Old Ebbitt Grill has long been a Washington institution. Now, the Ebbitt name is crossing the Potomac for a new chapter in Reston.
Ebbitt House, the latest concept from Clyde’s Restaurant Group, is expected to open in October at Reston Station, across from the new JW Marriott. Inspired by the iconic Washington, DC, restaurant, the new spot will put its own spin on the Ebbitt experience. It will feature two indoor bars, a 125-seat patio, and an oyster and raw bar.
The opening also brings the restaurant group back to Reston. Its Clyde’s of Reston operated at Reston Town Center for 31 years before closing in May 2022.
“We had a great run in Reston,” says John McDonnell, CEO and president of Clyde’s Restaurant Group. “It’s not a community that we per se wanted to leave and close down.”
For the restaurant group, the choice of Ebbitt House was deliberate. McDonnell says the concept gives the company room to offer a broader menu and appeal to more occasions than the former Clyde’s did.
“The thing that the Ebbitt name gives you that the Clyde’s doesn’t is a more expansive menu and also a more ambitious approach to menu and food,” McDonnell says.
A Different Kind of Ebbitt
While Ebbitt House will take cues from Old Ebbitt Grill, McDonnell is quick to distinguish the new restaurant from its Washington counterpart.
“We wanted to build something that traded a little bit more like the Ebbitt, which, while still appropriate for mom and dad and the kids on a Tuesday night, trades up for business entertaining and special occasions better than a Clyde’s does,” he says.
The restaurant will have 250 seats, two indoor bars, and a covered 125-seat patio with its own outdoor bar. Ceiling-mounted heaters will allow the patio to remain in use later into the year.
The design, by Chicago-based Studio K, will retain the classic, richly detailed aesthetic associated with the restaurant group, but with a lighter touch. Traditional architectural details and furnishings will be paired with lighter colors, varied materials and more eclectic artwork.
“We wanted to sort of trade forward,” McDonnell says.
The bar will have a more prominent role than it did at the former Clyde’s of Reston, where it was tucked into a separate room. At Ebbitt House, each of the two main dining areas will have its own bar.
“One of the tenets of the Clyde’s Restaurant Group is that it’s more fun to eat in a bar than it is to drink in a restaurant,” McDonnell says.
Oysters, Pasta and Happy Hour
The menu will center on elevated American classics, with attention to the details. Fresh calamari, steaks and chops, escargot, steak tartare, and housemade pasta will be among the offerings. The pasta program is a particular point of pride for McDonnell.
“We make noodles, pasta noodles, every day in house,” he says. “I’m so proud of our pasta game.”
The raw bar will also bring one of Clyde’s less visible traditions to Reston: an unusually rigorous approach to oyster sourcing and testing. Farms that want to supply the restaurant group must submit oyster samples for laboratory testing, McDonnell says.
“There are farms all the time selling oysters in the Washington, DC, area that haven’t made the cut with us,” he says. “And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with their oysters. I’m just saying they’re farms that didn’t make the cut with us.”
At Ebbitt House, those oysters will anchor happy hour, when raw-bar offerings are expected to be discounted by about 40 percent. A second, late-night oyster happy hour is also planned.
For former Clyde’s of Reston regulars, some familiar faces will also be behind the scenes. General Manager Ajay Bhatia and Executive Chef Diego Ramirez, both former Clyde’s of Reston employees, are joining the Ebbitt House team. The restaurant also plans to stay open late, giving restaurant-industry workers a place to eat after other kitchens have closed.
“We really sort of live to serve our brothers and sisters, the restaurant [workers], after 10 o’clock at night,” McDonnell says.
Neighborhood Connection
McDonnell also hopes the new restaurant will become a place that feels distinctly connected to its new neighborhood. “We’re very good at cooking to our audience,” he says. “We feel like our audience owns us more than us being something from a focus group.”
Ebbitt House will join the growing collection of restaurants, residences, offices, and hotels at Reston Station. For McDonnell, the goal is for it to become more than another restaurant in the development. “I think it’s going to be seen as a centerpiece for Reston,” he says.
McDonnell has a simple measure of success for Ebbitt House several years from now: “I want them to say, ‘They’re so busy. How did they do it so well?’” 1860 Reston Row Plaza, Reston
Feature image rendering of the main bar courtesy Ebbitt House
