Fogo de Chao opens at National Harbor

Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chao joins the roster of restaurants at Maryland’s National Harbor on March 24.

The restaurant, at 141 National Plaza in the Waterfront District, has a large outdoor patio overlooking the Potomac River. It is the sixth Fogo de Chao restaurant in the D.C.-area.

Rendering of the new Fogo de Chao location opening in National Harbor (Courtesy Fogo de Chao)

The 12,000-square-foot National Harbor location replaces McLoone’s Pier House, which closed in 2020.



National Harbor now has about 60 food establishments, stores and entertainment venues. Home to the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center and MGM Casino, it attracts about 19.5 million visitors a year— one of the busiest destinations in the D.C. region.

Fairfax-based National Harbor owner and manager Peterson Cos. has signed leases with nine new retail and restaurant tenants since the start of 2020.

A Silver Diner restaurant opens at National Harbor this summer at 108 Waterfront Street.

Other new tenants include Tom’s Watch Bar, gourmet honey store Sticky Situations, Italian sandwich shop Promo Hoagies, BurgerFi, and Bombay Street Food. Another new addition, It’Sugar, is leasing the space previously occupied by Peeps and Co., which closed in 2020.

Fogo de Chao also recently opened a restaurant at Reston Town Center, replacing the former Chinese and Thai restaurant Big Bowl, which closed in 2020 after nearly 20 years. The Clyde’s Reston Town Center location closed last year after 31 years.

The steakhouse chain, known for its Gaucho Chefs who carve beef tableside, opened its first restaurant in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1979. Its first U.S. restaurant opened in Dallas in 1997. It now has 57 locations in the U.S. and two dozen in Brazil, Mexico and the Middle East.

The chain has signed 12 new leases so far this year.

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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