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Navy Yard will welcome not one, but two new ramen shops over the next six months. Already awaiting the anticipated arrival of Hatoba, the latest project from Daikaya Group, the Southeast neighborhood will also get a venue for Chinese and Taiwanese ramen bowls from the owner of Reren Lamen & Bar in Chinatown.
The latter shop, dubbed Basebowl, just inked a 2,400-square-foot deal at West Half (1201 Half Street SE), the mixed-use development from JBG Smith that’s coming together right next to Nationals Park.
Three years after opening Reren in Chinatown, restaurateur Leopold Liao is also planning to expand that brand to Georgetown soon. His newest venture in Navy Yard plans to sling soup bowls for lunch, dinner, and late-night at the foot of the 388,000-square-foot project designed by New York-based ODA Architecture. Residents are already moving in to the high-priced condos. Previously announced, high-profile tenants like cult NYC bakery Mah-Ze-Dahr and Atlas Brew Works plan to move in by next spring.
Along with noodles and bone broths made in-house, Basebowl will serve dumplings and Asian barbecue. The restaurant’s name is an obvious nod to the neighboring stadium.
Basebowl will have competition a few blocks away from a revered ramen name. The experts behind Daikaya, Bantam King, and Haikan plan to bring their traditional Sapporo-style noodle soup to Navy Yard this fall with the long-delayed opening of Hatoba. The 2,200-square-foot industrial space at the Boilermaker Building in the Yards development will also offer some chilled ramen options. Hatoba also has a baseball tie-in, with design nods to a pro baseball team in Sapporo, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Basebowl will be joined at West Half by the third D.C. location of vegan fast-casual chain HipCityVeg, which plans to bring its veggie burgers, sweet potato fries, and soy shakes to the development by next spring. The Philadelphia-based brand, founded in 2012, just opened its second D.C. location, in Dupont Circle.
West Half’s previously announced retail lineup includes Union Kitchen Grocery, Compass Coffee, Cold Stone Creamery, and Gatsby, a modern American bistro from KNEAD Hospitality and Design, the restaurant group behind Succotash and Mi Vida. KNEAD is partnered with with Mah-Ze-Dahr, so Gatsby will offer pastries and goodies from the bakery during the day.
Other anticipated arrivals en route to the booming neighborhood include Erik Bruner-Yang’s ABC Pony, Michael Rafidi’s Albi, and wine bar Maxwell Park.
