Cue the Casbah

Mar 25, 2010

Solo at the Monti storytelling event the other night, I perched myself at the end of the Alivia’s bar and ordered a pint of Fat Tire amber ale. As the restaurant filled up, Monti director Jeff Polish came by to chat about the successful science-themed Monti event he had hosted in January in conjunction with ScienceOnline2010. We also talked about a few other ideas for storytelling collaborations possible in the coming years.

As Jeff left to chat up other guests — my friend Scott Huler was there with his wife, June Spence; Scott was one of the featured storytellers, and rocked just as much as he did at the science night — he introduced me to Jana Bradley, who had found two stools in the back and claimed the very end of the bar next to me. No sooner had I started to pepper Jana with questions then I noticed her husband was on the other side of the bar, personally serving her her drink.

“What, does he think he owns the place?” I wish I had asked. Instead, I bumbled out some question about him being a server or something. Because, um, Fergus does own the place, along with the Federal and the James Joyce Pub next door.

Anyway, Jana and I had a delightful conversation, about rabbits and rugby, Canada and Georgetown’s international policy program, and more. In the course of that, she mentioned that she and Fergus are soon to open another space in the Brightleaf District, called Casbah. That’s to be a bar and performance space, with a stage and full sound and lighting, and room for 300 revelers. It’ll also have a beer engine (although, in full disclosure, I had to look up beer engine on Wikipedia). With permit in hand, Casbah is under construction and should open at 1007 West Main Street by late summer 2010, Jana tells me.

As I enter my decade of narrative, I’m already thinking of events I could host there. So, who knows, maybe Casbah will be the perfect place for the annual BlogTogether bash. Stay tuned.

Anton Zuiker ☄