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It wasn't exactly the coolest place to be anymore; there was a streetscape that tore up the streets of 18th Street and a lot of people didn't want to mess with Adams Morgan, and in the meantime 14th and U became developed, not to mention H Street NE, said Allan Jirikowic, the owner of Chief Ike's Mambo Room.
The restaurant and bar first opened its doors in July 1992.
When this place first came out it was really funny, this was the best bar in Washington ... it was in the column in the Washington Post and the next year it was out, Jirikowic said. Now it has been declassified to a dive bar.
Much of the artwork inside the bar was created by those who also worked there.
You go in here and it's not gonna be like the rest of Washington, it's not gonna have anything to do with K Street or Capitol Hill or Georgetown or anything like that, Jirikowic said. Don't kid yourself, there has been a memorial for 25 years to Dwight D. Eisenhower in here, especially his speeches.
He said the bar has also had a few celebrity sightings, including George Clooney. But Chief Ike's Mambo Room wasn't your average bar; over the years it has held art classes upstairs, had string quartets playing on Sunday afternoons or blues penetrating through the walls, but business isn't what it used to be back in the good old days.
It's been very interesting with the different kinds of things that happened here, [and - often nothing happens here and, you know, nothing shall come of nothing and nothing does, Jirikowic said.
That's what's been happening lately, not much ... so, it's time to close the doors and pass it on to the next incarnation, he added.
Different events are planned each night this week leading up to the bar s final farewell on Saturday night.