Fifteen years is an eternity in the restaurant business, so after 15 years of beer-focused fine dining, Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s Birch & Barley is getting a revamp. July 13, 2024 will be the restaurant’s last day, to be replaced by Mallard, “a restaurant that reimagines Southern cuisine with a refined yet playful twist,” on August 6.
With brewery openings, beer production, and sales stagnant over the past few years, this news may lend itself to the “hot take industry,” but we’re not going to play that game. For 15 years Birch & Barley showed that beer has a place at the table in better restaurants, and Mallard will continue that tradition. “The beverage program at Mallard remains robust. With 16 drafts and a wide array of bottles and cans featured from ChurchKey’s massive list upstairs, we’re confident this restaurant will remain a craft beer destination,” NRG Managing Partner and Beer Director Greg Engert tells us, adding, “Birch & Barley needed a refresh. As the neighborhood has continued to evolve and new restaurants have opened, we felt it was the right time to take the restaurant below ChurchKey in a new direction.”
Hamilton Johnson, Pic via John Rorapaugh for LeadingDC. That better be a mixed fermentation ale and not sparkling wine!
If you’re impatient and don’t want to wait until August, Mallard chef Hamilton Johnson, a veteran of DC dining, has already tweaked the menu at Churchkey, adding a pimento cheese appetizer, a catfish sandwich, and shrimp and grits, among other dishes. Don’t worry, the tots and wings are still there!
Churchkey staff are up to the challenge of beer pairings. “All of this food will pair nicely with our craft beer collection, particularly as we roll out a series of ChurchKey 15th Anniversary collaboration events later this summer and into the fall. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at Mallard and ChurchKey,” says Engert.
We’ll drink to that, and watch this space for more details on some of those events.
In other NRG news, Snallygaster returns to Pennsylvania Avenue NW on Saturday, October 12, 2024. Tickets go on sale on July 9.
