Shaw just picked up a new late night living room. The Grace quietly opened Wednesday in the longtime Passenger space, turning it into a two-level saloon built around cocktails and comfort food that actually sounds good at 1 a.m. Executive chef Courtney Evans, known from Netflix's "Next Gen Chef" and her work at Leah & Louise, stopped by Good Morning Washington nine days after the debut to talk through the kitchen's inspirations and how she plans to feed the night-owl crowd.
According to Axios, The Grace is the latest concept from restaurateur Sanjay Mandhaiya and leans into a gastropub-style design by CORE architecture + design, with a bar-focused downstairs and a more intimate dining room upstairs. The menu stretches from sandwiches and burgers to a butter-basted tavern ribeye as part of a strategy to keep prices relatively approachable in a neighborhood where tabs have been creeping north.
WJLA reported that Evans used her July 10 Good Morning Washington segment to share what is driving the menu and what diners can expect when they walk in, from reworked American staples to the kind of bar snacks that make you order one more round.
The Grace lists its address at 1539 7th Street NW and posts reservations, menus and hours on its official site, The Grace. The restaurant advertises late-afternoon service and weekend brunch, and District records show an active on-premise tavern license for that location. Both the restaurant and the city's alcohol board list the trade name and the 1539 7th Street NW address, according to District ABRA.
Menu Highlights and Neighborhood Fit
The kitchen under Evans focuses on tuned-up American standards rather than fussy tasting menus. Axios pointed to items like an English club sandwich, crab-and-corn hush puppies, oysters, a house burger with red-wine-braised shallots and a seafood pasta in a Riesling cream. The outlet also reported that The Grace plans a late night menu running from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., plus a daily happy hour aimed squarely at neighborhood regulars and the post-dinner bar crowd.
That mix of late night energy and relatively friendly pricing is the lane Mandhaiya and his team seem to be fighting for as Shaw keeps stacking both high-end destination spots and more casual, local haunts. The Grace's website and local coverage frame the place as an easygoing, reliable after-hours anchor where you can slide in for a burger, a steak or a drink without treating it like a special-occasion production.
If you want to check availability or lock in a table, up-to-date booking info lives on Resy, which tracks the restaurant's current hours and menu updates.
