A restaurant can serve as a reflection point for its chef, a way to honor the past while celebrating the present and looking forward to the future. Such is the case with Mallard , the newly opened bastion of indulgent Southern cuisine from chef-partner Hamilton Johnson , which takes over the Birch & Barley space on 14th Street NW below its sibling operation, beer mecca ChurchKey . Mallard is a warmhearted salute to the chef’s late father, a passionate cook who loved down-home Southern cooking and was a longtime carver of duck decoys.
Johnson grew up outside Spartanburg, South Carolina, and attended Johnson & Wales University in Charleston. He ultimately moved to D.C.
and spent a formative eight-year stretch at Jeff Buben ’s famed Southern spot, Vidalia . After that, he bopped around town for gigs at American Son , Emilie ’ s , Glover Park Grill , Michele ’ s , and Gravitas , as well as at his own restaurant Honeysuckle , a Southern spot with New Nordic influences in Vidalia’s former downtown address, which closed in 2019 after a nearly three-year run. No matter where Johnson cooked, his Palmetto State roots would shine through.
Now he is going all-in on his heritage and personal history. To transport diners to his formative childhood years, Mallard is designed to evoke a 1970s living room, decorated with meaningful pictures and knickknacks. There are a couple photos of his father, a painting of a squirrel done by his mom, shots of his favorite musicians— David Bow.