In the months since local leaders in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia first banned dine-in service at restaurants, some have pivoted to takeout and delivery, and others have gone temporarily dark, planning to return when it’s deemed safe to do so. Other businesses, either dealing with preexisting financial troubles or devastated by new COVID-related ones, have said they won’t be reopening at all.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if half the businesses do not come back,” Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal told DCist. Though restaurants scrambled to stay afloat with takeout and delivery service, it wasn’t long before a wave of layoffs hit the service industry. Several of the now-permanently closed restaurants say that coronavirus wasn’t the only factor in their demise, but that existing disputes over lease agreements made staying open impossible with little or no money coming in.

Here are the restaurants that have announced that they are or appear to be permanently closed. We will continue to update this list.

A&D NEIGHBORHOOD BAR: The Shaw bar has closed permanently, according to its website. Popville first reported the news of the apparent closure on July 28. A&D opened in the neighborhood in 2012, and though it came close to closing and relocating in 2017, the bar was able to secure another two-year lease to stick around in its spot on 9th Street NW.

AMERICA EATS TAVERN: José Andrés has closed his Georgetown restaurant, as announced June 26 on Facebook. “While we will not be reopening in our current home, we look forward to revisiting this concept in the future,” the post reads. America Eats, whose menu was designed to explore United States culinary history, originally opened in 2011 as a pop-up companion to a National Archives exhibit on the history of American food. A permanent location opened on M Street in 2018. America Eats was most recently among the restaurants in Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup that transformed into community kitchens during the coronavirus pandemic. Elsewhere at ThinkFoodGroup, Eater DC reports the company has closed two locations of the fast-casual chain Beefsteak, one in Dupont Circle and another in Bethesda’s Westfield Montgomery Mall. The Foggy Bottom location — apparently the only one still operational in the region — is set to reopen July 6.

B TOO: The Logan Circle restaurant is closed permanently, chef Bart Valdaele wrote July 13 on Facebook. “COVID-19 has left us no choice,” Valdaele said. The announcement came weeks after Washington City Paper’s Laura Hayes tweeted that the restaurants outdoor signage and website had been taken down. B Too opened in 2013, a smaller outpost of his now-16-year-old Belgian spot Belga Café on Capitol Hill. Rooftop gin garden Betsy opened above Belga in 2016. According to Vandaele, the Capitol Hill restaurants will remain open.

BIG BOWL: A Chinese and Thai restaurant in Reston’s town center, Big Bowl announced on its website in April that it would not be reopening after Virginia’s stay-at-home order was lifted. According to the restaurant’s statement, its lease is expiring. Big Bowl in Reston had been open for 19 years, the easternmost location of a mostly Midwest-based chain.

BIG HUNT: The dive bar near Dupont Circle terminated its lease in December and the landlord put the building up for sale, Barred in DC reported. While the owner never posted an official announcement, the website is inactive, and staff reportedly got an email in January that “they can stop holding their breath.” Tributes have already been pouring out for the bar, known for its impressive beer selection, eclectic decorations, underground comedy club, and titan of a founder, the late Joe Englert.

BILLY GOAT TAVERN: A downtown D.C. bar, born of an old Chicago baseball legend and a Saturday Night Live skit has reportedly closed, according to Popville. While the restaurant has not appeared to make a public statement about the closure, Google lists the business as “permanently closed,” and its phone number does not connect for a call.

BISTRO BOHEM: Shaw’s Czech cafe and bar will not be reopening, as first reported by Popville on July 14. Eater confirmed the news with owner Daniel Sidzina. In a letter posted outside the restaurant, as photographed by Popville, Sidzina and his wife Vendula say the restaurant is closing “due to circumstances beyond our control.” Bistro Bohem opened in 2012 and quickly became known for serving up traditional Central European dishes.

BOUNDARY STONE: The Bloomingdale bar and restaurant announced April 7 that it would reopen April 15, for reservation-only dining. The popular Bloomingdale bar and restaurant announced on Oct. 30 that it will be closing on Thanksgiving Eve (Nov. 25) for an indeterminate amount of time. In a statement, the restaurant’s team cites “colder weather moving in, rising virus counts, and no relief on the horizon” for the closure, and says it hopes to return at some point in 2021. The bar will close its 10-year run with its traditional Thanksgiving showing of concert documentary The Last Waltz at 7 p.m. Patio dining, delivery, and take out will continue up through Nov. 25.

CAMPONO: The Italian restaurant in the Watergate building announced on March 27 that it would be closing permanently. The owners said in a statement that a rent increase was behind the closure. “In addition to the mandatory shut down for the Covid19 outbreak and slower times at both the Kennedy Center and our building, the landlord has exercised their legal right and directed us to vacate the building by the end of April,” they wrote. The restaurant, which had been open for about four and a half years, was a frequent pre-show stop for Kennedy Center patrons, and a lunchtime staple for journalists and others in the Watergate building.

CAPMAC: The food truck’s owners announced in a Facebook post on July 31 that they would be closing up after six years of dishing mac’n’cheese, citing personal reasons. PoPville first reported the closure. CapMac entered D.C.’s dining scene in 2010, and its original owners ended their venture in 2013. The concept was revived under new ownership, and its current owners wrote on Facebook that they “look forward to hopefully passing the torch onto the next chef(s) if we can.”

CODMOTHER: Owner Tolga Erbatur announced on Instagram on Sept. 30 that the beloved U Street dive would close. The subterranean space was known for packed dance parties, sticky floors, and playlists meant for scream-singing along. The bar opened in 2011, according to Popville, and during the pandemic, owners said it received $1,000 in small business recovery grant funds. They launched a GoFundMe in May, which eventually passed its $20,000 goal.

DC EAGLE: In early May, the leather bar in Northeast became the second D.C. LGBTQ institution to close in several days. According to the bar’s former manager the building was sold in April, just months after celebrating its 48th anniversary. The bar’s website lists the Venmo accounts for laid-off staff, and former employees have launched a GoFundMe.

DECLARATION: The Declaration pizzerias in Shaw and Navy Yard won’t reopen, D.C. restauranteur Alan Popovsky told Washingtonian. His Shaw outpost had temporarily closed in October, but will now shutter for good on April 30 after four years in business. The Navy Yard location, which stopped business in December, permanently closed its doors two weeks ago.  Popovsky told Washingtonian that the decision to close came in large part from the dearth of visitors at the nearby venues — 9:30 Club and Nationals Park — which in non-pandemic times drew in customers. His fusion ghost restaurant, Stingray Kitchen, will move out of Declaration Shaw and continue operating out of Lincoln, Popovsky’s downtown restaurant. Before Declaration Shaw closes on April 30, Popovsky told Washingtonian that he’s spending the next month donating pizzas to those in need.

EAT AT NATIONAL PLACE: The food hall near Metro Center has closed permanently, according to an announcement posted on its site. Popville first reported the closure on May 26. According to the site, the court had been open for 15 years. Food vendors inside included Meiwah Express, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Chicken Place Express, and Five Guys. The announcement did not provide any other details behind the closure. DCist’s call to Quadrangle Development Corporation, which manages Eat at National Place’s building, was not immediately returned. This is the second food court to close in about five months: The International Square Food Court at the Farragut West Metro station shut down in December, ahead of a planned renovation into a food hall. It’s one of a handful of food halls that was set to open in D.C. this year.

FADO IRISH PUB: The Irish bar and restaurant had welcomed guests on 7th Street in Chinatown for 22 years before announcing on April 22 that it was permanently closed. In a statement, the owners seemed careful not to claim the coronavirus for its demise, instead blaming a rent increase. “There will be many restaurants that will not reopen after the current closures,” they wrote. “Ironically, ours is not about COVID-19, we just could not renew our lease.”

FINN MCCOOL’S: The popular Barracks Row Irish pub is permanently shutting its doors, Eater DC reported February 26, 2021. Tom Johnson, managing partner of Hill Restaurant Group, which ran the bar, said the company has lost $60,000 a month during the pandemic due to indoor dining restrictions. The space at 713 Eighth St SE is reportedly turning into a TBA American tavern, per Eater, but many locals will miss the karaoke and game nights, impressive beer selection, and neighborhood vibe Finn McCool’s became known for. Early in the pandemic, Hill Restaurant Group said it would not comply with indoor dining restrictions, calling them “ridiculous.” After Mayor Muriel Bowser threatened to shut down businesses not complying, Johnson told the Washington Post his restaurants would adhere to guidelines.

FIREHOOK BAKERY CLEVELAND PARK: The Cleveland Park outpost of this bakery closed its doors on July 30 after 23 years in the neighborhood. The bakery cited difficulty in securing a long-term lease, saying in a notice posted in its window that “without a long-term lease, we can no longer support operations during this challenging health crisis.” PoPville first reported the closure. In an Instagram post, the bakery said that the outpouring of love, support, and remembrance in response to the news “has been overwhelming and has heartened all of us at Firehook.” Its locations in Dupont Circle, Judiciary Square, Chantilly, and Old Town Alexandria remain open, and the bakery’s website says its Capitol Hill and Farragut Square spots will be “reopening soon.”

GHIBELLINA/SOTTO: The Neapolitan pizzeria ended its seven-year run in Logan Circle, Popville reported June 23. The “pandemic has directly affected all of us and our industry as a whole,” the U Street Neapolitan pizzeria’s website says, adding that “it is with great sadness that we will not be reopening.” Sotto, its sister jazz club in the basement that opened in 2015, also closed its doors, using the same language in a post on its website. Mindful Restaurant Group, which owned Ghibellina and Sotto, has already reopened Barracks Row bar Harold Black. Its other Barracks Row restaurant, Acqua al 2, will reopen for inside dining in July, according to Acqua al 2’s website.

HILTON BROTHERS BARS: Seven iconic D.C. bars owned by the Hilton Brothers — The Brixton, American Ice Company, El Rey, Players Club, Marvin, The Gibson, and Echo Park — will close indefinitely on Oct. 31. Echo Park, the newest spot from the pair of D.C. nightlife impresarios, only opened its doors near the 9:30 Club in February. In a statement, Ian Hilton said the past six months were challenging for the bars, and that “[they] longer have the capability to keep that fight going.” The duo’s remaining establishments, Cafe Colline in Arlington, Parc de Ville in Fairfaix’s Mosaic District, The Brighton at The Wharf, pop-up cafe Victura Park at the Kennedy Center, and Georgetown’s Chez Billy Sudare here to stay for now, but Ian Hilton told City Paper that Chez Billy Sud and The Brighton are also struggling.

HOWARD DELI: After nearly a century in business, the Howard University mainstay announced in February 2021 it was closed, due to COVID-19 economic shortfalls and the owner’s health issues. WUSA9 first reported the news. With Howard University students staying home from campus for nearly a year, business has been slow, according to the deli’s owners (and brothers) Darryl “Pepe” Diaz and Kent “Kenny” Gilmore. Gilmore also had several strokes in November of 2020 and has not been able to return to work since — although family members say he is doing better now. The deli was known for serving both students and visiting celebrities.

JOHNNY’S HALF SHELL: After more than two decades, the seafood restaurant in Dupont Circle is permanently closing, the owners announced on Facebook on October 30. The establishment initially closed on March 14. In the Facebook post, co-owner John Fulchino issued a word of caution, writing, “Stay clear of this business, it is a brutal way to go, but if you find yourself in it, do it with your best friend.” This past winter, the restaurant’s head chef Ann Cashion was nominated for a James Beard award.

LUCKY STRIKE: The bowling alley and restaurant’s Chinatown location appears to have closed, as first reported by Popville. Though all locations of the company are temporarily closed, a webpage for D.C.’s spot appears blank. An email to the company was not immediately returned. The chain has almost 20 locations, including one in Bethesda.

KITTY O’SHEA’S: The Irish pub is closing its doors indefinitely on Sept. 27 after nine years in Tenleytown, according to a Facebook post on Aug. 8. PoPville first reported the closure on Aug. 10. Though the pandemic wasn’t cited as the cause for closure, it had taken its toll—general manager Dylan Curtis told DCist in May that “things have been tight across the board.”

MADDY’S TAPROOM: This 30-tap pub near Franklin Square announced in an Instagram post that its doors would permanently close on July 25 after nine years in business. “We tried, but the economic impact was just too much,” the post reads. PoPville first reported the closure. Maddy’s sister bar, MacIntyre’s Pub, is still open in Woodley Park, and a Facebook post on July 26 promises that patrons will “find some of the same characters you fell in love with at Maddy’s” at MacIntyre’s.

MAGNOLIA BAKERY: As Popville first reported on Dec. 8, the Union Station location of the popular bakery has closed “for the forseeable future.” The eternally popular Manhattan bakery opened on the transit hub’s ground floor in fall 2018, bringing its inventive cupcakes and overflowing tubs of banana pudding to the District as part of a nationwide expansion. In a post on Magnolia’s website, the team says the location is closing “to keep our staff, customers and community at large as safe and healthy as possible.” A Boston location similarly closed in March.

MASON DIXIE BISCUIT COMPANY: As the biscuit company announced on July 2, its Shaw storefront will not be reopening. “The impact of COVID-19 has been surreal and defeating and we had to make the tough decision that continuing to sail into an unknown future of restaurant ownership was too risky,” founder Ayeshah Abuelhiga wrote on Mason Dixie’s site. The 7th Street restaurant opened in 2018, just months after the team closed its drive-thru concept on Bladensburg Road. The company will continue to sell frozen biscuits, scones, and cinnamon rolls in grocery stores around the country.

MATCHBOX 14TH STREET: The casual chain is permanently closing its location at 14th and T streets NW, Popville reported on September 8. This location opened in 2012, and is closing about a year and a half after the chain’s original, 17-year-old restaurant in Chinatown closed its doors permanently. In August, Matchbox Restaurant Group filed for bankruptcy, and announced it would be bought out by Thompson Hospitality. Earlier this summer, the restaurant group settled a lawsuit from the city, agreeing to pay more than $140,000 to more than 100 of its employees who were allegedly not paid minimum wage. Two Matchbox locations remain open in D.C. — at Capitol Hill and Penn Quarter — with a handful in Virginia and Maryland and others in Texas and Florida.

MOMOFUKU: David Chang’s only D.C. location of his lauded ramen restaurant announced May 13 that it would not reopen after the stay-at-home orders lift. The CityCenter spot is one of two Chang restaurants to close, along with New York’s Momofuku Nishi. Two other brands in the company will merge into one New York restaurant. Momofuku CCDC opened in 2015, an arrival broadly viewed as confirmation that the District’s food scene had gotten national attention. (Michelin would start awarding stars to D.C. restaurants a year later.) The fate of Momofuku CCDC’s sister bakery, Milk Bar, was not immediately clear. It’s one of three locations for the sweets shop in the District; all are temporarily closed.

MONMARTRE BISTRO/SEVENTH HILL: The pair of Capitol Hill restaurants will not be reopening, Eater DC reported May 19. The French restaurant Monmartre opened in 2001, and was frequented by senators and other Hill employees, according to the Washington Post. Seventh Hill, which shares the same building on 7th Street SE, followed in 2009. Co-owner Stephane Lezla told Eater that months without revenue during the pandemic (the restaurants were not open for takeout or delivery) had hurt business, but he also doesn’t anticipate dining out to return to normal when stay-at-home orders lift. “You’re not supposed to be twitching when someone sneezes behind you,” Lezla told the site. “I don’t see what’s the point of trying to go out and be stressed.”

PEREGRINE ESPRESSO MIDCITY: Nearly a decade after opening, Peregrine’s 14th Street outpost shut its doors permanently on June 28. Popville first reported on June 22 that the store had given notice it would close within a week. “Our lease is up and the neighborhood rent has outpaced our sales,” an Instagram post from June 21 on Peregrine’s account explained. Peregrine has garnered plenty of accolades over the years—even taking top honors at the America’s Best Coffeehouse Competition—and owners Ryan and Jill Jensen opened their own roastery, Small Planes Coffee, in 2017. Its original shop on Capitol Hill is still open for takeout, as is its Union Market spot.

PLEASANT POPS: The popsicle shop announced on Instagram on November 3 that the flagship store in Adams Morgan is closing on November 29 after eight years in business. The company said they received “a vacate notice.” In the social media post, the company thanked all their customers “for allowing us into your lives.” They also noted that they are determined to “reemerge Pleasant Pops with a new, but familiar concept” at a later date. In 2012, Pleasant Pops was named one of the best popsicles in the US by Food & Wine and, in 2015, the Obamas paid a visit.

POCA MADRE, TACO BAMBA: The two restaurants from chef Victor Albisu have closed in Penn Quarter, Washingtonian reported on September 8. The chef told the outlet that the closures were related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but declined to comment further. Poca Madre opened in 2018, replacing Albisu’s Argentine grill Del Campo. The fast-casual Taco Bamba adjoined Poca Madre — five locations of the taqueria remain open throughout Virginia.

POM POM: The small restaurant on Upshur Street, which closed during the stay-at-home order, will not reopen, Washington City Paper reported June 4. The globally inspired restaurant came from restaurateur Carlie Steiner, who also co-owned the address’ previous occupant, the nationally acclaimed Himitsu. Steiner told City Paper that it wasn’t just the shutdown that’s responsible for the restaurant’s closing. “Even after reopening phases, there are still going to be so many people rightfully afraid to go out,” she said. Steiner will still run Seco, the pickup-and-delivery wine shop she launched in the wake of the pandemic, and donate to national racial justice organization Color of Change throughout June.

POST PUB: Farragut’s longtime restaurant across the street from the former home of the Washington Post is closing. In a June 26 announcement on Facebook, owner Bob Beaulieu says the closure is due to “the COVID-19 pandemic and related factors. … There’s simply no other option.” The dive has been dedicated to the Post since the mid-1970s, and was long known as a haunt for journalists and other employees at the company. Post Pub kept the name even after the paper decamped to offices at Franklin Square in 2015. Rumors of the bar’s closure started in late May; at the time Beaulieu posted that the bar’s future was “not looking good.” Beaulieu has not responded to DCist’s request for comment.

A RAKE’S PROGRESS: One of the food concepts in Adams Morgan’s The Line hotel has closed for good, Eater reported June 26. Chef Spike Gjerde, a James Beard Award winner, told Eater that the coronavirus pandemic is the reason for the closure. A Rake’s Progress and the hotel’s other two concepts, Brothers and Sisters and Spoken English (both from chef Erik Bruner-Yang), were lauded by Bon Appetit in 2018, when the magazine named The Line’s restaurants to its list of 50 best new restaurants of the year. Meanwhile, The Cup We All Race 4, Gjerde’s cafe in the hotel’s lobby, appears to have been removed from the Line’s online list of dining options. Brothers and Sisters and Spoken English both still appear there.

RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND: These two food trucks specializing in lobster rolls is shutting down permanently, according to Washingtonian. “Without the spring income and festival income, we just didn’t have enough cash in the bank to survive,” owner Doug Povich told the outlet. Red Hook hadn’t been on the street since mid-March, making it among the quarter of the region’s food trucks that temporarily closed in the wake of the pandemic, according to an April survey from the DMV Food Truck Association. D.C.’s two trucks were an offshoot of the New York-based Red Hook Lobster Pound, which is owned by Povich’s cousin and is still in operation.

SMOKE & BARREL: The Adams Morgan BBQ restaurant announced that they would not re-open after Thanksgiving. They cited the “limitations on dine-in service” and the inability to “survive almost purely on carry-out and delivery” as the reasons. The announcement also said they are looking a more financially viable way forward.

THE SOURCE BY WOLFGANG PUCK: The celebrity chef’s first D.C. restaurant will remain closed permanently, Eater DC reported on May 14. The upscale Asian restaurant was located in the same Pennsylvania Avenue building as the Newseum; unlike the museum, it remained open after the building was sold to Johns Hopkins last year. In a statement, per Eater, The Source said that due to anticipated construction on the new Johns Hopkins facility, “we do not foresee a successful return to business in the COVID-19 environment.” Meanwhile, Puck’s other D.C. restaurant, the Georgetown steakhouse CUT, plans to reopen after its COVID-related temporary closure. Puck’s restaurant group includes close to three dozen locations around the world.

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS: The 40-year-old, dual-themed gay club near Audi Field announced on May 1 that it would not be reopening. It was not clear from the owners’ statement how the pandemic factored into its closure, but the Washington Blade reported in 2016 that the building was being sold and was expected to vacate the club in a few years. This was the second home for Ziegfeld’s/Secrets: It had previously relocated from its original home on Half Street SE when the city used eminent domain to clear the property to build the forthcoming Nationals Park.

Previously:
‘It’s Going To Be A Gut Wrench’: Some Local Businesses Won’t Be Reopening When The Pandemic Ends
These D.C.-Area Restaurants Are Reopening For Customers