Proper Bar finally gives Mount Vernon Triangle the grown-up cocktail lounge it's been missing
Will Strozier and Rob Zahn left the sports-bar playbook behind and opened a 5,500-square-foot American bistro with a 50-foot marble bar on K Street.
In brief
Proper Bar finally gives Mount Vernon Triangle the grown-up cocktail lounge it's been missing
Walk into Proper Bar at 300 K Street NW and the first thing you notice is the bar itself. Fifty feet of marble, running almost the full length of the room. Green velvet banquettes line the walls. Globe lighting hangs low. Not a television in sight.
That last detail is intentional. Washingtonian reported that gone are the wall-mounted TVs and football games that defined the owners' earlier restaurants; at Proper Bar, the vibe leans more cocktail lounge than sports bar.
The owners are Will Strozier and Rob Zahn, who opened Proper Bar, a 5,500-square-foot restaurant and cocktail lounge, on October 17 in Mount Vernon Triangle. The two built their DC reputation on Proper 21, a sports bar concept. Three months after opening their first New York bar, Manhattan Proper, Zahn and Strozier found themselves in the path of a Category 3 hurricane. Whatever detours the last few years put in front of them, they've landed here, on K Street, with something that looks nothing like what came before.
"Proper Bar is almost like our rebrand," Zahn says. "We had to reinvent ourselves and get the company strong again, and that's what we did."
Strozier adds: "We're not doing it in a stuffy, fine-dining setting." That line is doing a lot of work, and the room backs it up. Designed in collaboration with Miami-based Bolt Living, the space, which seats 225 indoors and outdoors, mixes influences from New York, Miami, and DC, with dark wood accents, green velvet banquettes, and globe lighting centered around the 50-foot marble bar.
Strozier has said publicly that he was thinking about places like Bemelmans Bar and The Polo Bar in New York when he conceived the project. He likens Proper Bar to something along the lines of Bemelmans Bar or The Polo Bar, both in New York. That's a high bar to aim for. What Proper Bar has going for it right now is the absence of pretension: you can order a happy-hour beer or a tableside martini, and neither feels out of place.
What's on the menu
The menu focuses on shareable plates and updated comfort food. Starters span from patatas bravas to crispy chicken topped with caviar. Caviar service is also available separately.
The kitchen's more substantial items include a 40-day dry-aged burger, crab tagliatelle, and a Snake River Farms 32-ounce dry-aged tomahawk. Early diners have also called out the citrus-cured hamachi and wild mushroom beef tortellini. The combination of high-low plates, nuggets and caviar alongside a proper tomahawk, fits the room's mood exactly.
Cocktails get the same treatment. They range from a pear-sage martini to a lavender negroni, alongside several carbonated drinks poured from draft lines. The drink list also includes a DC Manhattan (duck fat-washed Sazerac rye, cherry-infused vermouth, Tozai plum wine) and the Hermes, built on dill-and-white-peppercorn-infused Grey Goose with honeydew. Tableside martini service is part of the cocktail experience.
For people who work nearby and want something before dinner: happy hour runs weekdays from 5 to 7 PM with $9 cocktails, $10 house wines, and $7 drafts. On a block dominated by office buildings and hotel lobbies, that's the kind of offer that fills a room fast.
The private side
Proper Bar also introduced an exclusive private dining space called Haven, for businesses and patrons looking to host special occasions. The private room is an intimate seated space for roughly 40 guests, with exclusive catered menus. The official website notes it comes with a champagne bar. For a neighborhood packed with law firms, trade associations, and lobbying shops, that's not a small detail.
Live music and the neighborhood angle
In the evenings, guests can enjoy live entertainment, from local pianists to DJs. The piano nights in particular fit the room's aspirations. Mount Vernon Triangle has been one of DC's more understated neighborhoods for nightlife: close to NoMa, walkable from Gallery Place, and home to a mix of newer residential towers and older commercial stock. A 5,500-square-foot room with a marble bar, live piano, and caviar service is a genuine shift in what the corridor offers after 6 PM.
In an article from the Washington Business Journal, co-owner Will Strozier was quoted saying, "We want to be approachable, and we want to be a place that serves good food, that's good value, but also elevated."
The proof is in the early numbers. With 68 Google reviews and a 4.8 rating in its first weeks of operation, the room is filling up. On an October Saturday at 6:30 PM, at least one early reviewer noted Strozier was at the door greeting guests himself. That kind of floor presence matters at a new opening, and it's the thing no amount of interior design can fake.
Proper Bar is open Sunday through Wednesday from 4 PM to midnight, Thursday from 4 PM to 1 AM, and Friday and Saturday from 4 PM to 2 AM. Reservations are available on OpenTable.
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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.
