The Alibi pub near the U.S. Capitol will soon be able to serve alcohol after the owners’ application for a liquor license was approved by the District Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration.
The license was granted on the condition that Martin Scahill, a former business partner of the owners, is barred from any involvement with the pub. Scahill was a part owner of My Brother’s Place, a bar that used to occupy the building at 237 2nd Street NW but shut down after failing to pay fines for multiple charges of serving alcohol to minors.
Rachel Traverso, who, along with her father Richard Traverso, owns The Alibi, was previously engaged to Scahill and was an employee at My Brother’s Place, according to the ABRA order.
The order detailed numerous penalties levied against My Brother’s Place during its “sad and sordid history.”
“The litany of misdeeds committed at the establishment includes multiple incidents of illegal alcohol sales to large numbers of minors and the intentional sale of age identifying wristbands to minors by employees so that the minors could buy alcohol inside the establishment,” the ABRA order says.
My Brother’s Place developed a reputation for serving to minors, particularly among Catholic University students, who reported being served alcohol without showing ID or after showing poor-quality fake identification, according to ABRA. The owners of My Brother’s Place still owe $16,500 in unpaid fines related to these charges.
After My Brother’s Place closed, Scahill applied for a license for a new eatery at the location. Scahill was accused by the alcohol board of being unfit to receive a license based on his history with My Brother’s Place, but a hearing was never held as Scahill revoked his application.
The license process for The Alibi was delayed as the regulation board attempted to determine Scahill’s involvement with the new company that owns and operates the pub. Ultimately, the owners offered to obtain an order barring Scahill from the location and any involvement with the company for five years.
The barring notice requires the owners of The Alibi to call the police if Scahill is on the premises and prevents Scahill from doing any paid or unpaid work for the company.
On Wednesday, ABRA accepted the barring notice against Scahill and granted the pub a license to serve alcohol on the condition that they adhere to the terms of the notice.
The pub, which has operated as a restaurant without liquor since March 2015, does not have a set drink menu yet. However, a sample preview menu on their website lists a mix of American and British craft beers as well as a cocktail menu.
The owners of The Alibi could not immediately be reached for comment.
Photo via The Alibi
The Ben’s Chili Bowl on the H Street corridor might officially start selling cocktails from its roof within days.
Ten 01 at 1001 H St. NE is slated to open to the public on the second floor of Ben’s and a rooftop deck this Thursday, Mike Herz, the operations manager for the bar, said on Twitter.
Herz also shared photos of the inside and the roof deck, which are both minimally decorated with stained wood and metal furnishings.
Coming soon to H Street Corridor! *TEN01 pic.twitter.com/MxkaYyY2xl
— Mike Herz – Ten01 H (@Mikeherz101Herz) October 2, 2015
The bar previewed their beer, wine and cocktail menus at an open house during the H Street Festival on Sept. 19.
Practice run last week pic.twitter.com/MycVTOVZrh
— Mike Herz – Ten01 H (@Mikeherz101Herz) September 26, 2015
A Ben’s representative couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
A boutique winery in New York is planning to open an outpost at The Yards in Navy Yard by fall 2017, the area’s developer announced today.
Brooklyn Winery, which bills itself as an “urban winery that crafts boutique small batch wine and seasonal eats,” is scheduled to start construction of a 16,000-square-foot location at Water and 4th streets SE this spring, according to developer Forest City Washington.
The winery’s D.C. branch, which will be called District Winery, is the first business of its kind in the city. It will make wine on site and have a tasting room, full-service restaurant, an outdoor terrace and space for weddings and other private events.
The Washington Business Journal reported in May that Brooklyn Winery was looking to open in Navy Yard. But a lease wasn’t signed at the time. The winery has since signed a lease for a new building that is set to occupy a now-vacant lot.
“We are very excited to make Washington, D.C., our new home,” Brooklyn Winery co-founder Brian Leventhal said in a statement. “The Yards is the perfect location for District Winery, and we look forward to being a part of this thriving neighborhood for years to come.”
Photo via Instagram/Brooklyn Winery
A beer garden in NoMa is slated to start serving German brews and other drinks within days.
Wunder Garten at 150 M St. NE likely will have a “soft opening” this week, co-owner Christopher Lynch said in an email yesterday. But it wasn’t immediately clear what day that opening will happen or when the beer garden officially will welcome customers.
“We need a couple of days to make sure that everything is working well operationally,” Lynch said.
Located on a lot just west of the NoMa-Gallaudet U Station, Wunder Garten has eight German and Austrian beers, as well as local microbrews and wine, according to a menu posted at the beer garden.
The beers include the Hofbräuhaus Original, Erdinger Weissbier and Stiegl Radler. Prices range from $7 to $8.
As for food, the menu lists pretzels and chips. But the beer garden will have one or two local food trucks, too.
Last night more than two dozen picnic benches and a dozen umbrellas were set up around a white tent that covered what appeared to be a bar.
The 8,000-square-foot property also has portable restrooms with marble finishes and space intended for children to play and for REI sporting goods to hold classes on bike repair, camping and other outdoor activities, Lynch has said. REI is opening a store in nearby Uline Arena.
Toki Underground chef Erik Bruner-Yang’s emporium of locally roasted coffee, Asian street food and $800 sneakers has arrived on the H Street corridor.
Maketto, which Bruner-Yang co-owns with menswear designer Will Sharp, opened its doors at 7 a.m. today. The Asian-inspired market at 1351 H St. NE features 5,000 square feet of retail, dining and bar space spanning two levels.
Bruner-Yang said Maketto, which was three years in the making, helps fill a need for H Street: daytime retail and dining.
“As a resident, I wake up in the mornings, and I’m like, ‘What do I do? Where do I go? Where does my family go?” he said. “For a good portion of this whole strip, what is there to do during the day?”
As diners wait to grab a table for Taiwanese fried chicken or Cambodian pork noodle salad, they can have a cocktail or locally roasted Vigilante Coffee at the bar, buy a Japanese toy from a vending machine or peruse a selection of shirts, shoes and other goods.
Prices vary, bringing a “little something for everyone” at Maketto, said Sharp, who owns clothing brand Durkl. Vans, Pumas and the market’s others shoes range from $50 to $800, for example.
Although the name Maketto has a Japanese ring to it, Bruner-Yang joked that it’s a “bullshit word.”
“Just like Toki,” he said.
(Updated at 9:55 a.m. Monday) The owners of Bardo Brewpub on Bladensburg Road want to turn unused land in Navy Yard into a “deluxe” waterfront beer garden with food trucks, a dog park and outdoor movies.
In a three-minute video narrated by their mascot Bardawg, Bardo announced last night that they’re aiming to raise $200,00 in the next month to create a “BeerDisneyLand” at 25 Potomac Ave. SE, just south of Nationals Park.
“Same old Bardo fun, now on two acres of Anacostia riverfront property — 100,000 square feet of fun,” a voice says in video of the owners’ Australian cattle dog roaming the development site. “New, shiny stainless steel brewery tanks. Biggest dog park in the city … Outdoor movies, as always, this time projected on a floating screen in the river.”
Donors to Bardo’s Indiegogo campaign will receive Groupon-style discounts on beer once the business opens. For $20, a donor will receive four pints of beer. For $1,000, donors get “a hunnert pitchers of beer” for a party at the beer garden.
Representatives from Bardo presented the initial concept to ANC 6D earlier this month, as JDLand reported. The business was pitched as an interim use on an MRP Realty development site.
Bardo could operate on the lot for a minimum of five years, owner Andrew Stewart said in an update.
Video via Vimeo/Bill Stewart; map image courtesy of Bardo
(Updated at 9:10 a.m. Wednesday) The all-vegan bakery and diner opening on H Street NE this summer will serve knishes, pierogies, handmade ravioli and other New York City favorites.
Doron Petersan is working on dishes with roots in her native South Ozone Park, Queens, she said about the all-vegan diner and bakery she’ll open at 406 H St. NE.
“I grew up eating Jewish-Italian food and want to mimic that a bit here,” the owner of the Columbia Heights bakery Sticky Fingers said.
Fare Well is expected to be ready to open in July, Petersan said at an ANC 6C meeting last night. The 50-seat diner will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a long list of breads, cakes, scones, quiches, calzones and casseroles.
“You can grab something quick to go, or stay and take a seat,” Petersan said.
Fare Well sought approval from ANC 6C Monday night for a liquor license. Petersan said she’s planning to serve beer, wine and cocktails mixed by W Hotel mixologist Joey Ambrose. The ANC’s liquor license committee opted for a “protest without prejudice,” in order to give locals the opportunity to weigh in on the license application. The full ANC 6C board will weigh in at its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Knish photo via Flickr/ilike; Doughnut photo via Facebook/Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats
The food and drink experts at Zagat think you should check out three bars on H Street NE.
Copycat Co. (1110 H St. NE), Kitty’s Saloon (1208 H St. NE) and The Pursuit Wine Bar (1421 H St. NE) all made it onto Zagat’s list of “The 10 Hottest New Bars in D.C.”
Zagat bar critics praised Copycat for its bao buns and classic cocktails, Kitty’s for its “countrified American fare enlivened with exotic spices” and The Pursuit for the “date-night mood” of its two-floor space.
The full list, published Friday, is available here.
Hat tip to The Apollo. Photo via Kitty’s Saloon
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.
