Open This Week: The Sovereign and Beard Papa’s

Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown just got a few options for finding food and drink, especially if customers are looking for something a little bit out of the ordinary.

**THE SOVEREIGN**

The Sovereign, which bills itself as a Belgian bistro and bar, has a soft opening tonight. Beard Papa’s, a Japanese cream puff chain, opened over the weekend.

The Sovereign has more of a local beginning, though its cuisine has an international flair, as in Belgian beer and Belgian food. It is run by the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which runs restaurants in D.C. and Virginia—such as ChurchKey, Rustico, Birch & Barley and Pike & Rose —among other culinary businesses.

Located down the alleyway at 1206 Wisconsin Avenue, the two-story bar and bistro used to house Blue Gin and before that, Champions Sports Bar.

A partner in the business is Greg Talcott, who is well known in Georgetown. He bought the nearby Third Edition from Greg Smith in 1983 (he started as a bartender in 1977). Talcott closed Third Edition three years ago and reopened it as El Centro under a partnership with Richard Sandoval.

As for businesses previously at the Sovereign space, Talcott bought the famed Champions Sports Bar from the equally famous Michael O’Harro in 2002—it was redone as Blue Gin two years later and closed in 2008. Now, Talcott has partnered with Michael Babin and the Neighborhood Restaurant Group.

Sovereign head chef Peter Smith, NRG beer director Greg Engert and NRG Director of Operations Erik Bergman took a trip to Belgium to experience the traditional food and drink and draw inspiration for their Belgian menu—which includes, they say, 350 kinds of beers.

The Sovereign’s Twitter account has already teased some menu items, posting a picture of moules frites, or mussels and fries, and writing, “Particularly proud to be sourcing Dutch-style mussels.” It will have “a wide breadth of beers from a focused group of brewers,” Engert told DCBeer.com.

The Sovereign has a special preview Feb. 1 and plans to open formally later in the week, though it has yet to announce the exact date.

**BEARD PAPA’S**

Touting its “fresh’n natural cream puffs,” Beard Papa’s has a mix and match system where customers can first pick the type of shell and then pick the cream—vanilla, chocolate or the flavor of the week. The shells are then filled in front of the customer and finished off with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

According to manager Jah McLean, most of the desserts are equally popular, but a newcomer cannot go wrong with the tried and true vanilla cream puff.

The first Beard Papa’s opened in Japan in 1999, and since then the company has expanded to have locations in 15 countries. Already popular on the West Coast, the Georgetown location is only one of three on the East Coast.