Cigar Weekly

The Washington Post

Ron Wright spent three years searching for the right locale to open the high-end cigar store and cocktail lounge he had dreamed of before he finally renovated a worn Florida Avenue rowhouse in Northeast Washington.

The location, on the southern edge of Trinidad's crime-scarred streets, seemed risky. But Wright had a unique perspective on the area, and he saw hope where many did not. For the past four years, he has patrolled the area as a D.C. police lieutenant.

Across town in Southeast, a former colleague of Wright's, Master Patrol Officer Clarence "C.J." Jackson, chose an equally troubled area in which to invest his money and off-duty hours. Later this month, he plans to open an IHOP in the Congress Heights area of Southeast. The pancake house will be Ward 8's first sit-down franchise restaurant, he said.

In mirror endeavors, the two officers are investing in the neighborhoods they have sworn to protect, at a time when the city's development boom is bringing major changes to the streets they patrol. In starting their own businesses, they are expanding the traditional notion of police officers moonlighting as security guards, looking both to maintain the gains the neighborhoods have made and to profit from them.

"What I got from C.J. was inspiration to be an entrepreneur," Wright said of Jackson, who has been buying properties in the District with his relatives for 15 years. The officers worked together several years ago in the 7th Police District in Southeast, where they first talked about owning their own businesses.

"I love my government job, and he does too, but there's still something else," said Wright, 39. "Both of these communities can use [businesses] like ours."

Wright, who supervises patrol officers just east of North Capitol Street and Florida Avenue NE, had watched as abandoned rowhouses along nearby H Street NE were transformed into shops and bars. In just a couple of years, the corridor has become a nightlife hub.

"I was thinking, 'Man, there's got to be something I can do. I want to do my thing,' " Wright said.

Fifteen years after backing out of a deal to open a sandwich shop, Wright tried again in December, opening Capitol Hill Premium Cigars and Tobacco, a store and members-only lounge.

When the 16-year police veteran is off the beat, he sells cigars in a two-story rowhouse in the 1000 block of Florida Avenue NE and rents humidors for up to $450 a year. When he is on patrol, his wife, Melvenia, or his parents guide customers through boxes of flavored cigars from around the world.

In a back room, a barber plies his trade, and a tailor is on-site every Friday. The business comes across as "a gentleman's place" catering to African Americans, just as Wright imagined it.

Upstairs, customers gather against the soft orange walls of the lounge to smoke, have a drink and chat.

"I just sit back, relax and just let stuff blow away," Lewis Ligon, 52, said as he gripped the stub of a Dominican cigar. Ligon has four humidors at his Charles County home but spends a few nights a week at Wright's lounge on the way home from his federal government job.

Customer Gordon Keith Payne, a D.C. police officer, did not know Wright before checking out the cigar store shortly after it opened. He often sticks around the lounge so long that he has earned the moniker "the night manager."

The lounge "is like having your own basement," he said.

"With a really good bar," added Pamela Leftrich, a lawyer, as she enjoyed a mild Montecristo White cigar.

On the east side of the city, Jackson was so confident that crime has lessened that he and his relatives did not hesitate to invest in the IHOP. In all, private investors have committed about $3 million to the project, he said.

When Jackson started walking the beat 20 years ago, people in high-rise developments were known to throw rocks at officers. When he parked his car to respond to a radio call, a second patrol car had to be called to keep the first from being stolen.

Today, Jackson notes, there are three banks, a new Giant supermarket and several recently built townhouse communities within blocks of the IHOP site in the 1500 block of Alabama Avenue SE.

"We could have gone anywhere in this city. We wanted to come here," Jackson said. The restaurant is the first of three the family plans to open in the city.

Crime is still a major concern around Congress Heights, and the 7th District is still a city leader in violent crime statistics. But Jackson believes in the changes he has witnessed.

"People can stereotype, but we're trying to let them know it's not like" what they think, he said. "They are afraid because of the stigma the neighborhood brings."

Jackson, 44, still enjoys police work and his connection to Southeast, a link born of his father's childhood in the now-demolished Frederick Douglass Dwellings.

He said he wants to give residents a sit-down restaurant; the area "has enough liquor stores." He plans to print cards with black-history facts for patrons to read as they wait for a table. About 60 percent of the eatery's 150 employees live in Ward 8, he said.

"I think [the restaurant] is good for the community," resident Arthur Owens, 59, a retired tractor operator for the National Park Service, said as he walked in front of the construction site one recent day. "This is the first of its kind around here."

But resident Andre Dyer, 37, said the business is just another enterprise designed to make money for its owners rather than improve the neighborhood.

Dyer, a school maintenance worker, said he worries that the restaurant could attract customers from neighborhoods whose residents often consider themselves rivals.

"They're going to fight," Dyer said. "If we don't have enough police in here, it's going to cause problems at night."

Jackson plans to hire off-duty police officers and install security cameras. He'll also put out the word that he is a police officer.

Police officials are aware of the potential for conflicts of interest.

Officers' off-duty jobs can be "a tricky situation," said Assistant Chief Peter Newsham, head of the department's Office of Professional Responsibility.

On the positive side, officers who run businesses are literally taking ownership of the areas they serve. But the department runs the risk of perceptions of preferential treatment and uneven policing, he said.

As long as the business is not in the officer's specific patrol area -- Wright and Jackson fit this -- "we probably won't have a problem," Newsham said. "If it is, I think that it's a little bit too close."

Still, he added, "it's nice to know you have police officers investing in the community. More power to them."