You don’t have to fret over what to order at Nina May—that is, unless you want to. The loosely termed “New American” restaurant, bar, and all-day café opens today near Logan Circle/Shaw from general manager Danilo Simic and executive chef Colin McClimans. They’re ready to fully embody the meaning of “neighborhood restaurant,” they say, with multiple concepts aimed to fit every diner’s needs.

Nina May will be both an early-morning stop for coffee and pastries and a sleeker (but still “unpretentious,” according to McClimans) dining experience and bar by night. Simic and McClimans, who first worked together in 2014 at Equinox, balance these simultaneous functions thanks to a versatile space.

The restaurant takes over the multi-level corner where two former eateries—Frenchy’s Naturel and The Bird from Eatwell DC—closed down in quick succession. Upstairs lends itself to more formal dinner service and a patio for brunch in warmer weather, while downstairs will offer cocktails, small bites, and louder music. In the first weeks, the restaurant will focus on dinner service and roll out full capacity in stages.

“When you think of a neighborhood restaurant, you think of people being able to come for any occasion, a flexible part of the community,” says Simic. “You can come in the morning and do work on your laptop, come back for a beer at happy hour, bring friends from California to share dinner.”

Their vision pairs McClimans’ experience in the kitchen and Simic’s expertise curating cocktails and front-of-house service. After Simic left Equinox for a stint at Ambar Restaurant Group, the two would still meet for coffee to talk about balancing work and their experiences as new parents. The more they talked, the more they realized their vision for the coming years was similar, which was the “perfect momentum for us,” says Simic.

Diners can order a la carte from five sections—grains, vegetables, meat, fish, and sides (the most expensive item on the menu is a bone-in braised beef short rib and cornmeal polenta, at $32.) But McClimans hopes the family-style option of large and small plates will appeal. For $39 per person, you can sit back and let the kitchen send out their best dishes of the night until the table is content.

On an average night, McClimans might choose smaller plates of pickled vegetables alongside caramelized onion dip, a cured-yoke bison tartare with meat from New Frontier in Virginia, or a take on baked beans featuring brown butter crumble and goat cheese, before a whole stuffed rainbow trout over swiss chard or an oyster kimchi po-boy emerge.

The restaurant is also part bakery, kneading its own dough for molasses bread, milk bread, and brioche for various dishes.

The menu is sourced from local farms less than 150 miles away, such as Moon Valley in Maryland and Root and Marrow in Virginia (reminiscent of D.C. native McClimans’ earlier training at farm-to-table pioneer Equinox.)

“We’ve had a lot of conversations about what kinds of ingredients we should be using and boxed ourselves into this small radius,” says McClimans. “There are a few loopholes: We do have lemons and limes at the bar, I have olive oil in the kitchen. But we’re trying to be super conscious about where we’re getting everything from, down to purees at the bar.”

Cocktails ($9-14) also make use of local fruits and vegetables, infusing them into a full range of spirits and bitters. Stay classic with mulled wine, Irish coffee, and house-made ginger mules, or try a barrel-aged plum brandy topped by pear liqueur or a gin-based beet cocktail.

As Simic and McClimans juggle the logistics of opening their first restaurant, they’ve got a daily reminder of home and their underlying purpose: Nina May is named after their daughters, who are both under age 2.

“We both felt that our kids were a driving factor of why the restaurant happened and why we started working together again,” says McClimans. “Without my daughter, I wouldn’t have taken this step. But I did think, with the name, ‘If I have another kid, do we have to open a new restaurant?’”

Nina May is located at 1337 11^th Street NW. Dinner hours will be 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Brunch and all-day café hours forthcoming.

This story has been updated to correct the price of the family-style option and the neighborhood.