The group behind Ivy City Tavern expects to open the Point near Audi Field this spring
The restaurant group behind reliable seafood houses like Tony and Joe’s on Georgetown’s Washington Harbour and the Tavern at Ivy City Smokehouse released details this week about the wood-burning venue it’s building to attract visitors to Buzzard Point, the up-and-coming waterfront neighborhood in Southwest that will connect the Wharf development to Navy Yard.
The new restaurant, called the Point, is planning to open this spring at 2100 Second Street SW. It’s part of a wave of development spurred on by Audi Field, the Major League Soccer stadium for D.C. United that opened in 2018 near the meeting place of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. Fish & Fire Food Group has hired Benjamin Lambert, a Restaurant Nora alum who led the kitchen at District Winery, as executive chef. He’ll work with partner and culinary director Ron Goodman and founder Greg Casten, who also owns sustainable seafood purveyor ProFish.
The hospitality group is also adding a boardwalk-type atmosphere with a market called Beside the Point that sells soft serve ice cream, calamari cones, lobster rolls, fries, sushi, bagels, spreads, and Ivy City Smokehouse products like smoked salmon.
The projects add to a mixed-use development in former U.S. Coast Guard headquarters that now house RiverPoint apartments. A food hall and restaurant from chef Spike Gjerde, the award-winning, Baltimore-based restaurateur who has come under fire from employees for allegedly fostering a toxic culture at now-closed A Rake’s Progress, has also been planned for the complex.
For the Point, Lambert says he tested nearly 40 recipes, deciding on a mix of communal starters, seafood grilled over an open fire, and “turf” dishes featuring duck and chicken. One appetizer sure to grab attention is a doughnut stuffed with crab dip. Vegetarian options will include fire-roasted cauliflower shawarma.
Whenever D.C. emerges out of the COVID-19 crisis, the Point will cater to D.C. United and Washington Nationals fans. Casten also intends on making it a tourist-friendly destination for families and couples.
“We knew Buzzard Point to be one of those lesser known gems, one that needs a little seasoning to mature and blend and become a core experience in our great city, much like Washington Harbour did when it was just an old concrete plant in Georgetown, some 40 years ago,” Casten says. “We want to make our passionate contribution to the new infrastructure the city has focused here.”
Eventually, Casten wants to include the ability to deliver live, farm-raised, and wild fish from tanks and docks. That won’t happen for some time, but it shows the potential for Buzzard Point to become a draw.
See the full article on Associations Now
