Deke Dunne
Allegory | Washington, D.C.
February 2026
In need of a job to help pay for college, Deke Dunne jumped behind the stick at 21. He then spent time playing professional paintball and working in oil fields before returning to college and pivoting to politics. Dunne, who grew up in a progressive family in Wyoming, started working for his local representative, later moving to Washington, D.C., where he spent the next eight years on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant while picking up part-time bartending gigs. After the 2016 election, Dunne left politics and committed to hospitality full time.
Dunne worked as a security guard and barback for Rising Stars alum Derek Brown’s “Game of Thrones” pop-up bar before joining the team at The Columbia Room in 2017 as a host and bar assistant. After a stint at The Gibson, Dunne helped Brown develop the opening cocktail menu for Allegory at the Eaton DC Hotel. When Brown left the project, Dunne took over the program. Two years in, the pandemic forced Allegory to close, and over the next year and a half, Dunne rebuilt and reimagined the bar, fine-tuning the concept, cocktails, and team along the way.
In 2022, Dunne launched his first concept menu, “Down the Rabbit Hole,” a comic book-style cocktail program inspired by Erik Thor Sandberg’s mural depicting civil rights icon Ruby Bridges as Alice in Wonderland. The concept resonated strongly, and in 2025, Allegory debuted its second menu, “Banned in D.C.,” created in partnership with Teaching for Change and The Ruby Bridges Foundation. Beyond the cocktail program, Dunne is dedicated to education and community, hosting events and masterclasses for local bartenders, creating travel and creative opportunities for his team, and openly integrating his political convictions into his approach to hospitality.
2026 StarChefs D.C.-Maryland-Virginia Rising Stars Award Winner
