"This wasn't a restaurant before, but we worked really hard to make this place feel like it had been here for 40 or 50 years." Chef Alex McCoy said that to Washingtonian about Alfie's, a northern Thai restaurant and natural wine bar, as quoted in The Georgetowner's September business roundup. The restaurant opened September 2 in the alley section of Hamilton Collective at 1228½ 31st Street NW. It has 25 seats.
Five days before that, Uniqlo opened a 22,618-square-foot store at 3262 M Street NW. Those two openings show how Georgetown changed this year. The big frontage on the main streets went to national brands. Chef-run restaurants went into the alleys, courtyards and lanes behind them, where most of them can't be seen from the sidewalk.
What M Street and Wisconsin Got This Fall
The Georgetowner's September 17 Business Ins & Outs opens with a long list of names arriving in the neighborhood: Uniqlo, Beso Besu, Garage, Joe & The Juice, Dayglow, Puree Juice Bar, Spicewalla, East Fork, Jones Road, Pop Mart, Dutch Darlings and Thursday Boot Company. Along the two main corridors, the confirmed and announced addresses look like this:
- Uniqlo, 3262 M Street NW, opened August 28
- Bombas, 1400 Wisconsin Avenue NW, the brand's first D.C. store, opened August 14
- Kith, announced for 3040 M Street NW next to Barnes & Noble, based on plans filed with the Old Georgetown Board
- Edikted, a planned 3,890-square-foot store at 3135 M Street NW, the former Allbirds space
- Pop Mart, announced for 3221 M Street NW
Kith, Edikted and Pop Mart had been announced as of mid-September, with no opening dates given. Most of this list is apparel, accessories and collectibles. The restaurants with the most press attention this year are on a different map.
The Alley Map, Block by Block
Here are the chef-run restaurants off the main streets, ordered by block number from east to west. All but Two Nine, which opened in 2025, are 2026 openings or in the pipeline.
| Address | What's there | Status this fall | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hamilton Collective alley, off 31st Street | 1228½ 31st Street NW | Alfie's, northern Thai and natural wine | Open since September 2 |
| Same alley | 1228.5 31st Street NW | Flora Pizzeria | Open since September 14 |
| Same alley | 1218 31st Street NW | Two Nine, omakase | Omakase operating; daytime cafe closed August 1 |
| Cherry Hill Lane, off the canal | 3201 Cherry Hill Lane NW | Ox & Olive, steakhouse | Open since May 7 |
| Grace Street Collective | 3210 Grace Street NW | Café Tulúm, Mexican small plates | Open since late summer |
| Alley entered from Potomac Street | Rear of 3246 Prospect Street NW | Bizzeria, wood-fired sourdough pizza | Slated for fall 2026 |
Three of these six spots share one alley. That alley is the best place to start.
One Alley Off 31st Street Now Holds Three Kitchens
PoPville walked the alley in mid-August, before Alfie's and Flora opened. It found Alfie's signage next to Two Nine Omakase, with Flora Pizzeria on Alfie's other side, all tucked behind an old building marked 1885. The three kitchens are now side by side.
Alfie's has been around for years without a permanent home. Eater DC's September openings roundup traces it from a temporary start in Park View about a decade ago, through pop-ups in London and Bangkok, before chefs McCoy and Justin Ahn put down roots in Georgetown. The menu includes khao soi noodle bowls and curries made with local seafood, meats and vegetables. It also has cockles with chile jam, 'nduja and holy basil, and sticky rice served in Ziploc bags. McCoy told Axios the 25 seats let the team cook limited-run dishes with local ingredients and staff the floor well enough to explain the food and wine.
Flora Pizzeria makes 18-inch cacio e pepe pies, sold whole or by the slice, plus Caesar salads and meatball sandwiches. Flora also runs a stall at the Square, the downtown food hall, so Georgetown is its second address. The owners told The Georgetowner the dough uses a natural leaven, organic flour and Sicilian sea salt.
Two Nine came first. Washingtonian covered its May 2025 opening as an alley restaurant run by chefs Amy Phan and Zach Ramos, with an upstairs omakase counter and a daytime cafe. The cafe served its last day on Saturday, August 1, according to PoPville. The omakase is still taking reservations this October. That leaves the alley with three dinner options: a reserved omakase counter, a small Thai wine bar, and a pizzeria that sells by the slice.
The street-facing side of 31st Street already had one piece of this. Flor. Coffee + Books at 1220 31st Street NW, just above M Street, turned one this September.
Cherry Hill Lane and Grace Street Kept Their Restaurant Rooms
South of M Street toward the C&O Canal, two small lanes show that an alley space usually goes to another restaurant when it turns over.
Reverie, chef Johnny Spero's Michelin-starred restaurant on Cherry Hill Lane, opened in October 2018. It served its last meal on October 4, 2025, according to The Georgetowner's 2025 year-end roundup. Seven months later, Hive Hospitality and chef Ryan Ratino of Jônt and Bresca opened Ox & Olive in the same space on May 7, 2026. Eater DC described the redesign as a gothic "temple of beef," hidden down an alley off the canals. Its dark entryway is lined with latticed metal arched windows and a lit dry-aging refrigerator. The restaurant's site lists the address as 3201 Cherry Hill Lane NW, with daily hours for the dining room and the bar.
One lane over, Café Tulúm joined the Grace Street Collective at 3210 Grace Street NW. Restaurateur Juan Dracoulis designed it as a plant-filled alley spot serving Mexican small plates with Japanese influences. Cocktails at the matte-black bar are made with natural fruit, including a cucumber basil vodka and a spicy watermelon mezcal.
The Next Alley Opening Is Off Potomac Street
Chef Michael Rafidi owns Albi and La' Shukran, plus Yellow, the cafe on Wisconsin Avenue known for its "(not) pizza." His next project is Bizzeria, going into the back of 3246 Prospect Street NW. That is the same address as Skillette, an upcoming cooking school from Kelly Singer. The Georgetowner reported that Bizzeria will be entered from the alley off Potomac Street. As of mid-September it was slated for fall 2026, with no opening date announced. Rafidi is a chef who already has a Wisconsin Avenue storefront, and he picked an alley entrance for his next one.
Nearby, La Bonne Vache at 3265 Prospect Street NW closed after an electrical fire reported on October 19. PoPville reported that the restaurant plans to rebuild and reopen, with no date given.
The Independents That Did Take Main-Street Space
Some independent restaurants did open on the main streets this year. Most of them moved into rooms that were already known as restaurant spaces.
- The Oak Room and Bernadette's, 1218 Wisconsin Avenue NW. Ten Five Hospitality opened both on June 26, with Bernadette's as an upstairs supper club. The building held El Centro D.F. for 12 years, and before that the Third Edition, whose exterior appeared in the 1985 film "St. Elmo's Fire." The space is about 6,500 square feet.
- Delhi Belly, 1560 Wisconsin Avenue NW at Q Street. Vikas Kakkar and Raj Manroy opened it in August, serving casual food inspired by India's urban food culture. The Georgetowner noted that the corner has housed a long line of food businesses, including La Jolie Bleue, Bharati and Oakberry.
- Flavor Hive, 3287½ M Street NW. The Northern Virginia food truck opened its first brick-and-mortar location in the former Harmony Café space.
- Dolcezza Gelato, 1300 Wisconsin Avenue NW. Robb Duncan and Violeta Edelman founded the shop in Georgetown in 2004 and are bringing it back to the former Pressed Juicery space. It is slated for late fall or early winter and will be their seventh location.
Three of these four took over spaces that had already served food. The Oak Room and Bernadette's are also a lineup change at a long-running Wisconsin Avenue bar address. None of these openings has the footprint of the new national retail stores.
A Fall Evening Built on the Back Lanes
For a dinner with out-of-town guests this season, the alleys can fill a whole evening without one meal on M Street. Book the omakase at Two Nine, or walk into Alfie's for curry and natural wine. Then go to Flora next door for a slice, or head south of M Street to Ox & Olive on Cherry Hill Lane or Café Tulúm on Grace Street. If Bizzeria opens on its fall schedule, the alley off Potomac Street adds a fourth stop. Dolcezza's return to 1300 Wisconsin Avenue is slated for late fall or early winter.
Brand storefronts will keep turning over along M Street. This year, the new chef-run restaurants opened behind those storefronts, at alley entrances and lane addresses that can't be seen from the sidewalk. More on the city's neighborhoods is on our Washington, D.C. page, and our look at how Navy Yard's restaurant calendar stopped depending on game days follows a similar shift across town.
Cristina Sison and the Sison Homes team keep track of changes like these, down to the alley, across Georgetown and the rest of D.C. If you'd like to talk about what is opening around your own block, we'd be glad to schedule a consultation.
