Navy Yard will get a new all-day dining spot when Slipstream opens Saturday. It’s the second location of the high-end coffee shop by day and buzzy bar by night. The first Slipstream from married co-founders Miranda Mirabella and Ryan Fleming opened in Logan Circle in October 2014.
Fleming says he was most excited about the opportunity to be a part of a community that’s taking shape. “A lot of other places, you’re there trying to be the new player, trying to integrate yourselves,” he says. “Here, there are a lot of new buildings. Everyone’s just moving in.”
Slipstream sits at the base of the Contact ORE 82 apartment building (82 I St. SE). The build-out has allowed the duo to streamline service, something Fleming believes is an improvement over the Logan Circle location, where there’s sometimes confusion over how to order and where to sit. “We want it to be easy, where as a customer, you can’t make a mistake,” Fleming says.
The front part of the shop is for grabbing coffee and to-go food and for those who want to camp out with laptops, while the rear of the cafe backed by a Jungle Green patterned wall is for those who want to linger and converse about coffee and cocktails with Slipstream staff.
Slipstream serves coffee from Madcap Coffee, Slightglass Coffee, and Ceremony Coffee instead of roasting their own, even though that’s trending. (Peregrine Espresso is readying to open a roastery in Northeast D.C.) “That’s great, but our view of it is we’re going to focus on service,” Fleming says. “We’re going to let people roast coffee who do it way better than we could.”
The coffee, which can be brewed either as espresso or filter, is organized into four taste categories: comfort (for easy drinking), floral, bright, and fruity. There are also speciality coffee drinks, including cascara soda made using coffee “cherries” that are typically discarded. In the evening, Slipstream offers a full bar, and that includes eight local draft beers (something not currently available in Logan Circle).
The food menu will be identical to the original Slipstream to start. But the significantly larger kitchen in Navy Yard will allow Chef Wille Harner to expand the menu and get more inventive later on. Fleming predicts that avocado toast will be one of the biggest sellers.
“Avocado toast, people are crazy about it,” Fleming says. “It gets frustrating to some people. … You try to do creative, fun things, but no matter what you do, they still want avocado toast. It’s like having a master sommelier and people are like, ‘Can I have Two-buck Chuck?’”
Starting Saturday, Slipstream will be open Monday-Thursday from 7 a.m.-10:30 p.m., Friday from 7 a.m.-11:30 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Slipstream, 82 I St. SE, slipstreamdc.com