Photo: Jamie Liu.UPDATE: Here’s the official word from Jamie Leeds, published during Tom Sietsema’s Washington Post chat this afternoon. It appears as if Leeds is selling Commonwealth in order to completely focus her efforts on a large expansion at Hank’s Oyster Bar in Dupont Circle:
Chef Jamie Leeds and her business partner Sandy Lewis are poised to sell CommonWealth, their two-year-old gastropub in Columbia Heights later this month.
Leeds, who also owns the popular Hank’s Oyster Bars in Dupont Circle and Old Ton, says her landlord “made us an offer that we couldn’t turn down.” The British-themed restaurant will be replaced by a similar concept from the newly formed Irving Street Restaurant Group headed by Terry Cullen. He expects to open the doors of the yet-to-be-christened dining room in May.
The sale of CommonWealth will free Leeds up to concentrate on what she calls “my baby,” her original Hank’s in Washington. The chef has acquired the brownstone next door and is waiting on construction permits to start expanding the six-year-old seafood establishment. The change will double the size of Hank’s patio and possibly lengthen the menu, says Leeds.
As for the space at 1400 Irving Street NW, the Washington Business Journal expands on Cullen’s plans to “change the name of the space, expand its bar area and keep a pub theme for the location.” Cullen is the restauranteur behind Lou’s City Bar, a sports bar project which is scheduled to open in Columbia Heights this March.
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Prince of Petworth has the jump on some big news for those in the Columbia Heights area — Commonwealth, the Jamie Leeds-owned British gastropub at 1400 Irving Street NW which opened in 2008, will reportedly be closing its doors at the end of the month. The Prince notes that the “space will be closed for 60 days before a new ownership takes over,” and “there will be a new name though it will remain pub food.”
When contacted for comment this morning, Bill Gatter, the bar manager at the restaurant, said that an official announcement regarding the restaurant’s future will be made this afternoon. Gatter refused further comment.
The restaurant’s closing would certainly be a heavy blow for the local beer community and fans of the pub’s excellent scotch eggs.
