Death and Life of Great Keith McNally Restaurants

On a recent Friday evening, I met a friend at the Lucy Mercer Bar, the upstairs lounge of Minetta Tavern, which opened last year in Washington, D.C.’s Union Market neighborhood. The lounge, named for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s reported mistress, is resplendent in its décor. Its Victorian trappings, alluring paintings, and soft lighting evoke a fantasy. In the corner sat its owner, renowned restaurateur Keith McNally, who twice queued up Roxy Music’s “Avalon” from his iPad. The song matched the late-night mood. One could not help but wonder if a hooded falcon, right out of the band’s elegant 1982 music video, was perched at the bar.