Dupont Speakeasy to Reopen Next Month

A speakeasy-style bar that has remained shuttered in Dupont Circle since last summer hasn’t served its last cocktail after all.

The Sheppard at 1337 Connecticut Ave. NW is set to reopen in March, bar representative Maha Hakki told Borderstan today. But it wasn’t immediately clear if the green light and other features of the faux speakeasy’s first incarnation would return.

The Sheppard has been closed since a “light renovation” began in July, according to its Twitter account. The bar’s building, which is set to house a 50-room hotel, came under new ownership in November.

The bar’s owners, Vinoda Basnayake and Spike Mendelsohn, also are working to open a bar called Morris in Shaw this spring, Hakki said.

Like The Sheppard in Dupont, Morris is named after Senator Morris Sheppard, author of the 18th Amendment, which established Prohibition. But Morris won’t have a speakeasy theme when it opens in street-facing retail space at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

“Please note they are two separate concepts and two different venues,” Hakki said an email.

Photo via Twitter/JMorrisSheppard