Chevy Chase finally gets its neighborhood restaurant
Bo Blair and chef David Scribner open Wheelhouse at 5714 Connecticut Ave. NW - part vintage yacht club, part raw bar, all Chesapeake.
In brief
Chevy Chase finally gets its neighborhood restaurant
The storefront at 5714 Connecticut Ave. NW sat dark for years. Locals walked past the former Wine & Organic Market space, past the Citibank next door, and kept moving north toward Maryland or south toward the Circle without any particular reason to stop. That changed on June 10.
Wheelhouse opened that evening, and within days the 4,500-square-foot room was doing what Bo Blair's restaurants always seem to do: fill up with people who live nearby and want to stay a while.
The man behind the concept
Blair is the founder of Georgetown Events Hospitality Group, the company behind DC and Nantucket favorites including Millie's, Jetties, Surfside, and the Bullpen. He has been chasing this particular zip code for a while. Blair told Bethesda Today the group had "always sought to open a restaurant in D.C.'s Chevy Chase neighborhood." The short version of why it took so long: the right space never materialized. Then the Wine & Organic Market closed, and Blair moved fast.
The comparison he keeps reaching for is Millie's, his coastal fare spot at 4866 Massachusetts Ave. in Spring Valley. Blair told Bethesda Today, "We wanted to kind of create something very similar to what we did with Millie's in Spring Valley in Chevy Chase. So, we finally were able to find a spot that we liked." That is not spin. Millie's is one of the more reliably packed rooms in upper Northwest, and the parallel is a concrete one: a neighborhood that skews professional and family-oriented, Connecticut Avenue as the main artery, coastal food as the common language.
The room
The new room runs 4,500 square feet, seats 211 across indoor and outdoor sections, and centers on a 33-foot bar with sailing flags strung above it. Blair was particularly proud of those flags. According to Blair, Wheelhouse has a nautical theme reminiscent of a "vintage yacht club." It's a commitment, not a gesture. The whole space reads that way - booth seating, a patio for sidewalk watching, TVs at the bar for game day.
Most sit-down rooms on this stretch of Connecticut top out around 80 to 100 seats, which makes Wheelhouse roughly twice the capacity of anything already on the block. That scale matters. The area around the eatery is a commercial strip along Connecticut Avenue home to Opal, BirdSong, Parthenon, and Little Beast - and Blair noted he was particularly excited about the restaurant being near the Avalon Theatre and being a dining option for moviegoers. Pre-film oysters and a Christopher Cross cocktail. There are worse plans.
What chef David Scribner is cooking
The yacht-clubby restaurant is charting its own course with an original New American menu from chef David Scribner. Scribner built it around the Bay. His menu centers on Maryland seafood, crudos, crispy rice sushi, crab soup, spiced shrimp, soft-shells, roasted rockfish over coconut rice, and steak frites. The dish names lean into the theme: the Topsail Caesar, The Jib, The Boom.
The raw bar offers oysters, littleneck clams, tuna poke, and ceviche, along with daily changing seafood from up and down the East Coast. That rotating element gives regulars a reason to come back mid-week, not just on Saturday nights. Blair's personal favorite on the menu is the local roasted rockfish - inspired by a recent trip to the Caribbean - topped with a lime butter sauce and served with coconut rice and peas.
Want something more landlocked? The French dip arrives as shaved prime rib with horseradish cream and plenty of au jus for dunking. It is the kind of thing that makes a 33-foot bar feel like the right place to be on a Tuesday.
The cocktail list has a sense of humor
Some cocktails nod to yacht rock artists, including the "Christopher Cross" - vodka, grapefruit, lime, and sea salt - and the "Kenny Loggins," an espresso martini. There's also an orange crush and a frozen Aperol spritz. Wheelhouse runs a weekday happy hour at the bar from 4 to 6 p.m.
Beyond dinner
There is a separate takeout counter next to the dining room serving Gifford's ice cream and a weekend brunch menu that launched June 20. Gifford's is a Maine-based creamery that also supplies Jetties. Brunch brings blueberry pancakes and warm biscuits into the mix - weekend-morning material for anyone who lives within walking distance of the Circle.
Why the name
Blair says it's a double meaning. In boating, the wheelhouse is where you steer the vessel. More broadly, it's "something that you're comfortable with and know you like." Both readings fit. This is a restaurant built by people who know exactly what they're doing - and positioned in a neighborhood that, after years of watching its best restaurant real estate sit vacant, is ready to let someone steer.
Wheelhouse is at 5714 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC. Lunch and dinner are served daily; brunch runs Saturday and Sunday. The takeout counter and ice cream window operate separately next door. Reservations at wheelhousedc.com.
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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.
