Daily dispatches on the Washington, DC area's food, restaurant and dining scene.
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Audio Slideshow: The Making of CommonWealth
This August, Jamie Leeds of Hank’s Oyster Bar in Dupont Circle and Alexandria launches CommonWealth, a British-style tavern and restaurant, in DC’s Columbia Heights (1400 Irving St., NW). The restaurant began, like so many good ideas, with notes on a napkin. In her scribbles from more than a year ago, Leeds laid out the kind of place she wanted: a gastropub with meats and roasts and “no kitsch,” a menu of “real food” with local produce in a setting that feels “pubby.” She envisioned CommonWealth as a destination for the “weary traveler,” an “everyday” kind of place—“blue collar” and “communal,” with a center table and an “easy” mix of old and new. To a large degree, the new restaurant reflects its owner’s vision. To learn more about the making of CommonWealth, check out our audio slideshow below. Leeds explains, through narration and her personal documents, how the idea of CommonWealth was built from scratch.
To see the nearly-completed menu (there are a few tweaks left) for CommonWealth, click here. More>> Best Bites Blog | Food & Dining | Restaurant Finder
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Comments
I too am a big fan of Chef Leeds and after seeing this story, I was excited to visit CommonWealth. But after seeing the menu posted at the actual site, I have to ask, "what happened?" The place is not British-inspired, it is British-themed. It is all too much. And she seems to be taking from the already established and successful gastropub concepts and I cannot see what is a reflection of her vision, as this piece states. The beer list is pathetic and most of it is not even local. Neither is the wine. And for a ’blue collar’ establishment, the prices are mighty steep. It seems more like a restaurant and not a pub. What happened? I hope I get proven wrong.
Posted by: Disappointed fan | Aug 02, 2008 01:23:14 PM
Big fan of Hank’s Oyster Bar. Can’t wait to check out the new digs. The menu looks delish!
Posted by: Tia Maria | Jul 24, 2008 08:13:07 PM
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Posted at
12:00 PM/ET, 07/24/2008 in
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