Hit Lunch Spot Butter Chicken Co. Will Open an H Street Location With Expanded Hours

Butter Chicken Company has proven popular enough in its first three months of slinging a fast-casual Indian food downtown that fast-moving owner Asad Sheikh has already secured a second location that will ditch one of its main marketing gimmicks.

Sheikh announced plans this week to open a Butter Chicken Co. at 500 H Street NE in early February. Unlike the instantly popular original, which peaks at lunchtime and closes after its sells out of about 300 orders of butter chicken per day, the follow-up location will serve open at noon, briefly close in the afternoon, and reopen for dinner from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. It will run six days a week (closed Mondays).

Rey Lopez/Eater D.C.

In addition to a namesake dish full of ghee, cream, tomatoes, and fenugreek, Butter Chicken Co. offers chicken tikka masala or vegetable biryani as alternative mains. Every tray ($11) includes sides of saag paneer and spicy chickpeas. Refrigerated cases hold to-go cups of mango lassis and cans of Indian sodas such as masala-spiced Kashmira, Coke-like Thums Up, and lemon-lime Limca. Chef Praveen Kumar is Sheikh’s partner in the business.

After spending years running well-regarded Indian restaurants in Northern Virginia, Sheikh is operating in D.C. like he’s making up for lost time. Over the past 15 months, he’s opened two locations of Bombay Street Food, in Columbia Heights and Capitol Hill, and launched his butter chicken business.

Sheikh is already looking into bringing Butter Chicken Co. to Arlington by working to land additional spaces in Rosslyn and Ballston. He aims to bring Bombay Street Food to Dupont Circle, too.

• Inside Butter Chicken Company, Downtown’s New Lunch Spot Dedicated to One Dish [EDC]
• A New Indian Place Downtown Will Sell 300 Trays of Butter Chicken Per Day — and Nothing Else [EDC]
• How Snacks From Mumbai’s Streets Come to Life in Columbia Heights [EDC]
• Bombay Street Food Is Adding a Second Location in Capitol Hill [EDC]