A former soldier and a local resident of H Street, Mike has always been fascinated with craft. Whether cobbling together “inventions” from stray objects he’d find in his parents’ garage as a child or restoring a home hi-fi system from broken components during the pandemic, the respect for craft has been a life-long constant. The idea of creating something by hand, and of having something tangible to show for a day’s work has always spoken to him.

But the road to Henceforth, didn’t start in his parents’ garage, or even on H Street, but rather on a street in Iraq late one night in 2005, when Mike came to the realization that after he left the infantry, he wanted to focus his energy on building something positive in the world. After seeing the ugliest side of humanity, he wanted to create something that would bring people together and forge a sense of community.

Fast forward nearly a decade, and the Army sent Mike to live and work in DC, a city with which he quickly fell in love, and which became his home when he took off his uniform for the last time. After a brief detour in 2017 to run a local farm winery, by 2019 Mike had returned home to the District, settling into life in Northeast. Excited by the vibrancy and authenticity of the neighborhood, he quickly started wondering how he could contribute to the renaissance that H Street was undergoing at the time.

Then came COVID, and businesses suffered and the neighborhood Mike called home began to struggle. Never really feeling like he was doing enough for his corner of H Street, in March of 2023 he struck on an idea that would combine his love of craft, his desire to bring people together, and his responsibility as a neighbor to contribute to the success of the local community.

He decided that H Street needed a craft brewery of its own.

Someplace comfortable, without TVs, where friends and neighbors could come together to connect on a personal level, to solve the world’s problems, or just discuss the small wins and losses of everyday life. Someplace that would buck the trend of local business closings and build some momentum for the start of a new era of growth. Someplace that would honor the past while breathing new life into the future of H Street. And from this point on, Mike was done waiting for “someday.”

So was born Henceforth,.

Together with his business partner and head brewer, Ben Mullett, Mike is excited to bring the Atlas District its newest “third place” and craft beverage destination, and invites everyone to keep an eye on the progress as we build towards an opening later this year.