Update, 3/25: The Sally’s Middle Name spot already has a new tenant: Thamee, a Burmese restaurant, will debut in mid-April, Washingtonian reported. The concept comes from chef Jocelyn Law-Yone, her daughter Simone Jacobson, and their business partner Eric Wang, the trio behind Union Market food stall and Burmese market Toli Moli.
Per Washingtonian, Law-Yone’s dishes—which will include barbecue with masala curry, citrus-stuffed fish, and mohinga, a catfish noodle curry—draw from her childhood in Burma. The restaurant is meant to honor her family (thamee translates to “daughter”). “They know how to feed their families well and make them happy to come to the table,” Law-Yone told the site. “All those women are very much a part of me and completely overlooked.”
Your first chance to taste Thamee dishes will be at a series of ticketed suppers on April 18-21 and April 25-28 for $60 each. The restaurant is expected to open with regular service in May, according to Washingtonian.
Original: Sally’s Middle Name, the vegetable-forward restaurant on H Street NE that made headlines for its no-tipping policy when it first opened, will close at the end of the month, per an announcement from the restaurant Thursday. Sally’s last day will be March 31.
“For sharing meals and conversation, birthdays, weddings and anniversaries. It has been a joy and honor to be a part of your neighborhood and community,” executive chef Sam Adkins and director of operations Aphra Adkins, the restaurant’s husband-and-wife co-owners, wrote on Facebook.
Sally’s (named for Sam Adkins’ sister—she doesn’t have a middle name) debuted in 2015, with a menu of small, seasonal, mostly vegetable-focused plates that rotated daily. DCist named it one of the best new restaurants of the year, praising its “intimate dining room and handsome bar.” This year, Sally’s is up for a RAMMY Award for best upscale brunch.
What most grabbed diners’ and food writers’ attention upon Sally’s opening, though, was its policy on tips: The restaurant added an 18 percent service fee to each bill in lieu of accepting tips. Before opening, the owners claimed no employee would be paid less than $10 an hour, and that workers would receive retirement plans. “It’s not necessarily fair to not know how much is going to be in your paycheck and how you’re going to be able to pay your bills,” Aphra Adkins told Washington City Paper in 2015—three years before tipping would become the topic of a citywide ballot measure and subsequent legal battle.
Sixteen months later, the restaurant scrapped the policy. “A big part of our model was built on assuming that people would prefer a set salary, and I think that’s a big assumption to make,” Aphra Adkins told City Paper at the time. “We do have employees who have been with us from the beginning who prefer that standard paycheck, but you can’t always assume that. Some people prefer to take the risk of not knowing [how much they’re going to make].”
After Sally’s closes its doors for the last time on March 31, it’s not clear what will emerge in its place, though the Aphras’ announcement teases something new: “While we can’t yet share what this space will be next, we are excited for the great things to come.” The Aphras did not respond to a request for comment.
The closure follows a string of restaurants shuttering on the H Street NE corridor in recent months, including Atlas Arcade, Star & Shamrock, and—in news shared on Popville just minutes after the Sally’s announcement—Red Ginger.
Lori McCue