After 11 years of pizza, beer and pho, owner Hien Bui is serving customers at the Froggy Bottom Pub something new – a promise the GW landmark will stick around.
The University announced last week that after Kaiser Permanente vacates its 2100 W Pennsylvania Ave. space next October, GW will take steps toward renovating that building and the townhouses lining the street to create one large, sleek office building. But Bui said since the passage of GW’s 20-year campus plan in 2007 that outlined Froggy’s spot for redevelopment, she knew her family business was hanging on a thread.
Bui said she and her husband have been searching for a new home for the 26-year-old college bar within walking distance of the Foggy Bottom Campus and hope to relocate just a few blocks away. The Buis borrowed funds from friends and took out a loan on their home to buy Froggy in 1999 with less than $10,000 in their savings account.
Without Froggy, Bui – a vibrant Vietnamese woman who routinely chats up regulars – said students would miss out on a traditional college pub experience. But if she finds a different space, the new eatery would be nearly identical to the classic pub and she would continue looking after students.
“I take care of them like their own mother,” Bui said. “I do not take crap from you guys.”
The restaurant with cheap beer and a large, colorful hand-painted frog spread across the wall has become a facet of campus culture.
“It’s like our 'Cheers,' ” sophomore Robbie Romo said. “It’s almost like losing a piece of GW’s soul.”
Romo, who eats at Froggy about every other week, said the eatery is a destination he would have brought his kids to in 20 years.
Customers poured into the restaurant over the past few days, asking Bui to confirm the news that Froggy will board up. Alumni approached her on the street, she said, looking like they were about to attend a funeral.
“They all freak out,” she said, adding that she is unsure when Froggy would officially close, but the University estimated the building would be torn down in early 2014. The lease with the University ends in the spring.
Froggy saw a small slump in sales this fall after multiple eateries opened their doors at The Avenue, Bui said, attributing the temporary drop to students’ desire to try out the new shops. But after a few weeks, sales returned to normal.
“Everybody tried, and everybody came back,” she said.
Kelsey Heinze, a 2009 graduate, said she and her boyfriend of three-and-a-half years had their first date at Froggy. Unsure of when the joint would shut down, they visited last Friday night and bought the pub’s signature glasses as mementos.
“Of course it’s going to be sad that Froggy isn’t going to be there with its green awning on Pennsylvania Avenue, but it’s definitely going to be a place that’s remembered by past and current students,” she said.
Calling the pub an “institution” on campus, Heinze said the eatery never disappoints.
Bui, who said forging a home away from home for students is one of her goals, consoles her faithful customers by saying she is still around for at least the next two or so years.
“The most wonderful thing is that I enjoy to see you mature and become grown-ups,” she said. “They always come back. They bring their wife. They bring their children. To me, it’s a reward.”
So their gonna take away some of the only local places to eat on campus and give us a “sleek new office building.” Fuck this urban yuppie factory. GW has got no culture.
And when Henry’s closed people said the same thing and guess what, students found new places to find cheap beer. Kids have no sense of history or that anything came before them. The Lion closing would be more of a shot to the “GW culture”.
Agree with Rock – loved the Red Lion when I was there in the early ’90s – and besides, change is our only constant. Add Froggy to your college memory file, and then move on to the next favorite place.
“Kids have no sense of history or that anything came before them.” stfu troll. I guess according to you I should do a little more research before I can voice my frustration about how froggy ( A bar I connected with) is being torn down for more “non-tuition” revenue.
Every time GW bulldozes an establishment like this, it becomes less and less likely that I will ever donate money. Sorry, but you can’t keep destroying the things that made the campus special and expect alums to still feel that nostalgic connection that drives us to give. It’s like the university actively tries to destroy its own identity in exchange for shiny, generic buildings manufactured by the lowest bidder.
Amen.
#onlyatgw
Agreed. After being in so much debt because of GW, it was already unlikely that I’d be donating, especially anytime soon. But as they continue to take away from small businesses that made up the GW atmosphere for more needless construction, it makes it more and more unlikely to happen.
Sorry GW, you’ve robbed me enough.
Peace Love Froggy.
Hilarious that they’re also rolling out this strength in numbers campaign to try and get young alums to donate right now. Great job on PR GW; I’m sure alums can’t wait to give you money while finding out you’re tearing down one of the only good parts of your crappy school.
I am fairly confident that my friends and I are the only ones ever to be cutoff at FBP, thus I would like to take this opportunity to express that this is a terrible, terrible tragedy. Tragedy is excessive, but seriously, F you GW. And most of all, F you, Sean Kingston.
best post ever created
The substance (and grammar) of some of the comments is a great indicator of the type of education GW provides.
Fuck you, too.
Amen
Do educated people not use four-letter words? I’m pretty sure we do.
We’re just passionate about our school. Those of us who spent four years (or six plus for those of us who have been attending graduate school here as well) feel an attachment that might cause us to feel a bit agitated.
Did that sound a bit more “educated” to you?
Oh yeah, and fuck you for coming onto our college paper and judging us.
For a University so obsessed with fostering a community you would think they would save a place that the community congregates at. Instead, you get contrived picture-friendly PR events like bonfires and service days. GW doesn’t need programming it needs the administration to just leave it alone and let it grow on its own.
why, why, WHYYY would anyone quote romo?!
Jokes aside, the University is missing the point. People come to GW for academics but also because it has some semblance of a traditional college atmosphere, with places that students can go to hang out and have fun. Froggy is one of those places. Getting rid of the few non-manufactured places to go is short-sighted.
Perfect location would be the former site of The Fishbowl / DJ’s Fastbreak. GW should sell it to them.
GWU doesn’t sell property… and I agree with Rock above, they tear down everything and anything that students feel an affinity to. I’ve told them repeatedly that I will not be donating (especially not when tuition is at $50k a year). Love the Lion hope it continues strong!
The only cheap place for beer and GW is destroying it. Thanks for making this overpriced yuppie school even more expensive.
OCCUPY FROGGY!
All you have to do is look across Pennsylvania Ave. to see what developers do. Across from the Froggy used to be a townhouse row with bars (21st Amendment- the Best!) restaurants and a movie theater (the Circle). Now what does the community have?A bland faceless building where people go to work and leave after work hours. Dead. I see the same coming for the south side of Pennsylvania Ave.
The 21st was the best. Rooms upstairs holy shit! Don’t forget Gillies for the cheapest spirits in the USA. It’s ok you still have the Bone!!!!
One of the few family owned and operated left in the area and now they are scheduled to be replaced by a “large, sleek office building” (read corporate giants). Froggy Bottom has been a home away from home for so many and the Bui’s have been supportive of students, veterans and those in need for over 11 years.
Where is our conscience, our gratitude and sense of community support?
I dropped out of the shitty place called Georgetown wait oat and eventually went to a real college. GDOUBLEU sucks
If GW continues to destroy the neighborhood, at least they should renovate the block the way they did (that is,were forced to) on Lion row, leaving the townhouses in front with the sleek building behind.
One of the few places that felt like home at GW, and it’s being demolished. Welcome to GW where everybody knows your tax ID and donor number, and nobody’s glad you came… SJT and Knapp are both at fault for turning GW into a for-profit factory for overvalued degrees which disregards basic student needs.
First the jedi at WOW, now the best server ever at Froggy. GWU is killing the food service business one wait staff member at the time!
Don’t equate Froggy to WOW. WOW was disgusting! Talk about diarrhea…
The real story here is the closing of Mehran’s.
WHAT?? So is that whole set of restaurants closing too (Panda, Thai Place, Mehran, Froggy)??
Please don’t tell me Mehran will be gone…
The closing of the four restaurants on Penn is really no big deal. The lease is running out on a couple other places around campus that will have a far bigger impact on the GW community.
Such as…
DON’T TELL ME CONE E. ISLAND IS LEAVING!!!
Friday’s can take a hike, that place has sucked since 1999.
Mid 90′s we had Tower anchoring both sides of 2000 Penn (Music on 21st and Video on 20th), Bertucci’s which is nice, and the first Au Bon Pain that I ever ate at (and they took points). A small overpriced Gap too. And public bathrooms that my friends and I used more than once on a weekend night. The Red Lion was kind of dormant for a while- just Lindy’s downstairs- and in 1995 or so reopened as the multi-level tavern we know and love.
That “townhouse row” had Henry’s for sure- including its weird reincarnataion as a “club” and then as a speakeasy upstairs when it became something else (Petra?) Next door was Treviso, which cooked for Henry’s, owned by the same guys. The Froggy Bottom Pub has been schizophrenically named- the first floor was Milo’s (pizza, casual Italian, pizza bar too)for a while with Froggy Bottom downstairs. Then Milo’s closed and Froggy Bottom took over. At one I heard before Milo’s the whole place was Froggy Bottom as well. At some point, 96-97 it had a $10 or $15 “all you can drink” night on Saturday or Sunday with a DJ. It was just this side of legal- or maybe like the mysterious speakeasy on top of Petra- it wasn’t- but it was sure as hell fun. And you know we took advantage of the “all you can drink”. I would not want to clean that bathroom on Sunday morning.
I think I’ve hanged myself enough here. And we haven’t even gotten to other late, great places like Flick’s and Tequila Grill nearby in the West End,and Cafe Babalu in Georgetown.
So GW’s plan to build a sense of community and campus identity is to continue to destroy those places that provided it (DJs, Froggy, etc)? The students will adapt and move on, but I really don’t want to hear another administrator talk about building a campus community, and I dont want another phone call asking for money.
As much as I like the new restaurants on The Avenue, they will never EVER be Froggy. This is truly a shame.