Cocktail Bar With 75-Cent Dumplings to Open Saturday on H Street NE

A bar and restaurant with 75-cent dumplings and $12 craft cocktails will open soon on H Street NE.

Serving “good Chinese home cooking” and classic cocktails, Copycat Co. is set to open at 1110 H St. NE on Saturday, co-owner Devin Gong said Thursday as workers completed construction and made test dishes.

Gong and family friends who recently emigrated from northern China will serve dumplings, skewers and baos on the business’ first floor, with nothing priced higher than $5 per dish. A pair of dumplings will cost just $1.50.

“I want to bring bar food, like things I like to eat when I’m drunk in China,” said Gong, a 28-year-old art school graduate who lives near Dupont Circle.

The menu will include dumplings with pork, shrimp and Chinese chives, and bao with pork and vegetables. The steamed buns served at Copycat will be completely enfolded, in the northern Chinese style, not partially wrapped in the Taiwanese style many diners know, Wong said.

On the second floor of the business, Wong — who was a craft cocktail bartender at the Jose Andres restaurant Barmini — will serve a “consolidation of the classics,” like fizzes, sours and Manhattans.

“You won’t see rosewater syrup and things like that here,” Wong said. Instead, he aims to serve perfected versions of old drinks. The business’ name refers to that desire to make perfect replicas.

“Don’t make things up — someone else made it 100 years ago,” Wong said.