It’s been a busy few months for Genevieve and Conan O’Sullivan, but their goal of opening the District’s first creamery is about to happen.
Sona Creamery and Wine Bar is aiming to open before the end of the month, offering Capitol Hill a chance to sample wines of the Pacific Northwest while watching the restaurant’s cheese made in house.
Click through the gallery at right for some images of the Sona space.
It was a complicated project, requiring the pair to get a catering license from the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs along with that of a bar/restaurant. They bought and installed a 256-lb cheese vat, and installed a special “aging cave” for the cheeses they’ll be making in-house.
The space combines a cheese-making facility — hence the name “creamery” — retail cheese shop and wine bar/restaurant. The Pacific Northwest-heavy wine list plays to the O’Sullivans’ own tastes; the two moved to the D.C. region from Seattle to pursue their new venture.
The restaurant will begin with limited hours at first, opening at 3 p.m., but eventually plans to be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., serving lunch and selling cheese at the retail counter with the wine bar business taking over at night.
The shop will have approximately 100 cheeses when Sona opens, although most of them won’t be house made. Cheese plates will change weekly depending on the shop’s stock, which Genevieve O’Sullivan expects will keep people coming back.
“That’s one thing a lot of people don’t understand about cheese, is how seasonal it is,” she said. “Because all of our producers are artisan, it means there will be time between some of the stuff we really love.”
