Maison Bar à Vins is Adams Morgan's best argument for staying out past midnight
The Popal Group - the family behind Lutèce and Pascual - turned a century-old rowhouse into a French wine bar that Washington has been quietly craving for years.
In brief
Maison Bar à Vins is Adams Morgan's best argument for staying out past midnight
There is a problem, well known to anyone who has tried to walk into Lutèce on a Thursday evening without a reservation: the place has six bar seats. Six. Georgetown's beloved neo-bistro is so small and so sought-after that co-owner Omar Popal says people complain about it constantly. "You can't just come in and be like, 'Can I get a drink?'" says Popal, whose family also runs the beloved Afghan restaurant Lapis and the Mexican destination Pascual. That complaint, repeated enough times, became a blueprint.
The answer is Maison Bar à Vins, at 1834 Columbia Road NW in Adams Morgan, and it opened September 13. The bar is the latest offering from the Popal Group, the family-run D.C. operation behind Lapis, Lutèce, and Pascual. It is not a smaller, scrappier version of those restaurants. It is something different in intention and in feel - a place built, explicitly, for the kind of night that has no fixed endpoint.
The building has a life of its own
The name Maison means 'home,' and the century-old building was originally a residence, complete with five working fireplaces. Most recently it was Habana Village, a Cuban nightclub that held court on Columbia Road for decades. The Popal Group completely revamped the interior, but the curving central green marble bartop and arching mirrored backbar were salvaged from the original tenant. That decision - keep the bar, lose the nightclub - tells you something about the group's instincts. The bones of the old place are still visible if you look. The new room just fits them better.
The space underwent a two-and-a-half-year renovation that restored the building's Victorian bones, and the first floor still unfolds like a parlor-level home, anchored by a 12-seat bar with art deco lighting and stools that feel lifted from Weimar Berlin. A green velvet curtain in the back hides a small dining room with zebra-print carpet for reservations. The effect is layered without being fussy. It reads like someone's home - a home you'd very much like to be invited to.
That is entirely deliberate. Owner Omar Popal describes Maison Bar à Vins as if you're walking into a dinner party at somebody's home. He also has a specific precedent in mind. Popal wants to conjure the same vibe as the basement parties he used to throw in the Champagne room of long-gone Napoleon in Adams Morgan. "The Napoleon parties in the basement are notorious," Popal says. "People were coming into our space to poach the DJs that I had." Later in 2026, a private events space will open on the third floor. The second floor is being readied for live music.
The kitchen is not an afterthought
Wine bars in Washington have a tendency to treat food as ballast - something to soak up the Beaujolais. Maison does not do this. Executive Chef and Partner Matt Conroy, a 2025 James Beard Best Chef Mid-Atlantic semifinalist, co-created the menu alongside Chef de Cuisine Jason Chavenson. Chavenson came up at Reverie, the Michelin-starred Georgetown restaurant that closed in October 2025, and his cooking reflects that precision.
Conroy and Chavenson have designed a menu with a few large plates and a range of small plates and snacks designed to be enjoyed with wine. The culinary program features plates like eel croquettes, brioche-stuffed chicken, and in-house made pastas that go beyond your standard bites at typical American wine bars. The smoked eel croquettes in particular have become a calling card. They are exceptionally creamy and topped with a thin sliver of singed eel. For something more substantial, the brioche-stuffed chicken is theoretically big enough to share, but the crunchy brioche and buttery chanterelle mushrooms could turn the most communal-minded diner into a food hoarder.
Late night, the kitchen leans looser. The kitchen stays open until 2 a.m. on weekends, serving belly-padding plates like bone marrow and crispy chicken cordon bleu sandwiches. That is not an accident. The late-night ambition is baked into the concept from the start - this is what Adams Morgan used to do, before the neighborhood gentrified its way into earlier bedtimes.
The wine list is actually worth reading
Advanced Sommelier Chris Ray leads the wine program alongside Beverage Director Suzy Critchlow. Critchlow is not new to ambitious pours. She most recently designed the beverage program at award-winning Pascual, and managed D.C.'s former Columbia Room, which was known for having one of the most ambitious cocktail programs of its time.
The list runs over a thousand vintages long, with a strong emphasis on biodynamic wines, and there is also an excellent by-the-glass selection. The cocktails all feature a wine-based ingredient or an ingredient made by a winemaker, plus curated picks of cognacs, armagnacs, and calvados alongside French single malts and gins. The signature 'Put the Wine in the Coconut' is a rum-and-muscat daiquiri with powdered fig leaf. The Maison Martini, shaken with melted butter and gin, is served alongside a tiny silver bowl of ice.
Why this matters right now
Maison is not Lutèce with more seats. The two restaurants share a kitchen philosophy and a wine sensibility, but they are after different things. Maison is created as a more relaxed, spontaneous counterpart to its reservation-only sibling, built for walk-ins, conversation, and nights that unfold without a plan. In a city where 'casual' often means 'perfunctory,' that distinction is worth paying attention to.
The industry has noticed. Maison Bar à Vins earned a 2026 James Beard Award finalist nomination for Best New Restaurant, putting it on a short national list alongside projects with far larger budgets and PR operations. If the first few weeks were any indication, Maison may be a long-awaited answer to the District's desire for high-quality, low-fuss wine bars.
Maison Bar à Vins is at 1834 Columbia Road NW, Adams Morgan. Hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 5 p.m. to midnight; Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Walk-ins welcome at the bar; reservations available for the back dining room.
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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.
