&pizza to Columbia Heights, Yamas Open in Adams Morgan,

Yamas Mediterranean Grill opened recently in Adams Morgan. The Greek cuisine focused, fast causal eatery already has a District store at New Hampshire Ave and U St NW. The new location is at 2418 18th St NW, formerly occupied by Shwarma Spot. The Yamas menu features a lot of vegetarian friendly options including falafel, vegetarian burger, and a selection of vegetarian mezze.

ABRA Public Hearing signage is up for the &pizza ("and pizza") location in Columbia Heights. The DC-based quick-serve pizza shop has over a dozen locations in the Metro area. The new shop would have a total occupancy load of 46 in addition to a sidewalk cafe of up to 32 seats. &pizza has great veggie and vegan options including multiple choices for crusts, sauces, Daiya cheese, and plenty of toppings.

The address is listed as 1375 Kenyon St NW on the &pizza website, but you may know the location as the former location of 826 DC. It is located on the first floor of the Park Triangle apartment building and bordered by Pollo Campero and FroZenYo. 

Typically, &pizza opens at 11:00 AM, but closing times vary by location and day. I'd expect this location to have similar hours as the U Street store: 11:00 PM close through Thursday and midnight on weekends. No word yet on opening day.

&pizza coming to Chinatown, Dupont

&pizza Chinatown's shop would occupy the white building next to Starbucks.

Washington Business Journal is reporting that &pizza will open more restaurants, and soon. Three of the planned four new shops will be located in the District. The Dupont location will be located at 1215 Connecticut Ave NW, near Rhode Island Ave. The Chinatown restaurant will be located at 802 7th St NW, most recently the site of a bank. &pizza also plans to open restaurants in Capitol Hill and Rockville, MD. They hope to accomplish all of this by the end of 2014 or early 2015.

&pizza is a fast casual style restaurant that makes-to-order personalized, single-serve pizzas. Once you start the customization process, it typically takes 4-5 minutes to receive the pizza ready to eat. It's a neat process and they are vegan friendly, so I eat there A LOT. They recently opened a restaurant close to the new Chinatown location at 1005 E St NW. 

Interesting note in the WBJ article: west coast pizza chain Pizza Studio will also open in Dupont at 1333 New Hampshire (formerly Baja Fresh). Looks like I need to revive Pizza Wars!

&pizza Opens; Izakaya and American Restaurants Planned

&pizza opened yesterday at 10th and E to significant crowds because, well, PIZZA.

The Penn Quarter food scene has exploded this summer. And there's more to come. Just yesterday, &pizza opened its newest location at 1005 E Street NW, in the former Freshii space. OF COURSE I immediately went there to get a pizza meal. It's the best meal. This is the third DC restaurant and fifth total. &pizza makes personalized, single-serving-sized pizza going from ball of dough to steaming hot pizza in less than 5 minutes. And they are super vegan-friendly.

Penn Commons looks to make a serious go of it where Townhouse failed to even open doors.

Remember the Townhouse Kitchen & Bar development on 6th Street NW? Well, it never came close to opening. The last of this small chain's restaurants closed in Baltimore this year after reportedly falling over $200,000 behind in rent payments. Hopefully, the new tenants of 700 6th St NW fare better. City Paper reports that the owners of District Commons are opening Penn Commons soon. No set opening date, but I've seen lots of moving-day type of activities the last few days. The space is already outfitted well beyond any state achieved by Townhouse. I'll update when they open/get close to opening.

The swanky 10th and G development is getting its first restaurant tenant.

A new Japanese izakaya will open at the 10th and G office building later this year. According to Washington Business Journal, the new bar/restaurant, named Umaya, is under the same ownership as nearby Cafe Asia. Posted ABRA notices at the site --officially 733 10th St NW-- indicate that the operators are seeking a total occupancy load of 350, service until 2:00 am (weekday) / 3:00 am (weekend), sidewalk seating, and the ability to provide live entertainment. Quite an operation! More news as it comes.

&pizza and "Other" Pizza Opening Downtown

It's been a great month for downtown restaurant openings. Last week we noted the addition of ShopHouse and Cava Mezze Grill to Penn Quarter. And there's more news today.

&pizza (pronounced "and pizza") has displayed its signage in the windows of 1005 E St NW. This is great news! &pizza is a vegan-friendly pizza shop that produces made-to-order personal pizzas in just 3-5 minutes. By the time you decide which sauces and toppings you'd like, the oblong, oval-shaped pie is already out of the express-bake oven, ready to eat. Seriously, this place is awesome! 

There are several &pizza locations across the DC area. I can be found pretty regularly at the H St NE and U St NW restaurants. And now, add E St NW to that list. FYI, the previous tenant of 1005 E St NW was salad and rice bowl purveyor Freshii.

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Last year, I speculated that the retail space at 750 6th St NW would become a hot dog shop. Not quite. It's another pizza shop! However, it's a bit more mysterious than &pizza. The new shop has no name-bearing signage save for printed office paper letters advertising, well, PIZZA. I did actually see one employee inside making pizza, but when I returned for more info later in the day, it was closed. There is seating for about 12 inside. If I remember correctly, this space was previously a video store. And by video, I mean adult video. That was years ago. It has been vacant for some time now.