Makan Runs Out of Dishes, Barflies Collect at Thirsty Crow For the Last Evening

The Columbia Heights important Malaysian restaurant Makan and its downstairs sibling bar Thirsty Crow wrapped up service final evening the identical method it opened almost 5 years in the past: with an earnest devotion to sharing Southeast Asian consolation meals. Final weekend, chef and proprietor James Wozniuk introduced his twin eating locations would shut for good on Sunday, February 9, and Eater stopped by for its remaining few hours on Tremendous Bowl Sunday.

There was no Champagne handed across the heat, mural-covered restaurant nor the divey, graffiti-covered sports activities bar beneath. As an alternative, a way of camaraderie and slight melancholy infused the restaurant as prospects ordered iconic dishes from a shortened menu and bar goers downed their final Massive Michelle cocktails.

“It feels bittersweet,” says Wozniuk. He cited a “good storm” of causes for the closure — excessive lease, inflation, a slowing trickle of consumers, rise in neighborhood crime — and plans to take a break from eating places for now.

Within the eating room at Makan, a minimized employees, which Wozniuk needed to minimize as enterprise slowed to a trickle in the previous few months, went from 25 covers a day to just about 250 covers each evening this previous week. It had been thrilling to see so many individuals exhibiting as much as dine on the restaurant throughout its final days of service. But there have been struggles: The understaffed eating room ran out of dishes and the bar had whittled down its ingenious cocktail checklist that riffs off kitchen substances to a pair of signature drinks. Eliminating its stock undoubtedly “labored out,” he mentioned, however Makan needed to shut down reservations by Saturday morning in case there was nothing left to serve by Sunday evening.

After 600 brunch covers on Sunday morning, the menu shrank because the evening progressed. The spicy potatoes on raita had been gone, noodles had been no extra, and our waiter got here again to apologetically tell us that the cocktails we’d simply put in weren’t coming. The bar had simply run dry of pineapple juice, the important thing element within the final standing drinks.

Rey Lopez/Eater D.C.

By 7 p.m., the primary Malaysian dish that Wozniuk ever realized to cook dinner was nonetheless on the menu — rendang daging, a easy, slow-cooked beef dish that soaks up the flavors of coconut, lemongrass, nutmeg, and lime leaf till the meat can simply be picked aside with a fork. Two extra classics additionally made it to our desk: mango salad full of bitter calamansi juice and spicy sambar belacan, plus the satay hen with addictive peanut sauce worthy of scraping the bowl for each final bit. Our waiter fastidiously tucked away our leftovers, with not one piece of inexperienced mango wasted.

The funky, flavorful menu that regulars realized to like was crumbling earlier than our eyes, however nobody else within the restaurant gave the impression to be in mourning: The desk subsequent to us was full of two younger males carrying full fits (on a Sunday, nonetheless) and ordering every little thing they might to assemble a remaining meal. The desk behind us was singing “comfortable birthday” to a smiling patron who didn’t appear bothered that there was now not a dessert part.

Emily Venezky/Eater

Even Wozniuk gave the impression to be having fun with himself, stopping by tables to speak to diners he acknowledged and even sitting down with one couple that was ordering bottles of wine and holding court docket within the restaurant as pals stopped by.

Wozniuk grew to become smitten with the delicacies throughout a random 15-hour layover in Kuala Lumpur in the midst of a analysis journey for his previous place as chef de delicacies at Maketto. He known as the road meals he encountered “a revelation” and hoped that he might assist the DMV fall for the delicacies that’s uncommon within the space. After many extra journeys and pointers from Lao chef Seng Luangrath of Padaek and Thip Khao fame he rented the two-story constructing on the eleventh Road and Park Highway nook and opened Makan and Thirsty Crow in March 2020.

The scene downstairs at Thirsty Crow was slightly sadder, with the bouncer earnestly asking individuals to not remind him it was the final evening as he took photographs of bar goers with the neon Thirsty Crow signal. The drained head bartender mentioned they had been “slammed all week” however the bar was a lot much less busy tonight. The bar menu was condensed much more than upstairs, with solely spicy peanuts and fries accessible, so devoted barflies had been bringing in their very own to-go orders, snacking on pizza as they sipped beers and performed pool. Regardless of the Tremendous Bowl airing on each TV, the neighborhood crowd taking part in the bar’s collected video games of Battleship, Uno, and Jenga had been undoubtedly not right here for the NFL finale.

Emily Venezky/Eater

At halftime, Wozniuk made an look downstairs, downing a spherical of pictures together with his pals and employees, letting out a considerably joyful “salud.” As he made the rounds right here too, speaking a few “nice 4 years” and shaking arms, the underlying vitality of the bar appeared to perk up. There was nonetheless purpose to quietly have fun, ordering the final signature cocktail on the menu time and again, as the entire crowd appeared to reminisce collectively.

“We’re glad persons are exhibiting up,” Wozniuk says. “It makes us really feel like we made a small footprint on the town.”

Rey Lopez/Eater D.C.