Image: Eunice Gayson and Sean Connery, 1962
It was a slow week on the site as we did some internal housecleaning. There was some news in the D.C. dining world – some of it sad some of it hopeful. Fireworks season reached peak yesterday. Cicadas are coming!
Sad:
Yesterday we re-tweeted a post from DC Harvest that said it was barely hanging on. Our fear is that there are many more places like them. Support these independent restaurants because when they go places like 14th Street or H Street are going to lose their soul.
José Andrés‘s Think Food Group announced that it closed America Eats Tavern in Georgetown and a couple Beefsteaks locations. The Foggy Bottom Beefsteak remains open.
Carlie Steiner, the owner of Pom Pom, announced that she is folding up the tent and leaving town. Pom Pom had converted to the online wine shop Seco. It sounds like they will close out their inventory and then shut down for good. The fact that both Steiner and her old partner Kevin Tien are no longer working in D.C. is one of the biggest blows to the restaurant world, at least in terms of hope for a future.
Mason-Dixie Biscuit announced the closure of its shop in Shaw.
Succotash in Penn Quarter is closing for the summer. At least there is hope that it might come back. They note what many places in the larger downtown area are facing – there is no one around.
Boundary Stone became one of what will like be a growing number of places to charge a fee for no-showing on a reservation. Don’t be a jerk.
Adams Morgan’s experiment with closing 18th street was off this weekend. It might be back. But you must behave!
Hopeful:
A few places are opening as unreal as that sounds. Captain Cookie is opening on the Hill. A chef who moved from social media to catering is now going brick and mortar opening a Soul Food spot in Capitol Heights called In A Minute Cafe (it is outside our normal district boundaries, but we’re bending all kinds of rules right now).
Roaming Rooster (which managed to have a break-out year despite the odds) and Capo Deli will be doing outposts in the Foggy Bottom food hall.
On U Street, Roaming Rooster is doing a pop-up and Sebastian Zutant of Primrose is teaming up with the Menchie’s people to open a wine bar serving “weird stuff.” This will be our favorite wine bar sometime in late 2021.
The Imperial opened its rooftop bar and Purple Patch claimed some road in Mt. Pleasant for outdoor seating. Reveler’s Hour and Del Mar also opened up.
Thoughtful:
Lori at Been There Eaten That did a post on two places doing take-out well: Centrolina and Bresca. The post though is really about what do you do when you are deprived of a thing you love, in this case eating out. The answer is you make-do and adjust your relationship to restaurants. We agree on both her recommendations and approach.
Along similar lines, multiple restaurant critics and food writers have said they are not willing to do sit-down dining anytime soon. Joseph Hernandez has a thread. Although one Brit dissents and embraces death as a dining companion.
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We continue to update our dining guide so you can see who is open for what. We have 300 restaurants in D.C. listed, which means we have more places listed and more up-to-date information than any other guide for D.C. You can search by LIST or MAP. Just saying, it ain’t bad.
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Stay home if you can. Wear a mask. Tip Big!