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Anchovy Social, the Navy Yard rooftop bar that operates under the umbrella of New York hospitality magnate Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, reopened at half capacity today with limited indoor seating, outdoor tables, and a new contact-free ordering and payment system customers can pull up on their smart phones using table-specific QR codes.
Maialino Mare, USHG’s Roman seafood restaurant at the lobby level of the Thompson Hotel, remains closed. On March 13, the pair of restaurants were among the first D.C. dining venues to close in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. That was three days before D.C. imposed a lengthy dine-in ban.
Anchovy Social debuted less than two months before going on hiatus. A representative for USHG says opening executive chef Jorge Chicas is back in the kitchen at Anchovy Social, which maintains a similar menu of snacks, shared plates, seafood towers, and dips. Watermelon and feta salad, prosciutto and melon skewers, and a tin of marinated mussels with Calabrian chile are all new additions on the summer menu. Roman-style square pizzas appear to have been dropped from the menu. Servers still deliver food and drinks to the table after customers order on their phones.
A new lineup of seasonal cocktails ($16) includes a summer swizzle — made with gold and dark rums, pistachio orgeat, pineapple, orange, grenadine, and angostura bitters — and a L’acqua Fresca with mezcal, watermelon, basil, and spicy pepperoncino.
In July, Meyer announced USHG would drop a progressive no-tipping policy that applied to the D.C. restaurants. The new policy implements a revenue share among kitchen staff, with servers supplementing wages with tips. Despite the change in the company, the prices on the Anchovy Social menu have remained the same on most items, including wine ($12), beer ($9), shared plates ($14), and dips and tins ($14).
Anchovy Social will open at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and at 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Customers can make reservations on the restaurant’s website. Walk-ins will wait in a socially distanced line at the base of the hotel before being escorted upstairs. Customers must pass a temperature check and log information for contact tracing.
