“District Soul Food & Lounge” to Open on Barracks Row in Former Banana Café

The Banana Cafe on Barracks Row will become the District Soul Food & Lounge in September

“District Soul Food & Lounge” to Open on Barracks Row in Former Banana Café

by Larry Janezich

Two Brothers Soul Food, a popular but short-lived restaurant on Route 1 outside the Beltway has chosen the former Banana Café on Barracks Row as their new home.  According to ANC Commissioner Kirsten Oldenburg, in whose district the restaurant lies, the restaurant plans to open in September.  Banana Café closed last December, when owner Jorge Garcia-Meitin Zamorano retired.

District Soul Food owners Chris Everett and David Roundtree announced last November that they were closing Two Brothers after seven months and relocating.  The restaurant opened in May of 2017 and had experienced a number of structural issues with the building, which eventually drove the decision to relocate.

The menu will feature authentic Southern cooking, heavy on fried chicken, pulled pork, fried fish, collard greens, baked beans, etc.  Oldenburg says that the owners will offer live jazz in the former piano bar on the second floor.  Everett and Roundtree are partners in other real estate deals, but relative newcomers to the hospitality business – Two Brothers was their first venture as restaurateurs.

The space is undergoing renovation, which, according to ANC Commissioner Chander Jayaraman will include plans for indoor trash storage.  Jayaraman, as chair of ANC6B’s Alcohol Beverage Control Committee, has been a strong advocate of indoor trash storage, and developed a strategy of using alcohol beverage license applications and renewals to encourage Barracks Row restaurants to provide indoor storage to combat rodent issues.