Navy Yard’s New Barbershop Bar Includes a Drink With Every Haircut

A chain of boutique barbershops with built-in cocktail bars has plans to put at least five franchises in the D.C. area, starting with a Navy Yard location that opened earlier this month.

Scissors & Scotch (1M Street SE) is still waiting on its liquor license, but area manager Kai Christian expects to have one in hand by next week. The bar plans to offer more than 20 mixed drinks at an entryway bar that will open as early as 9 a.m. That includes bloody marys with a beef jerky garnish and Irish coffees to help clients stay alert in their quilted leather salon chairs. The bar will also accept customers who aren’t there to get groomed.

A limited number of complimentary cuts will continue through the weekend as the shop finds its footing. During D.C.’s Phase 2 reopening, workers and clients at barbershops and other businesses offering “personal services” are required to wear masks during appointment-only visits.

Haircuts at the back barbershop, separated past the bar by a glass door, come with a drink (coffee, cocktails, or beer) on the house. Just six to seven clients are allowed inside at a time under current restrictions.

“The cocktail program is that added bonus to ensure our clients are having a great time,” Christian says. “After all we are a barbershop first.”

The lounge, which will have a 30-person max when full capacity returns, is lined with oversized chairs, tables, and 10-foot windows. Once COVID-19 restrictions clear, the handsome setup will start looking more like a cocktail bar. Christian plans to stay open longer before and after Nationals home games and host invitation-only spirit tastings that would be free for members.

Scissors & Scotch/official photo

The cocktail menus follows franchises in cities like Nashville, Denver, and Austin. Seven house cocktails ($10-$12) include usual suspects like a Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Moscow mule, and a shaken-or-stirred martini. A signature section of 14 cocktails ($14) call for more complex flavors and accoutrements, like toasted marshmallow, egg white, and caramelized pineapple.

Cocktails will loop in local distilleries where possible, says Christian, whose experience includes stints at Don Julio’s and Del Frisco’s.

Scissors & Scotch plans to expand to Ballston (4000 N Fairfax Drive) by early June and Union Market’s Press House DC building (301 N Street NE) by mid-to-late summer. Two more Northern Virginia locations will debut in Reston and Vienna this fall, Christian says. There’s no food menu in D.C., but Virginia menus will offer some small bites.

Meanwhile, Navy Yard got another new drinking option this week with the arrival of Cambria Hotel Washington D.C. Capitol Riverfront.

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