Madam's Organ Blues Bar is a restaurant and nightclub located at 2461 18th Street NW in Washington, D.C.'s

Adams Morgan Adams Morgan is a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., centered at the intersection of 18th Street NW and Columbia Road, about 1.5 miles (2.54 km) north of the White House. Notable establishments in the neighborhood include the ...

neighborhood. A local landmark, the bar is popular for its nightly live music, especially

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and bluegrass. Regular performers include Bobby Parker, Ben Andrews, Catfish Hodge, and Bob Perilla & Big Hillbilly Bluegrass. The bar offers billiards, has a rooftop deck and serves soul food. Notable regular patrons have included

Euan Blair Euan Anthony Blair (born 19 January 1984) is the co-founder and chief executive of the apprenticeships company Multiverse. He is the eldest son of the former British prime minister Sir Tony Blair and lawyer Cherie Blair. Early life Blair was b ...

, son of Tony Blair, and the late Soviet dissident artist

Alexandr Zhdanov Alexandr Pavlovich Zhdanov (russian: Александр Павлович Жданов; 11 January 1938 – 18 July 2006) was a Russian avant-garde painter. Biography He was born in Vyoshenskaya, Soviet Union. Zhdanov was expelled four times f ...

. Hungarian Ambassador András Simonyi was not only a regular patron but also performed with his band "Coalition of the Willing" for his Washington Diplomatic farewell party attended by a Washington A-list including European diplomats, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and Prime Minister

Ferenc Gyurcsány Ferenc Gyurcsány (; born 4 June 1961) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009. Prior to that, he held the position of Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports between 2003 and 2004. He ...

. >

Barbara Barbara may refer to: People * Barbara (given name) * Barbara (painter) (1915–2002), pseudonym of Olga Biglieri, Italian futurist painter * Barbara (singer) (1930–1997), French singer * Barbara Popović (born 2000), also known mononymously as ...

and Jenna Bush have also been spotted there. Madam's Organ was described as a favored hangout by Playboy and

Stuff Stuff, stuffed, and stuffing may refer to: *Physical matter *General, unspecific things, or entities Arts, media, and entertainment Books *''Stuff'' (1997), a novel by Joseph Connolly (author), Joseph Connolly *''Stuff'' (2005), a book by Jere ...

, and was featured on the Wild On! travel series on E!.

History

In 1992, it opened as a

and bluegrass bar. Madam's Organ moved to its present location in 1997, after a temporary closure. This location once housed the original Children's Supermart store, which was opened by Charles Lazarus in 1948 and later became the Toys "R" Us retail chain.

Controversy

Madam's Organ features a large outdoor mural, which depicts "The Madam", the bar's

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

mascot. The bar's owner, Bill Duggan, says he commissioned the mural as an artwork, but the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs ruled it an advertisement because it includes the name of the establishment. In court, the owner refused to remove the wording from the breasts, claiming that to do so would only further expose 9' by 13' breasts. Since Madam's Organ did not have a permit for the mural, the bar owner was fined. The case remains in the Court of Appeals.

References

External links

Madam's Organ official site
{{Restaurants in Washington, D.C. Music venues in Washington, D.C. Madam's Organ Adams Morgan Restaurants in Washington, D.C.