The institutions of Capitol Hill are falling fast. First they ended the page program. Now comes word that the Hawk n’ Dove is closing in October. Don’t be fooled, either: even though the Hawk will remain a bar location, it’s getting a 100% remodeling by it’s new owners.

Honestly, I don’t love the Hawk. The barroom is overrated, and the entire indoor lunch area smells like a urinal. The private room is great for a small gathering and the waitstaff is definitely friendly, but even my favorite thing on the menu (Park City chicken sandwich) doesn’t hold a candle to a randomly picked sandwich at Mr. Henry’s just down the street.

No, the reason I’ll miss the Hawk are purely Burkean. This was an institution both constitutive and reflective of Capitol Hill. It’s charmingly grimey in the barroom. You’re just as likely to see someone in a $1000 suit as you are someone who looks seriously down on their luck. Everyone talks politics, but even the politicos don’t talk it seriously. No one is going to do you any favors, but the waitstaff is genuinely friendly.

The grandeur of the place is only found in your imagination; seemingly everything has happened there, but anytime you go there, nothing does. The creative destruction of capitalism requires that places like the Hawk eventually move on. I’ll miss it more than I should.