Even as he continues to plan for a new-and-improved DCity Smokehouse location, pitmaster Rob Sonderman will expand into the bar business later this month with the Wicked Bloom Social Club.
First, it will give them a chance to enjoy the smoked meats from DCity in a real sit-down environment, not just on the tiny ledge at the original smokehouse. Second, Wicked Bloom will hawk a small bar-food menu that could include items such as brisket chili nachos, deviled eggs, barbecue sliders, smoked trout dip, smoked pimento cheese and a play on a hot brown, an open-faced turkey sandwich topped with Mornay sauce, bacon and tomatoes.
"Nothing too expansive," Sonderman says about the menu. "Just some bar-snack type stuff to supplement what we do" at DCity.
Wicked Bloom will offer customers craft cocktails, local beers on draft, a few wines and a line of whiskeys, bourbons and mezcals. Among the possible libations is a Scotch cocktail shaken with the artichoke-based amaro, Cynar, as well as green Chartreuse, lemon and sugar.
The bar manager will be Ben Matz, former brewmaster for the now-defunct Chocolate City Beer and, most recently, the guy behind the bar at Eat the Rich. Sonderman previously worked with Matz at Hill Country in Penn Quarter.
"We got a rapport going over there," the pitmaster says.
Sonderman and his partners are still looking to move DCity into an expanded space on the ground floor of a condo unit at 1700 Second St. NW, but they've been waiting on permits all summer. They hope to debut DCity 2.0 in the spring.
Wicked Bloom Social Club, 1540 North Capitol St. NW, is expected to open in late September. It will eventually be open seven days a week, noon to 1 a.m., Sunday through Thursday, and noon to 2 am., Friday and Saturday.