The “rare bourbon” bar planned to open in Dupont Circle now has a name.
A public hearing notice posting from last week shows the bar, which seeks to open in the former Bertucci’s Restaurant space at 1220 Connecticut Avenue NW, will be called “Saint Yves.”
The space will be shared with a Cava Grill, reported Washington City Paper yesterday. Workers could be seen renovating the space earlier this morning.
ANC 2B’s commissioners discussed the forthcoming bar and its application for a tavern liquor license during a monthly meeting on Wednesday.
According to that application, the bar would serve “light fare” alongside “rare bourbons” in a space with seating for 30 and a total occupancy of 250. The bar would also host occasional events with DJs and bands.
“It’s going to be an open space,” said 2B-05 Commissioner Abigail Nichols, who met with the owners of the bar earlier this month. “It’s really not designed for eating at all. They’re planning to have food but a very simple, more hors d’oeuvres-style menu.”
In a procedure most often used to reach a settlement agreement, the ANC voted 6-0-0 to protest the bar’s liquor license application on the basis of peace, order and quiet.
A new restaurant coming to U Street hopes to redefine the sports bar experience.
The Prospect is slated to open this Saturday at 1214 U St. NW, which is the former home of Ulah Bistro.
The eatery is the latest creation from the restaurant group behind Provision No. 14. Provision chefs James Duke and John Leavitt will come along to help the restaurant serve a “stadium-inspired” menu. Perhaps the most eclectic item on the menu will be “hog wings,” a bone-in pork shank delicacy described as a cross between a chicken wing and a turkey leg doused in seven different sauces.
The bar also seeks to please patrons with a specialty cocktail menu, rustic decor spanning multiple floors and more than 40 Ultra HD televisions, controlled individually with a wireless app.
Restaurant manager Brian Dombrowski was hard at work on Tuesday morning preparing the restaurant for its weekend opening.
“Everything is homemade and fresh, and our chefs take a lot of pride in how the make their food,” he said. “It’s exciting because it’s not just your junk bar food. It’s unique and that’s what we want to cater to.”
“We want to bring that unique flavor to the U Street area,” Dombrowski added. “It’s something I hope will stick in people’s brains.”
A new lounge is taking shape on U Street.
Signage for a new business called Amsterdam Lounge was recently installed on and above the windows of the former Indulj space at 1208 U Street NW.
Though little information could be gleaned from the storefront — and the business does not appear to have applied for a liquor license — a Craigslist hiring ad from last month appears to reveal some details. According to the ad, the lounge seeks to hire someone to manage a restaurant and bar that will serve food, drinks and cocktails. Another job posting on Indeed.com indicates the new eatery may also serve coffee and espresso.
The forthcoming Amsterdam Lounge was contacted via e-mail this morning but has not yet responded.
Italian restaurant Odeon Cafe (1714 Connecticut Ave. NW) is changing its name and its menu.
Odeon’s general manager, Ben Triano, says the restaurant will become Madrid, a Spanish eatery with tapas, paella and a sangria bar, after the Labor Day holiday.
Last night, the eatery unveiled a portion of its new menu during a tasting party. The menu — which Triano stresses is just a taste of things to come — included fried calamari and paprika aioli, puff pastries stuffed with pepper marmalade and chorizo and a smattering of Spanish wines.
Triano says that the restaurant will be closed during the second week of September to train staffers, switch up the menu and finalize the interior renovations.
“We’re going to close for one week and reveal the final touch-ups,” Triano says. “We’re very excited.”
La Tomate Italian Bistro in Dupont Circle is celebrating 28 years in business with happy hour and dinner specials until Sept. 17.
The restaurant, located at 1701 Connecticut Ave. NW, has been serving Italian food since 1987.
For the next month, the bistro will host a $10 happy-hour appetizer buffet every day, which includes one drink. Diners will also be able to order a three course dinner for $28.
Jonathan ten Hoopen, who has served as general manager at La Tomate since 1993, says that the restaurant owes its longevity in part to its consistency over the years and its crowd of regulars who live or work in Dupont Circle.
“We’ve had a loyal following since we’ve opened,” he said. “We’ve always been very neighborhood-involved and active in the Dupont community and we’ve kept our price point the same.”
Although La Tomate has focused on consistency over the years, the neighborhood and city around them have changed a lot, especially in recent years.
“The most change has happened in the last five years where development [in the] east has really started to pull away a lot of the business,” ten Hoopen said. “The three big areas for dining and bars used to be Dupont, Georgetown and Cleveland Park, and we’re now three neighborhoods that are suffering a little in that regard due to growth elsewhere.”
As the cost of living in Dupont Circle has gone up, younger customers have moved east, and new restaurants have followed, ten Hoopen says. La Tomate is hoping to bring diners and drinkers back to Dupont with more affordable options and happy hour specials.
Last year, the bistro converted one of its dining rooms into La Tomate Caffe, which serves lighter, more affordable breakfast and lunch options.
“We’ve had a loyal following since we’ve opened, but what we’re looking for now is to create the next group of loyal customers,” he said. “That’s been a challenge because of where the younger generation is living and the number of new options people have.”
While ten Hoopen admits that Dupont is no longer the trendiest restaurant spot in town, he doesn’t worry about La Tomate’s longevity looking forward, describing the restaurant as an “old favorite” that people will always return to.
“There’s no doubt that we’ve felt the shift in the concentration of diners and drinkers because they have so many more options now,” he said. “But we benefit from being a neighborhood bistro for so long. It’s less of a trendy destination and more of a regular, comfortable place to be.”
The Neighborhood Restaurant Group is one step closer to opening a new restaurant at the Atlantic Plumbing development (2112 8th Street Northwest) near the 9:30 Club and U Street corridor.
A new document from ABRA reveals the restaurant group, which also owns Birch & Barley, ChurchKey and several other local restaurants, has applied for a Class C liquor license for its new restaurant, Hazel.
Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s director of public relations, Megan Bailey, confirmed that the new restaurant will arrive in the “late fall.”
“Hazel will open in the Atlantic Plumbing development in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood,” she told Borderstan via e-mail.
The restaurant, a concept by former Tallula chef Rob Rubba, will feature a 38-seat dining room, a 38-seat patio and a 16 seat bar connected to the patio.
“Rob’s menu will feature his style of progressive American cuisine, combining flavors from around the world with traditional and contemporary techniques to create dishes that are refined, distinctive and satisfying,” Bailey said. “Complementing the menu will be a beverage program from Greg Engert, Jeff Faile and Brent Kroll.”
Photo via JGB
Popular U Street eatery Bistro La Bonne has quietly returned with a new location and a new name.
Though the restaurant reportedly closed its U Street NW location in May, Owner Daniel Labonne says he reopened the restaurant at 2436 14th Street NW under the name La Bonne Bistro in June.
Sudhouse now occupies the bistro’s old space on U Street.
Despite the new location and name, Labonne says the menu, its staff and atmosphere are similar to how they were before.
La Bonne Bistro shares its new space with another former U Street restaurant, Creme.
Popular Logan Circle beer bar ChurchKey (1337 14th Street NW) will devote all 55 of its taps to local beers next Thursday at 4 p.m. in celebration of DC Beer Week.
The event represents the “largest single tapping of D.C. craft brews ever,” says ChurchKey.
Greg Engert, beer director at the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which owns ChurchKey, says the idea to pour 55 local beers had been on his mind for a while.
“The idea for a total tap takeover had been increasingly insistent, and when I started reviewing the releases of the 6 independent D.C. brewers we would come to feature, it all started to become a palpable possibility,” he says.
Engert adds that attendees should expect hard-to-find beers and one-time batches alongside old favorites. “There will be no shortage of rare and special brews on tap,” says Engert.
Among the beers served will be 3 Stars Brewing Company’s wine barrel-aged saison, Harvester of Sorrows, DC Brau’s On the Wings of Armageddon and Right Proper’s botanically-laced farmhouse ales Alice and Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne.
Here’s the complete list of all 55 beers being poured:
- 3 Stars Above the Clouds
- 3 Stars Citra & Lemon Peel Saison
- 3 Stars Cognitive Dissonance
- 3 Stars Desolation
- 3 Stars Ghost IPA
- 3 Stars Harvester of Sorrow
- 3 Stars Peppercorn Saison
- 3 Stars Peppercorn Saison – Cherries (Cask)
- 3 Stars Pandemic
- 3 Stars Southern Belle
- Atlas District Common
- Atlas Home Rule
- Atlas NSFW
- Atlas Ponzi
- Atlas Ponzi – Simcoe & Citra (Cask)
- Atlas Pumpernickel Stout
- Atlas Rowdy
- Atlas The 1500 South Cap Lager
- Bluejacket Forbidden Planet
- Bluejacket Goldfinch
- Bluejacket Judge Ruby
- Bluejacket Lost Weekend
- Bluejacket Lost Weekend – Citra (Cask)
- Bluejacket Red Wine Barrel-Aged Swirl
- Bluejacket Rheinard de Vos
- Bluejacket Sub Rosa
- Bluejacket The Jam
- Bluejacket Triple Smoke Barrel-Aged The Wake
- Bluejacket Wallflower
- Bluejacket Whiskey Barrel-Aged Double Mexican Radio
- DC Brau El Hefe Speaks
- DC Brau Pils
- DC Brau Penn Quarter Porter
- DC Brau Citrocity
- DC Brau On the Wings of Armageddon
- DC Brau On the Wings of Armageddon (Cask)
- DC Brau On the Wings of Armageddon – Apricots & Grapefruit (Cask)
- DC Brau Solar Abyss
- DC Brau The Citizen
- DC Brau The Corruption
- DC Brau The Corruption (Nitro)
- DC Brau The Public
- Hellbender Bare Bones Kolsch
- Hellbender Chazzwazzer IPA
- Hellbender DC Solidarity Brew: Red, White & Gluten
- Hellbender Ella KPA
- Hellbende Red Line
- Hellbender Rum Barrel-Aged Red Line
- Hellbender Southern Torrent Saison
- Hellbender & Lost Rhino Dunkelweiss
- Right Proper Alice
- Right Proper Comrade
- Right Proper Diamonds Fur Coat Champagne
- Right Proper Lifehouse
- Right Proper Lookaftering
Photo via Facebook.com/churchkeydc
(Updated at 6 p.m. to correct misspellings of the restaurant’s name) A new Dupont Circle restaurant has expanded its menu.
The Riggsby, located in the Carlyle Hotel at 1731 New Hampshire Avenue NW, is now serving breakfast and lunch.
Since opening last month, the restaurant has already been awarded high marks from Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema.
During breakfast service, chefs sling dishes like vanilla-soaked french toast with seasonal berries and a mushroom, asparagus and goat cheese omelet.
The new lunch menu includes dishes such as a chopped house salad with housemade thousand island dressing and crunchy eggplant parmesan with basil marinated tomatoes and frico chips.
Breakfast is served until 10:30 a.m., and lunch is served served 11:30-3 p.m. every day.
Image via Facebook.com/TheRiggsby
A German beer hall near Dupont Circle will celebrate its one-year anniversary next weekend with giveaways, live music and cheap brews.
Sauf Haus Beir Hall (1216 18th St NW) will open its doors at 12 p.m. next Saturday to celebrate the occasion.
Five bands will perform and bartenders will pour Schofferhofer Grapefruit Radler and Radeberger Pilsner for $1 until the taps run dry. Customers will also be able to enter to win prizes.
The owners of Sauf Haus are donating a percentage of the day’s proceeds to The Yellow Ribbon Fund, which assists injured military service members.
Image via Facebook.com/SaufHausDC
A James Beard Award-winner will soon open a new American restaurant in Dupont.
Chef Michael Schlow’s newest eatery, The Riggsby, is set to open in the newly remodeled Carlyle Hotel at 1731 New Hampshire Avenue NW next Monday.
The restaurant seats 75 people and serves steaks, seafood and “bar snacks,” such as house-made potato chips and green onion dip.
The restaurant also has a lounge area that seats 40, where patrons can order contemporary cocktails and drinks meant to invoke bygone eras alike.
Facebook.com/TheRiggsby
The tables at Olivia’s Diner (1120 19th Street NW) are already set for tomorrow’s 11 a.m. soft opening.
A preliminary peek inside the restaurant’s dining room reveals dark wooden tables and a long marble bar. The space also features cocktail seating at the front of the restaurant and a large seating area in the back.
But don’t be fooled by the restaurant’s upscale appearance; as we reported last month, the eatery will serve fried comfort food such as wings, chicken-fried steak and burgers.
“We didn’t want a traditional diner atmosphere, but we did want traditional American food,” part-owner Thomas Marr said.
Marr owns the restaurant with his business partner and childhood friend Tri Nguyen. Both also co-own Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza.
Olivia’s will serve customers from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.
But Marr says the goal is to go 24 hours eventually, as long as there’s interest.
A Columbia Heights restaurant took home a big honor yesterday.
Thip Kao, a Laotian restaurant located at 3462 14th Street NW, won highest honors at yesterday’s American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF) 10th Annual Crab Cake Competition.
Along with the bragging rights, Thip Kao will receive funds to support a culinary intern in its kitchen.
Thip Kao’s Chef Seng Luangrath’s crab cake was chosen over entries from the likes of Chef Spike Mendelsohn from Bernaise, Chef Joe Palma of Bourbon Steak and other award-winning chefs.
The crab cake competition is a yearly contest aimed at raising money for culinary internships, scholarships and educational programs in D.C. Each year, the contest pits eight local chefs against one another in a showdown to create the perfect crab cake with Maryland blue crab.
It can be hard to get a craft beer for $5 around here, but that changes at Meridian Pint’s 5-year anniversary celebration next Wednesday.
The Columbia Heights bar, known for its selection of craft beers and located at 3400 11th Street NW, will pour 24 different drafts for just five dollars per glass starting at 4 p.m.
The bar will also serve food from a special $5-per-item menu that was “created from guest favorites.”
Popular Adams Morgan hangout Pop’s Sea Bar (1817 Columbia Road NW) will begin serving alcoholic snow cones on July 1.
For $7, patrons can order a color-coded cone in three boozy flavors: Baltimore Lemon Stick, Strawberry and Bing Cherry.
Non-alcoholic versions of the flavors will also be sold for $3.
Between July 1 and 7, $1 from each snow cone sold will be donated to Brainfood, a local nonprofit dedicated to teaching youths food production skills.
Photo via Facebook.com/PopsSeaBar
