City-State got two lives in the DC beer scene, the first as a brewery, the second as a bar. On July 25, City-State Public House, formerly City-State Brewing, will close for good. The landlord is moving on from all businesses in the complex, so this is no fault of the taproom, which made a pivot from a brewery to a bar, all while keeping the “third space” intact and turning a profit.
The brewery opened in June of 2021 and hit their stride with alums of 3 Stars Brewing, going so far as to rebrew that late establishment’s Peppercorn Saison in 2024.
In the winter of 2025, however, City-State moved on from brewing. “The thesis was that people cared more about coming here, to City-State, than about who was making the beer,” owner and founder James Warner told us last fall. So “if we took all the money we spent making beer, including staff and ingredients, and spent that on wholesale alcohol, what would that look like?” That thesis proved successful, and City-State began contract brewing batches of their beer at Red Bear Brewing, their neighbor down the Metropolitan Beer Trail.
You have about a month to pay your respects, and here’s hoping the District can drink them dry. Buy a shirt while you’re there, too.
