The multi-concept hangout Seasons & Sessions opens in Adams Morgan on Friday, officially replacing The Black Squirrel with live music, arcade games, craft beer on tap, and Southern-inspired food.
Frequenters of the former 18th Street burger bar should expect much more than a name change. Owner Aj Fastow (and silent partners) bought The Black Squirrel through a friend in 2017, and have spent the last four months revamping for an entirely new concept. Fastow is a “longtime patron and diehard fan of craft beer” who couldn’t resist buying the bar, he wrote in a press release announcing the impending changes. “[A]s the neighborhood has changed, we feel it is time for us to make a change as well.”
The result is three tiers of food, drink, and entertainment. Fastow kept Black Squirrel’s “craft beer roots,” he said (the pub held the city’s record for the most taps). More than 40 craft beers on daily rotation and cocktails will be available on all three floors. Drinkers can expect pours from local breweries and rarities from South Carolina, Georgia, and the West Coast, along with seasonal cocktails, prosecco on tap, and vanilla stout floats. A carry-over tradition of craft beer parties will offer opportunities to rub elbows with local and out-of-town brewers and try special releases.
“Before we closed, we had a lot of great regulars, great employees, a good culture,” says bartender John Geier. “It’s a new phase in the life of this place but everything that made it warm and welcoming is still going to be here.”
On the main floor is Seasons, a 60-seat gastropub open for dinner. Executive chef Moe Atari centered the menu around Americana comfort food with Southern and international flair. Buttermilk fried chicken, cheesy shrimp and grits, skillet cornbread, smoky duck wings laced in mumbo sauce, a house burger on a croissant bun, and seasonal homemade pie fit alongside vegetarian options like beet and feta salad or a lentil-stuffed acorn squash served in ginger-tomato curry.
Seasons will serve a $34.99 three-course boozy brunch on weekends, with a drag show on some Sundays. Patrons will have the option to tack on bottomless Bloody Marys and mimosas for $16.
Below diners’ feet, live music venue Sessions (bet you didn’t see that coming) has space for 80 people to see both local and touring acts, most for free, from stand-up comedy to punk and acoustic performers to returning favorites like Brass in the Basement. Seasons’ menu is also available for concertgoers.
On the top floor, S&S Arcade features thousands of classic games to play for a quarter, such as Pac-Man, Atari, and Streetfighter. The highlight is a virtual pinball machine with 3D capabilities and more than 75 games. The machine, which was released just two months ago, will be the first of its kind in the District, as well as one of the first in the country, Fastow believes. “The only other bar I know that has one is in Vegas,” he says. For the first month, the arcade will offer free play to all patrons. After that, it will cost 25 cents per game.
Fastow, who is a D.C. native, worked with a group of longtime friends to paint a sweeping mural of their favorite city spots in the basement: Malcolm X Park’s drum circle, the Aqueduct Bridge near Georgetown, and Freedom Plaza, to name a few.
He says the whole bar is a team effort from everyone in his life, especially toward the end of the renovations. Five weeks ago, his daughter Isabel was born. The bar will feature an Isabellini Martini, a mix of peach puree, prosecco, and vodka.
“Her timing could not have been worse,” said Fastow. “The least I could do was name a cocktail after her.”
For Seasons & Sessions’ soft opening this weekend, there will be food and drink specials (details pending) and a Saturday evening concert by locals and Black Squirrel favorites The Vico Cycle.
Seasons & Sessions is located at 2427 18th St NW in Adams Morgan. Hours are 4 p.m. to midnight Monday—Friday and 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
