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| Future Cava Grill location at 707 H St NW. |
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| Future ShopHouse location at 710 7th St NW. |
Great, great news for food options in Penn Quarter. ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen and Cava Mezze Grill are slated to open in Chinatown.
Each restaurant is in the fast-casual, quick-serve style. They each allow customers to order "up the line" choosing a combination of ingredients to create highly customizable dishes. There is no table service.
ShopHouse --a division of Chipotle-- is one of my favorite DC lunch spots, with two current stores near 28th and M NW, and Connecticut Ave and Q NW. They have clearly marked vegan items and top notch customer service. The food is pan-Asian, taking cues form Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, and Malaysian cuisines. Check out the menu here. To find out what dishes are vegan, check the actual menu boards inside the stores.
Cava Grill is the fast-casual spin off of the similarly named small plates restaurant, Cava Mezze. Cava is local. The company was started right here in the DC area, mid 2000s. The Grill is awesome. Like ShopHouse, they offer vegan-friendly, affordable options for a quick meal. The food here is Greek & Mediterranean. Yes, that means they serve high quality falafel. Check out what's vegan here.
The new ShopHouse restaurant is located at 710 7th Street NW (formerly a Ruby Tuesday). No exact opening date is known to me, but they are hiring for this location, which is a good sign.
The new Cava Grill restaurant is located at 707 H St NW. That storefront was most recently Capital Q BBQ, which closed in 2012. Again, no exact opening date is known to me, but I will keep you updated.
