(Updated at noon) Clarendon sports bar Mister Days is closing next week, according to owner Robert E. Lee.
Furniture, fixtures, and some equipment were sold Thursday morning to Arlington chef Patrick Crump of the Clarendon Grill, which closed in October after 22 years in business.
Mister Days will close on April 12 or 13, Lee said, but before that happens there will several parties.
“A series of the last days of Days,” he said.
Crump is expected to open a new restaurant called “The Grill on Highland” in the space within the next two months, Lee told ARLnow.
Mister Days has been a favorite stop for local office workers, weekend partiers, pub trivia contestants, college students and sports fans for almost half a century and has served Hollywood stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and hosted performances by Mary Chapin Carpenter, according to Lee.
Lee is subletting the space to the new group, but says he’s keeping the “Mister Days” brand name in case he wants to sell it or open another establishment.
“The name comes from the fact we were only open [during] daytime or happy hours,” he said. “Maybe something like that works.”
Lee, who’s turning 80 this year, cited ongoing health issues as a reason for closing the bar and said the decision had nothing to do with rent costs.
He asked patrons to keep an eye on the Mister Days website, which will post details tomorrow about next week’s going away parties.
The bar celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017.
It first opened in the Dupont Circle area of D.C. in 1977, then moved to Georgetown, finally settling in Arlington in 2001 as it grew from an alley pub to a community institution.
Lee previously said he was weighing whether to invest in renovations or retire.
“Forty-three years is a lot of history,” he said Thursday.
— Mister Days (@MisterDays) April 4, 2019