Call Your Mother Is Bringing a Trendy Bagel Shop to Capitol Hill

Call Your Mother is bringing its frenzy-inducing wood-fired bagels to Barracks Row.

Co-owner Andrew Dana says the “Jew-ish” deli and bagel shop in Park View, named one of Eater’s 16 Best New Restaurants in America last year, has signed a lease to move into the Capitol Hill building currently occupied by the Spring Mill Bread Co. (701 Eighth Street SE). Call Your Mother will move into the space February 1 with hopes to open sometime this spring.

“The rumors are correct,” Dana says, referring to a Popville post published today.

Dana says the company plans to install new kitchen equipment and commission a mural from Marcella Kriebel, the artist responsible for the pink and turquoise-splashed bagel mural outside of the original shop. The hot pink Marra Forni brick oven at the Georgia Avenue NW location will still bake all the rounds, which will then be trucked out Southeast.

A white tin roof reminiscent of the first location and a large outdoor patio were both big draws, Dana says. Bullfrog Bagels, one of the first companies to improve D.C.’s much-maligned bagel scene, has a shop less than half a mile away.

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Call Your Mother is already in the process of expanding to Georgetown, but several regulatory headaches have delayed its efforts there. After saying earlier this month that the Georgetown shop could open by the end of January, he now expects that it could take months to acquire a building permit. It’s possible, he says, that the Capitol Hill location could open first.

The cheekily named bagel shop rose to prominence in late 2018 with a menu that follows the philosophy of the other joint project between Dana and chef Daniela Moreira, his business partner and future spouse. Just like Timber Pizza, Call Your Mother sources from producers the couple first befriended at various farmers markets, using ever-changing produce to create a mash-up of styles. At the bagel shop, that means wood-fired bagels get stuffed with ingredients like seasonal jams and potato chips, and Moreira bakes babka muffins and black-and-white alfajores.

While the Georgetown location allows for minimal location on-site, Dana is hopeful the deli will be able to offer its expanded menu, complete with fried latkes and challah roll subs, in Capitol Hill. For the most part, the new stores will offer the same menu as the original.

“Our dream is that every location has a couple things that are unique to that location to keep things spicy,” Dana says.

• Call Your Mother Hopes to Open Its Georgetown Bagel Shop Before February [EDC]
• D.C.’s Call Your Mother Deli Is One of Eater’s Best New Restaurants in America [EDC]