Petworth is home to a new neighborhood hangout tonight with the opening of Slash Run, a 60-odd seat burger bar from Gordon Banks and Jackie Greenbaum. The duo are also behind local haunts El Chucho and Bar Charley, and designed their third venture around personal tastes.
“We wanted to do someplace fun where we’d like to hang out,” says Banks. What this means for the watering hole: no cocktails (per se), plenty of bourbon and beer, a long list of burgers, and a jukebox filled with 100 CDs that range from Kiss to Rare Essence’s Go-Go tunes, DC punk band Minor Threat, and a William Shatner album.
The musical theme carries over to the menu, with dishes like the “Curry On My Wayward Son!” seared tuna sandwich with mango chutney and spiced aioli. Tuna steaks fill a global range of sandwiches, as do crispy pork loin schnitzels—pig fiends can overload on a cutlet decked out with ham, bacon, pork rinds, and a frankfurter. Chef Adam Harvey created an equally robust selection of burgers on Lyon Bakery potato or pretzel buns, such as the cheese-stuffed Jucy Lucy topped with griddled onions. Meatless diners can pick between a veggie patty or fried portobello mushroom.
When it comes to drinking, look for 15 draft beers, and 100 bourbons, whiskeys, and ryes. Don’t bother asking for a cocktail list—the bar keeps it simple—but experienced tenders can whip up a Manhattan or Sazerac on demand.
Slash Run—named after a stream that once ran through DC—opens on Thursday at 5, and will offer its first bottomless, all-day Sunday brunch this weekend from noon to 8.
Slash Run. 201 Upshur St., NW; 202-838-9929. Open Monday through Thursday, 5 to 1; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 2; Sunday brunch noon to 8.
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.
