Dirt restaurant in Ballston closes

Dirt has abruptly closed its Ballston location and both locations in Miami. (WTOP/Jeff Clabaugh)

Miami-based healthy eating-focused restaurant Dirt, which opened an Arlington, Virginia, outpost at the Ballston Exchange building at 4121 Wilson Boulevard in Ballston last spring, has abruptly closed its Ballston location and both locations in Miami.

It is unclear why the 1,800-square-foot Ballston restaurant has closed. Attempts to reach a restaurant spokesperson were unsuccessful.

The Miami Herald reports Dirt employees were informed by text message on Jan. 30 that the Miami locations were closing for good. That was less than a week after the Ballston location closed. Its last day was Jan. 26.

The Ballston Dirt closed briefly last May, after a lunchtime kitchen fire damaged the restaurant and seriously injured at least one employee.

Dirt, whose slogan was “Eat Clean,” had a menu catering to both vegans and meat eaters. The Arlington location served breakfast, lunch and dinner. The menu also included organic teas, vegan milkshakes, kombucha on tap and craft beer and wine, as well as bowls, soups, salads and sandwiches.

Atlanta-based Jamestown LP’s Ballston Exchange, a two-building mixed-use redevelopment of side-by-side office high-rises, completed its repositioning in late 2018.

Other restaurants at Ballston Exchange include We The Pizza, Shake Shack, Dunkin, CAVA and Philz Coffee.

Dirt’s first Miami location opened in South Beach in 2005. Its second location opened in downtown Miami two years later.

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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