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A Loudoun Brewery Known For Experimental IPAs Will Move into Mad Fox in Falls Church

Sterling’s Solace Brewing Company is replacing the pioneering pub

Mad Fox will flip into a new beer and pizza place this spring.
Mad Fox/official
Tierney Plumb is the editor of Eater DC, covering all things food and drink around the nation's capital.

In a few months, fans of Solace Brewing Company won’t have to trek out to Sterling to sample its juicy IPAs. The craft brewer from Loudoun County is expanding into Falls Church as a part of a new deal to take over the long-standing Mad Fox brewpub that closed on the town’s main drag last year.

Eric and Ian Hilton, who own a slew of D.C. bars in the U Street Corridor (the Brixton, American Ice Co., incoming Echo Park) are partnering with Solace and the group behind Blackfinn pub to open Solace Outpost at 444 W Broad Street. According to an announcement, the outpost is expected to open in May.

Mad Fox closed in the summer after a 10-year run, citing local brewing competition as the cause. Recent Falls Church arrivals include Audacious Aleworks and “nano-brewery” Settle Down Easy Brewing Co.

The pioneering local brewery was outfitted with a 60-foot bar that offered around a dozen of its own beers. Solace plans to pour best sellers like its Sun’s Out Hops Out (session IPA), Lucy Juicy (double IPA), Partly Cloudy (New England IPA) and Crazy Pils. The bar will also play with experimental IPAs, kettle sours, and smaller batches made by Solace, which maintains a 20-barrel brewhouse in brewery-saturated Sterling.

The food menu will include an “independent pizza concept,” according to the announcement. The Hilton brothers, who just closed the Satellite Room, recently teamed up with Tysons Galleria food hall vendor Andy’s Pizza for their soon-to-open bar across the street from the 9:30 Club.

Solace Outpost represents the latest NoVa project for the Hiltons. Last fall, the hospitality duo debuted French bistro Parc de Ville in Merrifield’s Mosaic District, and their reliable Shaw taco shop El Rey is en route to Ballston.