Proper Bar just opened in Mount Vernon Triangle, and it means business (the dressed-up kind)

Proper Bar just opened in Mount Vernon Triangle, and it means business (the dressed-up kind)

Rob Zahn and Will Strozier have been at this long enough to know what they don't want. No wall-mounted TVs showing four games at once. No athleisure. No hats. Proper Bar, the pair's first new Washington concept in nearly five years, opened October 17 at 300 K St. NW inside The Crosby, a new residential building in Mount Vernon Triangle, and the whole project reads like a deliberate correction.

The two restaurateurs built their name with Proper 21, a sports-bar-turned-local-institution with a grip on DC's office-lunch and post-work crowd. It worked. Then the pandemic arrived, they shuttered their New York restaurants and spent the next few years focused on stabilizing their DC operations before deciding what came next. What came next, it turns out, is the antithesis of a game-day crowd.

Gone are the wall-mounted TVs and football games that defined their earlier restaurants. At Proper Bar, the vibe leans more cocktail lounge than sports bar. Strozier put it plainly: "We're not doing it in a stuffy, fine-dining setting. The music's good, you can come in after work or dressed up for a date. It isn't stuffy, it's lively."

Designed in collaboration with Miami-based Bolt Living, the space seats 225 indoors and outdoors and mixes influences from New York, Miami, and DC, with dark wood accents, green velvet banquettes, and globe lighting centered around a 50-foot marble bar. A private room featuring an elegant champagne bar can hold private events for up to 50 guests. The Resy listing describes it well: "It's all about marble and martinis at Proper Bar, where the crowd matches the jazzy aesthetic." A shiny black piano in the corner is not decoration. On weekends, guests can expect live entertainment, from local pianists and jazz bands to DJs.

The dress code is real and enforced. Guests are encouraged to dress for the occasion; anyone who does not appear sufficiently well-presented may be refused entry. No athleisure, athletic wear, or work boots. In a city that spent the last decade normalizing baseball caps in formerly white-tablecloth rooms, Proper Bar is swimming against the current. Whether that reads as nostalgic or just refreshing probably depends on what you wore to dinner last Tuesday.

What's on the plate (and in the glass)

The food at Proper Bar threads what the owners call a high-low needle. Signature dishes include crispy chicken nuggets topped with caviar, a dry-aged tomahawk steak, and the fan-favorite Proper Burger. The menu from the official site also lists fried oysters with Old Bay remoulade, a burger on toasted brioche with fries, chicken with calamansi vinaigrette, and a NY strip with parm frites and green peppercorn au poivre. Shareable small plates come with things like ramp pesto, fresh capers, and Parmesan; a stuffed pasta dish echoes the crab tagliatelle that first appeared on pre-opening menus.

The cocktail program is where the room's visual identity pays off. Guests can expect tableside martini service and a fan-favorite called the "Hermes" cocktail. The R&R (a Rum and Rye Manhattan) and the Hacienda Without a Key also anchor the list, and happy hour runs Monday through Friday from 4:30 to 6 p.m., with $9 forced-carbonated cocktails, $10 house wines, and $7 draft beers.

Why Mount Vernon Triangle, and why now

Strozier has said the neighborhood fits their model of planting in "the most dense commercial office districts" possible, with an office lunch crowd built in, a natural happy hour, and late nights that follow. The Crosby gives them a brand-new footprint without the renovation headaches of older DC retail space, and the neighborhood itself has changed fast. Mount Vernon Triangle has undergone significant redevelopment, and now consists mostly of high-rise condominiums and apartment buildings whose residents have been underserved by polished evening options.

Zahn and Strozier are not strangers to risky timing. Three months after opening their first New York bar, Manhattan Proper, Hurricane Sandy tore through lower Manhattan, flooding subway tunnels and knocking out power across the city, including their new Tribeca bar. Strozier called it "a kind of baptism by fire," adding, "Even though it was hard, I'm thankful for that, because it really did prepare us for what the worst-case scenario could be." Over the next decade, the pair built a small empire of "Proper" venues, opening eight businesses together, including five restaurants across New York and Washington.

The personal investment runs deep: they even share matching tattoos with the same word: Proper. The next chapter, they say, includes hopes to bring the concept to Miami and eventually back to New York.

For now, though, the 50-foot marble bar is in DC. Proper Bar is open Monday through Wednesday from 5 p.m. to midnight, Thursday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Reservations are available through Resy, and the dress code applies whether you booked three weeks out or just wandered over from the Convention Center.

Sources

• Proper Bar official website (properbar.com)
• Washingtonian: "Proper Bar Opens With Elevated Bistro Fare, Caviar, and Cocktails in Mount Vernon Triangle"
• Mount Vernon Triangle CID: "Coming Soon to MVT: Proper Bar"
• The Washington Lobbyist: "Proper Bar DC Brings Refined Dining and Craft Cocktails to Mount Vernon Triangle"
• Resy: Proper Bar listing
• BarDC: Proper Bar
• Modern Luxury Washington DC: "6 New Culinary Happenings in DC This Fall"