Bibiana Preps For a New Art-Inspired Look

Nine-year-old downtown Italian eatery Bibiana Osteria Enoteca is getting a modern makeover to ring in 2018, complete with new furnishings, pops of grey throughout, authentic art, and an additional private dining room.

Ashok Bajaj’s 140-seat restaurant (1100 New York Avenue NW) will shutter for a week on Monday, January 1 to go under the knife and will reopen for lunch and dinner on Monday, January 8.

Tasked with the Italian job is Bibiana’s original designer: Harry Gregory, co-founder and director of Ara Design International. Expect to find two new photographs of Italian Vespas hovering over the 12-seat bar, which will also get new black bar stools and display shelving. Armchairs will be upholstered in grey fabric.

Italian chairs, some with black metal and others with timber frames, will be mixed and matched with dark oak laminate tables. There’s also a new 14-seat second private dining room with a sliding glass door, and its existing 48-seat private room will get a new paint job and wall coverings of Italian columns from Sterling Art of London.

Also look for a newly-commissioned collage depicting classic Italian streetscapes (think: Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon) in another dining area.

Bibiana is not the first D.C. power spot to undergo a redo as of late; Charlie Palmer Steak also got a stylish renovation this year.