After Tail Up Goat, Adams Morgan chefs launch Rye Bunny

Jon Sybert and Jill Tyler have reopened their Adams Morgan address with a different kind of ambition. Rye Bunny, which opened April 2 at 1827 Adams Mill Rd. NW, keeps the same acclaimed ownership as Tail Up Goat but swaps Michelin-star formality for counter service, walk-ins and a dinner-only room built to feel more intimate and social.

The move came after Tail Up Goat closed on December 20, 2025, when its lease ended, after about 10 years in business. Tail Up Goat opened in 2016 and earned a Michelin star in 2017, the first year Washington, D.C. got its Michelin Guide. It kept that star for years, and by 2023 its tasting-menu format, with three savory courses and dessert, had turned the restaurant into a special-occasion destination.

Rye Bunny is structured to be different in almost every way that matters to the business. It is first-come, first-served, serves dinner only and keeps shorter hours than a full-service fine-dining room, opening Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m., with Sunday closed. The owners have framed that model as a more sustainable and lower-cost way to run a restaurant than the high-pressure economics that made Tail Up Goat harder to sustain.

The new restaurant also keeps the same neighborhood identity that helped make Tail Up Goat matter beyond its star. Adams Morgan has long rewarded places that feel rooted in the block rather than imported as a concept, and Rye Bunny leans into that with a casual, hospitality-driven setup and seasonal fare. The choice to stay in the same space signals that Sybert and Tyler are not leaving behind the audience they built; they are adapting to it.

That adaptation says something larger about Washington dining after the pandemic. The city’s top restaurants are still defined by precision, but the definition of luxury is changing. Jill Tyler’s 2024 Michelin Guide Service Award underscores the value diners now place on warmth and pacing, while Sybert’s reputation for ingredient-driven cooking and strong wine-and-service execution shows how much weight still falls on the dining room experience. In that sense, Rye Bunny is not a retreat from ambition. It is a recalibration, one that treats flexibility, neighborhood intimacy and financial durability as part of the new fine dining equation.