(Image: The Rhino Room)

(Image: The Rhino Room)

The Rhino Room has had quite a Capitol Hill life in its years on 11th Ave. The neighbors used to be The Stranger and a Value Village. Then a WeWork and national golf bar chain moved in. The alt weekly moved out. In that lifetime, the WeWork has gone bankrupt and closed. Tough skin.

The party is still going strong at the “Booze and Boogie Palace” as the Rhino Room marks a decade on Capitol Hill this spring. The club might be in its toughest, leanest form, sparking to life and sending its disco ball spinning only two nights a week. But they are two nights of very big fun.

Patric Gabre-Kidan, still part of the ownership today, hasn’t had much to say over the years at Rhino as the venue has endured waves of Pike/Pine redevelopment and the weeks of CHOP and SPD turmoil in the streets outside the club in 2020.

“I’ve been out of town the past week. Just landed moments ago. What can I say? It’s been a great 10 years,” Gabre-Kidan told CHS.

Gabre-Kidan, one of the few Black business owners in Capitol Hill’s nightlife scene, kicked off the project in 2013, when a group of friends turned business partners collaborated to build the new hotspot. The company’s name was Big Fun. The Big Fun concept was in fact, to have no concept at all.

That changed quickly as the Rhino Room’s style took shape. Gabre-Kidan is a food and drink entrepreneur who assisted with the creation of The Book Bindery, Anchovies and Olives, How to Cook a Wolf and Tavolata. After working in the restaurant design and contractor business, Gabre-Kidan pursued a pathway that led him towards the Rhino.

The inspiration for the name came from rummage found by one of the owners.

There has been growth. In 2018, CHS reported on the Now or Never debut, the Rhino Room’s sister bar that operates in the basement beneath the club.

There has also been optimization. Gabre-Kidan along with co-owners Jonathan Bishop and Jacob Mihailides keep things lean and mean at the Rhino Room. The venue is only open on the dark of Friday and Saturday nights with an occasional daytime rental shining sunlight on the deco interior.

A rare daytime glimpse (Image: The Rhino Room)

As it reaches the ten-year milestone, the Rhino Room has lived long enough to welcome a new generation of Capitol Hill dance clubs. CHS reported here on the late 2023 debuts of E Pike’s Cultura and the new Massive that has taken over the former R Place building.

Meanwhile, the Rhino Room’s part of the neighborhood has changed. The Stranger, formerly above the Rhino Room in the historic White Motor Company building at the corner of 11th and Pine they called home, moved out. Value Village is gone. Even the Capitol Hill WeWork came and went in the Rhino Room’s lifetime.

The Rhino Room’s terra cotta-faced building endures. CHS reported here in 2022 on efforts from property owner Legacy Commercial to upgrade the old building under the city’s preservation guidelines in hopes of attracting new office tenants above the Rhino Room. Those office floors still sit empty.

The Rhino Room? Its life is still full and loud and fun ten years later — every Friday and Saturday night, at least.

The Rhino Room is located at 1135 11th Ave.

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