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Just in time for the tail end of summer, all-outdoors beer garden Dacha opens today at 4 p.m. in Shaw.
The beer garden comes from Russian duo Ilya Alter and Dmitri Chekaldin, who left the corporate world (Alter from finance, and Chekaldin from trading) to do something they felt would be more fulfilling. The name Dacha translates to “small country house with a garden” in Russian, says Alter.
“We didn’t want to open a restaurant because it’s a very complicated business,” Alter says. Instead, the set-up is pretty simple: picnic tables and a bar with 12 taps serving primarily German and Belgian beers. As the weather gets cooler, Alter says they may serve mulled wine, but there’s no food for now.
However, Alter and Chekaldin have bigger plans for the lot at 7th and Q streets NW. Alter calls the current iteration of the beer garden more of a “pop-up.” After Dacha closes for the winter, they plan to begin construction on a permanent structure that will house a kitchen and bar, although a large outdoor seating pavilion will remain.
Dacha is open from 4 to 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and noon to midnight on weekends.
Dacha Beer Garden, 1600 7th St. NW; (202) 524-8790; Facebook.com/DachaBeerGarden
Photo by Will Sommer