About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Beuchert’s Saloon chef/owner Andrew Markert is ready to expand his footprint on Capitol Hill. Newland, an airy, upscale New American restaurant, will open around the corner from his almost decade-old tavern on Tuesday, March 8.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to open a fine dining restaurant,” says Markert, who rose through the ranks in elevated kitchens like Michel Richard’s Citronelle and Gracie’s in Providence, Rhode Island. When the 42-seat dining room at 327 Seventh Street, Southeast became available (it formerly housed Montmartre), he jumped: “It’s the right time and space to push myself more and push the food we’re doing further.”
The name Newland nods to the Baltimore street on which Markert grew up. And while you won’t necessarily find crabcakes or pit beef on the menu, childhood nostalgia guides the way. Caviar service will be presented in old-school lunch boxes holding pearls of Osetra, sour-cream/chive beignets, cured egg yolk, and vanilla curd. Other throwbacks include a palate cleanser of clarified chocolate milk, and children’s books that double as check presenters. While Beuchert’s leans heavily on dark woods and stuffed bison heads for a saloon vibe, Newland is colorful, bright, and playful.
That’s not to say Newland isn’t an adult experience. Markert offers two menus: a prix-fixe ($80) that includes bread service, snacks, petit fours, and the diner’s choice of four courses; or a chef’s tasting menu ($120) with the same gratis perks, plus six courses of on-and-off-menu items selected by the kitchen. Plates for both draw inspiration from seasonal Mid-Atlantic ingredients and Markert’s wide-ranging kitchen experience. For instance, a course starring roasted local winter squash might be followed later by a crispy pork pata with calamansi ragu and peppercorn jus, a dish Markert developed after traveling to a close friend’s home in the Philippines.
Longtime Beuchert’s beverage director Mackenzie Conway is behind the intimate five-seat bar, where eventually he plans to host cocktail tastings. In the meantime, he’s planning a menu of “obscure classics” that highlights lesser-known drinks and spirits. The wine list was curated with a similar offbeat approach, which Conway describes as “a rose by another name—we’re finding varietals or regions that are close to what people are familiar with, but different.” For example, diners can order a vugava, a crisp white wine from Croatia reminiscent of Chablis. Conway is also pouring “dead stock” wines from shuttered producers, or wineries that are often overlooked.
Newland is just the start of the team’s expansion this year. Fight Club, a pandemic-born sandwich and boozy punch pop-up, is getting its own brick-and-mortar space at 633 Pennsylvania Avenue, Southeast this spring.
Newland. 327 Seventh St., SE. Soft-opening with discounted food, drink, and limited reservations via Tock on Tuesday, March 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.
