First restaurants at Foggy Bottom’s Western Market are open

Western Market is across the street from the original Western Market, built in 1802. It is on property leased from George Washington University by developers MRP Really and Westbrook Partners. (Courtesy MRP Realty)

Western Market, a new food hall at 2000 Pennsylvania Ave. NW in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, has its first four restaurants open with more coming later this fall.

The new restaurants include another brick-and-mortar location for Roaming Rooster, the popular fried chicken restaurant which started as a food truck six years ago.

This will be the fourth brick-and-mortar location for Roaming Rooster, whose first restaurant opened in Northeast D.C.’s Woodbridge neighborhood. It has others in Tenleytown and U Street. It is opening a fifth location at Pike & Rose in North Bethesda by the end of this year.

Western Market is across the street from the original Western Market, built in 1802. It is on property leased from George Washington University by developers MRP Really and Westbrook Partners. Cana Development is the food hall’s operator.

Other restaurants at Western Market that are now open include Italian sub shop Capo Italian Deli, which also has a location in Shaw, Annapolis’ Mason’s Famous Lobster Rolls, with several locations along the East Coast, and RAWish, a vegan concept from James and Taneesa Yarborough, who also own two Gangster Vegan locations in Baltimore and in Riverdale, Maryland.

Phase two restaurants at the 12,300-square-foot Western Market will open this fall. They include:

  • Greek and Mediterranean restaurant Alitiko
  • Arepa Zone, a Venezuelan restaurant which also has locations in downtown D.C., and at Audi Field.
  • Bandoola Bowl, a Southeast Asian restaurant with a second location in Georgetown.
  • Nim Ali, a Guatemalan street food restaurant that got its start as a pop-up in Shaw earlier this year.
  • Sushi Onkei, a sushi bar whose owner also runs Sushi Keiko in Glover Park.
  • Tigerella, an all-day restaurant with full bar from the owners of Ellē in Mount Pleasant.

Next year, the largest restaurant at Western Market, ExPat, will open. It is a joint venture between D.C. restaurant veterans Chef Tim Ma, Jonas Singer and Ben Silsen. It will have a barbecue menu with southern staples. ExPat will also have what it calls a full-social bar and offer sports betting on its own tech platform.

Western Market will also host live music, movie nights and yoga classes.

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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