The Fainting Goat Tavern, a new bar/restaurant, will be ready to open in the U Street Corridor by late November, say co-owners Greg Algie and Henry Bruce. Greg Algie's background is in the bar/restaurant industry; he is a partner in
Fado Pub in Chinatown and Annapolis. This is the first such venture for investor Henry Bruce.
The partners aimed to maximize the establishment's customer space – about 2,000 out of a total 3,300 square feet – and to create an atmosphere of the new American tavern. "We hope it will be thought of as the local neighborhood tavern, albeit in a very busy neighborhood," says Algie. It will be a casual place, he adds, where locals are comfortable going to two or three times a week.
The layout, a split level, is somewhat unique. Customers will go up or down four or five stairs when they enter, and each level will have a bar and tables for dining.
Edit Lab at Streetsense, which also designed the Red Hen and Boundary Stone, is creating The Fainting Goat. That firm says it uses a handcrafted architectural approach to create one-of-a-kind environments and to breathe new life into urban neighborhoods.
In terms of food and drink, Algie says the Tavern will incorporate local and sustainable elements, and that it will offer craft beers and high-end comfort food made from top quality ingredients.
The partners started looking for the right space more than a year ago, but construction didn't get underway until August. We are making good progress because the space, which previously had been an Urban Essentials home furnishings store, "had good bones," says Algie.
Asked about the name, Algie says that Fainting Goat is a breed of goat that falls down if it gets too nervous or scared and that
online videos of this are pretty humorous. "We want the Tavern to be a light-hearted place to be so it seemed appropriate," he says.