About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Bar Nuestro. 1331 Yards Pl., SE.
Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Colada Shop owner Daniella Senior often frequented restaurants combining both Latin and European influences. “Pretty much every restaurant has pasta or risotto. It’s really based in a lot of European and Spanish cooking, but then we incorporate the ingredients that we find on the island,” Senior says. That’s exactly what she set out to do at her newest spot, Bar Nuestro in Navy Yard, where you might start with focaccia with hoja santa butter and end with a sweet plantain sundae. It opens Wednesday, October 28.
The comfort food menu, overseen by executive chef Harper McClure and culinary director Claudio Foschi, starts with appetizers like head-on prawns with salsa macha honey or yuca beignets with gooey mozzarella inside and huitlacoche, truffle, and parm on top. A selection of crudos range from hiramasa (a type of yellowtail) with soursop leche de tigre to a tuna carpaccio with hearts of palm, cornichons, and capers.
Entrees ($26 to $54) include a mafalde pasta with a ragu inspired by a spicy oxtail stew as well as a smash burger with caramelized onions and banana ketchup. Senior says she’s usually the person who refuses to order chicken in a restaurant, but one of her personal highlights on the menu is the herb-roasted half-chicken with mushrooms and a bright tamarind-and cumin-infused beurre blanc.
The menu also includes a section of not-your-average fries, from cassava frites with parmesan mousse to shoestring zucchini with aji amarillo sauce to plantain “nests” with salsa verde. The latter are a version of arañitas, with shredded plantains made extra thin in a tortilla press, then fried until crispy.
The menu is built to be extra accommodating to dietary restrictions. Senior says everything going through the fryer is gluten-free, and the kitchen isn’t using any seed oils, peanuts, or tree nuts. Dishes are specifically labeled vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free. The goal, Senior says, is to see allergies and restrictions as not an inconvenience, but “actually as a way to welcome whole families that have challenges.”
For dessert, try a riff on a banana split with with soft-serve, caramelized plantains stewed in winter spices, and a spice crumble on top. Meanwhile, the brown butter custard tart—seasonally topped with pear and honeynut squash—is something Senior has been making for friends and family for years. “It’s kind of that dessert that everyone always asks me to make, so I’m like, you know what, we’re going to put this on the menu,” Senior says.
The list of classic cocktails ($14 to $17) includes some unexpected twists but “without too many frills,” Senior says. As a negroni lover, she spent three months working with beverage director Josh Murski to perfect Bar Nuestro’s version of the cocktail. The gin goes through a lightly salted brown butter wash with milk powder “to get more of those umami flavors.” It’s paired with Campari and Cappelletti with a hint of passionfruit and a passionfruit gummy as a garnish.
“I don’t want to grab a cocktail menu and have paralysis of the brain, like it’s going to take me 20 minutes just to figure out what I want to drink,” Senior says. “Too many ingredients, too many things going on.”
Another bar highlight: a make-your-own martini menu with a detailed checklist where you can select your spirit, vermouth, style, and garnishes (from olives to grapefruit peel to oysters). Not sure what to choose? Select one of the house favorites. There’s also a $10 pre-batched “Tiny Tini” with olive oil-washed vodka, which can get to your table in two minutes.
Interior designer Shawn Hausman, who worked on Le Diplomate and New York’s Standard hotel, is behind the restaurant’s “retro European” look. The space channels the grand European cafes of the turn of the 20th century with antique furniture from Vienna to London and Art Nouveau-style tiles, while also incorporating Latin American textiles and vintage Cuban movie posters. The 80-seat space will have a cafe area that becomes more of a bar in the evening as well as a dining room with three cozy private dining nooks.
Bar Nuestro also has 60-seat courtyard patio, featuring a koi pond, in the center of the Urby apartment building.
“You have the sounds of the water, and it’s very zen in there. It’s a lot of greenery,” Senior says. “Honestly, it sold me in my entire space. When I saw the patio, I’m like, ‘This has to be the best patio in DC.'”
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.
