This is a 5000-series train. Well, not exactly. A bar fashioned out of an old Metro railcar is coming to Northeast D.C. complete with the sounds of Metro cars — you might hear a bartender grab a train operator’s mic to say, “Doors opening … step back to allow customers to exit” while customers sip on cocktails.

Jesse Rauch, a former D.C. Public Schools third-grade teacher who revived Screen on the Green and started the District Karaoke league, says he came up with the idea over drinks with one of his business partners.

They asked, “What if we could get our hands on a Metro train car? What would we do with it?”

It just so happened that the Metro was retiring its 5000-series railcars. Rauch called the transit agency and offered to buy two of the cars (for a price he won’t disclose to DCist) to turn them into arts, food, and cultural venues of some kind.

The 39-year-old entrepreneur and his partners are turning one of those cars into Metrobar, a transit-themed establishment with a spacious patio at the mixed-use Bryant Street development near the Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood station. Rauch says the stop is so close, patrons will be able to watch Red Line trains pass by, as if eating and drinking aboard a train weren’t enough of an ode to local transportation.

Scheduled to open this spring (exact date to-be-announced), the bar plans to serve only local beer, wine, and liquor, and have space for food trucks to pull up. Across the street, a food hall called the Bevy is scheduled to open soon. The drinks list will, of course, feature transit-inspired cocktails.

The indoor area will have tile flooring similar to Metro platforms — “The carpet was the first thing to go,” Rauch says — and seat about 50 people when indoor dining restrictions lift. One half of the 75-foot-long car will have a full service bar, behind which the windows will be open so bartenders can serve the outdoor guests.

“It will, hopefully, be evocative of a Metro platform,” Rauch says. “It will feel like a stylish, modern, yet narrow space.”

Outside on the patio, group tables and chairs will seat about 350 people across 11,000 square feet.

Rauch says he chose that area because it’s Metro accessible and also easy to reach by bike — the city’s crosstown bike lane is nearby. He plans to commission regular installations from local artists and host D.C. musicians on the patio.

“We’re trying not to be a negative force wherever we go,” Rach says, “We want to be something helpful, productive, and inclusive of a community.”

Rauch says he knows how difficult the past year has been on the service industry, so he’s looking forward to supporting local makers through this venture: “I’m living that. A year ago, I had to shut down my karaoke business, which was my full-time job. I’m in that world.”

I'm looking for inspiration: when you think of slogans or phrases used in @wmata's rail system, what comes to mind? Like the Tube has, "Mind the Gap." What are our special phrases, #DC? Beyond "stand on the right."

— Jesse B Rauch (@JesseBinDC) March 6, 2021

The concept has already gained popularity. When Eat DC broke the news on Twitter earlier this week, commuters region-wide shared their excitement about finally being allowed to eat and drink on a Metro car.

“Is it weird that I think this is rad?” asked one commenter on Twitter.

The idea to repurpose old cars isn’t without precedent. In 2017, Metro hired a developer to morph decommissioned 4000-series cars into local vendor kiosks at the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station.

Rauch says the goal is to have Metrobar stay there for a few years at least. But it is a train after all, and Rauch anticipates moving to a new spaces elsewhere in the District if necessary. He adds, “The doors may open near you in the future.”