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After a little over three years of serving downtown’s bustling 9-to-5 corridor, Pennsylvania 6 shucked its last oyster over the weekend.
In an email to Eater, ownership wrote that there weren’t enough sales across the sprawling 250-seat restaurant to keep up with pricey rent overlooking Franklin Square (1350 I Street NW).
“This was a difficult decision for us, but unfortunately an unavoidable one. While we were proud of the restaurant and the product we served, the sales level needed for us to operate profitably never fully materialized,” Pennsylvania 6’s ownership team wrote via email.
Pennsylvania 6 opened in fall 2015, quickly emerging as a perennially packed happy hour destination. The brand was big on specials tied to snow days, political happenings, and holidays.
“We have truly enjoyed the opportunity to serve all of our regulars and fellow Washingtonians alike, and are sad to say goodbye,” continued the statement.
The closure was an abrupt one, and sources tell Eater employees were left in the dark until the end. “The staff was blindsided,” one industry source says. “They had no idea it was going to happen.”
Papers went up on windows Sunday morning, and workers were instructed to email an address about receiving their final paychecks. Pennsylvania 6 did not respond to an inquiry about the circumstances around the abrupt closure. Both its website and Twitter accounts have been deactivated.
Pennsylvania 6 also maintains a branch in New York City’s Koreatown. A Philadelphia location shuttered in 2017.
Maggie O’Neill from SwatchRoom designed the local outpost with an antique marble-topped raw bar, gold chandeliers hovering in the dining room, and a vintage-looking den with a candlelit hearth.
Eater reached out to the building’s leasing broker at Jones Lang LaSalle, who only offered a rapid, “no comment, sorry, bye.”
Another downtown restaurant disappeared suddenly over the weekend with the closure of Southern-accented Nordic kitchen Honeysuckle, which lasted just over two years underground at 1990 M Street NW.
