A new lounge is coming to Brookland's main commercial strip. It will be the third incarnation of the restaurant that originally opened in 2012 as Little Ricky's, which served Cuban food. After Little Ricky's
closed in the spring and reopened as a Southern restaurant, the restaurant again closed for the summer, with residents wondering what would become of the spot next.
Now, a
liquor license application sheds some light on the future of the space. Under the same ownership, the restaurant will become "Gin Rummy," a lounge. The owners have applied to change the restaurant's license class from a "restaurant" to a "tavern," which allows for a greater percentage of the establishment's sales to come from alcohol, rather than from food.
Lola Pol, co-owner of Gin Rummy, confirms to Elevation DC that while the look and feel of the restaurant will be much different than Little Ricky's, they're keeping the same chef and continuing their focus on art (at Little Ricky's, patrons were so enamored with the Cuban art decorating the place that they "
were buying them off the walls," Pol told the
Ward 5 Heartbeat). Full details of the Gin Rummy lounge concept will be revealed closer to the spot's targeted opening date of December 1.
Little Ricky's was
generally favorably reviewed on Yelp and one of the first upscale restaurants to open in Brookland; since then, the Northeast neighborhood has seen many new restaurants--
Steel Plate,
Brookland Pint,
Smith Public Trust and
Brookland's Finest--open along the commercial corridors of 12th St NE and Monroe St NE.