About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Casamara and Reynold’s. 1337 Connecticut Ave., NW.
As an American history buff and self-described “politicophile,” Toronto restaurateur Hanif Harji made his first visit to DC just over three years ago to see the Smithsonian museums. But the biggest attraction ended up being the city’s restaurants: “I was blown away by the culinary scene here,” he says. “I kind of fell in love with the food in the city actually more than the history.”
After many more visits back to the city, he now has a DC restaurant of his own: Casamara, a glam coastal Mediterranean dining room, and its sister cocktail bar Reynold’s, which both opened last week in Dupont Circle’s new Sixty Hotel.
Harji recently sold a large stake in the Toronto-based restaurant group Scale Hospitality—everything except his Mykonos-inspired seafood restaurant Toronto Beach Club. As he explains, he was starting to feel a bit disconnected from the actual restaurants. “At the end of the day, I’m a simple restaurant guy. I love being on the floor. I love being with my team in the restaurants. And I felt I lost connection with that,” he says. He’s hoping to get back to his hands-on roots in DC.
The seafood-leaning menu starts with appetizers such as branzino crudo with Italian peppers and sardine toast on sourdough with avocado aioli, pickled red onions, and almonds. Handmade pastas range from a truffle bucatini cacio e pepe to octopus casarecce with ‘nduja and harissa. Larger meatier plates include a a double-boned Iberico pork chop with peppers and cider jus as well as confit lamb shoulder with za’atar, pomegranate, and green peas.
Harji says he wanted to channel the luxury boutique feel of grand hotels in Paris and Barcelona. “I did that purposefully because DC’s design reminds me of Europe, all the buildings and the history here,” he says.
A marble checkered floor that Harji encountered in a Venice hotel inspired the one in Casamara, which was honed to give it an aged look. Meanwhile, the bar in the center of the dining room was inspired by European lobby bars and the Chiltern Firehouse hotel in London. All the furniture is custom-made, as is a 54-foot tapestry along the wall that was hand-tufted in Spain. “We didn’t buy anything out of a catalog,” Harji says.
As a nod to its location in the former Hamilton National Bank, sister bar Reynold’s takes its name from Alexander Hamilton’s mistress, Maria Reynolds. (It’s now the second mistress-themed bar in DC, following the Lucy Mercer Bar, which is named after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mistress.)
The retro wood-paneled bar will serve quirky martinis including one with pesto-washed tequila and tomatillo brine as well as “forgotten classics” and other seasonal creations. There will also be some large-format cocktail serving up to six, such an oversized French 75 and hibiscus-hued “Big Pink Drink,” which Harji describes as “sparkling Cosmopolitan vibes.” High-end bar snacks include dill chips with Ossetra caviar, poutine with maple gastrique, and beef tartare with black truffles.
Harji says he personally spent up to 10 hours curating the playlist with a mix of ’50s R&B, ’70s rock, ’80s hip-hop, and other hits.
“Those butterflies that I used to have 20 years ago when I opened restaurants are back,” he says.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
