Keith McNally is famous for building lively restaurants in New York where the famous and powerful dine and for serving the public. call out Customers on Instagram if they behave badly. Now he’s covering DC. McNally partners with Le Diplomate’s Stephen Starr to bring French bistro pasties To the Union Market area earlier this year. And on Dec. 10, he’ll open Minetta Tavern on one of the neighborhood’s side streets—”Parisian steakhouse meets classic New York City tavern,” the bill reads.

While D.C.’s Minetta Tavern will carry the New York location’s famous Black Label burger and similar moody wood-paneled aesthetic, it differs from the Greenwich Village flagship thanks to its palatial upstairs lounge called the Lucy Mercer Bar after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mistress will be. There, you’ll find a comfortable, early 20th-century-inspired room for martinis, champagne and elegant snacks including caviar and truffles; phones are not allowed.

The original Minetta Tavern dates back to 1937, when it became the headquarters for literary luminaries such as EE Cummings and Ernest Hemingway, among other prominent and powerful figures. McNally took over the restaurant in 2008 and, as with his other restaurants such as Balthazar, Pastis and Morandi, turned it into a destination for a new generation of celebrities and cultural figures (plus for “vagabonds, prostitutes and ex-cons”). McNally said considers the ideal customer base).

McNally has at least some familiarity with DC. Twenty years ago, when he was particularly obsessed with paintings, he says he took the train from here once a month to visit the National Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection. “Even though I didn’t see much other than museums, I loved DC and always wanted to spend more time here,” he says.

Ultimately, it was the 2016 stroke that motivated McNally to expand his restaurant business. The left side of his body was semi-paralyzed and his speech was slurred (hence most of his interviews Washingtonian conducted via e-mail). “I was so depressed that I lost all sense of purpose. “For better or worse, building and running restaurants is the only thing that gives me purpose in life,” says McNally. “I’ve always enjoyed the seriousness of D.C., so I figured I should open my most serious restaurant here.”

For Minetta Tavern in D.C., McNally partnered with operations manager Roberta Delice, who has worked with him for 27 years, and Minetta Tavern’s New York chef Laurent Kalkotour (the best chef I’ve ever worked with).

We expect a 75 percent overlap between the DC and New York menus. Favorite dishes include roasted bone marrow, onion soup, New York dry-aged bone in, and Grand Marnier or chocolate soufflé. New offerings include trout with beurre blanc and smoked trout roe, as well as pig’s trotter stuffed with pork stew on a bed of French lentils.

Kalkotour says he aims to balance heavier, meatier dishes with lighter, shareable dishes. The menu also combines familiar classics like coq au vin and moules frites with less-seen French dishes like lobster bellevue with lobster jelly over lobster medallions on a bed of celery remoulade. The predominantly French wine list pairs with the food.

The reservation-only Lucy Mercer Bar upstairs has a completely different, more indulgent menu and look. McNally says he was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 film: Barry LyndonIt’s about an 18th-century social climber who seduces his way into the British aristocracy. “Some of the French palaces in the film are so ornately decorated with mirrors, sconces and chandeliers that I thought it would make an interesting contrast to the 20th-century American tavern downstairs,” says McNally.

As you walk towards the Lucy Mercer Bar, you’ll spy photos of prominent political figures with their mistresses (or mistresses, as rumor has it). McNally was attracted to the theme of mistresses because their roles were understated and concealed. “I think they’ve had a bad reputation historically,” he says. Lucy Mercer in particular was “really smart” and at one point was social secretary to Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor. “I want to debunk the typical image of the lover.”

The bar itself is outfitted with plush velvet sofas, antique tables and lamps, a working fireplace and portraits of provocative-eyed women; these are all specially hand-painted copies of 16th-century works of art. Robert Padilla, the in-house artist behind the portraits, also spent nine months painting a mural featuring historic Washington views across from the downstairs dining room. Featuring red leather banquettes and checkered floors, the space is also adorned with illustrations, photographs and cartoons, including some from McNally’s personal collection.

The upstairs menu includes more refined small bites and appetizer-sized dishes such as truffle and ricotta flatbread, smoked salmon mille feuille with salmon roe, and wagyu carpaccio with caviar. The Black Label burger will also be there in slider form, as will the fries. Delice says the Lucy Mercer Bar wine list will be “a little more indulgent” and the French-inspired cocktails will be “interesting but simple.”

Let’s get back to the no-phone policy. Asked how strict the bar would be about enforcing this, McNally says: “In some ways, I’d like to see patrons at the Lucy Mercer Bar not use their cell phones. We’ll see. I’ve got to finish building this place first.”

However, what happens inside the restaurant does not necessarily stay inside the restaurant. McNally is famous for using his provocative tone. Instagram account Dining at New York restaurants for the rich, the famous, and the badly behaved. It went viral a few years ago prohibition Talk show host James Corden has been sued for allegedly mistreating staff at Balthazar after egg whites were mixed into his wife’s egg yolk omelet. Restaurateur and famous magazine editor Graydon Carter in the explosion After the “fancy Bastard” didn’t show up for a lunch reservation for 12 people at Morandi. He also regularly publishes managers’ end-of-night reports filled with interesting details about covers, complaints, comps, and VIPs.

When asked who would be on the VIP list for DC, McNally lamented that writer Christopher Hitchens—”my only friend who lives in DC”—is no longer alive. He added that he had never met the owners of Politics and Prose, Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, but they seemed like “perfect customers.”

So will McNally release manager reports at D.C.’s Minetta Tavern and continue to dish on big names, big tippers, and big jerks like he does in New York? “Definitely!” he says.

Minetta Tavern. 12874 Neal Pl., NE.

Food Editor

Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian In July 2016, she was the Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist for the Washington City Paper. He is a Colorado native and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.