Elegancia in La Cosecha. 1280 4th St., NE. Actor Wilmer Valderrama has starred in That 70s Show, Encanto, crime drama NCIS, and Zootopia 2 (he’s a hippo detective). His latest role is a little more surprising: DC bar owner. Valderrama is teaming up with Colada Shop owner Daniella Senior to open Elegancia, a Latin American-inspired cocktail bar replacing Serenata in Union Market’s La Cosecha food hall. It debuts on Wednesday, February 11. Valderrama and Senior were introduced by a friend because of their mutual interest in food and advocacy and decided to work together after just one phone call. “We had a 30-minute conversation scheduled, and we were at an hour and a half, and we just kept talking,” Senior says. “It was just really a connection immediately, and we really were like, ‘We need to make this into something.'” Although NCIS takes place in the DC area, it’s actually filmed in Los Angeles, where Valderrama lives. But the actor has spent a lot of time in DC over the years working with advocacy groups like Voto Latino, educating the Latino community on the importance of voting. He’s also a senior global ambassador to the USO, traveling oversees to support troops. “I discovered that DC was more of a melting pot than most of the places that I thought were melting pots,” he says. “There’s this perception of the capital, but there’s a flavor underneath this that’s undeniable.” Valderrama isn’t a total stranger to the hospitality industry either. He’s been a partner in a number of restaurants and bars in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Atlanta, starting in his 20s with an Italian hotspot in LA. “It started out with, you know what would be cool? If I could just tell people, ‘Welcome to my restaurant. Send them an appetizer on the house.’ I just like, wanted to say that,” he says. “But very quickly, I realized my conversations with the chefs were the part that was the most exciting for me.” Valderrama isn’t currently involved in any other restaurants or bars, and Elegancia will be the first reflecting his Latin American heritage. His mother is Colombian, and his father is from Venezuela, where Valderrama was raised until he was 14 years old. “We were farmers. We worked the land,” he says. “I grew up with horses my whole life, and I was kind of like a rancher kid.” This corn-infused cocktail is inspired by Venezuelan cachapa. Photograph by John Rorapaugh for LeadingDC. A lot of the menu at Elegancia draws on nostalgia from Valderrama’s childhood and Senior’s upbringing in the Dominican Republic. For example, one cocktail takes inspiration from a Venezuelan dish called cachapa, with melted cheese folded inside a corn pancake. The savory-sweet drink uses heirloom purple corn in a syrup that’s mixed with pisco, gin, and citrus, then topped with a queso foam. “It melted my brain,” Valderrama says of the cocktail. “It doesn’t feel like I’m eating the dish, but it has all the tones of the dish and it actually takes me there. But it also is a drink that stands on its own.” Another cocktail, dubbed “Oro Verde” (“green gold”), uses every part of the avocado. The pit is toasted and incorporated into a falernum, a syrup often used in Caribbean drinks. The meat is blended with citric acid and lime and combined with tequila and maraschino liqueur. And the skin is dehydrated and charred to create an ash salt that tops the drink, along with a matcha/passionfruit foam. Bartender Juan Coronado, who’s behind the cocktail menu, says it’s a bit like a margarita, but with the silky richness of avocado. “It’s not a smoothie,” Coronado says. “It’s very light. It’s liquid, but it’s green, vibrant, then with those accents of acidity.” Photograph by John Rorapaugh for LeadingDC. The food menu, created by Colada Shop chef Jova Urriola, draws from throughout Latin America with elevated takes on classics, including a sweet shrimp ceviche, tequenos with avocado creama and smoked trout roe, and a smoked eggplant tamal with optional yuzu kosho octopus. Smoked eggplant tamal with yuzu kosho octopus. Photograph by John Rorapaugh for LeadingDC. Another highlight is sancocho, a meat-and-root vegetable soup that varies across Latin American countries and even households. Elegancia’s version will be on the brothy side with chicken, yam, and wild oregano. “It literally felt like my mom made it,” Valderrama says. The bar will give a free bowl to everyone at last call. “We’re sending you home with something that warms you up, and getting you home safe and happy,” Senior says.The post How Actor Wilmer Valderrama Ended Up Opening a Cocktail Bar in DC first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less