Wagshal’s opening downtown DC location

Wagshal’s, the nearly 100-year-old market and delicatessen in Washington, D.C., is opening a downtown location.

Wagshal’s has signed a lease at Tishman Speyer’s 1747 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, about one block from the White House, for a 5,000 square foot space that will house Wagshal’s Grand Bodega.

An existing Wagshal’s deli in northern D.C. (Courtesy Wagshal’s)

The store will carry sandwiches and pastries, produce, prime meats and seafood, and take-home meals. It will also operate as a full-service catering company.



“We are thrilled to be expanding and bringing Wagshal’s Bodega to the downtown D.C. office neighborhood with something for everyone. Wagshal’s Bodega will be the neighborhood store offering all the epicurean essentials, whether it’s for the office or the home,” said Wagshal’s owner Bill Fuchs.

The downtown store is expected to open in late 2023.

1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. (Credit Tishman Speyer)

Wagshal’s, often called “The President’s Deli” for its past clientele, which has included Harry S. Truman, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, opened its original location in 1925 at 9th and G streets in Northwest. It later relocated to Adams Morgan, and in 1939 moved to its current location at 4855 Massachusetts Ave., in Spring Valley.

In 2012, it opened a location about a mile away on New Mexico Avenue that replaced a former Balducci’s store.

It is currently renovating a former 1920s auto repair garage in Bethesda, which will become Wagshal’s Bonfields (named after the original Bonfield’s Garage), with a market and barbecue from its Pitmaster’s Back Alley BBQ, which it runs in Spring Valley.

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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