Economic benefits of restaurants: Buffalo Billiards, Dupont Circle, Washington, DC

Apparently, the building on New Hampshire Avenue in Dupont Circle where Buffalo Billiards and the Front Page restaurants are located was sold to WeWork, and WeWork didn't renew the leases of the resident restaurants.

Buffalo Billiards was there for 25years; the Front Page 32 years (Disclosure: I worked at the Front Page in the past).  (Given that I love newspapers, the fact that the Front Page had many newspaper front pages posted on the walls was a cool feature.)

Buffalo Billiards was a basement-located billiard parlor and bar.

It impressed me because they figured out how to make an otherwise marginal space--how many successful restaurants are below grade in major cities?--quite successful, and they probably were able to do it at a rent rate much less than what businesses pay for ground level space.

As part of their closing events, they produced a banner which among other things listed how much rent they paid; how much sales taxes; and how much was earned in tips.

They could have also included how much wages paid out; income taxes; and property taxes if they paid towards that.

(That being said, I still don't think bar crawls are necessarily a good thing from a public space management perspective.)

	Value
Rent	$8,034,563.90
Sales Taxes	$8,364,339.59
Tips (wages)	$13,083,784.00