"We would see people three, four days a week, but rail drinks were $4, beers were $5. Back then, cocktails were super cheap." Bill Thomas said this to Washingtonian this month. He was describing the Blue Room, the bar he ran in Adams Morgan in the early 2000s, known for its live music and electronic DJs. He brought it up to explain the bar he opens Thursday, September 24, at 2001 18th Street NW.
Adams Morgan Day, the festival's 48th edition, closed 18th Street from Kalorama Road to Columbia Road on Sunday, September 13. What follows it this fall is a run of openings that share a design principle. The new rooms on 18th Street are built for walking in. None of them are built around the reservation. The fall calendar that fills the next three months, from the plaza to the porches, works the same way.
A Bar Built Without Servers
The new bar is called CARLA. It comes from Thomas and John Roberts, his partner at Jack Rose Dining Saloon. It takes over the building Thomas owns, which used to house the Imperial. The Imperial struggled when the pandemic hit, only months after it opened, and closed in May 2025.
The price point is the headline. Washingtonian notes that cocktails at neighborhood bars now creep toward $20. At CARLA, no cocktail costs more than $13. Getting there took structural choices that cost-conscious operators across the city are now weighing:
- No host and no servers. Guests order at the bar, and the menu is the same on every floor, roof deck included.
- A short list. There are six cocktails at $13: a dirty martini, espresso martini, lychee martini, chilcano, armagnac old-fashioned and spicy margarita. Spritzes are $11, carbonated with a machine Thomas bought after being inspired by the official Campari bar in Milan.
- Happy hour Tuesday through Friday, 5 to 7:30 p.m. It offers $10 featured cocktails, $9 wine and $6 beer.
- Walk-ins only. CARLA will not take reservations.
The food follows the same logic. A tier of "little snacks" costs $5 each, including chips and onion dip, roasted poblano croquetas and a smashed cucumber salad. Small-to-medium plates run from $13 to $24.
"It's about making sure that you just buy what you need and in enough bulk to get the price points down, so you can serve a premium ingredient at a cheaper price. There's no other way to continue to deliver a higher end product, because everything is going up in price." Bill Thomas, speaking to Washingtonian
CARLA's own announcement describes the goal as a place where guests feel equally welcome "whether stopping in for one drink after work, celebrating with friends or spending an entire evening." The address sits where Adams Morgan meets Dupont Circle, and CARLA describes itself that way.
Up the Street, the Same Bet in Other Formats
Walk north from CARLA and the same drop-in premise shows up in other forms. The Boogiedown has opened at 2321 18th Street, in the space Death Punch used to occupy. It is a bar built around New York sports. Owner Chris DeFelice aimed for a September 11 launch, and Eater's September 22 update lists the bar as open. A sports bar lives by the fixture list. Nobody books a table for the fourth quarter.
The biggest concentration of change sits farther up, on the 2430s stretch between Columbia Road and the north end of the strip. Three adjacent addresses are changing at the same time:
| Address | Previous tenant | What's coming | Status as of late September |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2434 18th St. NW | Meskerem | A restaurant, operator not named | Gutted for renovation as of June |
| 2436 18th St. NW | Mellow Mushroom, Jerk Pit | The Berliner, a German-style biergarten | October, per Eater; "this fall," per the restaurant |
| 2438 18th St. NW | Mola Empanadas | King of Shawarma, Syrian and Damascene street food | Posting daily hours, dine-in and takeout |
Mola Empanadas opened at 2438 in 2022, and PoPville reported its closure on July 7. King of Shawarma put up signage over the summer. Its website now lists daily hours and offers both dine-in and takeout at the same storefront. No first-service date has been published.
Next door, The Berliner will turn the former Mellow Mushroom address into a biergarten. A biergarten is built for long tables and a group that grows as the evening goes on. Eater's fall preview gives October as the target. The restaurant's own site still says only that it is coming this fall.
The Meskerem building at 2434 is the open question. By mid-June it had been completely gutted, and the only thing a worker could confirm to PoPville was that it would become a restaurant. Once 2434 fills, this block of 18th Street will have turned over three storefronts in a row within roughly a year.
Around the Edges of the Strip
Three more projects are in the works just off the main corridor, each on a slower clock:
- Little Engine has signed a lease for a second location in the former Pupatella space at 18th and S Streets. It aims to open before the end of the year but has not set a firm date.
- The LINE DC at 1770 Euclid Street announced a partnership in July with Danny Lee and Scott Drewno, the operators behind Chiko, Anju and Mandu. Details of what they will build there are still to come.
- Alexis Grea Bakery was announced in March for 1756 Columbia Road. Its website still reads "coming soon" and gives no opening date.
The Curb Is Still Being Decided
All of these openings depend on a street whose layout is still in play. DDOT's May 27 presentation laid out a short history. Temporary streateries ran on 18th Street from 2020 to 2024, and the permanent program became official in 2025. By the time of the 2026 plan, no permanent applications had come in for 18th Street. Outdoor seating on this corridor now happens on private patios and roof decks, like the one at CARLA.
For the stretch between Kalorama Road and Columbia Road, DDOT presented two concepts. One is a hardscaped median. The other is painted bike lanes. Both come with updated curbside loading and parking. The formal notice, NOI 26-185-MPDD, closed for public comment on August 13. The Washington Area Bicyclists Association describes the noticed proposal as painted bike lanes plus commercial loading and paid parking zones, and it has asked for protected lanes instead. The May presentation projected construction for August 2026. That month has passed, and as of late September DDOT has not published a final design or confirmed that installation has begun. Loading zones matter a great deal to a block with three new kitchens, so this decision is worth following.
A Fall Calendar Without Reservations
Most of the season's events work the way the new bars do. You show up.
- Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., through December. The Freshfarm Adams Morgan Farmers Market runs at Euclid Street and Columbia Road.
- Saturday, October 3, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Kalorama Citizens Association hosts a celebration at Adams Morgan Plaza, at 18th Street and Columbia Road, with music and with coffee and pastries from Soleluna. It marks the legal agreement that KCA, Adams Morgan for Reasonable Development and Jubilee Housing reached late last year to keep the plaza open to the community. The three groups also worked with Eric Colbert & Associates on a new plaza design, to be built when Jubilee builds highly affordable apartments on the site.
- Wednesdays, 9 to 11 p.m., through November 18. "Last Stop at Grand Central" appears as a weekly slot on the Adams Morgan Partnership calendar.
- Sunday, October 25, 6 to 8 p.m. Code Red hosts "Spookeasy," a Halloween cocktail-making class.
- Saturday, November 7. Fall PorchFest takes place on a newly announced date. The spring edition on May 2 put more than 100 bands on more than 25 stages. The fall lineup has not been posted, and the call for performers is still open.
- Saturday, November 7, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. "Greetings from Bethlehem," a Palestinian holiday market, takes place at Festival Center. That makes November 7 a triple Saturday, with the farmers market in the morning, the holiday market through the afternoon and PorchFest on the porches.
The plaza celebration comes first on the calendar, and it frames the rest. The October 3 event is not about something new being built. It celebrates an agreement to keep a corner at 18th Street and Columbia Road open to anyone who walks up. The biergarten at 2436, the walk-in bar at 2001 and the counter at 2438 are all betting on that same kind of foot traffic.
Owning property near 18th Street means your block changes along with the street. If you are weighing what these storefront changes and the pending DDOT decision mean for your address, Jonathan Taylor Group can walk you through it. Request a Private Consultation.