She Learned to Brew in That Building. Now She Owns It.

Urban Garden Brewhouse is DC’s first Black woman-owned brewery, and founder Eamoni Collier’s story is the kind you can’t make up.

There’s a video making the rounds in DC’s beer circles. In it, the founders of Right Proper Brewing hand a set of keys to Eamoni Collier outside their old Shaw location. It looks like a simple exchange. It isn’t.

Collier spent eight years working in that building. She learned to brew there. And this spring, she walked back through the doors as the owner of her own company, taking over the very space where she once clocked in.

“To come back as the owner of my own company feels surreal,” she said. It’s the kind of full-circle moment that doesn’t happen by accident, and almost didn’t happen at all.

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The plan that fell apart first

Before Shaw, there was Fort Totten. Collier had a location lined up, momentum building, a community rooting for her. Then it fell through. For a lot of founders, that’s where the story ends.

Instead, she regrouped. She kept doing pop-ups. She kept building. And when the Shaw space opened up, the one she knew better than almost anyone, and the people who’d mentored her made sure she got her shot. Right Proper’s founders didn’t just sell a lease. They passed a torch.

“Even when plans fall apart,” Collier said, “something stronger can take shape.” She’d know.

This isn’t your average IPA

Here’s where Urban Garden gets interesting. Collier doesn’t brew like everybody else, and that’s the whole point.

Her beers pull from ancient Egyptian brewing traditions: tea-like, infused with flowers, herbs, and botanicals. We’re talking a chamomile-and-honey garden ale built to be your everyday pour. A brew called “Roses Aren’t Dead” that uses actual rose petals for something silky and floral. And “Lotus Flower Bomb,” an IPA made with lavender and rose designed specifically for people who think they hate IPAs.

Don’t drink? She’s got you too. The bar pours house-made lemonade loaded with butterfly pea, rose syrup, and hibiscus, plus a rotating lineup of mocktails. The kitchen runs smash burgers, wings by the pound, potato wedges, and a funnel cake with strawberry compote. Order anything and the house pickles come free.

“Like auntie’s house”

Ask Collier what she’s building and she won’t lead with the beer. She’ll tell you about the feeling. She wants people to walk in and want to stay, somewhere that feels like “a second home, like auntie’s house.”

That mission runs deeper than vibes. Black-owned breweries make up roughly 2% of the industry nationwide. When Collier started home brewing, there wasn’t a single Black-owned brewery in DC, let alone one owned by a Black woman. So she decided to become it.

Now she’s not just representing. She’s creating the room she never had: hosting events, pulling people of color into a craft beer world that rarely made space for them, and proving that “minority-owned” and “destination” belong in the same sentence.

Go see it for yourself

Urban Garden Brewhouse held its grand opening on Juneteenth: ribbon cutting, open kitchen, live go-go, the whole thing. Because of course it did.

You’ll find it at 624 T Street NW in Shaw, steps from the historic Howard Theatre, open Tuesday through Saturday. The motto says it all: Drink Quality, Stay Rooted.

This is exactly the kind of business worth showing up for, with your money, your friends, and your Saturday afternoons. It’s a movement, not a moment. Go be part of it.

Urban Garden Brewhouse | 624 T Street NW, Washington, DC | Tues–Sat