Early in January, a Bethesda Magazine blog reported that Gaffney’s had closed and was being replaced by an eatery called the Majestic Bar & Grill. Since then, there haven’t been many details other than a faux-news interview posted on the upcoming restaurant’s door and website. So we checked in with PR spokesman Jeff Wyatt for an update.
Wyatt said first-time restaurant owner Stefan Lalos is planning a sports bar and grill theme, but that the target audience is Bethesda’s thirtysomething-plus population looking for a quieter “gastropub” atmosphere with watch parties organized around golf tournaments (Lalos is a fan). Wyatt says they’ve picked a local chef who’ll create a “creative American” menu for the space, but the Majestic team wouldn’t release a name or offer up any menu details. One of the biggest draws at Gaffney’s was the airy back patio; there’s a possibility that it will be expanded at the Majestic.
There is some local controversy surrounding the name, but Wyatt says Lalos borrowed the title from the Pittsburgh-area bar his grandfather ran after immigrating to America in the 1930s, not the popular Alexandria restaurant.
Check back in with us for details in the coming weeks.
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.
