Brickskeller

The Brickskeller (officially The Brickskeller Dining House and Down Home Saloon) was a tavern in Washington, D.C., located near Dupont Circle across from Rock Creek Park and on the edge of Georgetown, in the Marifex Hotel (now the Brickskeller Inn) building. With over 1200 choices of bottled beer in the coolers, over a dozen keg beers and real ale in cask, the Brickskeller from its beginnings was the first restaurant ever to offer customers a beer list to introduce many thousands of beers to the city, the country and the continent.

Felix Coja, a young man from the French Mediterranean island of Corsica located west of the Italian Peninsula, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the Italian island of Sardinia, along with his bride Marie joined the many Corsican natives who emigrated to the Americas after World War I. Coja, a Cordon Bleu trained Master French chef, found work in Washington, D.C. at the Blackstone Hotel on 17th Street NW. Following a successful career at the Blackstone the couple purchased their own hotel property several blocks away near 22nd and P Street NW when they acquired The Robert Peter Inn. With its dominant commercial location in the bustling embassy area near Rock Creek Park they changed the property name to The Marifex Hotel. The Brickskeller restaurant was established in 1957 as a rathskeller-type eatery, by Felix and Marie. Later their son Maurice, along with his wife June, wound up developing the property extensively in the 1960s until 1982 when their daughter Diane and her husband former Brickskeller bartender Dave Alexander took over the daily operations. The Brickskeller therefore can be called a matriarchal corporation. Marie was the first president and Diane the last. The Alexanders ran the Brickskeller from 1982 until selling the building and moving all Brickskeller tastings and events to their new restaurant, RFD Washington at 810 7th Street NW. The original Brickskeller's official last night of operation was December 18, 2010.

Diane's grandfather Felix established a Washington import company, disassociating himself from the restaurant to start Wide World Imports. He was the first and original importer of such European beers like Cantillion, DeDolle, Schlenkerla Rauchbier and Scheidmantle – introducing the North American continent to these. He later invented one of the first computer-driven automatic bar machines which accurately measured and poured alcoholic beverages automatically for bars throughout the United States.

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