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Market Too Steep for Market Inn

Restaurant closing doors after 50 years

By TOM SHERWOOD

| Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008 | Updated 6:44 PM EST

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The Market Inn, a seafood restaurant and lounge open in southwest Washington since 1959, is closing Wednesday night after one last New Year's Eve dinner and celebration.

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Market Inn Closing Doors After 50 Years

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WASHINGTON -- The Market Inn, a seafood restaurant and lounge open in southwest Washington since 1959, is closing Wednesday night after one last New Year's Eve dinner and celebration.

For decades the Market Inn at Second and E streets was a popular meeting spot for congressmen, federal workers and tourists. Its crab soup was featured in recent years on the Food Network.

Elizabeth Mandis, daughter of restaurant founder John Mandis, who died in 1972, told News4 that the family's single, 50-year lease has run out and the family could neither buy the building nor afford the huge rent increase that was looming. Building owners plan to redevelop the one-story property into an office building.

The multi-room restaurant is filled with Washington memorabilia -- including a 1957 Eisenhower inaugural license tag and black and white photos of the Washington Redskins -- much of which will be auctioned online by Rasmus Auctioneers.