Madam’s Organ Fined $500 for Open Window

(Updated at 3:29 p.m.) Popular Adams Morgan bar Madam’s Organ was fined $500 yesterday for leaving its windows open while a live band played there one year ago.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board said in an order released yesterday that the 18th Street hangout was being fined specifically for violating a settlement agreement brokered in 2008.

“The doors and windows of the establishment will remain closed from 12:30 a.m. until closing when live music is being played,” reads the original settlement agreement, which is also included in the order.

According to the report, an Alcohol Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) inspector personally observed a live band playing “directly in front of one of the establishment’s ground floor windows” between 1:30 and 1:33 a.m. on June 22, 2014.

In April, Madam’s Organ General Manager Carlos Wilcox testified at an ABRA hearing that he “personally closed the windows during the performers’ first break of the night,” and that the band’s drummer “needed air and cracked a window.”

Madam’s Organ owner Bill Duggan admits the drummer did crack open the window slightly. Why?

“He opened the window to let [a] fart out,” Duggan said. “He cracked it open for five minutes, then the inspector showed up.”

“Twenty f—–g years with not one violation and this is what they came up with,” Duggan says. “People get stabbed and shot in these other establishments. In ours, someone farts and cracks a window and they spend a year on it.”

According to the order, Madam’s Organ has 30 days to pay the fine, but Duggan says an appeal may be in the works.

Photo via Flickr/Adam Fagen