For 25 years, 33 Wine Shop & Bar has been an anchor in Lafayette Square’s business district. But with costs rising and revenue dropping, longtime owner James Smallwood feels like he has no choice: August 28 will be the last night of service before 33 closes for good.
“The costs were going through the roof,” Smallwood says. “We were dealing with death by a thousand cuts. And we realized, we just can’t do this anymore.”
Smallwood’s wife and co-owner, Jessica Spitzer, has also been working full time for 33 since 2020. She is heartbroken about closing a business they love. “People think a place like this is an institution, that it will always be there,” she says. “But if you don’t support it, it’s gone—and then you have nowhere to go.”…