Casamara is the Mediterranean escape Dupont Circle didn't know it needed
Toronto's Scale Hospitality and hotelier Jason Pomeranc brought their first U.S. restaurant to the new SIXTY DC this spring - and it's already one of the most compelling hotel dining rooms in the city.
In brief
Casamara is the Mediterranean escape Dupont Circle didn't know it needed
There's a corner of Connecticut Avenue, just south of the Dupont Circle fountain, where a dated office building quietly became something else entirely. Valor Development converted the Class-C commercial shell at 1337 Connecticut Ave NW into SIXTY DC - a 73-room boutique hotel, the brand's third address after New York's SoHo and West Hollywood. The building's transformation is quietly impressive. But it's what's happening on the restaurant floors that's worth your attention right now.
Casamara opened on May 23 as the hotel's signature restaurant, and it's already landed on the Washington Post's top 40 list. The people behind it are not local. That, somewhat counterintuitively, is part of why it works.
The team
SIXTY Hotels founder Jason Pomeranc brought in Toronto-based Scale Hospitality to run the food and beverage program - the group's first foothold in the United States. Scale was founded by CEO Hanif Harji and Chairman Terry Tsianos, who had both long been immersed in the hospitality industry - Harji doing consulting in Europe and Asia, Tsianos owning the Fox & Fiddle chain, The Wheatsheaf Tavern, and Palais Royale in Toronto. For over two decades, Harji operated some of Toronto's most popular restaurants under both Scale Hospitality and ICONINK, including Byblos, Figo, and Patria. The DC opening is Scale's first crack at the American market, and they seem to have picked their moment deliberately.
'It's, to a certain extent, escapist food, food that you may eat on vacation when you're traveling the Mediterranean,' Pomeranc has said of Casamara's menu. 'But, we bring it back around home, and we add local ingredients and twists to it.' According to Harji, ambiance is as critical to the SIXTY DC restaurants as the culinary offerings. He considers 'design, sound, and music' integral to a successful DC restaurant, and says that learning this market is one of the aspects of opening he's most eagerly anticipating. 'We're looking forward to being able to personally introduce the space, host a bunch of the locals, and just get to know the community,' he says.
In the kitchen, executive chef Zachary Albertsen runs both Casamara and the adjacent cocktail bar Reynold's. Before taking on Casamara, Albertsen served as corporate head chef at Scale Hospitality, with stints at Weslodge, the Drake Hotel, Wheat Sheaf Tavern, and Shook Kitchen. 'D.C. has such a great food scene, with fantastic local produce, farms and suppliers,' Albertsen said at opening.
The room, and then the roof
Casamara has more than 100 seats devoted to indoor dining, a 24-person private dining room, and a 3,000-square-foot rooftop overlooking the neighborhood. The design pulls from the same sun-baked coastal geography as the menu - earth tones, warm brass, materials that telegraph the Mediterranean without resorting to fishing nets and terracotta clichés. Behind a suitably glamorous façade, the hotel's public spaces take playful liberties with D.C.'s signature style, while the rooms display a more pronounced mid-century modern inspiration.
The rooftop is its own animal. Hours there run Tuesday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday, 4 p.m. to midnight; and Saturday, 3 p.m. to midnight - closed Sunday and Monday. On a warm August evening, the view over Dupont's rooftops is reason enough to book a table upstairs, even before the food arrives.
What to eat and drink
At Casamara, housemade pastas, fresh-baked breads, rotating seafood, seasonal vegetables, and flame-grilled meats come together with the flavors of Spain, France, Italy, and Greece - sourced locally and, when the season demands it, flown in fresh from the Mediterranean. Standout dishes include sardine toast with avocado aioli, maple-brined Iberico pork chops, and octopus casarecce accented with nduja. Crab spaghetti and grilled lamb rack appear among the mains. The kitchen keeps things moving - expect the menu to track with the seasons.
The cocktail program at Casamara proper is worth knowing before you sit down. Highlights include the Pepperoncini-tini, a briny twist on a dirty martini featuring Grey Goose vodka and pepperoncini brine, accompanied by a feta-stuffed olive; and Donatella's Kiss, pairing Espolòn reposado tequila with Calabrian chili and ginger, sweetened with honey.
Around the corner, with its own entrance on 18th Street, Reynold's runs a separate and distinctly different personality. The bar leans Americana - wood-paneled, intimate - with a menu built around martini variations, from nouveau iterations to adventurous 'Dirty Secrets' like the Night Shade, a savory pesto-washed tequila and tomatillo brine martini. Small plates include Ossetra caviar with dill chips and mini burgers with pepper jam. Reynold's is a low-lit cocktail bar with a mid-century retro vibe - proof that you don't need speakeasy styling to create an air of hushed secrecy.
Why it matters for Dupont
Dupont Circle has had a complicated decade. The neighborhood still punches well on coffee shops and bookstores, but a string of restaurant closures left real gaps at the dinner-hour level. Casamara and Reynold's, together, fill a specific slot: the kind of grown-up, design-forward evening that doesn't require a crosstown commute to Navy Yard or a reservation sprint on Tock at 10 a.m.
The Canadian roots of Scale Hospitality are not incidental, either. Casamara and Reynold's mark the inaugural U.S. entry for Toronto-based Scale Hospitality, founded by Hanif Harji and Terry Tsianos - known for world-class restaurants including the Mykonos-inspired Toronto Beach Club, Middle Eastern hotspot Mar'aa Yorkville, and Miss Likklemore's, a Caribbean-inspired concept. Those are places built around atmosphere as much as food, and that sensibility carries here. The room at Casamara is designed to make you want to stay past dessert.
Already featured in the Washington Post's top 40 restaurants roundup, Casamara is participating in RAMW's annual Summer Restaurant Week, running August 24 through September 6, with a three-course prix fixe and add-on options from the regular menu. That's your lowest-stakes way to try the kitchen - though the Pepperoncini-tini is, by all accounts, non-negotiable regardless of what week it is.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
