Legendary Capitol Hill Bar Hawk ‘n’ Dove Files for Bankruptcy

Legendary Capitol Hill Bar Hawk ‘n’ Dove Files for Bankruptcy

The owner of a handful of popular Washington D.C. bars and restaurants—including legendary Capitol Hill watering hole Hawk ‘n’ Dove—filed for bankruptcy protection Friday.

Baltimore-based Barrack’s Row Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Washington D.C., putting eating spots like Hawk ‘n’ Dove, Senart’s Oyster House and The Chesapeake Room into protection with it.

Barrack’s Row, which is owned by a group of investors, said it has between $1 million and $10 million in debt. The company’s bankruptcy lawyer couldn’t be reached after 5 p.m. on Friday, and Manager Richard Cervera who signed the bankruptcy petition couldn’t be reached at two of the restaurants.

It’s unclear what prompted the filing, but given D.C.’s high journalist-per-capita ratio, we expect the details won’t be secret for long.

Here’s what we do know from court papers: the company said it picked bankruptcy lawyers to help it negotiate borrowing agreements and to access cash that would be otherwise unavailable without Chapter 11 protection.

Hiring bankruptcy lawyers “will allow the [companies] to reorganize their affairs with as little disruption to their ordinary course of business as possible,” the company said in court papers.

The investors also put into bankruptcy the yet-to-be opened Willie’s Brew and ‘Que, a barbeque-themed sports bar in the historic Boilermaker building. The other restaurants that filed are Park Tavern, Boxcar Tavern, Lola’s Barracks Bar & Grill, Molly Malone’s and Pacifico Cantina.

As D.C. Hill staffers know, Hawk ‘n’ Dove was closed for an eternity for renovations. But even after it reopened, the Washington Post said in an article last year that bar was still searching for an identity:

Even stranger, months after reopening the Hawk & Dove as an upscale sports bar, Richard Cervera apparently decided to hire a fine-dining chef who would perform the gastronomic equivalent of a Hail Mary pass: Convert the burger-and-wings crowd into foie gras eaters.

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/BL-BANKB-19536