2 popular Foggy Bottom-area restaurants close permanently

Burger Tap & Shake on Washington Circle, in D.C.'s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, is closed for good. (Credit: Google Street View)
Burger Tap & Shake on Washington Circle, in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, is closed for good. (Credit: Google Street View)

Two more well-established D.C. restaurants have become victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.

District Commons and its next-door neighbor, Burger Tap & Shake, on Washington Circle in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, have closed for good.

Both are owned by Passion Food Hospitality, which also operates PassionFish restaurants in Bethesda, Maryland, and Reston, Virginia, both of which remain open.

District Commons and Burger Tap & Shake, popular spots for both George Washington University students and Foggy Bottom-area office workers, have been Washington Circle fixtures for nearly a decade.

The university’s fall semester undergrad classes are online-only, and there are few students actually in campus housing. Many office workers in the area remain working remotely.

District Commons and Burger Tap & Shake both closed, initially temporarily, in August. At least one of them may resurface elsewhere.

“Goodbye for now, burger lovers. We had hoped we could reopen here in Foggy Bottom sometime this year and see all of you again. Sadly, we find we simply can’t at this time. Hopefully, we’ll see you again in a spiffy new location,” Burger Tap & Shake tweeted.

District Commons did not promise a rebirth. “We are sad to say we will not be reopening. Thanks to our wonderful guests, staff, chefs and managers. We had a great run,” the restaurant tweeted.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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