Neighborhood Eats: Union Market Opening, Nick’s, Tony & Joes Are Back

• September 6th 2012

by Rebecca Cooper

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The ‘Eats has been on an August recess of sorts, but we’re back for fall with a full plate of restaurant news, the biggest of which is probably the much awaited opening of Union Market.

Opening … soon: Union Market, the massive renovation of a 47,000-square foot building at the Florida Avenue Market at 1309 5th Street NE will open to the public on September 8 — exactly, it should be noted, on the date owners predicted it would open a few months ago. The vendors at Union Market will include Peregrine Espresso, Rappahanock Oyster Co., Righteous Cheese, and Buffalo & Bergen soda fountain, among others. The market will host the DC Scoop ice cream competition this Sunday. It will be open three days a week at first, and eventually expand to six days a week later this year.

The second location of Courthouse sandwich joint Earl’s — yes, like the Earl of Sandwich — opens in Ballston this Friday, owner Steve Dugan tells UrbanTurf. The shop, which is taking over the shuttered brgr:shack space across from the Ballston Metro at 4215 Fairfax Drive, will have a lot more seating than the Courthouse location, but will feature the same menu of sandwiches made from meats and vegetables roasted in-house, as well as breakfast options.

Epic Smokehouse, a new upscale barbecue restaurant in Pentagon City, opens Monday, according to Young & Hungry. Barbecue classics, including brisket and pulled pork, share space on the menu with more eclectic entrees, including a chipotle-seasoned sea bass and the Epic burger, which is made of ground beef and pork. The 84-seat restaurant at 1330 S. Fern Street in Arlington also features an ample wine list and cocktail menu that will eventually employ smoked ice in drinks like the bacon bourbon old-fashioned.

Chef Geoff’s latest location will open September 12 in Rockville, Geoff Tracy announced this week. There will be a soft opening on September 10 and 11, for which tickets are available for $15 (lunch) $25 (dinner) and $10 (happy hour). The spot at 12256 Rockville Pike was formerly Againn Tavern and before that Houston’s. The location will feature the same menu — and epic beers during happy hour — like the other Chef Geoff locations.

Re-opened: Nick’s Riverside Grill and Tony & Joe’s Seafood, two of the restaurants hardest hit by the massive flooding at the Georgetown waterfront (map) more than a year ago, reopened their dining rooms in late August. They’d been serving at the outdoor bar for awhile, but the renovated dining rooms opened last week just in time for the end of summer. The renovation of Nick’s Riverside also added on 17,000 square feet of space to the location; they took over the Cabanas space next door and added another bar and a second-floor dining room.

Open: Kafe Bohem, the Viennese style coffeehouse next door to the recently opened Czech restaurant Bistro Bohem, opened Monday in Shaw (map), Washingtonian reports. The 40-seat cafe is only featuring coffee and pastries for now, but soon will begin lunch service with a light menu. At night, the cafe’s seats will be a second dining room for Bistro Bohem.

Vigilante Coffee has added itself to the list of pop-ups around the city with a new pop-up inside Mr. Yogato that runs from 7-10 a.m. on weekday mornings. The Vigilante team will serve pour-overs from two single-origin coffee producers — one of them always Hawaiian — each day in the space at 1515 17th Street NW in Dupont Circle. They’ll also serve pastries from one of their pop-up brethren, Blind Dog Cafe, which is operating in the Darnell’s Bar space on weekdays until 4 p.m.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/neighborhood_eats_union_market_and_earls_opening_nicks_tony_joes_are_back/5989.