About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Bumblebirds. 303 Pennsylvania Ave., SE.
It’s been nearly a decade since celebrity Carla Hall was last involved in a restaurant. Since closing her Nashville hot chicken spot, Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen, in Brooklyn, the former Top Chef star has been plenty busy as a TV host, cookbook author, public speaker, and more.
Now, though, Hall is ready to get back into the restaurant game. She’s partnered with Sunnyside Restaurant Group (Good Stuff Eatery, Santa Rosa Taqueria, We The Pizza) to open Bumblebirds, a casual fried chicken joint and Southern-style cocktail bar. The restaurant—debuting Saturday, March 14—will replace the original location of Good Stuff Eatery in Capitol Hill, which closed in early February after 18 years. The concept will be in test mode for the first six months, with the goal of making it permanent if it’s successful.
“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, the most natural thing for somebody who is known as a chef is to be in a restaurant.’ And I was like, ‘Actually, no, it’s not,'” Hall says. But when her longtime friend and Sunnyside CEO Micheline Mendelsohn—whose brother Spike Mendelsohn also competed on Top Chef—approached her about a joint venture, “it just felt so right in my body. I didn’t feel anxious.”
From Mendelsohn’s perspective, the Capitol Hill block that was home to Good Stuff Eatery needed a refresh—”something light and joyful… Carla encompasses all those things: joy, laughter, sunshine, hopefulness. She’s easy and light and every time you see her, it’s like a sparkle.”
The menu will center around Hall’s fried chicken, served on brioche buns or Southern biscuits. Among the signature sandwiches: “Blue & Buffalo” with creamy blue cheese, spicy buffalo sauce, and celery slaw or the “Sassy Honey Biscuit Bird” with whipped hot honey butter and sweet pickles. Fried chicken will also come in the form of tenders and nuggets with dips like jalapeno honey and buttermilk ranch.
The birds are dredged in a dry brine with powdered vinegar. “It is really flavorful. You get the acid in the chicken, it breaks it down, it makes it really tender, and then it also doesn’t have a heavy breading on it,” Hall explains.
There are also grilled chicken sandwiches, including one with mango, fennel, and scotch bonnet pepper island slaw. On the side: housemade kettle chips, crispy chicken skins, fries, and a variety of different slaws. Or, try the “front porch board” with buttermilk biscuits, pimento cheese, country ham, and pickles. Desserts include meyer lemon bars or doughnuts tossed in cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar.
Bumblebirds will also feature a Southern-inspired cocktail bar led by Andra “AJ” Johnson, the bar talent formerly behind Latin cocktail bar Seranata in Union Market. Look for drinks like an elderflower julep, a sorrel and strawberry margarita, plus non-alcoholic iced teas and lemonades sweetened with honey. The name Bumblebirds refers to bees. “Bees themselves are about community. They are a very ethereal, special insect around the world. And we’re drawing on that in terms of community and women and wisdom,” Hall says.
It’s not just Hall’s recipes being showcased—it’s also her crafts. She says she got into the paper quilting during the pandemic, but this is the first time her art will be on public display.
“It’s very much tied to the love that I have with my grandmother,” Hall says. “She was the culinary matriarch of my family. And now I’m the culinary matriarch, and she’s my culinary guardian.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’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.
