Joon has expanded its offerings in Tysons with the addition of a bar and patio.
Named after a poetic Farsi term for “wine,” May Bar began serving customers inside the Persian restaurant at 8045 Leesburg Pike yesterday (Thursday). The launch was timed for late spring to coincide with the opening of an outdoor patio that will host DJs on Friday nights going forward, Joon co-owner Reza Farahani told FFXnow.
Farahani and owner and chef Chris Morgan designed Joon’s space to accommodate a bar and lounge that will showcase the restaurant’s drinks, while the main dining room focuses on the food menu cultivated by Morgan and fellow chef Najmieh Batmanglij.
“By setting this up as a separate brand, we can basically highlight the fact that people can come for happy hours, and it’s not a restaurant, per se,” Farahani said. “That section of the lounge, they can relax and enjoy a cocktail or some wine, and…after dinner, they can come and hang out and enjoy themselves.”
May Bar follows similar operating hours to Joon, opening from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. The restaurant and bar are both closed on Mondays.
Consisting of a 2,000-square-foot lounge with 80 chairs and the 1,500-square-foot patio, which can seat 44 people, the bar offers seasonal cocktails inspired by West Asian and Mediterranean flavors as well as beer and some non-alcoholic beverages, including tea and coffee. Joon will also expand its wine list with the bar, Farahani says.
Guided by beverage director Oluwapelumi Fagbenro, many of the cocktails available this spring take advantage of the availability of fresh fruit and produce purchased from Moon Valley Farm in Woodsboro, Maryland.
“For our Joon mint julep, which we will be launching with the bar, we will be using their organic mint and their organic strawberries to make that beverage, along with some of the other herbs that we’ll be incorporating into our other drinks,” Farahani said.
May Bar also serves food curated by Morgan, including chicken wings, falafel, fried calamari, lamb and pistachio meatballs, Lahma-Joon (a Turkish flatbread) and a Joon burger made out of kubideh-style ground beef.
The launch closes out what appears to be a successful first year of business for Joon, which took over the former Chef Geoff’s space in Fairfax Square on June 13, 2023.
Joon took the 23rd spot on Washingtonian’s 2024 list of the “100 Very Best Restaurants” in the D.C. area, making it the only ranked entry from Fairfax County. Batmanglij and Morgan also made the James Beard Awards’ semifinals earlier this year for its “Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic” category.
Being in Tysons has resulted in a “very cosmopolitan” and diverse customer base that includes both non-Iranians who may not be familiar with the full variety of the country’s cuisine and Iranians “excited about the fact that they have an upscale place that is more than just a kabob shop,” according to Farahani.
“We’re seeing a lot more regulars, people that are coming back more often,” he said. “Everything from lunch to dinner and happy hours, etcetera, we think we’ve been able to create a menu that is very appealing to a broad range of people with different tastes.”
Joon’s first year also saw the launch of The Kitchen Collective, a “virtual” food hall where customers can pick up online orders from eateries developed by Farahani, Morgan and other chefs that otherwise don’t have a physical presence in Northern Virginia.
Currently, the participants are Pizza Serata, the Lebanese kabab shop Yasmine and Franki’s, which bakes cookies and was named after Morgan’s daughter. The team hopes to add two more concepts — El Oso, which will serve Mexican street food, and San Tokki, whose name suggests a Japanese focus — after May Bar gets settled in, likely in the fall, according to Farahani.
Taking advantage of roughly 9,400 square feet of space, Joon, May Bar and The Kitchen Collective are intended to complement each other, creating a place where people in the Tysons area can “come and enjoy themselves throughout the day,” Farahani told FFXnow.
“Whether they want good food or a wide variety or beverages, we’re able to fill their needs,” he said.
