School opens in many school districts today. Labor Day is just two weeks away. Summer is winding down, but that means the August restaurant lull is about to end. We’re still awaiting word on just when Momofuku and Milk Bar will open in CityCenterDC, but here is a list of 12 other anticipated fall restaurant openings in the DMV – many are which are headed to the Shaw neighborhood of northwest D.C., which is the current hot neighborhood.

Daikaya Partners Katsuya Fukushima (l to r), Yama Jewayna and Daisuke Utagawa in front of the future home of Bantam King in Chiintown. (Photo: Farrah Seiky)

Bantam King

Daisuke Utagawa, Yama Jewayni and chef Katsuya Fuushima, the trio behind Daikaya ramen bar and izakaya, will open Bantam King around the corner in the former Burger King at 700 Fifth St. NW in Chinatown. The new restaurant will specialize in chicken ramen and Japanese fried chicken. A more recent phenomenon, chicken ramen is made with a lighter chicken broth instead of the mix of pork, chicken and beef used at Daikaya. The name is a small homage to the previous tenant and the small bantam chicken that have a reputation for particularly good soup. The inside will still have Burger King’s bones – think fast-food-style booth and trays. The trio is also planning a second Daikaya location in Shaw in late 2015 or early 2016.

Convivial

Saied Azaili and chef Cedric Maupillier of Mintwood Place plan to open Convivial in Shaw’s City Market at O, 801 O St. NW, early this fall. The 150-seat upscale, casual American café will feature a garden patio. It will meld American and French cuisines often in the form of small plates and operate at a slightly lower price point then Mintwood.

Andrew Zink (left) and Jeremiah Langhorn will open The Dabney in Blagdon Alley. (Photo: The Dabney/Facebook)

The Dabney

Chef Jeremiah Langhorne, formerly of McCrady’s in Charleston, S.C., and business partner Alex Zink will open their much-anticipated restaurant, The Dabney at 122 Blagden Alley NW. The 70 seat restaurant will have a giant wood-burning hearth and a semi-enclosed courtyard. The restaurant bears and old family sur name. The food with be farm-to-table with as many of the ingredients as possible from the Mid-Atlantic. Some may even be foraged by the partners themselves.

Fare Well

Doron Petersan, who owns Sticky Fingers vegan bakery in Columbia Heights and is a two-time winner of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, will open Fare Well at 406 H St. NE. The bakery, bistro and bar will feature an expanded bread program, a grab-and-go lunch counter, bakery case, full bar program and classic diner-style service and seating. It will serve a wide array of baked savories, vegan American comfort classic and Mediterranean fare. There will also be some of Sticky Fingers’ favorites along with scones, Danishes, croissants and pies.

Chef Rob Rubba will lead Hazel at the Atlantic Plumbing development near the 9:30 Club. (Photo: Hazel/Faceebook)

Hazel

Neighborhood Restaurant Group — the folks behind Birch & Barley, Bluejacket, ChurchKey, Red Apron and others — will open Hazel at 808 V St. NW in the Atlantic Plumbing development, 2112 8th St. NW near the 9:30 Club. The 38-seat restaurant will serve a progressive American menu from executive chef Rob Rubba, formerly of Tallula. There will also be a 38-seat patio and a 16-seat bar connected to the patio. NRG will also The Sovereign, a Belgian bar and bistro in Georgetown at 1206 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana

Former Oval Room chef Tony Conte will open his first solo venture, Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana at 12207 Darnestown Rd., Gaithersburg near his home sometime around Labor Day. Conte’s father emigrated from a town near Naples. The casual 40-seat pizzeria will have a 900-degree wood-burning oven and feature seasonal, locally sourced dishes, wood-roasted fish and meat dishes, shaved vegetable salads, oven-baked polentas and Italian wines. Since leaving the Oval Room, Conte has spent time in California earing the Verace Pizza Napoletana certification, a degree of authenticity awarded by the Italian organization established to protect Naples’ signature dish. Inferno will be the only VPN-certified pizzeria in Maryland.

L’Hommage Bistro Francais will open in September in Mount Vernon Triange. (Photo: Rebecca Cooper/WBJ)

L’Hommage Bistro Francais

Restaurateur Hakan Ilhan, owner of Alba Osteria, is set to open L’Hommage Bistro Francaisat 450 K St. NW in Mount Vernon Triangle in early September. The 176-seat French bistro and boulangerie will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Executive chef Joshua Laban Perkins, formerly of the Globe and Eric Ripert’s Brasserie Le Coze, both in Atlanta, will prepare classic French dishes from steak frites to mussels. The boulangerie will prepare fresh breads and pastries in-house daily. It will offer more than 200 French wines.

The Shaw Bijou

Chef Kwame Onwuachi of New York, colleague Greg Vakiner, building owner Kelly Gorsuch and business consultant Glenn Paik will open The Shaw Bijou in a row house at 1544 Ninth St. NW sometime about the end of November. The 25-year-old chef formerly worked at New York restaurants Eleven Madison Park and Per Se. The 32-seat fine-dining restaurant will serve a 15-18 course tasting menu with dishes including a Japanese Wagyu beef program house-made charcuterie, some table-side preparations and dishes inspired by his Nigerian heritage and childhood in the Bronx. There will also be a second-floor, 50-seat, members-only bar that serves rare liquors. It will be open Tuesday through Saturday.

San Francisco-based Tadich Grill will open a restaurant along Pennslvania Avenue. (Rendering: Tadich Grill)

Tadich Grill

Tadich Grill, the San Francisco-based restaurant that claims to be the third oldest continuously operating restaurant in the county, will open a D.C. outpost at 1001 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 102. Expected to open Sept. 18, it will feature prime seafood and meats grilled over mesquite. Unlike the original, the D.C. location will take reservations.

Texas Jacks Barbecue

Partners Steve Roberts and Paul Capetanakis plan to open Texas Jacks Barbecue at 2761 Washington Bldv., Arlington, in the former Tallula/EatBar space sometime next month. The 145-seat restaurant and bar will serve dishes such as brisket, beef short ribs, pulled pork and sausages as well as weekly specials such as jerked goat and beef cheeks. Executive chef Matt Lang, who won Food Networks 2011 Best in Smoke show, formerly worked at Fette Sau in New York and Hill Country in D.C. (Note: The website is not active yet.)

Tim Ma will open his first D.C. restaurant. (Photo: Water & Wall)

Tim Ma’s New Restaurant

Formerly reported to be named Freehand, Chef Tim Ma of Maple Ave and Water & Wall in Virginia will open his first D.C. restaurant. He dropped the name after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the Sydell Group which owns a chain of hotels called Freehand in Miami, Chicago and soon, Los Angeles. The as-of-yet unnamed French-Asian bistro will be located in The Shay, 1924 Eighth St. NW in Shaw. Ma is teaming with chef Nyi Nyi Myint of the Tim Ma Restaurant Group with a tentative opening date in November. Ma will also open Chase the Submarine, a sandwich and butcher shop named for his son, at 132 Church St., Vienna, in October.

Yona

Chef Jonah Kim, formerly of Pabu in Baltimore, and Mike Isabella will open Yona, a Japanese noodle bar at 4000 Wilson Blvd. in Ballston – in the same building as Isabella’s Kapnos Taverna and Pepita. In addition to ramen, thre will also be Asian small plates such as steamed duck buns, crispy Brussels sprouts with Kewpie mayo, kimchi and Korean-style fried chicken wings.

Just like 14th Street NW was the hot new destination for trendy restaurants the last few years, it looks like the city’s Shaw neighborhood could be the next restaurant hot spot based on recent announcements.

Several new restaurants will open in the Shaw neighborhood over the next year. (Photo: Reishman Real Estate)

The Shay, a 268-unit apartment building on Florida Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets NW from the JBG Co., will be the new home of Freehand, a restaurant from chef Tim Ma, the owner of Arlington’s Water & Wall and Vienna’s Maple Ave, as well as the second location of Compass Coffee, the D.C.-based coffee roaster and café that opened on 7th Street NW last fall across from the City Market at O development in Shaw. Warby Parker, the maker of trendy eyewear, will join the two restaurants and other retailers at The Shay.

Two blocks away, JBG’s Atlantic Plumbing development will be the home to a new concept from Neighborhood Restauant Group, which also owns Birch & Barley and Bluejacket among other eateries. NRG’s restaurant will likely be Hazel from former Tallula chef Rob Rubba, although that lease hasn’t been signed yet. The owners of Chinatown’s ramen and izakaya restaurant Daikaya, will also open a yet-to-be-named restaurant that will be “a ramen dining room with more variety,” according to a press release from JBG. Atlantic Plumbing is a two-building, 375-apartment development at 8th and V Streets NW.

Atlantic Plumbing is also anchored by a new, six-screen cinema from Landmark theatres, a new version of the indie film-focused theater concept that is just one-fifth the size of a typical Landmark cinema. Other tenants include Declaration Pizza, a new pizzeria from the owners of Lincoln and Teddy & the Bully Bar; Tasty Burger, a Boston-based burger joint; and Bazaar Spices, an independently owned herbs and spice shop that has a stall in Union Market.

The Colonel, a residential development with 70 luxury units at 1250 Ninth St. NW, will include Espita Mezcalería, a Mexican restaurant and mezcal bar from master mezcalier Josh Phillips featuring the lesser-known Mexican spirits and cuisine from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. It will be Phillips’ first venture. Also coming to the building will be http://www.buttercreamdc.com/ Buttercream Bakeshop from pastry chef Tiffany MacIsaac, as well as All Purpose, a pizza-focused restaurant from Red Hen owners Michael Friedman, Michael O’Malley and Sebastian Zutant in partnership with Boundary Stone owners Gareth Croke and Colin McDonough.

“As excited as I am to be opening my first mezcaleria, I’m even more excited that it will be a part of Shaw,” said Phillips in a press release. “The first time I saw the space at The Colonel, I knew it was a perfect fit for Espita. I think that this stretch of 9th Street and Blagden Alley will quickly become a top dining destination in DC.”

Belga Café and Van Honsebrouck Brewery pair up for beer dinner

Belga Café is teaming up with Van Honsebrouck Brewery for its weekly Tuesday Beer Dinner at 6:30 p.m. on Mar. 24.

Van Honsebrouck Brewery (Photo: Wikimedia)

The weekly event pairs chef Bart Vandaele’s dishes with a selected Belgium brewery to showcase the marriage of Belgium food and beer. The five-course meal is $59 per person.

The meal begins with an amuse-bouche paired with a draft B Too Ale followed by a cherry tomato salad with feta cheese, shallots, garden sorrel and arugula dressing paird with Kasteel Rouge. The next course is smoked duck breast with raspberries, frisee salad and yogurt vinaigrette paired with Kasteel Cuvee du Chateau followed by poached lobster with carmelized salsify, watercress puree and blood orange hollandaise paird with Kasteel Triple and draft Kasteel Blond. Dessert is Belgian profiteroles with bacon bourbon ice cream, Belgain chocolate sauce and whipped cream paide with Kasteel Donker.

Happy 67th birthday, Michel Richard

Central Michel Richard, 1001 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, will celebrate Richard’s birthday from 5 p.m.-close on Mar. 24 with a meu of his favorites. The menu starts with a signature recipe, crab cake on a bed of leek tartare ($20); followed by prime rib au jus with horseradish, baked potato and green beans ($35). The meal will end with sparkling Celebration Cake for two ($15).

Central celebrate Michel Richard’s 67th birthday on Tuesday. (Photo: New York Times)

The three-courses are available either a la carte or as a $65 prix fixe menu. To toast, an optional wine pairing featuring the chef’s favorite, private label Cote du Rhone “Cuvee Michel Richard” will be offered for $35.

“I was inspired the first time I entered a professional kitchen when I was 8 years old”, says Richard. “I may get old, but I never want my food to get old.”

Also, from Mar. 23-29, Central’s sommelier, Andy Powell, will share some of his favorite bottles at special prices in partnership with the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s Spring Wine Fling.

First, diners can take 15 percent off bottles of French varietals of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Central’s list of French Burgundies. Or, Powell will select a surprise bottle of red or white wine to pair with your dinner for $40 or $80.

Jack Rose celebrates 2,015 whiskey bottle unveiling

Jack Rose Dining Saloon, 2007 18th St. NW, has spent the last several months increasing their inventory, reaching the 2,000-bottle mark this winter. To celebrate its whiskey collection, it will commemorate the 2,015th bottle with a “2015 in 2015” celebration from 6-9 p.m. on Mar. 25 featuring the unveiling of an exclusively-bottled Jack Rose/Willett bourbon, complimentary whiskey toast and chance to meet Willett’s master distiller Drew Kulsveen along with bourbon historian and author Michael Veach and Flying Dog Brewery’s CEO Jim Caruso.

Jack Rose’s extensive whiskey collection includes several Willett bourbon. (Photo: Jack Rose Dining Saloon/Facebook)

Co-owner Bill Thomas has grown Jack Rose’s whiskies from 1,200 bottles when it opened more than three years ago to more than 2,000 bottles now. New additions include some of the rarest, hard-to-find bottles such as the 1964 Black Bowmore first edition, A.H. Hirsch Blue Wax, Ardbeg Provenance 1974, Old Rip Van Winkle Family Selection 23-year Decanter and some unique prohibition-era releases.

Jack Rose will unveil its 2,015th bottle, an exclusive, one-of-a-kind cask strength Willett bourbon, which will only be available at the bar. The self-named 11-year-old 125.2 proof bottling was hand-selected by Thomas for the celebration. Jack Rose has had a longstanding relationship with the distillery, boasting one of the largest selections of Willett in the region, and Kulsveen will come from Bardstown, Ky. to celebrate the special occasion and meet guests.

Patrons will receive a free taste of the special 2,015th whiskey during a whiskey toast. There will also be food and drink specials throughout the night, including $7 whiskeys, discounted Flying Dog brews and half-priced bar snacks, as well as complimentary hors d’oeuvres from 6-7:30 p.m.

The commemorative barrel will be given to Flying Dog Berwery, which will brew a special Jack Rose-exclusive beer. The Frederick brewery will age one of their craft brews in the used bourbon barrel, which will then be released with a future launch party at the bar.

Also, Veach will sign copies of his book Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage. The first 20 people to purchase his book will receive a special tasting of Veach’s favorite whiskeys.

BLT Steak holds Dad’s Hat Rye dinner

BLT Steak, 1625 I St. NW, is partnering with Pennsylvania’s Dad’s Hat Rye distillery for a special whiskey pairing dinner at 7 p.m. on Mar. 26.

Dad’s Hat Dad’s Hat Rye finished in vermouth barrels, Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania White Rye and Dad’s Hat rye finished in port barrels. (Photo: Dad’s Hat)

Unveiling the restaurant’s new, exclusive BLT Steak-branded Dad’s Hat single-barrel, the dinner will also pair several of Dad’s Hat’s aged ryes with dishes prepared by executive chef Will Artley using wood from the oak barrel and spent grain and barley malt, bringing the whiskey-laden meal full-circle for a “whole barrel” dining experience. Diners will have the opportunity to be one of the first to taste BLT Steak’s recently-acquired and branded single-barrel, hand-picked by the restaurant’s staff while visiting the distillery last year, aged for almost seven months.

Guests will be greeted with a cocktail made with Dad’s Hat White Rye followed by a seated four-course dinner, prepared using ingredients from whiskey production, and paired with one of Dad’s Hat’s signature bottlings.

The menu includes a first course of Magret duck trio with foie gras paté, prosciutto and confit paired with Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania White Rye followed by seared Dayboat sea scallops with vanilla scented celeriac, pickled pear and spiced almond crumble paired with BLT’s exclusive Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania rye whiskey single barrel. The main course is a 60-day dry aged ribeye served with drunk blue cheese butter and paired with Dad’s Hat Rye finished in vermouth barrels. Dessert will be lavender crème brulee and citrus short cookies paired with Dad’s Hat rye finished in port barrels.

Tickets cost $100.

Chefs duel out colon-friendly cuisines at Eat4Life

On Mar. 31, seven area chefs will cook off for colon cancer awareness during the Chris4Life Colon Cancer Foundation’s third annual Eat4Life chef challenge from 6-9 p.m. at Longview Gallery, 1234 9th St. NW.

Chef Scott Drewno from The Source will defend his 2013 and 2014 titles. (Photo: Mark Heckathorn/DC on Heels)

The chefs are given a list of approved colon-friendly ingredients to prepare cancer-friendly dishes, providing guests healthy meal options while helping raise funds and awareness for the foundation. Each chef will have a station where he or she can discuss preparation of the item being served and why they choose to cook their particular colon-friendly dish. Guests vote on the winning dish.

For the past two years, Scott Drewno, executive chef at The Source by Wolfgang Puck has won. He will return this year to take on Enrique Ayala, executive chef at Scion Dupont and Scion Silver Spring; Matt Baker, executive chef at City Perch Kitchen and Bar; Carlos Gonzales, chef du cuisine at Taco Bamba; Erick Jiron, executive chef at Crios Modern Mexican; Patrick Robinson, executive chef at Table; and Tyler Scholfield, executive chef at NaiNai’s Noodle and Dumpling Bar.

Nycci Nellis, host of the Foodie and the Beast radio program will be the evening’s emcee. Inspirational speaker Teri Griege, a stage IV colon cancer survivor, ironman tri-athlete and founder of the Power of Hope Foundation, who has been recognized as a leading expert on resilience, will also speak.

Tickets are $30 for food only, $50 for food and two cocktails or $75 for food and all-you-can drink with 10 raffle tickets through Mar. 23. Prices increase to $50, $75 and $100, respectively, from Mar. 24-31.