Matchbox closes its 14th Street restaurant

Matchbox’s 14th Street location (1901 14th St. NW) is in the former rehearsal studio for Arena Stage. (Courtesy //3877; Ron Ngiam Photography)
Matchbox’s 14th Street location (1901 14th St. NW) is in the former rehearsal studio for Arena Stage. (Courtesy Ron Ngiam Photography)

Local pizza-and-sliders chain Matchbox has closed its large, two-story location on 14th Street in Northwest D.C. Monday was its final day.

A spokesman for Thompson Hospitality confirmed the closing to WTOP, saying it is part of an overall restructuring. It was first reported by readers of local news site Popville.

Matchbox has locations on Capitol Hill and Penn Quarter, as well as Merrifield, One Loudoun and Pentagon City in Virginia, and Bethesda, Rockville and Silver Spring in Maryland.

It also has locations in Sunrise, Florida, and Dallas, Texas.

Matchbox Restaurant Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in August, and is being acquired by Reston, Virginia-based Thompson Hospitality.

“Restructuring will allow us to right-size our balance sheet and position the business for growth going forward,” said Edwin Sheridan IV, a member of the Matchbox Food Group board of directors, at the time of the Chapter 11 filing.

The 14th Street location, at 1901 14th St. NW, opened in 2012. The original opened in D.C.’s Chinatown in 2003.

Matchbox partnered with Thompson Hospitality two years ago to manage its restaurants and develop new ones. Thompson Hospitality is the fifth-largest restaurant group in the D.C. area.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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