Bramble & Rye in Bloomingdale: The Menu, Oven & Hours

The kitchen at 84 T Street NW came with a large Marra Forni wood-fired oven. The new owners named it Penny. Then they decided it would not make pizza.

Anthony and Jeremiah Brooks explained the choice to Washingtonian when Bramble & Rye opened on September 16. They didn't want to step on Bacio Pizzeria or The Red Hen, both neighbors, so they kept pizza and pasta off the menu despite the oven. The same thinking shows up throughout the restaurant. Bramble & Rye was designed to fit the corner it moved into. The oven, the menu, the wine club and even the patio all come back to what First and T already had.

Sixteen years, four names, one address

If you've lived in Bloomingdale for a while, you've probably eaten at this address under more than one name. PoPville's archive tells the history:

1. Rustik Tavern opened in September 2010 and served its last night on Saturday, November 26, 2016, after a little over six years.
2. Tyber Creek was announced as the next tenant in January 2017. Its owners marked four years in business in May 2021, which puts its opening in spring 2017, and that month they announced it wouldn't reopen.
3. établi, a wine bar from Kathleen Davis and Thomas Boisvert, moved into the former Tyber Creek space in 2021.
4. Bramble & Rye opened September 16, 2026.

In 2021 Tyber Creek's owners announced their own successor in the same post that said they weren't coming back. The 2026 changeover went further.

In May, Davis and Boisvert told PoPville that their lease at 84 T Street would end in December and établi would end with it. They asked guests to come in and share a bottle before then. Two months later the plan changed. The July announcement, also reported by PoPville, said établi would close in August, ahead of the December date, because Davis and Boisvert had partnered with Bloomingdale residents Jeremiah and Anthony Brooks to reopen the space as Bramble & Rye.

The founders stayed involved. Washingtonian reports that Davis and Boisvert are now silent partners, and the établi Wine Club carries on at Bramble & Rye with its monthly gatherings. The people who started the wine club still have a stake in the room where it now meets.

Owners who were already neighbors

According to Washingtonian, the Brookses moved to Bloomingdale two years ago with no plans to open a restaurant. That changed when établi announced its closure. They live a few blocks from the corner. Axios reported the same thing in Anthony's words: the couple hadn't expected to open another restaurant until the établi space came up.

They've done this before. The two ran Hamilton's on Main in Newark, Delaware, and Hamilton's Tavern in Harpers Ferry. Jeremiah also cooked at Matchbox, and Anthony worked front-of-house at Rose's Luxury and, most recently, Barbouzard. The restaurant's chef's table page adds that Jeremiah's Pork Wellington from Hamilton's on Main was featured in a cookbook. His stated approach is to respect the classics, use excellent ingredients and add a personal touch.

What Penny cooks instead

With pizza and pasta off the table, the menu draws on influences from all over the world. Jeremiah described the food to Washingtonian this way:

"The theme is broadly modern coastal cuisine. I tend to gravitate toward the panache of the Mediterranean, but I love the grit of the Caribbean."

The dinner menu follows that description. Starters include customizable charcuterie boards and a salmon crudo in cantaloupe-serrano leche de tigre. There's also an octopus carpaccio with white bean purée and preserved-lemon relish. Among the larger plates:

• Fire-roasted scallops with celeriac and apple
• Wood-fired cauliflower steak
• Creole shrimp scampi with Calabrian chili and cornbread
• Coffee-rubbed brisket with charred-leek chimichurri

Eater describes the concept as seafood, vegetables, house-made breads and charcuterie built around the oven. Axios lists the focaccia with ricotta, the octopus carpaccio, the Creole shrimp scampi and the wood-fired brisket among the dishes the chef recommends. So the oven still turns out bread, just as focaccia instead of crust.

The owners would also like to be more than a local favorite. Anthony told Washingtonian they hope Bramble & Rye becomes a destination like The Red Hen across the street. "We're not chasing a Michelin star," he said, "but to be recognized would be awesome." Again, the benchmark they picked is right across T Street.

The patio was planned around three dogs

The Brookses have three dogs, and Washingtonian reports they made sure the patio was dog-friendly. It has its own "paw-tio" menu of four house-made dishes for dogs: wood-fired chicken and rice, puppy poke, peanut butter biscuits and a pup-sicle. Eater DC describes the dog options as salmon poke and roasted chicken and rice. Axios describes the frozen treat as a banana-and-berry popsicle with a hide handle.

There's also a time set aside for them. Yappy Hour runs on the patio Sundays from 3 to 5 pm, weather permitting.

When the corner is open

The restaurant's contact page currently lists these hours:

Saturday brunch starts this month, according to the same page. Axios's opening story, published September 23, gave Sunday brunch as 10 am to 2 pm. The restaurant's own page now lists 11 to 3, and that's the one to go by.

The other Sunday fixture on First Street

Bramble & Rye's Sunday schedule lines up with what was already happening a short walk down First Street. Big Bear Cafe at 105 R Street NW hosts the Bloomingdale Farmers Market on Sundays from 9 am to 1 pm. Big Bear describes the market as year-round, and its calendar lists the next one on Sunday, October 18.

That makes for a full Sunday without leaving the neighborhood. You can shop the market in the morning, have brunch at 84 T Street once it opens at 11, and bring the dog back for Yappy Hour at 3. Dinner starts at 5 and runs until 8.

Big Bear is also planning for colder months. Its vendor call for the holiday and winter markets opened October 9. Holiday Market applications close October 14, and musician and Winter Market applications close October 21. If you know a local maker, artist or musician who should be at those markets, Big Bear asks neighbors to pass the call along. That leaves two days for holiday vendors and nine for everyone else.

Carmen Fontecilla's background is in civil engineering, and our team pays the same attention to what a space can hold, whether it's a historic rowhouse or a restaurant kitchen that came with a wood-fired oven. If you're thinking about how your own Bloomingdale or Eckington home fits its block, Carmen Fontecilla Group can walk through it with you. Request a personalized market consultation.