The Latest Dish
By Linda Roth Conte
Chicago-based Roti Mediterranean Grill is landing in DC, at 17th and Pennsylvania Ave, NW. The company is fueled by industry veterans from Chipotle and Potbelly at the helm, so they have a proven formula and have previously opened stores in the DC market. Roti offers fast casual Mediterranean favorites, including fire roasted chicken and steak. It will seat about 40. They will offer office catering as well as gluten-free menu items.
Pizza lovers, rejoice. The beloved Columbia Heights restaurant RedRocks is opening a second location of its wood-oven-fire pizza joint. The owners, Doug Baj and James O’Brien, signed a lease on a space on the 900 block of King Street, right across the street from the Majestic in Old Town, Alexandria. It will be called RedRocks Pizza Napoletana, to reflect their Neapolitan menu and D.O.C. method of pizza-making.
And if that’s not enough pizza for you, Dupont Circle’s Pizzeria Paradiso will open another store in Old Town, Alexandria on King Street where the Discovery Channel store was. A summer opening is planned.
DC Diner is in the works to open in Cleveland Park where McDonald’s has sat vacant for the past five years. Owner Vanessa Kim, is part of the neighborhood fabric, as she also owns the nearby Spices and Yanyu. DC Diner will also offer breakfast, which is sadly missing in that strip of Connecticut Avenue.
The latest addition to the Ray’s empire will be Ray’s The Glass. What else would you expect when owner Michael Landrum hired award-winning wine director, Mark Slater? It will be in the same building as Ray’s the Steaks in Arlington, with a 10-seat wine bar (or library as the case may be) and 50 seats for dining: charcuterie and cheese or a simple grilled steak. They will also offer off-premise wine bottle sales. Ray’s Hell Burgers is slated to move across the street from its current Wilson Blvd location, to make room for the seafood concept. Ray’s the Steaks at East River is slated to open the end of January.
New York-based BLT Restaurants empire is expanding yet again in Washington, when it opens Casa Nonna, a pizza, pasta & antipasti place, where California Pizza Kitchen (pizza oven already there!) was on Connecticut Ave in downtown DC. Not too far away is its sibling, BLT Steak on I Street, NW and the new BLT Burger, one block north on Conn Ave. Tell me you thought it would be called BLT Pizza. Because it’s named “Grandma’s House” you know it’s going to be yummy and casual. And the search is still on for a chef.
The effect of exciting new restaurants opening on the Logan Circle neighborhood has only benefitted from the amazing foodservice establishments that have opened in their ‘hood. The addition of Mark Kuller’s Estadio, a Spanish restaurant, can only add to the allure and value of the 14th Street area, just as Kuller’s other restaurant, Proof, did for Penn Quarter. Estadio will be an asset to the residents of its building, Loft 14 II.
Speaking of trendy Logan Circle, sweetgreen has plans to open its fourth location at 15th & P Streets, NW. Mourad Kacimi likes 14th Street so much that he plans to open another Crepes-a-Go-Go at 1736 14th Street (Logan Circle) and at 1012 14th Street, NW (downtown DC).
Stanley Gomes, the owner of Across The Street Café in Silver Spring, is returning to his roots and re-branding the restaurant as Planet Bollywood. Spurred on by the guests who watched “Slumdog Millionaire” at the nearby AFI Silver Theater, Gomes hired his uncle, Gabriel Gomes, as chef, since he cooked in several NYC Indian restaurants.
And speaking of Indian restaurants, Rahul Arora plans to open another Indian restaurant, called Ishq where TGI Friday’s was on Chain Bridge Road in Tysons Corner. Arora also owns The Indian Experience and Naan and Beyond, which he also wants to expand beyond its two locations (perhaps in downtown DC on Pennsylvania Ave?) We are told Ishq means “love” in a number of Arabic influenced languages.
More burgers please. Raynold Mendizabal, the chef/owner at Lima Restaurant & Lounge on K Street, NW, will open Rogue States (nothing to do with Sarah Palin) not Burgrr (as previously reported) on Connecticut Ave just south of Dupont Circle, offering 8-10 international ingredient varieties of hamburgers. He plans to service the late night post-club crowd that really appreciates a good burger at 3am.
Trade News: Fancy Food Show comes to DC! The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) will host its uber popular Fancy Food Show at the Washington Convention Center on July 10-12, 2011. The show has not moved from NYC since 1992. This is a coup!
Trade News II: Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation will be held April 12, 2010 at National Building Museum. They are signing up chefs now, asking to prepare 1000 samplings, auction item and promote it in restaurant via check stuffers, website, or emails. Restaurants can purchase up to 3 tickets at $50 a pop. This is not an offer for the general public.
