Little Sesame Announces a Second Location Will Land in Chinatown

Little Sesame, the fast-casual hummus shop that opened in late August, will soon be blazing through twice as many chickpeas. The company announced today it will expand from its original Dupont store to a second location at 736 Sixth Street NW in Chinatown. Washington Business Journal first reported the news yesterday.

Co-owners Nick and David Wiseman (Whaley’s; Hill Prince) partnered with Israel native Ronen Tenne on Little Sesame, which first took root inside DGS Delicatessen before the latter closed in February. Since rolling out seasonal hummus bowls, pitas and salads, Little Sesame has drawn massive lines of customers and snagged the attention of Washington Post critic Tim Carman — who judged the quality of the legume spread to be “unmatched” in D.C. but still a step behind Dizengoff in Philadelphia.

According to WBJ, changes in store for the Chinatown location of Little Sesame include weekend hours, beer and wine service, and the introduction of a mobile app that will let customers place orders ahead of time in order to skip the queue on-site.

The expansion represents the growing profile of Israeli food in D.C. Restauranteur Ashok Bajaj opened Sababa in Cleveland Park this past spring. Shouk, a plant-based fast-casual that sells what it describes as Modern Israeli street food, opened its own second location — at Union Market — this summer.

• Little Sesame signs for second location [WBJ]
• Dupont Circle’s Little Sesame Is Re-Emerging Downtown [EDC]
• Little Sesame serves the best hummus in D.C., and it’s good enough to be your entree [WaPo]