Restaurant News & Gossip. Who’s opening?

There has been a lot restaurant news lately. There are a lot of new restaurant openings and many that are coming soon. Check out the list below for the scoop. Tom Sietsema’s chat was chock full o’ tid bits. Mark your calendars, foodies. Every Thursday at 11 a.m. Tom dishes it up and answers diner’s questions.

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  McCloone's at the new National Harbor. Photo by Lisa Shapiro

  The new McCloone’s family restaurant opened yesterday at 3 p.m. at the National Harbor. The new location is the first of Tim McCloone’s out of the state of New Jersey where he owns four other restaurants, all on the water. I was there yesterday for their opening and it’s a gorgeous restaurant with spectacular views, complete with a digital counter to countdown to the daily sunset! The 6,900 square foot dining room seats 140 and the outdoor patio seats 81. Pretty impressive! Stay tuned for a full write up!

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  Panas, Photo courtesy of Jill Collins PR

  On Friday, June 25th Panas Gourmet Empanadas will open at 2029 P Street NW.  To mark the opening day owner Federico Garcia Lopez will offer one free empanada from 11 am until 1 pm. “Panas” which specializes in empanadas, is a unique abbreviation for the word. The new restaurant is a small 1,100 square-foot restaurant with just 13 seats. Serving in-restaurant, carry-out and delivery the Panas menu includes $2 empanadas ranging from meat, pork, chicken and ham.  Stay tuned for a review, coming soon!

• Chef Spike Mendelsohn’s new restaurant “We, The Pizza” opens on July 12th right next to “Good Stuff Eatery” on the Hill. 
• The same folks who opened Matchbox and the newly opened Ted’s Bulletin is doing it again! We can look forward to the opening up a small hot dog joint DC-3 (just 20-seats) near Eastern Market. They will serve regional American hot dogs. The name DC-3 is a nod to the owner’s brother and business partner, Mark, a pilot and airplane buff. Their next project replaces the tiny Firehouse Cafe at 423 8th St. SE and is expected to open in August.
• Matchbox will be opening a location in Virginia (in 2012), in the Mosaic development in Falls Church. It will be in the intersection of Lee Highway and Route 50. Sarah Krouse with WBJ gave the scoop about the Mosaic development yesterday.
• Taylor Gourmet by two young Philadelphians has created a sandwich craze in DC. Now they are opening a location in Virginia.  Taylor Gourmet will be setting up shop in the Mosaic development as well. (They currently have locations on K St, H & 12th St., and Bethesda, MD)
• Ray’s Hell-Burger Too will open at 1713 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, the space previously scheduled for Ray’s: The Game. Michael Landrum is slowly taking over Courthouse.
• We the Pizza will be opening July 12th
• Amanda McClements of Metrocurean shared with us that the less formal sister of Hook, Tacklebox is opening up a new location in Cleveland Park.  She cited that Tom Sietsema reported that an old McDonald’s restaurant that has sat vacant for years at 3407 Connecticut Ave. will be revived as a new location of Georgetown’s popular seafood spot Tackle Box. The end of the year is the target opening.


Photo Courtesy of Metrocurean

• The latest project from restaurateurs Meshelle and Cathal Armstrong and mixologist Todd Thrasher is causing some buzz on the street. Apparently, work is underway on the new Virtue Feed & Grain. The Armstrong’s are also behind Old Town’s best restaurants, Restaurant Eve, The Majestic, PX and a Dublin style chipper – Eamonn’s. Bartzen &+Ball and Bonitt Builders promise a new “American-bred ‘gastro pub’-style restaurant with top notch food and drink.” The new project will be located in a historic feed building located at 106 South Union St. on Old Town’s waterfront. Their website is super cool with early architectural drawings, floor plans, and information about what to expect.
• Italian Shirt Laundry & Italian Cinema a pizzeria and bakery, in the old dry cleaner space at 1601 14th St. NW and Italian Cinema at 1404 14th St. NW is being opened in Logan Circle from the creators of the British-flavored Againn will open Italian Shirt Laundry, The Whisk Group is partnering with Abdo Development on the new spots.
• In addition, Againn is opening the Againn Tavern in Rockville at 12256 Rockville Pike, slated to open June 29, 2010. The new 8,100-square-foot space will highlight simple, approachable dishes with a British Isle twist executed with the same contemporary approach which made AGAINN in downtown Washington, DC so popular. The 215-seat space is conveniently located at 12256 Rockville Pike within the 60,000-square-foot Towne Plaza shopping center.
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  Photo Courtesy of ARL Now

  Buzz Bakery is coming to Ballston along with Rustico. The signs are up for Buzz Bakery and residents are starting to get excited. The menu will be similar to the Alexandria location, with a large wood-fired oven on premises for pizza and other hearty foods. Chef Steve Mannino will introduce a few new items, including some Mediterranean-influenced dishes created with the wood-fired oven in mind. The new Buzz will be a high class WiFi hangout that attracts coffee-drinking and pastry-eating crowds in the morning, business and 9-to-5ers for a typical lunch-time crowd in the afternoon, and wine and cocktail-sipping crowds at night. Buzz and Rustico will inhabit two separate storefronts on the 4000 block of Wilson Boulevard, in the Liberty Center development. The storefronts will be divided by a small courtyard that features a rhythmic water fountain. Each restaurant will have abundant outdoor seating. Rustico is slated to open in August. Buzz Bakery will open at an unspecified time later this year.