Perhaps the most eagerly awaited DC bar this year, Bluejacket Brewery’s bar/restaurant The Arsenal opens today, October 29th, in the Navy Yard/Capitol Riverfront neighborhood, just 1/3 mile east (i.e. 5 Jayson Werth home runs) of the Nationals Park’s center field gates. This new establishment, from the Neighborhood Restaurant Group behind the uber-popular beer destinations Rustico (Alexandria & Ballston), ChurchKey/Birch & Barley (Logan Circle), & GBD (Dupont), may be just the spot that turns the neighborhood into a year-round destination. Offering 20 of BlueJacket’s ales & lagers on top (plus 5 casks), The Arsenel (Barred in DC predicts that the name will be difficult to catch on, as everyone has been referring to the whole place as Bluejacket for some time now) will seat 200 in the Boilermaker Shops, originally part of the Navy Yard’s ships and munitions manufacturing complex.  Expect it to be packed for several months, and then even more so once Opening Day comes around in April.

Here’s a roundup of all the local DC news/blog stories profiling Bluejacket/The Arsenel in the past week (you’d think I’d get invited to the media previews as much news as I break, but then again I am a fake journalist):

• Washington Post/Tim Carman
• WP/Carman (article about beer list)
• Washington City Paper/Young & Hungry (shorter story focusing on the bar/restaurant)
• WCP/Y&H (print column)
• WBJ/Top Shelf
• Eater DC
• Zagat
• PoPville
• DCist
• BYT

[Evening 10/29 UPDATE: adding more stories]

• UrbanDaddy
• Washingtonian/Best Bites
• DC Beer

The Arsenel, website, Facebook, Twitter, 300 Tingey St. SE (near 3rd and M SE), opens at 4p (5:30p for dinner service) everyday, closes at 1a (at least for now), est. 2013