Hit Bakery Mah-Ze-Dahr Designs to Open up a Large Arlington Cafe Close to Amazon’s HQ2

Cafe group Knead Hospitality + Design has began relocating forward with its local enlargement options for NYC-based mostly bakery Mah-Ze-Dahr. The well-known brand name, which arrived in D.C. with Madagascar vanilla cream-stuffed brioche doughnuts and turkey and gruyere croissants in September, is constructing its biggest area to date in Arlington and programs to open up in the vicinity of Amazon’s HQ2 by April.

Amazon’s development task is reportedly on-plan to finish its initially period by 2023, and the supply big will lease business space before then. The incoming cafe could symbolize a marquee attraction for Crystal City, one particular of a handful of Northern Virginia spots trying to rebrand as Countrywide Landing.

New buyers to Mah-Ze-Dahr will be ready to sample cookies, cheesecakes, and dark chocolate brownies at a 3,000-square-foot cafe with a substantial patio (1550 Crystal Push). The 80-seat set up will double as a commissary kitchen area that will eventually source up to five place Mah-Ze-Dahr locations with its baked products.

Mah-Ze-Dahr arrives from Umber Ahmad, a previous financial investment banker who was a 2019 semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Excellent Baker award. Mah-Ze-Dahr’s new place in Navy Lawn (1201 50 % Road SE) represented its very first venture outside of Manhattan. An expanded menu in Arlington will include savory items, with a focus on breakfast and lunch across the dim blue and marble-toned room.

“It’s a minor more above-the-top than Capitol Riverfront,” claims Knead co-founder Michael Reginbogin. “Every time we open one particular, we want it to be superior than the previous.”

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Mah-Ze-Dahr’s very first D.C. location, throughout the avenue from Nationals Park, will supply pastries and desserts for Knead’s delayed American cafe Gatsby, which sits in the exact same 9,000-square-foot sophisticated.

Gatsby, which can has room for 350 people, is waiting around for community overall health constraints to enable at least 75 p.c capability prior to it opens to the public. The entrepreneurs are hoping that’s feasible by February or March, main up to a 2021 MLB period in which experienced baseball expects to convey fans back again to stadiums in some manner.

“Gatsby needs the electricity and vibe of visitors. There’s a significant bar on the first floor, and the previous thing we want to do is walk into a area and not have a bar group,” says Knead co-founder Jason Berry. “We really don’t want to open at 25 or 50 percent potential, or outside only. It won’t showcase what it does.”

The in-the-operates menu, billed as “reimagined American diner classics,” ideas to include spaghetti and meatballs, chicken fried steak, and yr-round Thanksgiving staples.

Knead’s opulently made Succotash Penn Quarter, which briefly shut in July because of to the neighborhood’s depleted foot visitors, also hopes to reopen all over the similar time Gatsby comes.

Regulars who are missing chef Edward Lee’s Southern-Korean delicacies can get Succotash holiday getaway dinner for pickup from Gatsby, which also hosted a popular Thanksgiving to-go unfold.

Mah-Ze-Dahr’s calendar year-close strategies contain making gingerbread residence and bake-at-house brownie kits for pickup or shipping beginning Saturday, December 12 via Xmas Eve.