Downtown’s Months-Old Bold Bite Market Has Closed

A lack of all-day foot traffic for doughnuts and breakfast sandwiches has caused homegrown Bold Bite Market to close its downtown location just months after it joined the local dining scene.

Local restaurateurs Alvaro and Alonso Roche (Bold Bite, 202 Donuts) incorporated some of their greatest hits into the 2,700-square-foot store-restaurant at 1028 19th Street NW when it opened last fall.

“The Bold Bite Market concept was designed to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, but unfortunately the 19th Street location was only busy for lunch,” Alvaro Roche told Eater in a prepared statement. Bold Bite’s two other locations in Bethesda, Maryland and Union Station remain open.

The market’s speedy demise is the restaurant group’s second closure in the past month. Their 15-month-old Tapabar in Bethesda shuttered at the end of 2017 also due to sluggish sales. The former Spanish-themed restaurant (4901 A Fairmont Avenue) is transforming into a pop-up lab for lunch and dinner to test out new ideas.

The brothers still have a lot cooking in Bethesda, preparing to open fast-casual newcomer Tacoarepa & Domino Bar nearby on Fairmont Avenue in the second week of February, with an attached patio bar called Sirena Beer Garden debuting in March once temperatures rise.

Roche said Tapabar could make a comeback elsewhere; the restaurateurs are currently scouring other D.C. area neighborhoods for a new location.