Eatonville on 14th Street is set for a complete makeover that goes well beyond fresh paint. Owner Andy Shallal—who’s also behind Busboys and Poets—has teamed up with celebrity chef Carla Hall of The Chew for a new concept: Mule Bone, named after the play by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
“We’re starting a new chapter,” says Shallal. “It’s going to be modern-southern cooking, and keep up with the trends that are happening that pertain to southern food.”
Eatonville will close for business on January 17th after five years in business, and undergo renovations that will freshen the space, expand the bar area, and make the dining area more intimate (roughly 155 seats versus the 250 existing spaces). Hall will spearhead the menu and search for a full-time executive chef, who’ll run the restaurant on a day-to-day basis. The team is also on the hunt for a new mixologist.
Shallal projects that Mule Bone will reopen in February. The new space will also hold a small retail component from Desiree Venn Frederic of Nomad Yard Collectiv.
Stay tuned for more details as they become available.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
