Avenue Jack to close this month
Handsome Connecticut Avenue men's clothing store was known for elegant, eclectic items
Men’s clothing store Avenue Jack, located just south of Dupont Circle at 1300 Connecticut Ave. NW, announced it will close its doors in early 2017.
In an email sent to customers on Tuesday, owner Scott Wallis said his “experiment in upscale-casual men’s clothing is coming to an end soon…. We had an amazing run and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting a small, locally-owned business. [Business partner] Dale [Blades] and I certainly had a ball picking out our eclectic mix of casual clothes, accessories, and gifts, and I still believe we were on to something great. Heck, The Washington Post, the City Paper, Metro Weekly, Washingtonian, and many other publications agreed that we created something special. And so did you! And thank you so much for that.”
Wallis also noted the store wasn’t earning enough from sales to justify the rent costs of the Dupont Circle location.
“It all comes down to traffic,” Walls wrote. “While we enjoyed a brisk holiday business last month, it would be financially imprudent to wait to see if people eventually find us the rest of the year.”
Avenue Jack is holding a sale this week to help clear the shelves of merchandise, offering 30% off all items. Wallis encourages anyone interested in purchasing the store’s furniture, artwork and other non-clothing items to contact him.
“Again, I thank you for shopping with us,” Wallis concluded in the email. “I hope you’ll stop by and say goodbye in the next few weeks. Perhaps you have an exchange to make or have loyalty points or a gift certificate to use; as you can imagine, they expire when we do.
“Dennis, Dale, Alex, and I are on to new, exciting projects and we’ll all be seeing you very soon.”
Wallis, who writes mystery novels in his spare time, told Metro Weekly that he will finish a mystery novel he’s been working on. As for the actual closing day, Wallis points to the inventory on the shelves, with a good-natured laugh: “When all this shit’s gone.”
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