Fran O'Brien's Restaurant Being Evicted?!

This just in from Andi, at Andi's World:

April 12, 2006

Save Fran O'Brien's

This afternoon I, along with several other bloggers, received an email from Buzz Patterson informing us that Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steak House, a Washington DC restaurant, is being evicted at the end of April. Why does this matter, you ask? Well, each Friday night for the past two and a half years, Fran O'Brien's has hosted and fed our wounded troops and their families. Restaurant owners Marty and Hal graciously provide a brief respite for our heroes, something that they look forward to and enjoy.
You may recall, from my numerous posts on the counter-demonstrations of Code Pink at Walter Reed, that a bus carrying our wounded troops always makes an appearance. That bus is bringing our troops back from dinner at Fran O'Brien's.

Time to swing into action and help these fabulous people who have helped our wounded heroes week after week after week.

Greyhawk said it best, MAYDAY! MAYDAY!! MAYDAY!!!

Folks,
Marty and Hal need our help. For over six months they have been asking the Hilton Management for the terms for renewal of their lease. For over 5 months they were told not to worry they would have the renewal lease in a few weeks. About a month ago the Hilton folks stopped responding to their emails and voice messages for a status report and last week Hal and Marty received a one page eviction notice. No explanation was given. We suspect that at least part of the reason is the Friday night dinner Hal and Marty have been hosting for the last two and a half years. It may be that the Hilton folks are concerned about the increased liability of having so many severely injured and disabled soldiers in their basement each Friday (several have taken falls on the steep stairs at the entrance to Fran's (but no law suits or problems have ensued). It may be that there is very limited and problematic wheelchair access to the restaurant (although no ADA complaints have been filed). The truth is that we don't know for sure but what we do know is that this is unfair. Unless we can change the minds of the folks at the Hilton Hotel Fran's will be out of business on May 1st and we will not have any place to hold our Friday night dinner for the injured soldiers and marines of Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospitals. If you are so inclined I would like to ask you to call and/or email the following two officials at the Hilton and voice your support for Hal and Marty and express your concern for the reasoning behind this seemingly arbitrary decision. Please call them tomorrow or Friday and feel free to share this with anyone else who might be willing to call.

Here are the people to call:

*Dan Boyle (212) 838-1558
daniel_a_boyle@hilton.com
Brian Kellaher (202) 393-1000*

Andi ends her entry with this:

I called Fran O'Brien's this evening, but Hal, one of the owners, was in a meeting and has yet to call me back. I'm hoping to speak to him about this. Looks like it's time to introduce the Hiltons to the Milblogs. You know what to do.