Fuddruckers, the burger chain that almost went out of business during the pandemic, made its return to D.C.’s Chinatown this week, opening a two-level restaurant in a space formerly occupied by Tom’s Watch Bar at 781 7th Street, N.W.
Fuddruckers closed its original Chinatown location in 2017.
Fuddruckers is opening later this year in downtown Silver Spring, in the same location it shuttered at 819 Ellsworth Drive in 2019. The only other Fuddruckers location currently in the D.C. area is in Ashburn, Virginia, though there is a Fuddruckers Express inside the UDC student center in Van Ness.
The Fuddruckers revival is largely thanks to D.C. businessman Nicholas Perkins. He acquired the franchise business through his Black Titan Enterprises from Houston restaurant company Luby’s in 2021.
Perkins, a Howard University School of Business graduate, was already a franchise operator for about a dozen Fuddruckers locations at the time Luby’s originally announced plans to liquidate the business in 2020.
As part of the deal, Perkins assumed ownership of existing Fuddruckers locations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. There are currently more than 50 Fuddruckers locations.
Fuddruckers is sticking to its original business model of grilled to order burgers sold in various weights, with expansive toppings bars and buns baked on location. It also has plant-based alternatives.
Last fall, Perkins told the Washington Business Journal he planned to expand Fuddruckers D.C. area locations further, and to new markets, including Baltimore and Charlotte.
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