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We’re not even a month into 2012, and a new slew of bars and restaurants is already arriving in the Washington scope. We’ve already covered the openings of Society Fair , Boxcar , Irish Whiskey Trade House and Fuel ; today we’ll check out two established D.C. bars that are expanding operations: St. Arnold’s Mussel Bar has opened a situation in Cleveland Park, and Glover Park’s Town Entry has doubled in size since moving into the former Blue Ridge space on Wisconsin Avenue.
St. Arnold’s Mussel Bar
St. Arnold’s is a cozy, basement-equal Belgian beer bar and mussels restaurant hidden away on Jefferson Part of the country NW, a quiet little sidestreet just steps away from the bustle of Dupont Circumnavigate and Connecticut Avenue. While it offers a better-than-average draft lineup and great, delicious bowls of classic moules-frites, part of its allure has been its out-of-the-way position.
The bar’s second location is anything but out-of-the-way: right in the middle of Cleveland Reservation at Connecticut and Ordway in the old Sabores space. St. Arnold’s Mussel Bar looks more like a solarium than a beer bar, with window-pane “walls” that roll up in good weather, a ungenerous bar and a sea of blonde wood tables. The mussels are every bit as good as at the original — sizzling metal pots filled with bivalves floating in a affluence, creamy broth of herbs and meat. (The L’Alsacienne has extended strips of bacon and chunks of potatoes and leeks hiding in the mischief-and-wine sauce.) If only the wimpy frites were a match for the moules.
Source: Washington Post (blog)