Fitzgerald’s Cocktail Bar Opens With Sporty Vibes and Shared Plates Next to 1789 in Georgetown | Eater DC

"Debuting next door to 1789 on Saturday, June 26, the two-level Fitzgerald’s (1232 36th Street NW) is a new sibling cocktail bar from Clyde’s Restaurant Group that focuses on classic drinks, rare Japanese whisky pours, and elegant drinking snacks served in a preppy, tweed-filled setting. The space underwent a 19-month renovation that breathes new life into the room where art-deco nightclub F. Scott’s opened in the 1960s, and the 70-seat makeover covers tired grey walls in a handsome dark blue, dresses leather banquettes with tweed pillows, and lines a mahogany bar with 12 mix-and-match stools upholstered in preppy plaids and hunting-lodge velvet; designer Pam Farrell kept pigskin-brown banquettes and framed ephemera like old-timey football helmets and a painting of Sammy Baugh to invoke an old Georgetown feel. Chef Kyoo Eom — the new 1789 chef who recently received a winning Washington Post review — designed a playful menu that ranges from herbed truffle fries, tempura calamari with Grand Marnier aioli, Korean chicken wings, and a vibrant tuna tataki on a glassy turquoise plate to a plump Peking duck burger made of foie gras, wagyu beef fat, and duck with caramelized onions and a fried egg on a sweet potato bun; a shareable “for the table” section leads into mains such as ricotta gnocchi, soy-honey glazed halibut, and grilled wagyu short ribs. Pastry chef Erin Garcia contributes a chocolate pot de crème in a glass coupe dotted with black sesame ganache, a fruit Charlotte, and assorted ice creams and sorbets. Longtime 1789 bar director and general manager Brian Zipin is running the drinks program, offering a summery strawberry-infused pisco sour, a brown butter–washed Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned, barrel-aged Sazerac and Hemingway daiquiri classics, an in-vogue espresso martini, and generous 1.5-ounce pours of Japanese whiskies from 12-year Yamazaki to Ohishi rice whisky aged in brandy casks." - Tierney Plumb