69 Q Street, SW, photo by Rey Lopez
From a press release:
“Donohoe Hospitality will proudly debut Croix, a Caribbean restaurant and Botanic Bar that brings the full breadth of Caribbean cooking and botanical tradition to Washington, DC, Friday, August 14. Located atop the Cambria Hotel Washington D.C. Navy Yard Riverfront, Croix will add a unique and elegant dining experience to the city’s rooftop landscape through a menu rooted in Crucian culinary heritage, an immersive botanical cocktail program, and a hospitality experience designed around connection, culture, and discovery.
An homage to the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Croix is not a Caribbean-inspired concept—it is a Caribbean-rooted one. The restaurant’s culinary program draws from generations of Caribbean tradition, celebrating ingredients such as breadfruit, callaloo, sorrel, pigeon peas, cassava, and Scotch bonnet peppers through both classic and contemporary techniques and refined presentation.
“Croix was created to showcase the depth, complexity, and beauty of Caribbean cuisine and botanical culture,” said Keem Hughley, Corporate Director of Culinary and Concept Design. “Every dish, every infusion, and every design element reflects the richness of the Caribbean and the traditions that have shaped it. We wanted to create a destination where guests feel transported, welcomed, and excited by what we’ve created.”
photo by Rey Lopez
The dinner menu showcases 25 dishes spanning five categories honoring the culinary traditions that define St. Croix and the broader Caribbean region. Signature offerings include Callaloo, the national dish of the U.S. Virgin Islands, traditionally made with fungi and pimento-smoked coconut oil; Saltfish Mille-Feuille with salt cod brandade, flaky johnny cake wafers, and pickled okra; and Rum-Soaked Black Cake. Each dish is grounded in the historical and cultural influences that have shaped Caribbean cuisine, reflecting African, Indian, Latin American, European, and Indigenous traditions that continue to define the region today.
Croix’s menu is enhanced by a warm and sophisticated dining room designed for lingering conversations, shared plates, and memorable evenings. The restaurant’s interiors feature deep botanical greens, warm woods, brass accents, and layered textures inspired by Caribbean elegance. The rooftop balances openness and intimacy through thoughtfully designed gathering spaces that evolve naturally from day into night.
At the heart of Croix is the Botanic Bar, anchored by a dramatic backlit infusion wall featuring ten Caribbean botanicals infused in-house and displayed in glass vessels. Fever grass, cerasee, vervain, moringa, bois bandé, tonka bean, sorrel, soursop leaf, guavaberry, and pimento leaf serve as the foundation for the restaurant’s signature cocktail program, non-alcoholic beverages, syrups, tinctures, and culinary applications. The result is a bar experience unlike any other in Washington.
The beverage program includes seven signature cocktails, three spirit-free offerings, frozen drinks, Caribbean and local beers, curated wines, and a rum-forward selection alongside Mutiny Island Vodka—the world’s first vodka distilled from breadfruit and produced on St. Croix.
“The bar program runs deep,” said Sonat Ozkaynak, Corporate Director of Food & Beverage Operations. “We built it around the Caribbean’s extraordinary botanical heritage, which includes ingredients that have been treasured across the islands for generations and have never truly been given the serious, reverent treatment they deserve. We’re changing that. Aged rums poured with real conviction. Cocktails constructed in layers, with history, with something meaningful to say.”
Launching with the restaurant is Croix Veranda, the outdoor extension of the space. Featuring outdoor seating, open-air bars, curated cocktail offerings, lounge service, and a robust entertainment calendar, Croix Veranda will bring together music, culture, and hospitality in a vibrant rooftop setting. Designed as a natural continuation of the Croix experience, the Veranda offers guests a place to gather, celebrate, and stay awhile.
“There are places you visit. And there are places that stay with you,” believes Ozkaynak. “Croix Veranda was built to be the latter. From the moment a guest arrives, something shifts — the way they’re welcomed, the way the entire evening is held together by a team that has trained not just to serve, but to make every single person feel genuinely seen. That level of care isn’t a detail. It’s the foundation everything else is built upon.”
Croix will open Friday, August 14 at 69 Q Street SW, on the rooftop of the Cambria Hotel Washington D.C. Navy Yard Riverfront.”