Editor’s note: This article, originally published at 11:38 a.m. on April 8, 2025, was updated at 1:17 p.m. on April 8, 2025, to correct that Duke’s Grocery has four other locations and no longer has a location in Navy Yard.
Duke’s Grocery, a British-style gastropub, is opening the red doors of its new Potomac restaurant Tuesday evening, according to a press release from the restaurant.
The opening comes about a year after the Washington, D.C.-based restaurant announced its plan to open a location at 10128 River Road in the Potomac Place shopping center. Duke’s Grocery took over the former home of Lock 72 Kitchen & Bar, which closed in 2023.
The Potomac location is the East London-inspired eatery’s first restaurant outside of D.C., where it operates four other Duke’s restaurants.
On Tuesday, the Duke’s team will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. at the restaurant that will be attended by County Councilmember Andrew Friedson (Dist. 1), according to the release. A grand opening will follow at 6 p.m.
For now, Duke’s in Potomac is only serving dinner, but lunch and brunch service are forthcoming, according to the release.
On Friday, Bethesda Today received a pre-opening sneak peek of the Potomac location and spoke with Duke’s managing partner Daniel Kramer about the new space.
Kramer said the Duke’s team was “really excited” about opening the Potomac location, describing the area as having a “small-town, village feel.” Kramer also said he looked forward to introducing the brunch menu to the area in the near future and serving cyclists who stop by the shopping center during or after long rides.
“Each place has its own little different sub-community. Like here, the amount of bicyclists that take over the plaza is amazing. And they’ve just been on like 20-30-60-mile rides. They’re hungry,” Kramer said Friday, referring to cyclists who have stopped by the restaurant during renovations and construction. “They’re like, ‘Is it okay if we come in in our bike gear?’ and I’m like, ‘Of course it is!’ ”
Duke’s Grocery restaurants are a “come as you are place,” Kramer said. All are welcome to dine, whether they have just left soccer or lacrosse practices or are wearing a “tuxedo and evening gown,” he said.
Diners at the Potomac location can sit in three areas inside and outside of the restaurant, which shares a small outdoor dining plaza with nearby eateries such as The Market at River Falls, Starbucks and Chipotle.
Inside the restaurant, which can seat up to 86 people, is a bar area with four flat screen TVs and a dining room. The bar area consists of several booths, high-top tables with stools and a 14-seat U-shaped bar centered by a copper-top counter. The dining room, with traditional two and four-top tables, features French door windows, which fill the space with natural lighting.
Throughout the restaurant, the walls are decorated with prints of the restaurant team’s favorite musicians, artists, athletes and historical figures such as Winston Churchill, Duke Ellington, Harry Styles and David Beckham.
Diners can expect standard Duke’s Grocery items, including sandwiches or “sarnies,” salads, sweets such as sticky toffee bread pudding, cocktails, wine, and a selection of local and English beers. The restaurant is known for its “Proper Burger,” fish and chips, and white truffle macaroni and cheese.
From 2016 to 2024, the eatery won Washington City Paper’s Best of DC Best Burger award. It received Washingtonian magazine’s Readers’ Favorite Burger award in 2023. And this year, Kramer said, the restaurant is approaching 1 million burgers sold.
The first Duke’s Grocery in the District opened in Dupont Circle in 2013. Its other locations are Duke’s Counter Woodley Park, Duke’s Grocery Foggy Bottom and a shop in the British embassy.
