Colada Shop’s busy founder Daniella Senior is at it again, this time with Bar Nuestro – a Latin-leaning portal to seafood, meats, pastas, build-your-own martinis, caviar, and midcentury-chic vibes that debuts in Navy Yard on Wednesday, October 28.
Located at the foot of the luxury apartment complex Urby (1345 Yards Place SE), Bar Nuestro casts classic European dishes through a Latin lens. 5C Hospitality culinary director is Colombian chef Claudio Foschi, a longtime alum of José Andrés Group who formerly led the kitchen at Oyamel. Recipes “that feel like family” get a “bistrot accent,” at Nuestro, he says. “Bar Nuestro is a conversation between two cultures.” For instance, soft beignets made out of yuca and crackly sourdough for the table come with whipped queso fresco over butter.
Executive chef Harper McClure leads the kitchen and helps tailor the European side of the menu’s personality. McClure is versed in bustling brasseries, having long led the kitchen at Stephen Starr’s French favorite, Le Diplomate.
Crudo like Japanese yellowtail amberjack with soursop leche de tigre, mango, and serrano join Merolin churro topped with imperial osetra caviar, creme fraiche, and shallot jam. Aperitivos include yuca beignets with truffle and huitlacoche; head-on prawns with salsa macha honey; and pillows of lump crab with ají dulce tartar sauce. Breads for the table include sourdough with whipped queso fresco and caramelized pineapple. Bar Nuestro is free of nuts and seed oils, with a dedicated gluten-free fryer in the kitchen.
The fusion menu comes into focus on the mains front ($26-$54). See: oxtail mafalde with ragu and Parmesan; a pork chop Milanesa with avocado mousse; charred picanha (top sirloin cap) with leek chimichurri; and its namesake burger with banana ketchup and pommes frites. The meal ends on a nostalgic note, with desserts like a sweet plantain sundae with rum caramel or mango frio frio, a Dominican shaved-ice dessert with passionfruit ganache and pitahaya.
At the bar, beverage director Josh Murski showcases a fun build-you-own martini menu with a customer’s choice of spirit, vermouth, style, and garnish, plus playful add-ons like a caviar bump or an oyster. Cocktails include the Rumour (Tanqueray Ten, Cocchi Torino, and caviar) and Dirty Dancing, an upside-down martini with onion brine. A cute $10 Tiny Tini spotlights olive-oil washed vodka. And because it wouldn’t be a party without the fan-favorite espresso martini, there’s a whole tower of ones for the table.
Other whimsical drinks include the Fluffy Mango Margarita, a brown-butter washed Negroni, and a pisco sour with mango, while spirit-free options toy with ginger and kiwi. Wines by the glass span around regions of Spain, France, Argentina, and Virginia, and the beer list shows love for locals like Richmond’s Väsen Brewing.
Shawn Hausman, the acclaimed interior designer behind Le Dip in D.C., Narcissa in NYC, and Bar Marmont in LA, turned to midcentury Latin America for inspiration. Bar Nuestro’s retro and geometric textures, red lacquered accents, stone flooring, and monochromatic color scheme are drawing early comparisons to a quirky Wes Anderson flick.
Along with the six Colada Shops scattered across D.C. and Virginia (plus a recent arrival inside DCA), Senior’s recently formed 5C Hospitality group also includes Union Market’s Latin cocktail bar Elegancia she co-owns with actor Wilmer Valderrama.
Bar Nuestro is a welcome addition to the area around National Park, which seems to be getting more chains than original restaurants as of late; a Taco Bell Cantina is moving into the old Swingers space, while the original location of Rasa is becoming a Panda Express.
Dining and Cooking