Exclusive: Tail Up Goat is closing after 10 years in Adams Morgan
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The trio: Tail Up Goat owners (left to right) Bill Jensen, Jill Tyler, and chef Jon Sybert. Photo: courtesy Tail Up Goat
Beloved restaurant Tail Up Goat will close after a decade in Adams Morgan, its owners tell Axios. One silver lining: You have through the end of the year to say goodbye.
Why it matters: Tail Up Goat is an increasingly rare breed of ambitious-yet-genuinely-warm neighborhood restaurant — welcoming enough for dark n' stormies at the bar, special enough for a Michelin star, small and independent through and through — and its absence will be felt.
State of play: Faced with an expiring lease, owners Jill Tyler, chef Jon Sybert and Bill Jensen agreed it was time. "Had the last few years not happened [with the pandemic], maybe we'd be having a different conversation," Sybert tells Axios.
- "But I don't begrudge any moment because of where we are today. We all just looked at it like, 'This is great. Let's have this be the memory.'"
- The team has no plans to reopen elsewhere. Reveler's Hour, their buzzy pasta and wine bar around the corner, will continue on as usual.
Flashback: The trio of industry vets, who worked together at late D.C. fine dining legend Komi, opened their doors in 2016. Similar to today, Tyler ran the dining room with glowing hospitality, sommelier Jensen poured homemade shrubs and delicious wines you likely never heard of, and Sybert dished up daring plates like salt-crusted sardines and goat lasagna.
- Before opening, Jensen told me: "We want to be a neighborhood joint where people like to come."
- When folks asked about "the concept" — it's not easy to pigeonhole a place with seaweed-sourdough toasts and tropical-ish cocktails — Jensen said they took cues from their Komi mentors: "'Serve the food you want to eat, pour the drink you want to drink, and play the music you want to listen to.' That's our concept."
The intrigue: The world — and certainly the D.C. dining scene — has changed. But Tail Up Goat plans to stick true to its concept through the end. "We've consistently been able to run this place on our own terms…and we want to go out on our own terms," Jensen tells me now. "We strongly believe that Tail Up Goat is the best it's ever been, and we want to celebrate that."
- The team is planning a series of collaborative 'dinners with friends' near and far, from Martha Dear in Mt Pleasant (May 20) to San Francisco's Liholiho Yacht Club (Nov. 10).
Zoom out: The pandemic hit intimate, higher-end, "labor-heavy" restaurants like Tail Up Goat hard. Current operating conditions are so tough in D.C., they're making headlines.
- A few of Tail Up Goat's ambitious neighborhood peers are celebrating their 10-year anniversaries, including Maketto, Lapis, Centrolina and the Dabney. But many others, like Bad Saint, Convivial and Estadio have closed — plus a record 70+ restaurants last year.
The bottom line: "People will always want to do this, no matter how hard it is. It's like a calling. But the margins keep getting smaller," Tyler says. It's part of the reason they're going out on a high note.
- "I never could have dreamed what this place has given us, the places it would take us, and the people we would meet," says Tyler. "I want to be as thoughtful with the ending as we were with the beginning."