Jane Jane’s New Sister Bar is a Moody Cabaret in Union Market Referred to as Bar Betsie

A dramatic neon purple curtain and customized dark-wooden cubicles make up the playful and comfy aesthetic of Bar Betsie, which brings divey vibes, surprisingly upscale cocktails, and all-American consuming snacks to the Union Market district. The latest creation from the homeowners of Jane Jane, Ralph Brabham, JP Sabatier, and Drew Porterfield, swings open on Tuesday, March 18 (1328 4th Road NE).

Whereas the trio’s unique Logan Circle bar was named after Brabham’s mother and mirrored the Southern fashion of hospitality he and Porterfield grew up with in North Carolina, Bar Betsie honors Sabatier’s Puerto Rican mom, Betsie Giró. Her influences are seen within the many tequila drinks (her favourite spirit) and even basic San Juan-style miniature homes from his grandmother’s residence lining the partitions.

“There’s references and echoes to who they’re as as folks in our lives, and we form of do add little issues in honor of them all through the menu which might be identical to nods to those wonderful girls,” Sabatier defined. The rising hospitality group did not got down to identify bars after their moms, explains Brabham, however after a couple of alternate options fell by, “they’ve come to embody just a little little bit of their presence and personalities in just a little and delicate manner, of our respective mothers.”

Nevertheless, the homeowners didn’t wish to “pigeonhole” Betsie as a Puerto Rican bar, Sabatier says, in order that they performed a couple of analysis journeys to Chicago to seize the essence of an American dive with all of the drama and camp that the designers from Edit at Streetsense created at Jane Jane. The purple velvet-covered swooping cubicles and a theatrical marquee over the bar displaying not simply the quintessential cocktails however their substances alludes to these influences, plus there’s a rum-fueled chilly brew drink on the menu referred to as Cafe Caribe (a basic spot in San Juan) and the playful Let Me Simply Say This (a typical phrase of his mom’s) made with Angostura, rum, lemon, and Orgeat. The cocktail checklist is quite a bit shorter than the 25-to-30 artistic cocktails on Jane Jane’s menu at a time and this displays how they needed to create extra of a enjoyable, celebratory area than an elevated cocktail bar.

Rey Lopez/Eater DC

“I miss old-fashioned, enjoyable bar vibes,” says Sabatier. “It’s our little slogan for this: it’s a celebration, and everybody’s invited, simply because we wish it to be a really welcoming, cool, enjoyable celebration vibe.” The cocktail checklist displays that with solely 12-to-15 signatures at a time, with many on faucet. Even shooters make an look on the drinks menu, with Sabatier joking that they’re going to deliver again check tube photographs filled with tequila and blackberry flavors, lemon drops, and a Midori-mezcal combo. There’s additionally extra beer and wine on the menu, together with pores and skin contact glasses and native brewery pints, which they struggled to promote at Jane Jane, the place “90-plus-percent of all of our gross sales are cocktails, not one glass of wine was promoting.” Sabatier used to work at Rappahnnock Oyster Bar, which previously occupied a stall at Union Market, and at all times felt like the world was a fan of wine and beer.

Rey Lopez/Eater DC

Rey Lopez/Eater DC

The bites on the menu replicate American finger meals pulled from throughout the nation; Sabatier maintains that, “should you want silverware, it’s a restaurant.” Visitors can dip into creamy chipotle queso and Buffalo rooster dip, stab lil smokies cooked down in grape jelly and barbecue sauce (one other nod to North Carolina), or scoop up a fried pickle dip made with native Gordy’s Pickles and topped with cacio e pepe-influenced breadcrumbs.

Makan alum chef Justin Chang consulted on the menu, holding to extremely easy, however tasty, substances to make snacks shine. Home-marinated olives with lemon peels and entire roasted garlic cloves pair completely with the Negroni on faucet (or the marginally upscale Negroni Bianco).

Comforting bites can function a late-night snack, however you may as well order a couple of and pull collectively a “little dive bar lady dinner,” Change advises. Just like the crowd-pleasing Cheez-Its served with each drink at Jane Jane, each desk at Bar Betsie will get a glass bowl of neon-orange cheese balls after they sit down. Snag a refill for $4.

To start out, Bar Betsie is open Tuesday by Sunday (starting at 5 p.m. on weekdays and a couple of p.m. on the weekends) and shutting up at 2 a.m. each night time besides Sunday, when doorways shut at midnight. There are many hidden “peek-a-boos” put in by Edit at Streetsense all through the moody bar, which observant company must uncover themselves within the first few weeks.

Brian Miller