The Little Blackbird

The Little Blackbird opened in September 2023 at 3309 Connecticut Avenue NW in Cleveland Park, in the space that had previously held Ashok Bajaj's Bindaas and, before that, Bardeo. Bajaj is one of Washington's longest-established restaurateurs, and this is a small, deliberately charming room rather than a flagship: designer Martin Vahtra built moody interiors brightened by floral wallpaper, blush-pink and pale-green seating and herringbone floors, with a white marble bar topped by a blackbird light fixture. The boutique wine list favours family-owned, sustainable and organic producers from South America, France, Italy, the United States and the Mediterranean, and executive chef Ryan Moore, who also runs neighbouring Sababa, cooks Mediterranean small plates anchored by a stone oven. The bar is also known for its whimsical playful pairings, matching brand-name snacks and sweets with wines by the glass.

The non-alcoholic offer is unusual for a wine bar, because it is a made thing rather than a bought one. Under a dedicated Dry Spell heading the bar produces its own zero-proof wines: a full-bodied red carrying juicy juniper-berry and black-pepper notes, and a stone-fruit white built with almond syrup and apricot. That is a meaningfully different proposition from stocking a dealcoholised bottle - the flavours are constructed to sit alongside the food rather than to imitate a specific grape - and it is the reason Resy's January 2025 roundup singled the bar out for making its own zero-proof wines and cocktails for anyone who might be sober-curious. Alongside them the bar pours a popular non-alcoholic gin fizz built with egg white, lemon and a non-alcoholic gin syrup, which is the drink to order if you want texture rather than fruit.

Practical notes. The bar opens at 5pm Monday through Saturday, closing at 9.30pm on Monday, 10pm Tuesday through Thursday and 11pm on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday runs a brunch from 11am to 3pm before an evening service. It is small enough that a weekend walk-in is a gamble, and it sits directly on the Cleveland Park Metro stretch of Connecticut Avenue, which makes it one of the easier upper-Northwest options to reach without driving.