WASHINGTON—The capital’s night club scene has for decades been hailed as a diamond in the rough; not as good as what one finds in Boston or New York, but really the best there is for the long dry-spell between Philadelphia and Jacksonville. Despite this generous accolade, the DC clubs have a long way to go in terms of inclusivity, a problem which one nightclub has seen fit to take head-on.

Jack and Elaine Altman opened their club, the House on the Hill, in 1993 and have been running it together ever since. Throughout their career as proprietors they've always sought new ways to bring the party to a new level, and this time have brought it to a new demographic as well: the elderly!

From 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. last Friday the House on the Hill hosted its first ever early-bird special, and really got quite a turnout.

“We really never expected so many people to show-up,” Jack Altman told reporters. “I guess the elderly don’t have a whole lot going on on Friday nights. Who’d have thought?”

The Altmans report that the crowd seemed a little nervous at first, but after kicking things off with an electronic remix of Nat King Cole’s Too Young, the party was really started and things began to loosen-up. By the time Patsy Cline’s I Fall to Pieces hit the synthesizer around a quarter after four, the waiting line is said to have stretched around the corner.

From there things only got more and more raucous until finally at around 5:30 p.m. much of the clientèle was tired out. It was for this last hour that the House on the Hill brought out its biggest crowd pleaser, an early episode of Columbo.

The mood amongst the crowd was generally positive, though there were a few complaints of a draft. Reporters from the Ax had a chance to talk with patron John Domarkis while he and several others waited for the Access-A-Ride shuttle to pick them up.

“It was almost a bit like being young again,” Domarkis said. “Young in a frailer body, and a strange, scary world.”

The Altmans have announced that, owing to the success their early-bird special, they are now planning to host one every Friday afternoon from here on out. This was followed by a reminder that the House on the Hill is serious about its reputation as an upstanding establishment and enforces a hardline carding policy with both its junior and senior patrons, and so all wishing to attend future specials are expected to present a valid Medicare card.