CIVIC., a beautiful new coffeeshop and bar, has opened this week on Barracks Row at 501 8th Street SE. I sat down recently to get to know owner Rhonda Foxx a little bit better, because not only is CIVIC. a special place, but I think you’re going to find Rhonda’s full circle story very romantic! Rhonda’s responses have been edited for clarity.
Let’s start at the beginning: What brought you to the Hill?
I have lived on Capitol Hill since 2014. I don’t think you’d call Navy Yard Capitol Hill, but I moved there for a couple of years because I was a Chief of Staff on the Hill. Then I moved to H Street and then to Eastern Market. So I’ve been in here for, you know, over 10 years. I had never met Burnie [Williams, III, owner of Chat’s Liquors and Rhonda’s landlord] because I really didn’t come down 8th Street, unless you were going to Ted’s––and that is me and my dad. We used to do brunch. My dad was there every two weeks at Ted’s, like clockwork. But I had never met Burnie. Why didn’t I know that there was a black-owned liquor store here?
So how did you and Burnie meet?
I had a really bad day. I had gotten laid off. So my girlfriends were like, “Oh, let’s go get a bottle of Prosecco!” We went into Chat’s ––and we’ve been together ever since. A bad day has gotten us here. I never thought I’d be opening a coffee shop or a bar at all.
How did you end up opening CIVIC.? And what is behind the name?
I think it was pretty transformative being in [President Biden’s campaign staff]. A lesson I learned there was, literally, we need to get offline. There’s so much disinformation and hostility online. We need third spaces for people to be able to convene, build community. Gloria Steinem kind of hammered that into me after the campaign. And I was like, Let’s create a third space! Let’s create somewhere where we can get offline and get together. And it just so happened Burnie had a space. That’s why everything here is a circle–– because it’s full circle. I always get emotional because it goes from a bad day where you’re in a career that ends and then you meet someone and here you are building something new. I hope this is a successful next chapter.
To me CIVIC. is civility. If we can have beverages, coffee, cocktails, lights, a vibe, a team that is so welcoming that people from all walks of life want to come here, we can get back to some civility. These tables that we have back here? We’d love to see people have civic conversations [around them]. You know, if the local city council person wants to have a conversation here, we’d love to do that. Connect people to their leaders, learn about it.
What are your plans for future programming?
Nallah [Soto, director of the coffee program] and our team, they are all artists. They have their own skills and expertise and we want to give life to that. The way that I’m envisioning it is on Mondays, folks can come in, have an event, a course, you know, live music performances, etc., so it breeds that community. I like to call Mondays our Civic Studies: Imagine cupping courses, cocktail courses.
On Tuesdays, the tap system would open, so we’d love to highlight [makers] on that night]. Wednesdays, charcuterie and wine. We are a wine shop. All of our cocktails, wines are all women made. Come here on date night, get some really great wines and charcuterie. And then on Saturdays, we’re trying to play it out. How do we bring people in in the evening, right? We’re never gonna be a jumping club. That’s not us. But low vibes, like women DJs on rotation, maybe twice a month? Come in here!
And then my favorite, if we’re able to pull it off: We talked to Rishi [teas] about it. Eventually on Sundays, High Tea!
And then the oyster thing on Fridays. We have a guy come in for oyster and caviar night, because it goes back to [The Chesapeake Room and Ophelia’s Fish House] being an oyster house. We want to honor that and people are used to that. So those are the things that as we get our sea legs together that we will implement. And I feel like if you have intentional evenings, you build community. That’s our goal, to be curated. Everything is curated.
CIVIC. and Chat’s are owned by Burnie and his family. Tell me a little more about honoring the people who came before into this space.
The family that originally owned the building, they had Chat’s. They were the Chaplin family, I think. [Burnie’s] father bought it and kept the name. So all total, it’s over 93 years old. Chat’s has been here for a long time. And then [next door], before it was a fish house, was a community market. And then the family bought it and made it into [Ophelia’s] floral shop. They rented it, leased it to the restaurant. They didn’t sell it. A lot of people think they sold it because there was so much development in here, but they rented it [out].
The art on the walls is also pretty special. Can you tell me more about that?
There is this artist, Lisa Marie Thalhammer. If you go to Blagden Alley, she did the LGBTQ L O V E, so she is very noted. I just fell in love with [her art]. And I was like, “can we have something similar to that in CIVIC. but that tells our story?” So we played with this for a long time. They were supposed to be murals, but CIVIC. doesn’t feel like a mural place. It feels like a canvas. So inherently, I wanted it to have the logo on it, but not just to be a traditional writing of a logo. So [the closer painting] says Civ, so that’s the C-I-V, and the back one is IC, Civic with a period.And then, like I said, everything here is full circle. Everything’s a circle. And then we’re at the center of it all.
What are some of your favorite things to do around the Hill?
I’m a ferocious runner. It’s funny, someone came in here, it’s like, “I haven’t seen you out in the community.” I run ––used to run nonstop. But since I, literally the day that the President dropped out of the race on that Sunday, never forget. I was out for a run in Delaware and sprained my ankle, which actually fractured my foot. And so for the rest of the campaign, I was in a boot. And so it started bad fitness habits so I couldn’t run through that. And then I started my nonprofit and into this, and this has just taken everything. But my favorite, favorite thing is running across the Capitol complex. As soon as we’re up here, just getting back into my running routine? This is the best neighborhood for that.
What is one thing that has surprised you––positive, negative–– about opening a business in DC?
I’m waiting to get to all the positives. I mean, I think starting up a business… there are days where you feel like “I got this” and then there are days you’re like, “Oh, I do not have this in any way, shape or form.” Without Burnie, I mean, he is a lifeline. Like for example, my girlfriend was at a sale, like a furniture sale and they had this chandelier and she’s like, “Let me just get this for you.” I’m like, yeah, get it. So I’m like trying to talk to electricians to hang this thing. I came in yesterday. It was hung. [Burnie] did it himself.
I did not want the floors to be light. I want them to be rustic and dark. Came in one day, he and his friends put all the furniture, the draping around everything, sanded that down and put a stain on it. I think having your partner next door that truly believes in something, it has been, let’s say that’s a positive surprise, like how much two people can show love for each other. But I do think on the hard part is, you know, obviously we believe in regulations and want people to be safe, but I do think it’s a cumbersome burden for businesses to get up and running, especially in this climate. And I don’t think our local leaders have been responsive enough to the climate that we’re in. I think it’s funny because they like to say, “Well, not enough businesses can qualify for this grant because they don’t have clean hands.” You bankrupt us before we can do those things. So I think it’s something worth having a conversation about. So it’s a surprise. A negative is just how cumbersome and difficult it is to get up as a business and how unwilling some agencies are to work with folks. And then the other surprising good side is how love really does drive a lot, makes it possible.
If you go:
What: CIVIC. on Eighth, a beautiful new coffee and bar space
Where: 501 8th Street SE
When: Hours may vary, but they are open early everyday for coffee so far!
Why: Because you crave a good place to meet and find community!