H Street's First Fall Without the Streetcar Closes With Granville Moore's Last Night

The two things that defined H Street NE through its revival both end in 2026. The DC Streetcar made its last run on March 31. Granville Moore's opened in 2007, before the streetcar, and it serves its last moules frites at 1238 H Street on Saturday, October 31. The businesses opening this month are moving onto a street that has no settled layout yet. It is a concept drawing right now, and on November 30 Metro and DDOT will show their H Street layout concepts in person at an open house a block from where Granville Moore's is closing.

2026 on the Corridor, in Order

1. January 4. DDOT cut Sunday streetcar service and moved weekday and Saturday trains to 20-minute headways.
2. March 31. The streetcar's last day. It had run on a 2.2-mile line between Union Station and Benning Road since 2016.
3. May. Jerk at Nite closed its location at 1100 H Street.
4. August. Public engagement on the Gold Line bus rapid transit project started.
5. September 10. ANC 6A voted 5-0 to support a letter backing development of an H Street Business Improvement District.
6. October 10 to 17. 2AM Project soft-opened at 406 H, Stable reopened for the season, Jerk at Nite came back at 1224 H, and Lydia on H held its last night.
7. October 31. Granville Moore's closes.
8. November 30. Metro and DDOT hold a Gold Line open house at Atlas Performing Arts Center.

The Bars That Came Before the Tracks

Granville Moore's billed itself as "DC's Original Belgian Beer & Moules Frites Tavern." PoPville's closing notice lists it among the first places to bring life back to what it called a "pre-streetcar" H Street, alongside the Argonaut, Red and the Black, Palace of Wonders and Rock and Roll Hotel, all now closed. The Pug, next door, is still open. The restaurant has come close to the edge before. The owner of the Queen Vic took it over from Chef Teddy Folkman in 2017, and a feared closure in 2020 never happened. PoPville left open the chance of "another miracle."

Lydia on H, at 1427 H Street, closed two blocks east. According to PoPville, its owners said they chose not to renew when the lease ran out after five years. The final party was Saturday, October 17, and the restaurant continues at its Dupont location, 1215 Connecticut Avenue NW.

At the west end, a flood temporarily closed Solid State Books at 600 H Street. Its October 23 notice, shared by PoPville, said the store would likely be closed "for more than a week if not two." It is sending readers to its 14th Street store and to its membership program in the meantime.

What Opened Into the Gap

Two of the arrivals are built around late hours. 2AM Project came from Baltimore with what it calls "late-night favorites," and opened under a PoPville headline that read "All is not dark on H Street." As PoPville's report on its return recounts, Jerk at Nite started with a founder selling jerk chicken from his dorm room in Howard University's Drew Hall in 2012, because there was little to eat on campus after 10 p.m. Its new spot at 1224 H is a few doors from where Granville Moore's is closing. Stable's return is a seasonal reopening, which makes it the one fixed point on the table.

All of them are opening in front of streetcar stops with no trains. According to WAMU's reporting on the shutdown, DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum said a bus lane would mean removing the old tracks, and some streetcar stops might be reused. That is why there was no plan to take out much of the streetcar infrastructure right away. DDOT now directs former riders to Metrobus routes, including the D20.

The Street Being Drawn Under Them

The Gold Line project page, last updated October 23, describes dedicated center-running bus lanes on H Street and Benning Road NE, transit signal priority, accessible stations with near-level boarding, and all-door boarding. Phase 1 would run from the Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road Metro stations through H Street, the new RFK campus and Union Station, on to Gallery Place and Farragut Square. It would upgrade the D20 and D2X, which Metro says carry 16,000 trips a day, and add event-day service. The streetcar's line was 2.2 miles. Phase 1 would reach downtown, and Metro has described later extensions as far as Rosslyn.

The schedule is still years out:

• Now through 2026: public engagement on concepts
• Early 2027: preferred concept selected
• Summer 2028: construction begins
• Summer 2030: service begins, timed to the RFK stadium opening

So a business that signs a lease on H Street this fall will see the street dug up and rebuilt before its lease likely comes up again. The open question that matters most to storefronts is the curb. Metro's page says center lanes and stations "preserve curb space for deliveries, pick-ups, drop-offs, and parking." At a June planning session covered by HillRag, neighbors raised concerns about parking and curb access, and DDOT representatives acknowledged that some parking could be lost. The design is still a concept, so both statements are open.

The Gold Line also takes in an earlier plan. DDOT had designed curbside bus priority for H Street, including 24-hour transit lanes, signalized mid-block crossings and bus-stop bulb-outs. It built four modular platforms in fall 2025, then paused the lane work. The pieces that were never built will now be considered as part of Gold Line Phase 1.

Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the council's transportation committee, explained the stakes to WAMU on the day the streetcar stopped:

"It's got to be a bigger vision than just one segment or else we're just repeating the mistakes of the streetcar."

ANC 6A's October 19 transportation agenda included a draft resolution asking for a dedicated center-running Gold Line on H Street and Benning Road, with service every day and not only on stadium event days. The proposed BID would be the business side of the same reset. According to HillRag's report, a BID collects assessments from commercial property owners to pay for cleaning, marketing, events and business support. Commissioner Amber Gove noted that the organizers had attended a recent Gold Line briefing. H Street has no BID yet. What exists is formal support for creating one.

Halloween Weekend, Corridor to Market

Granville Moore's last night is also Halloween, which falls on a Saturday this year.

• Thursday, Oct. 29 through Saturday, Oct. 31: Deaf BIPOC Solo Shows III at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street.
• Friday, Oct. 30, 4 to 6 p.m.: Hill-O-Ween at Eastern Market. HillRag's listing describes free trick-or-treating at tables run by local businesses and nonprofits, plus games and activities, with food and drinks for sale.
• Friday, Oct. 30 through Sunday, Nov. 1: Labyrinth Games & Puzzles, 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, holds its costume contest during store hours, with community voting and a $50 gift card in each category.
• Saturday, Oct. 31, 5 to 9 p.m.: Capitol Hill's traditional trick-or-treating hours. HillRag's guide expects a bigger, later crowd because Halloween falls on a Saturday this year.
• Saturday, Oct. 31: Granville Moore's last day at 1238 H Street.

November 30 at the Atlas

Metro and DDOT will hold their in-person Gold Line open house on Monday, November 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE. Attendees can look at proposed street layouts for H Street and Benning Road, see where stations might go, and give feedback to the project team. Registration is through Metro's event page. The concepts on display there will lead to the preferred concept Metro plans to select in early 2027.

The Robert & Tyler Team follows changes like this block by block, from which storefronts turn over to how the street itself gets redrawn. If you live near H Street and want to know how the Gold Line plans or the corridor's recent turnover could affect your home, Robert & Tyler can walk you through it. Contact Us.