About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Buck’s Wine Bar. 5027 Connecticut Ave., NW.
Over the last few years, restaurateur James Alefantis has used the property next to his upper Northwest restaurant Buck’s Fishing & Camping as an ice cream shop and a private event space. Recently, it quietly opened as Buck’s Wine Bar, a cozy, casual 20-seat spot to grab a glass or buy a bottle. The catch: it’s only open consistently one day a week.
Alefantis says he envisioned the kind of European-style bars where you just casually drop in before going to dinner. No reservations. No time restraints. No fuss. You order from a counter, grab water from a self-serve station, and seat yourself at the wooden communal table anchors the space or a handful of other counter seats (or stand).
The theme of the wine list is just “good wines,” Alefantis says. “I relate it to Buck’s. We are American food, but we can kind of do anything, because we’re American.” It’s also the rare new wine bar not promoting itself specifically as a “natural” wine bar. “Someone called it that yesterday, and I was like, ‘I want to be extremely clear with you: This is not a natural wine bar. This is a wine bar.'”
A chalkboard lists the night’s specials, including at least six wines by the glass. The snacky food menu includes cheese, charcuterie, olives, and at least one heartier dish like a duck cassoulet. Guest “wine geeks of DC” will occasionally moonlight, and the bar hopes to bring in winemakers too.
The bar currently stocks around 400 bottles from around the globe, which you can buy retail or drink in-house. Rather than a traditional restaurant or bar markup, Buck’s Wine bar is offering all the bottles at retail price with a $25 corkage fee to enjoy them there—or at neighboring Buck’s Fishing & Camping and Comet Ping Pong.
Buck’s Wine Bar is always open on Saturdays, but check Instagram to see other opening dates. (It will be open both Friday and Saturday beginning at 5 PM this week.) The space continues to be available for private events the rest of the week.
As for whether he’ll expand operations? “We’re sort of full-on ‘see how it goes,'” Alefantis says.
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.
