Metrobus Crashes Into DC's Ambar Restaurant After Being Struck by SUV

The Metrobus was sitting halfway inside Ambar's dining room at 1547 7th Street NW when DC Fire and EMS crews arrived just after 7:30 a.m. Saturday, with the restaurant's kitchen staff due to start seating brunch guests in under two hours.

The crash was set off by a van striking the bus at the intersection of 7th and Q Streets NW just after 7:20 a.m., sending it careening into the front of the building and leaving it partially lodged inside. Metro Transit Police confirmed that three adult women were transported to nearby hospitals with minor injuries. The bus operator also sustained minor injuries at the scene but was not hospitalized. Four patients total were evaluated.

The restaurant was empty when the bus hit, a fortunate circumstance given the timing. Ambar holds Michelin Guide recognition and draws heavy Saturday crowds for its Balkan "Dining Without Limits" concept, a flat-price unlimited-plates brunch priced at $36.99 per person. The Shaw location, which includes a second-floor rakia cocktail bar with a retractable rooftop, was scheduled to open at approximately 9:30 a.m. Had the crash come during service, the calculus would have been entirely different.

Firefighters secured the building's utilities and conducted a precautionary search of the structure while specialized crews worked through the morning to free the vehicle. The bus was finally extracted just before noon. A formal structural assessment was scheduled to follow; no major structural damage was immediately apparent during the off-hours operation.

The incident fits a troubling pattern. In March 2025, a Metrobus driver lost consciousness on the 1000 block of Bunker Hill Road NE and crashed into a building, injuring six people. In March 2023, a Metrobus struck a car and then plowed into Wheaton Jewelry Buyers in Maryland, sending three to the hospital. The Federal Transit Administration has held oversight authority over WMATA since October 2015, when it assumed the power to conduct inspections and impose sanctions following a series of safety lapses.

Ambar's Shaw address is one of four locations in the chain, which also operates on Capitol Hill at 523 8th Street SE, in Clarendon at 2901 Wilson Blvd in Arlington, and in Chicago at 700 North Clark Street. Whether the Shaw location can resume service this weekend hinges on what assessors find once they get inside the building.