Something is stirring drinks these days inside former location of Beirut Fine Lebanese Cuisine, which reopened last fall as Fig + Wasp Test Kitchen and then quickly closed again. Up & Down on Washington will be officially opening at 4105 Washington Ave. this Friday after a few weeks of soft operation in the upstairs of the space; whether the fig-wasp name was a deliberate nod to the creepy symbiotic relationship between the 2 components is unclear. Photo of 4105 Washington Ave: Kuehn Inc.
Rice Military Buzz
I need to setup a gofundme page for my new spot, it’s called “Restaurant + Bar”. Hope I can count on everyone for support.
Am I the only one that thinks this place is obviously some sort of illicit operation?
Never any cars, never any lights on, continued name changes…anyone have a guess as to what’s really going on?
I ate there when it first opened as Beirut. Food was good, prices were reasonable. But as far as I could tell they did no promotion whatsoever, and they had to contend with Maryz opening a similar restaurant almost right across the street. I think they were just inexperienced restaurateurs.
I believe you should actually go in and see for yourself before making accusations of things you have no idea what you’re talking about. Yes, it is a bar and no not every business succeeds. There’s no reason for them not re-brand if they see if of something not working.
The name game here has a common theme, which is to say words with a negative connotation. You say wasp and I picture an angry bug. You say Beirut and I picture a hell on earth, bombed out city. I do realize each word has a secondary social meaning, but not that many people are native sons of this country, and not that many people think it’s politically correct to call it anything but beer pong.
Perhaps to break the cycle, they can call it things that make people happy. Pizza. Dizney (intentionally spelled with a Z to avoid a lawsuit).
If the goal is for the next food/beverage joint to continue the cycle of negative & double-meaning words, while to also show respect to the history of this structure that dates back to 2005…I would submit the next name: Shingles
To ****, it might be easier to “go in” and “see for myself” if the place were ever actually open. There are never any lights on nor cars in the lot, at least not since sometime around the middle of its life as Beirut.
Looks much more like a great place to get jumped than it does to get buzzed.
I assume by the “no idea what you’re talking about” bit that you are somehow involved with whatever operation is going on there. I wish you all the best in your laundering business.
I ate there when it was in the later stages of its life as Beirut. The food was very good and a lot of money was put into the interior. Unfortunately there were only two other parties dining there in the middle of lunch, which is likely more symptomatic of why it ultimately failed. Lots of investment in the place without attracting the diners to support it, which is too bad. I think the parking situation is part of the problem (small lot on the site, bigger lot across Washington) and the exterior is not that inviting with the lack of windows (originally a night club). Maybe visible activity on the upper deck will help drive business. Wishing success here as this type of business is better for Washington than the likes of Laroux just down the street!
One of the owners is named as Mohammed Al-Ahmed. According to a Culturemap article from November of 2014 he was locked out of his previous restaurant down the street at Washington and Patterson called Polovina. Then he opened Beirut, then Fig and Wasp, now something else. All in the space of what? 18 months? Sort of surprised this guy is able to keep getting the capital to open new places with that many failures.