A bistro/bar is planned for Rhode Island Avenue NE Main Street as soon as the future owners of the building finalize the sale. Karlos Leopold, one of the owners, expects to officially receive title to the property at 2214 Rhode Island Avenue NE by the end of December.
“We are going through the due diligence process now. We are buying the building and lot,” Leopold says of the space, formerly a bar called Lace on the Avenue.
Leopold, co-owner of Boundary Road Restaurant, and his partner, Erin Lingle, a long-time restaurant manager, intend to transform the building into a so-far unnamed neighborhood restaurant.
The 2,000-square foot, two-story building will be completely remodeled. The interior will be demolished and replaced by new floors and fixtures. The façade is being changed as well. “It will look completely different from the outside than it does now,” he says.
When renovations are finished, an open area will be located on the first floor/basement; the restaurant/bar on the second level. Leopold expects to seat up to 90 inside and 12 to 20 on an outdoor patio area. The tentative opening date is mid- to late-spring 2015.
The restaurant will have a Mediterranean menu, including North African fare, and “a substantial beverage program,” says Leopold, of craft beer, wine and cocktails.
Leopold says that he and his partner, Lingle, are familiar with the neighborhood, which was named a District “main street” last year. “She walks this corridor every day to go to work,” he says.
Before buying the property, they checked out the demographics. “The Woodridge neighborhood used to have a thriving commercial district,” he says. ‘It seemed like a perfect niche for us.”
“We want it to truly be a neighborhood restaurant,” he says.