Eric Hilton: North Capitol Street -- the next It neighborhood

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Note the DC neighborhood where Eric Hilton is the next place where all the cool kids will be headed -- North Capitol Street.

Reliable Source

5 Minutes with Eric Hilton

By Helena Andrews October 15

       

You can certainly call him the long-reigning king of the District’s once-barren restaurant slash lounge scene. But he probably won’t like that. Humble despite his cred, Eric Hilton, owner of countless haunts around town (Eighteenth Street Lounge, Marvin, the Gibson, Patty Boom Boom, El Rey, Chez Billy, etc.), doesn’t hold court so much as he just hangs out at the opening of yet another restaurant on Tuesday night. At Chez Billy Sud, the new casual French spot from Hilton (and his team, he points out), the restaurateur slides into an open chair almost unnoticed by the Georgetown scenesters sipping on the free champagne. For the next five minutes, the 48-year-old talks about staying busy (easy), living in a formerly abandoned building (fun) and that whole “D.C. is the most expensive city ever” thing (ridiculous).

You have more than a half a dozen restaurants but said recently that you wanted to be busier. Is that even possible?

It’s hard. There are probably too many restaurants in D.C. I think. But at least we didn’t open a new one because one closed [Cafe La Ruche] and we opened one in the space [Chez Billy Sud]. That’s a no net gain.

Georgetown seems like, I don’t want to say odd, but a different choice for you and your brother-business partner Ian. 

It’s just so strange to open a place in Georgetown for us that it’s actually really cool. It’s a great challenge. Chez Billy Sud will be a casual fine dining restaurant and that seems to suit what’s going on in Georgetown at the moment. It’s not the Georgetown of the ’80s with the wall-to-wall people on the sidewalks and big traffic jams on the weekends. It’s a quiet neighborhood. Perhaps a little too quiet.

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From 14th Street to U Street, you’ve got an eye for spotting the next it neighborhood before everyone else does. Where are all the cool kids headed next?

North Capitol. I’m just throwing it out there for anybody who’ll listen. I see a lot of empty storefronts and I think it’s got a lot of potential.

So, Chez Billy Nord?

I think we gotta chill for a while and do what we do and just enjoy running places.
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