New Union Market restaurant will grill its seafood with charcoal
Clyde’s Restaurant Group is planning a seafood-centric restaurant at Northeast D.C.’s Union Market named Cordelia Fishbar with a focus on cooking with charcoal.
Clyde’s has signed a lease for 10,000 square feet lease with LOCR at 550 Morse Street on the ground floor of Morse, a 279-unit apartment building, and expects to open Cordelia Fishbar in summer of 2024.
The large restaurant will include seating for 250 people, a center bar, sidewalk seating and private event space. The space is currently being built out, with design by Chicago’s Studio K Creative. The architectural firm is D.C.-based Grizform Design Architects.
It will be Clyde’s first seafood-focused restaurant.
“We work very hard at our larger restaurants to drive an experience that has something for everyone. This is not that,” said John McDonnell, president of Clyde’s Restaurant Group. “Cordelia is going to be a top-flight fish house and bar.”
While the menu will focus on charcoal-cooked seafood and raw crudos, it will also include grilled beef, pork and chicken dishes.
Clyde’s said Cordelia is a name whose origin in some Celtic cultures means “heart of the sea.”
Clyde’s Restaurant Group currently has 12 restaurants in the D.C. area, including its namesake locations, as well as The Tombs, 1789, Fitzgerald’s, and The Hamilton. Other restaurants planned include Ebbitt House in Reston, Virginia, and Rye Street Tavern in Baltimore, Maryland.
Last year, it closed the Clyde’s restaurant location in Reston Town Center after 31 years.
The first Clyde’s opened in 1963 in Georgetown.
The 1970s band Starland Vocal Band took the name for their 1976 hit single “Afternoon Delight” from the happy hour appetizer menu at the original Clyde’s, which was called Afternoon Delights.