Walk down 31st Street NW on a Tuesday night this September and you could miss the whole thing. Nothing about the block signals what's happening one door in. But turn into Congress Court, the alley locals have used for decades mostly to avoid Wisconsin Avenue foot traffic, and you'll find a line for a 25-seat Thai wine bar that took ten years to find a permanent home.
That's Alfie's, and it's not alone back there. Georgetown's most talked-about restaurant openings of 2026 didn't happen on M Street or Wisconsin Avenue, the two corridors everyone assumes are the neighborhood's dining spine. They happened behind those corridors, in two alleys most residents have walked past hundreds of times without a second look.
Two Alleys, Two Hospitality Groups, One Bet
Congress Court runs behind the Wisconsin Avenue shops near 31st Street. Cherry Hill Lane sits off M Street, cobblestoned and easy to miss if you're not looking for it. In 2026, two separate hospitality groups independently decided these were the right addresses for their most ambitious concepts, not the visible storefronts a few feet away.
In Congress Court, chef Alex McCoy and chef Justin Ahn opened Alfie's on September 2 at 1228½ 31st St NW, a permanent home for the northern Thai pop-up McCoy had revived on and off since 2016. It's tiny by design, a 25-seat room where the wine list runs through Virginia bottles by the glass and the kitchen changes dishes several times a week depending on what's at the market. Within a week of reservations going live on Resy, the restaurant had booked more than 700 covers, according to Axios.
Alfie's isn't the only tenant in that alley. Flora Pizzeria, a spinoff from the team behind Pluma and Bluebird Bakery, sits right next door and reaches its entrance from Potomac Street rather than 31st, according to the Georgetowner. Two Nine, an omakase spot, and a new restaurant from Claire and Ari Wilder round out the same stretch of alley, according to Resy. Four concepts, one hidden corridor, all opening within months of each other.
A few blocks away, Cherry Hill Lane tells the same story with a different hospitality group. Chef Ryan Ratino, whose Michelin-starred Jônt sits directly upstairs from the space, opened Ox & Olive there on May 7 in what used to be the Reverie tasting room. It's a 50-seat "petite steakhouse," Ratino's word for it, sourcing beef from a dozen or more small farms across the US and Australia and aging cuts anywhere from 28 to 60 days, according to Washingtonian. The menu plays it straight and then doesn't: mini brisket hot dogs, a whipped potato loaded with beef jam and comte, milk chocolate soft serve served with a side of steak fries. There's a $95 chef's table if you want the full treatment, and a candlelit lounge in front if you don't.
Meanwhile, Out Front on Wisconsin Avenue
The contrast is what makes this worth noticing. While new restaurants were opening in the alleys, new concepts were also arriving in visible storefronts nearby.
Take 1560 Wisconsin Ave NW. For nearly a decade it was Dolcezza, the gelato shop most longtime residents still associate with the address. After Dolcezza closed, the space became home to Oakberry, then La Jolie Bleue Bakery & Cafe, then Bharati, according to The DC Voice. This August, it became Delhi Belly, an Indian street food concept from Vikas Kakkar and Raj Manroy, the pair behind Bethesda's Virraaj. Five tenants in one storefront since the mid-2010s.
Down the block at 1218 Wisconsin Ave NW, Ten Five Hospitality and chef Tim Hollingsworth took a different approach in June, opening The Oak Room on the ground floor and Bernadette's, a supper club with a restored 1920s Steinway grand piano, upstairs, according to Georgetown DC's own events page. It's another street-facing restaurant opening in the corridor.
Georgetown overall had a retail vacancy rate of 8.34 percent, well under the District-wide average of roughly 13.96 percent, according to a Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors report cited by the Georgetowner. Storefronts continue to change hands, but the report's figure describes Georgetown overall, not Wisconsin Avenue specifically.
How Georgetown's Alley Restaurants Took Shape
Storefronts on Wisconsin Avenue and M Street have seen concept changes, while the alley spaces offer a different setting. Ratino gutted the old Reverie space and built a gothic, candlelit dining room from scratch. McCoy and Ahn custom-built Alfie's around a wine program they'd been developing for a decade. Together, the projects show how alley spaces can accommodate very different restaurant concepts.
For residents, these openings make the alleys another part of Georgetown's dining map, alongside its main streets.
If You're Going This Week
- Alfie's takes reservations through Resy, and walk-in seats are held nightly, though the restaurant had already logged 700-plus bookings within days of going live.
- Ox & Olive offers a $95 chef's table if you want the full tableside presentation, or you can walk into the 16-seat martini bar up front without a reservation.
- Flora Pizzeria's entrance is off Potomac Street, not 31st, so don't circle Congress Court looking for a second door on the wrong block.
- Delhi Belly is easiest to find if you remember it as the old Dolcezza corner. The gelato case is gone, and the address has housed several concepts since the mid-2010s.
Restaurant openings along Georgetown's main streets are easy to see. Alley openings can be less noticeable, even as new restaurants open there.
If you're weighing a move to a neighborhood where the interesting stuff sometimes hides a block off the obvious street, that instinct for reading a market from the ground up is exactly what The K Team brings to Georgetown and the rest of Northwest DC. Contact us when you're ready to talk about what's next.
