Keeping Nathan's.. For Now : K Street Magazine

For over a year now, Carol Joynt has wondered when she would get the boot. Her beloved Nathans, at the “best corner of the most important city in the world” has been holding on for 40 years, but is constantly threatened with closure. Carol rents the space, and for some reason someone wants to replace the decades of backroom dining and people watching at the historic bar with yet another uninteresting middle-class clothing chain.

You may know it best as the place that holds regular luncheon interviews with some of the most interesting people to pass through DC (that would be Carol’s Q & A Cafe), or perhaps Nathans has been for you what it has been for us… a local Cheers-type watering hole.

Well, today was yet another day that Carol did NOT get the boot. In fact, today she reported that “after many months of rumors, speculation, suspense and negotiations, I have signed a lease extension with Nathans landlords.” So we’ll keep the neighborhood gem for a while yet. but even as Carol rejoices, she reminds us to “use it or lose it. If business doesn’t pick up, my options evaporate, and shockingly fast.”