About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Proper Bar. 300 K St., NW.
Three months after opening their first New York bar, Manhattan Proper, Rob Zahn and Will Strozier found themselves in the path of a Category 3 hurricane.
In November 2012, Hurricane Sandy tore through lower Manhattan, flooding subway tunnels and knocking out power across the city. A transformer explosion darkened much of downtown, including their new Tribeca bar. “It was a kind of baptism by fire,” Strozier says. “Even though it was hard, I’m thankful for that, because it really did prepare us for what the worst-case scenario could be.”
Over the next decade, the pair built a small empire of “Proper” venues, opening eight businesses together, including five restaurants across New York and Washington. When the pandemic hit, they shuttered their New York restaurants and spent the next few years focused on stabilizing their DC operations—Proper 21 and Proper 21 K Street—before turning their attention to what came next.
Now, nearly five years since their last opening, Zahn and Strozier have expanded their DC footprint with Proper Bar, a 5,500-square-foot restaurant and cocktail lounge that opened October 17 in Mount Vernon Triangle.
Zahn and Strozier describe the new venture as “elevated” American bistro fare. They say the project represents a reset. “Proper Bar is almost like our rebrand,” Zahn says. “We had to reinvent ourselves and get the company strong again—and that’s what we did.”
The menu focuses on shareable plates and updated comfort food. Starters span from patatas pravas to crispy chicken topped with caviar. (Caviar service is also available.) You’ll also find pastas ($24 to $28) such as pappardelle bolognese and tiger prawn tagliatelle with lemon, smoked roe, and whipped herb butter. For mains, there’s Ora King salmon with cauliflower purée or, if you want to splurge, a 32-ounce dry-aged tomahawk steak with brown butter-roasted potatoes, whipped labneh, and wild greens for $195.
Cocktails range from a pear-sage martini to a lavender negroni, alongside several carbonated drinks poured from draft lines. Happy hour runs weekdays from 5 to 7 PM with $9 cocktails, $10 house wines, and $7 drafts.
Gone are the wall-mounted TVs and football games that defined Zahn and Strozier’s earlier restaurants. At Proper Bar, the vibe leans more cocktail lounge than sports bar. “We’re not doing it in a stuffy, fine-dining setting,” Strozier says. “The music’s good, you can come in after work or dressed up for a date. It isn’t stuffy, it’s lively.”
Designed in collaboration with Miami-based Bolt Living, the space, which seats 225 indoors and outdoors, mixes influences from New York, Miami, and DC, with dark wood accents, green velvet banquettes, and globe lighting centered around a 50-foot marble bar.
Zahn and Strozier, who also run a crypto asset fund, now split their time between Miami and Washington, taking turns commuting north. They say they eventually hope to bring Proper Bar to Miami and, one day, back to New York. They even share matching tattoos with the same word: Proper.
