No campaign tees, please! This McLean restaurant has a no-politics dress code

Zoom in: Neutral Ground Bar + Kitchen makes good on its name. Even before McLean's coastal chic restaurant opened last year, its owners, industry vets chef David Guas (Bayou Bakery) and wife Simone Rathle, knew they wanted to create a "neutral zone" for their neighborhood's many politicos — the CIA is a quick hop away — and government VIPs. Just strong drinks and crowd-pleasing, locally sourced food.

• In addition to the no-politics dress code — which suggests comfortable, "upscale casual" attire — you'll never find news channels like CNN or Fox 5 on the bar's televisions (no, not even during election season).
• And if Rathle overhears a debate brewing in the dining room, she might pop in with a half-joking "We don't discuss that here!"

The intrigue: Diners seem happy to comply. Rathle remembers a customer once showed up wearing a political hat — being neutral, she won't say what kind — but "there was no resistance" when they were asked to remove it.

What they're saying: "People understand in McLean, there're politicians everywhere. I remember running into Colin Powell at the hardware store and he helped me pick out nails," Rathle tells Axios.

• She says Neutral Ground has hosted bigwigs, including Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and former Attorney General Bill Barr. But diners — and staff, who are trained not to bother or fawn over VIPs — leave them alone.
• "We want to set the precedent that it's a welcoming place where people are equal, and no one feels uncomfortable if someone comes in with a logo," says Rathle.

Zoom out: Across the river in D.C., restaurants are more eager to publicize their party lines — take Butterworth's, the nouveau MAGA bistro on Capitol Hill, or this past summer of Kamala-colada cocktails.