Yesterday I was walking down U Street and spotted a new distillery, District Distilling Company at 1414 U Street NW, where Coppin’s Organic restaurant used to be. I popped in and explored a bit: they have a distillery with tours on the first floor and a bar and restaurant upstairs.
They’re currently making (and soon bottling) vodka, rum and gin, and they believe it’s the first rum distilled in the city in 200 years. They’re also blending whiskey (as it takes a while to distill and age whiskey) and will be bottling whiskey at some point in the future.
The folks at the desk downstairs said they were the first place to take advantage of the city’s new liquor license that allows distilling and serving on the premises (as in, a bar and tasting area rather than just samples.)
Tours are offered every day and cost $10, but you get $10 off a bottle if you take a tour.
The space itself is really nice, dark wood paneling and stone, and according to their website it’s seasonal American fare, like grilled rockfish, steak, scallops and such. They’re only open for dinner starting at 4 or 5pm depending on the day, plus and late night food until 1am, but will be doing weekend brunch sometime soon. The chef, Justin Bittner, previously worked at Bar Pilar, which has pretty tasty grub. One of the owners is Said Haddad, who is also involved with Saint Ex and Bar Pilar. Eater and the City Paper have a bit more about the owners and such.
Looks like an interesting spot. Here’s a few photos I snapped from the street too:
