José Andrés’s Michelin-starred Minibar and accompanying modernist cocktail room, Barmini, have been closed since March due to Covid. In preparation for reopening the avant-garde Penn Quarter venues, Think Food Group will launch a “reminiscence menu” in Barmini on October 28. The pop-up will feature classic Barmini concoctions and throwback dishes from Minibar’s nascent days inside Andrés’s long gone Café Atlántico.
Tickets ($125 per person) for the tasting will go on sale Friday at 10 AM via Tock. Bookings will be available from October 28 to November 11, and pending interest, may be available for another two week block. For drinks, guests can expect six creative Barmini classics like the “Floral Cloud,” a billowing riff on an Aviation with gin, citrus, crème de violette, and dry ice “clouds.” The multi-course food menu, snacks and bites through dessert, will include the kind of modernist inventions that put Minibar on the map nearly 20 years ago, such as a bite-size “Philly cheesesteak” where an airy, cheddar cream-filled mini pita is dabbed with onion jam and wrapped with shaved wagyu. (Fun fact: the dish was originally conceived at Atlántico as a way to use pita from neighboring Zaytinya.)
A number of Andrés’s DC restaurants have reopened in the pandemic, including Oyamel, Jaleo, and Zaytinya. Meanwhile China Chilcano remains temporarily closed, while America Eats Tavern in Georgetown permanently shuttered. In Bethesda, Andrés plans to transform the longtime Jaleo location into Spanish Diner, a branch of his all-day Spanish comfort food concept that opened inside New York’s Little Spain food hall. Check back for more reopening information about Minibar soon.
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.
