Tom Brown, the bartender’s bartender behind the Passenger, has sold his Shaw bar, a pioneer in DC’s modern cocktail scene and a longtime industry hangout. Taking over the business is one of his regulars: Sanjay Mandhaiya, chef and co-owner of Pappe Indian restaurant on 14th Street and the new Karravaan in Union Market. The Passenger closed last weekend and will reopen in the fall as a cafe-bistro-tavern with an affordable American food menu and a completely updated look.
“I want to elevate this brand, that’s all I’m doing. I’m making something better out of its current situation,” Mandhaiya says. “It’s not going to be divey.”
Brown says the bar had struggled to bring back customers post-pandemic and needed a lot of updates. “The fact of the matter is, it was ready for a capital investment, and I didn’t have capital,” he explains. Brown will continue to operate Left Door, his cocktail bar off 14th Street.
Mandhaiya says he didn’t want to compete with neighboring dive bar Ivy & Coney and hoped to expand the clientele beyond its industry crowd by becoming more of an all-encompassing neighborhood spot. One big change will be the food menu. (Qui Qui, the Puerto Rican restaurant that operated upstairs, is looking to relocate.) Mandhaiya, who has experience in a breadth of cuisines from Indian to French to Mediterranean, says he wants to do a contemporary take on a classic American menu. Potential dishes include a burger, Reuben sandwich, pasta, some Creole dishes, and riff of his popular butter chicken. “I want to do a little bit of fusion, but I want to stay away from the word fusion,” he says. The Passenger will also be open all day for brunch on weekends.
The place will continue to be a destination for cocktails, too, with early and late night happy hours. While Brown’s version of the Passenger carried a lot of esoteric spirits, Mandhaiya notes it did not have basics like Tito’s. “People have been asking for Tito’s. I want to do a variety of selection there,” he says. He also is looking to add a Guinness tap and more wines. “Whatever is working there, we’ll keep that, but we won’t add more to it,” Mandhaiya says.
While Mandhaiya doesn’t plan to make any big structural changes, he says the space will undergo a “complete makeover” with the help of Core, an architecture and design firm that’s behind the looks of places like Minibar and Astoria. He envisions “great aesthetics, Americana, a cozy bar, relaxed seating.” He says he’ll keep some of the Passenger’s artwork and take photos of the bar’s less offensive graffiti to frame. He also wants to do a portrait of Brown on the wall. “He’s a legend,” Mandhaiya says.
For his own part, Brown says he’s looking forward to being as a regular at the bar: “I’m going to be getting free drinks for life there. It will be pretty easy to find me on any given night.”
Brown and his brother Derek Brown first opened the Passenger in 2009 in a different Shaw storefront, before the neighborhood’s food and drink scene exploded. It was a place where you could get a cheap shot—but also a well-crafted negroni—and it quickly became a favorite hangout for those who worked in the bar and restaurant biz. It also was home to the original Columbia Room, one of the country’s most acclaimed cocktail destinations. The bars closed at the end of 2014 to make way for a new development, then split off. Tom revived the Passenger in its current two-story building in 2016.
“I kind of look at it like Saturday Night Live, the television show, that has had a lot of different writers. It’s had a lot of different actors,” Brown says. “Some seasons are better than others, but the show continues to go on. And I think that’s the same with Passenger. I think it’s going to continue to go on, and I think it’s going to continue to provide years of memories and relationships that have not yet begun.”
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.
