GV Hurley's

Jennifer and I decided to check out the new restaurant on J Street last week. GV Hurley's doesn't even have a sign up, but it's easily recognized by the enormous crowd inside. The block on J where GV Hurley's has set up shop has really become one of the happening places in Midtown. By the time a new pizza place opens up in the space that used to occupy the coffee shop the Grind (which is really sad that it closed, it was great for a post-yoga lunch) there will be 7 restaurants, bars, or clubs in that one block.
More on that in a sec. Our first trip to GV Hurley's was spent on their lovely front patio. The restaurant itself is truly beautiful, although clearly is needed a little more organization. The hostess basically ignored us, then forgot to bring us menus. Our server was very nice, but somehow got stuck looking for the cucumbers for my drink himself, and as a result it took us nearly 20 minutes to get our drinks. (This was after a lengthy wait to order them in the first place.) The free bread was tasty though, our view was lovely, and the drinks were delish, even if we had to practically take out a loan to pay for them. I highly recommend the "Cool As a Cucumber", lack of cucumbers conveniently on hand or not.
I returned with Mindy the next Friday, thinking it would be a good place to start our night. I really wanted to see the back patio, which I had missed completely the other night I was there. The patio is beautiful, and on a really chilly night, they had heat lamps and a fire going. It was pretty nice.
"Pretty nice" is really the only way I can describe it. While beautiful, the restaurant's clientele is older, and male. And while this may be a good thing for some ladies out there, it wasn't the friendly crowd that welcomes people and allows them to meet each other. It's also pretty expensive--even for this block. If somebody else was paying, I might go back for dinner.
I think part of the reason the crowd is so subdued is that the restaurant itself wants to project this type of image--not necessarily for the type of clientele that they are pursuing, but the keep their liquor license. I did a little research on the opening of the restaurant, and found that the city has placed some pretty tight restrictions on their hours and the amount of people they can have outside. This is all because of the neighbors who have complained about the noise level on this block. I empathise to an extent--I live only 7 blocks away and my street can get pretty noisy even without bars nearby. But I also understand that I live in Midtown, in a developing urban community. It's silly to think there wouldn't be noise. Do people live in San Francisco and expect there to be no noise? Move to East Sac, or Land Park, and stop complaining, or standing in the way of those who want to grow our community and turn it into the world-class city that we all imagine. I hate to say it, but that just can't happen unless us "youngsters" have a place to hang out.
And I can pretty much guarantee you it won't be at GV Hurley's, although I'll keep going to Harlow's, cranky neighbors or not.