Foot traffic down at DC bar during snow slump, says icy street entrance doesn’t help

WASHINGTON (7News) — By now, you’ve likely noticed the giant piles of ice and snow still sitting around across the District.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said her team, along with outside contractors, is working around the clock to clean it up, though some still say the road and sidewalk conditions should have improved days ago.

7News is speaking with local businesses that are now feeling the negative impacts of the snowstorm.

“I mean, no one wants to walk through a bunch of ice and run the risk of slipping and falling,” Robert Thorburg, one of the managers at Barrel House Cafe & Bar, said. “You can see I’m standing on literally about half a foot of ice, solid ice.”

Barrel House is in the popular Logan Circle neighborhood on 14th Street Northwest. It’s a cafe by day and a bar by night.

“The nights were not doing shows, we’re just a neighborhood bar. People can come in and grab a quick drink. We have a late-night happy hour here on the weekends,” Thornburg said.

But ever since last week’s storm, happy hour hasn’t been so happy.

“No one came out during Monday or Tuesday when everything was happening. It was a challenge for people to get to work. People started to venture out again on Wednesday, but we still had to close early because we just didn’t have any foot traffic,” he explained.

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While it’s disappointing to lose business, he gets why people are staying in.

Mayor Bowser and city officials have said they’re doing their best to clean up the streets and get them back to normal.

7News spotted several trucks hauling snow out of the city Sunday evening.

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“Everyone’s impacted by it. Everyone’s trying to survive and get to work, or get their trash picked up, basic essentials that they need to survive,” Thornburg said.

Still, he said it never should’ve gotten this bad.

Get some people out here and get the streets cleaned up. I know they’re beefing up contracting work right now and trying to get that done, but businesses here we support the local economy. So you know, let’s get it done.