D.C.’s First Year-Round Halloween Bar Didn’t Make It Into the New Year

D.C.’s new Tim Burton-crazed restaurant and bar full of stuffed bats and glowing pumpkins has called it quits, just three months after opening on H Street NE.

The pop-up-turned-mini-chain in NYC and Hollywood posted a “Beetle House is closed for business,” message on its D.C. website, directing visitors to its other locations. Barred in DC spotted the closure this weekend.

The two-level kitschy ode to everything Halloween, tucked behind a dizzying black-and-white hallway (816 H Street NE), was lined with coffins, skulls jetting out of walls, and lamps supposedly made out of real human bones.

Its $50, three-course meal was full of dishes named after Tim Burton movies like Edward Burger Hands and “Corprese Bride” salad. Its upstairs club featured performances by fire dancers, sword eaters, and contortionists.

Tierney Plumb/Eater DC

Cocktails ($10-$15), complete with lots of billowing liquid nitrogen to set the spooky scene, included red punch in a blood bag.

Eater reached out to owner Zach Neil for comment on the closure. His plan is to open 10 Beetle House bars, with Las Vegas, Chicago, and Austin on his radar. Neil is also the man behind the short-lived Stay Classy Bar, a Will Ferrell-loving evening escapade, which had runs in LA and New York City. When Beetle House opened on H Street, Neil walked back remarks that he made to DCist about Washington being “mostly chains” and that “everything in D.C. kind of turns off at 7 o’clock at night.”

• Hollywood’s Latest Kitschy Theme Bar Is a Wonky Ode to All Things Tim Burton [ELA]
• Tim Burton-Themed Bar Beetle House to Open Later This Month [ENY]
• Guy Who Knows Nothing About D.C. Nightlife Opens a Year-Round Halloween Bar in D.C. [Updated]