The Latest Dish: Comfort Food + Comfort Cocktails = What You Voted For
By • November 13, 2024 0 18
Fish & Fire Food Group has expanded its empire with the opening of The Strand DC in the Deanwood neighborhood at 5131 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave. NE. The historic building was a theater built in the 1920s to service the fledgling motion picture industry, focusing on Black films in a Black neighborhood. Owner Greg Casten reports that all employees are from Ward 7. GM Marctre Freeman previously worked at F&FFG’s Ivy City Smokehouse; assistant GM Dwayne “Gator” Thompson grew up in Deanwood and previously ran Ivy City Market. F&FFG corporate chefs Dale Jones and David Stein created the menu.
Longtime GM Kelly Laczko and her wife, Kethida Laczko, have reopened the former Duplex Diner as Her Diner at 2004 18th St. NW in Adams Morgan. It continues to be “a queer neighborhood bar that is welcoming to everyone.”
Nero wine bar and lounge reopened in Dupont Circle at 1207 19th St. NW with an outdoor patio and private event space, as well as a subterranean speakeasy named Sabina (Nero’s wife). Clue to finding it: look for a water spigot in a weird spot — it’s the door handle. The cocktail menu is curated by Jack Sinclair, a bartender (now beverage consultant) at Death and Co. He built his cocktail rep at the original Nero.
Quick Hits: Life Alive Organic Cafe, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will open in D.C.’s West End at 2301 M St. NW in the late fourth quarter. This will be its 11th location nationally … Ghanaian cookbook author Eric Adjepong will open Elmina in the first quarter of 2025 at 2208 14th St. NW, where Seven Reasons used to be. It will feature West African food. Beer, booze and burger place Legacy HiFi is planning to open this month at 2471 18th St. NW in Adams Morgan, where Tight Five Pub used to be.
Just Opened: Ashok Bajaj of Knightsbridge Restaurant Group opened Rosedale, featuring new American food, near Van Ness. The kitchen (as well as the one at Annabelle) is helmed by Frank Ruta, who is renowned for the late, great Palena … Sisters Hilal and Muska Rahim and their mother Nazifa opened Bonjon Rumi in Glover Park at 2444 Wisconsin Ave. NW, where Surfside used to be. They also own Kabobistan in Arlington.
Will Patton of Hive Hospitality (Jônt and Bresca) and Devin Kennedy (NYC’s closed Pouring Ribbons and Cote) are slated to open Press Club, a music-centric cocktail lounge and vinyl record bar, in the fourth quarter at 1506 19th St. NW in Dupont Circle. (They had me at: the bar will be lined with unique glassware rather than bottles.)
NYC-based Westville is slated to open in Arlington at The Crossing Clarendon development at 2800 Clarendon Boulevard, where Barnes & Noble is located and near where Three Notch’d Brewery will open. It will be books above beer. An opening in the third quarter of 2026 is targeted.
Mark Minicucci, Dean Mosones and Margaux Donati are aiming for the late first quarter of 2025 to open their second Bar Chinois, inside the Reva at 1900 Crystal Drive in Crystal City. It will seat 80 plus 30 more on the outdoor patio. Bar Colline, a French bistro from the Hilton brothers (Chez Billy Sud, El Rey and Parc de Ville), is also slated to open at the Reva.
Linda Roth is the founder and CEO of Linda Roth Associates, a D.C.-based public relations and marketing firm that specializes in the food service and hospitality industries. Follow her at: @LindaRothPR, #LindaRothPR or lindarothpr.com.
