A Tiny Cocktail Bar With Italian Small Plates Will Open Under a West End Jewelry Store

An underground cocktail bar called the Setting will arrive next month in the West End, Eater has learned. The small and cozy drinking destination, curiously situated underneath a jewelry store at 2512 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, comes from Lettuce Entertain You alum Nick Hopkins. Details are slim for now, but the Setting will serve classic and newfangled mixed drinks alongside “small Italian plates from our walk-in, closet-sized kitchen,” Hopkins says. Meanwhile, a new Champagne-and-caviar bar nearby in Georgetown is expected to welcome customers when COVID-19 restrictions loosen.

In other news...

• The D.C. bar industry is mourning the recent death of liquor legend Harvey Fry, a Texan whose super-rare collection of single-malt Scotch whisky helped build Jack Rose’s famous library of spirits.

• District Eatz, the Penn Quarter cafe that brought the neighborhood acai bowls and waffles during the peak of the pandemic, will open an additional location in Clifton, Virginia, on Monday, March 22, NoVa Mag reports.
• Roll’d, the Ballston Quarter sushi spot from restaurateur Mike Bramson and chef Nobu Yamazaki of Michelin-starred Sushi Taro, redid its menu, adding sushi burritos alongside sashimi and nigiri, specialty rolls, and bubble teas.
• Sign of the Whale, the Dupont fixture that flipped from a rowdy bar for college kids to a place with more elegant ambitions under new ownership, reopened last month with Korean bibimbap bowls, lamb pops, and grilled bourbon-glazed salmon (Wednesday to Saturday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.). Brunch reenters the mix on Saturday, March 6.

Rey Lopez/Eater DC

• Popville flags Thursday, March 4, as the reopening day for Mari Vanna, Dupont Circle’s beloved Russian restaurant known for infused vodkas and a quaint, cottage feel.
• Washington City Paper gives props to the wood-fired pizzas coming out of Bloomingdale’s coffee stalwart Big Bear Cafe. Pizzaiolo Robbie Tutlewski used to work for Chris Bianco’s well-respected group in Phoenix, Arizona.