About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Astro Zombie. 1509 17th St., NW.
Sister bars Astoria and Copycat Co. have long offered tiki drinks alongside their usual classic cocktails and Sichuan-style food. Finally, owner Devin Gong decided it was time to give tiki the spotlight. His new spot, Astro Zombie, will offer tiki favorites and a Chinese-American menu focused around pu pu platters in a space he describes as a “spaceship diner.” It’s taking over the adjoining Dupont Circle spaces formerly home to Little Serow and a laundromat under Gemini sometime around Halloween.
“Our original idea was to investigate that sub-genre of tiki, like voodoo, zombies, and that kind of monster lore,” Gong says. The bar’s name is a reference to a Misfits song but also the Zombie cocktail—a potent blend of rums, lime, grapefruit, and more—which will be served alongside mai tais, fog cutters, and scorpion bowls.
After coming up with the name, Gong searched to see if anyone had already made a cocktail specifically called Astro Zombie. That’s when he discovered the tiki bar Mothership in San Diego, which looks like a crash-landed spaceship. He flew out to visit it the very next day.
While Mothership has a more immersive design “like a movie set,” Astro’s own “spaceship diner” aesthetic won’t be as literal: “There are very classic Americana diner motifs, and then there’s a little bit of like retro-futurism,” Gong explains. He and a friend also made their own punk rock-style collages to cover the tables of the 45-seat bar.
Although Mothership would not reveal its secret “Astro Zombie” recipe, Gong has tried to recreate it as an homage to the bar. He describes the drink as a lighter, fruitier version of a Zombie with a tart cherry grenadine. Meanwhile, the bar’s classic Zombie cocktail will be served in a custom zombie brains mug designed by former Copycat bartender and tattoo artist Josh Divins.
Astro Zombie plans to go big on the merch. Not only will mugs and swizzle sticks be available for sale, but the bar will have its own screen-printing studio where Gong will make t-shirts and limited-edition prints.
“Merch in tiki is intrinsically tied together. When it comes to old-school [tiki bars like Don the] Beachcomber or Trader Vic’s, there is a huge merch aspect to both of their concepts,” Gong says.
The classic American-Chinese menu—also available for carryout—will include staples such as orange chicken and lo mein. But the real highlight will be the mix-and-match pupu platters ($60 for two people) served on lazy susans with flaming cast-iron hibachi grills in the center. The platters will come with a choice of six dishes, with options like crab rangoons, egg rolls, wings with mumbo sauce, pork potstickers, walnut shrimp, and sweet and sour ribs. (You can also order the dishes individually.)
“Nothing fancy and not a twist,” Gong says. “This is just classics, and we do it with good ingredients.”
The bar will be open late-night with last call at 1:30 AM on weekdays and 2:30 AM on weekends.
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.
