Who Opened Bloomingdale's Newest Restaurant? Mostly, the Neighbors Did.

"This December, our lease at 84 T Street comes to an end, and with it, établi as we know it. We will pour our final glass of wine there."

Kathleen Davis and Thomas Boisvert sent that note in late May. It gave regulars seven months to stop by for a last bottle at the corner of First and T. Seven months turned out to be about three. By the end of July, the closing had moved up to August, and the room already had a successor with an opening date. Bramble & Rye opened on September 16.

A wine bar closing in August and its successor serving dinner by mid-September is a quick turnaround for any D.C. corner. How it happened says a lot about how Bloomingdale's small restaurant cluster renews itself. This fall's biggest changes along First Street and Rhode Island Avenue came from people already on the block. They live a few doors down, they hold an existing lease, or they already run the kitchen across the street.

The goodbye that came early

Établi's owners didn't sell to a stranger. The July announcement described a partnership. Davis and Boisvert teamed up with Bloomingdale residents Chef Jeremiah Brooks and Anthony Brooks to reinvent the space, and the établi Wine Club would carry on under the new name with its monthly gatherings. By the time Bramble & Rye opened, Washingtonian reported that Établi's owners remain silent partners in the new restaurant.

The Brookses are a married couple who moved to Bloomingdale two years ago. They weren't planning to open anything. When Établi announced its closing, they saw the opportunity. They bring real experience. They ran Hamilton's on Main in Newark, Delaware, and Hamilton's Tavern in Harpers Ferry. Jeremiah has cooked at Matchbox. Anthony worked the hospitality side at Rose's Luxury and, most recently, Barbouzard.

The outgoing owners took a similar path once before. Their first lease, signed 13 years ago this December, was for The Pursuit at 1421 H Street NE. After moving to 1025 H Street in 2019, and after the upheaval of 2020, they relocated to 84 T Street. They wrote that they were "lucky that 84 T Street and the Bloomingdale neighborhood were ready to welcome us."

What the new kitchen chose not to cook

The menu is the clearest sign that the new owners know the block. The kitchen came with a huge Marra Forni wood-fired oven, the kind built for pizza. The Brookses decided against a pizza or pasta menu because they didn't want to step on their neighbors, Bacio Pizzeria and The Red Hen.

Instead, Jeremiah calls the concept "broadly modern coastal cuisine," pulling from "the panache of the Mediterranean" and "the grit of the Caribbean." The oven still gets used, just not for pizza. Here's how the opening menu reads, according to Washingtonian's September 24 report:

• To start: customizable charcuterie boards, salmon crudo with a cantaloupe-and-serrano leche de tigre, and octopus carpaccio with white bean purée and preserved-lemon relish
• Larger plates: fire-roasted scallops with celeriac and apple, wood-fired cauliflower steak, Calabrian chili-spiked Creole shrimp scampi with cornbread, and coffee-rubbed brisket with charred leek chimichurri
• For the dog: a "paw-tio" menu with wood-fired chicken and rice, puppy poke, peanut butter biscuits, and a pup-sicle

The couple has three dogs and made sure the patio welcomes them. Plans also include happy hour and Sunday brunch. Anthony told Washingtonian the goal goes beyond a neighborhood hangout. He hopes Bramble & Rye becomes a destination "like Red Hen across the street." Current details are on the Bramble & Rye website.

Four tenants, one address

The corner of First and T has hosted a restaurant for most of the past 16 years. Each one lasted a while, and the next usually arrived soon after.

The longest gap in that table came between Rustik's last night in late November 2016 and Tyber Creek's opening the next May. PoPville announced Établi as Tyber Creek's successor one week after Tyber Creek said it wouldn't reopen. This year, Établi closed in August and Bramble & Rye opened on September 16.

The same move, across the street

Bramble & Rye was one of two kitchen changes on the block this September. The other happened at The Red Hen's group.

Chef Robert Cain has led The Red Hen's kitchen since 2021. He was recently named Divisional Chef for the All-Purpose Hospitality Group, and his role now covers the menus at both The Red Hen and Boundary Stone at 116 Rhode Island Avenue NW. His new Boundary Stone menu launched September 8. It's tighter and more ambitious, with dishes like Crispy Chicken "Katsu Style," Cavatelli Bolognese, and a Romano Salad with miso tahini dressing. It also leans further into Irish ingredients, including rashers, blood sausage, Tayto Crisps and Batchelors Baked Beans. Brunch now includes The Full Irish and a Breakfast Sando. There are two new burgers, a dry-aged Pub Burger with Irish cheddar and a Smash Burger with a house sauce made with peppadew peppers.

The new menu arrived just ahead of Boundary Stone's 15th anniversary on September 26. To mark it, the pub worked with Atlas Brew Works on a German-style schwarzbier called Fünfzen, released September 24.

That gives the block two long-running anchors at full strength. The Red Hen is 13 years old. In its February 2026 review, Eater described reservations as hard to get and walk-ins as facing waits. Washingtonian ranked it No. 18 on its 2026 Very Best Restaurants list, and its MICHELIN Guide profile shows the Bib Gourmand. The restaurant's website lists dinner seven nights a week, starting at 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and at 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Bacio Pizzeria, at 81 Seaton Place NW, lists hours of 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.

So in one month, a resident couple took over one kitchen on the corner, and an existing chef took over a second. Neither change brought in a new operator.

The fall calendar around the corner

The neighborhood's regular events run on their own schedule, and most are within a short walk of First and T. Listings come from each organizer's own calendar, so check before heading out.

• Bloomingdale Farmers Market, Sundays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., year-round, at 105 R Street NW. Big Bear Cafe lists October 4 as the next market date.
• Trivia, twice on Wednesday, October 7. Boundary Stone runs Jeopardy trivia on Wednesdays, and Big Bear Cafe at 1700 1st Street NW lists its own trivia the same night.
• Open mic at Boundary Stone, most Mondays, including October 5.
• Bloomingdale Civic Association membership meetings, October 19 and November 16 at 7 p.m. at St. George's Episcopal Church.
• Crispus Fall Festival, free, Saturday, November 7, 3 to 5 p.m., at Crispus Attucks Park, 23 U Street NW. The rain date is Sunday, November 8.
• Big Bear Cafe holiday street market, December 18, with more than 25 small businesses.

Établi regulars can still find the wine club at Bramble & Rye, which hosts its monthly gatherings.

Still unannounced on First Street

Not every storefront has a new tenant yet. In August, a PoPville reader asked about 1720 1st Street NW at Randolph Place. The ground-floor market there had been empty for a while. Then a dumpster showed up, followed by blinds in the windows. No tenant has been announced.

A few blocks away, El Camino at 108 Rhode Island Avenue NW was reported closed in January. By February 10, PoPville reported it had reopened under new management. Who ends up at 1720 1st Street is the next open question for this stretch.

The team at Shepherd Homes Group follows Bloomingdale's storefronts the same way neighbors do, one block and one announcement at a time. If you hear what's coming to 1720 1st Street before we do, or you'd like to talk about what changes like these mean for your own corner of the neighborhood, we'd love to hear from you. Contact Us.