Madam's Organ Blues Bar is a restaurant and

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

located at 2461 18th Street NW in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

's Adams Morgan neighborhood. A local landmark, the bar is popular for its nightly live music, especially blues and bluegrass. Regular performers include Bobby Parker, Ben Andrews,

Catfish Hodge Bobby Allen Hodge (born May 31, 1945), better known as Catfish Hodge, is an American blues musician. Early life and education Hodge was born and grew up in Detroit, Michigan, United States.Bob Perilla & Big Hillbilly Bluegrass. The bar offers

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

, has a rooftop deck and serves

soul food Soul food is an ethnic cuisine traditionally prepared and eaten by African Americans, originating in the Southern United States.Soul Food originated with the foods that were given to enslaved Black people by their white owners on Souther ...

. 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 bo ...

, son of

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

, and the late Soviet dissident artist Alexandr Zhdanov. Hungarian Ambassador

András Simonyi András Simonyi (born 16 May 1952) is a former Hungarian ambassador, transportation economist, author. He is an independent consultant living in the U.S. He is a senior fellow at the Global Energy Center Atlantic Council of the United States. He ...

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 The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the U ...

Michael Chertoff Michael Chertoff (born November 28, 1953) is an American attorney who was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security to serve under President George W. Bush. Chertoff also served for one additional day under President Barack Obama. ...

, and

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Ferenc Gyurcsány. > Barbara and

Jenna Bush Jenna Welch Bush Hager (born November 25, 1981) is an American news personality, author, and journalist. She is the co-host of ''Today with Hoda & Jenna'', the fourth hour of NBC's morning news program ''Today.'' Hager and her fraternal twin sist ...

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

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

and Stuff, and was featured on the

Wild On! ''Wild On!'' was a travel show that was produced from 1997 until 2003 by E!. Each episode followed a celebrity host as they experienced the food, culture, and nightlife of a certain region. Overview Sometimes referred to as ''Wild on E!''. The ...

travel series on E!.

History

In 1992, it opened as a blues 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 Charles Philip Lazarus (October 4, 1923 – March 22, 2018) was an American entrepreneur, executive, and pioneer within the retail toy industry. Lazarus founded the Toys "R" Us retail chain, which evolved from a children's furniture store he orig ...

in 1948 and later became the

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1957; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters loc ...

retail chain.

Controversy

Madam's Organ features a large outdoor

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

, which depicts "The Madam", the bar's burlesque 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.