up the larger Blues Alley. Cellar Door couldn't book them.

But Blues Alley, like Yoshis in California, had a policy of chasing you out after one set and forcing you to pay again if you wanted to see the next set--if it wasn't sold out. Cellar Door had no such policy. One night I sat there from about 9 p.m. until 2:30 in the morning and watched the Dewey Redman quartet play some of the greatest music I'd ever heard live, with Dewey taking short breaks to run across the street and get his fix (alcohol or something else), and come back.

I remember seeing his son around the same time, but he played to a much bigger crowd at GW Lister Auditorium, and his playing was not nearly as deep as his father's. Yet another venue sprouted up at that time, the Jewish Community Center at 16th St across town, and I caught another amazing act there in the Sam Rivers Trio. But those shows are the subject of another thread.

 

Although I saw a few shows at the Cellar Door in the late '60's to early 70's, my favorite venue was the Bohemian Caverns at 11th & U Streets. I saw Ramsey Lewis, Young Holt and Muddy Waters there. Even better, it was a few blocks away from the Howard Theater, DC's equivalent to the Apollo in NYC. Still better, it's still there and functioning as a jazz club.

http://www.bohemiancaverns.com

 

Really good recent article inre earlier DC-area venue. The joint was before my time in DC, but I enjoyed reading about it anyway...
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/the-untold-history-of-postwar-washingtons-nightlife/