Red Hot D.C. Chicken Chain Roaming Rooster Opens a Shop in Tenleytown

Hit D.C. chain Roaming Rooster continued its rapidly accelerating expansion last week, celebrating a grand opening at its third standalone store, at 4600 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Tenleytown, on Friday, February 12. The brand sells D.C.’s favorite fried chicken sandwich, according to a reader poll in Washington City Paper’s Best Of issue. In addition to Nashville hot, Buffalo, and honey butter chicken sandwiches, Roaming Rooster sells wings, tenders, and sides. After opening its first restaurant in Woodridge and rolling out four food trucks, Roaming Rooster opened a U Street NW location for carryout and delivery in September. The company, from Michael Habtemariam, Biniam Habtemariam, and Hareg Mesfin, will be one of the opening tenants inside the redeveloped Western Market food hall in Foggy Bottom. Roaming Rooster is also working on opening locations in Anacostia and Chantilly, Virginia, according to a representative.

In other news ...

• The landlord for Blues Alley, a Georgetown jazz club since 1965, has put the location up for sale, NBC4 reports. Blues Alley owner Harry Schnipper confirms to DCist that negotiations to renew the lease with Snyder Properties have stalled, and he is seeking a new space for a live music venue that has hosted legends like Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.
• A new hospitality group from chef Tim Ma, Union Kitchen co-founder Jonas Singer, and the Crown & the Crow bar owner Ben Sislen, is planning open sports bars with betting licenses in Adams Morgan and Foggy Bottom by the fall, City Paper reports.
• Korean fast-casual Seolspice is planning to double in size by three new locations this year, including one outpost in Bethesda’s Westfield Montgomery Mall, a Penn Quarter location, and another in Rosslyn, Virginia, Washington Business Journal reports.
• Developer Brookfield Properties revealed construction plans for the Yards’ Phase II with a “curb-less, cobblestone, and pedestrian” area that would make the Navy Yard business district the largest waterfront strip in the city. [DCist]
• Meanwhile, a new Akridge development in Buzzard Point called the Stacks will include 80,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and will connect the Yards in Southeast to the Wharf in Southwest. [W]
• Out in Sterling, Virginia, the chef behind chocolate-everything restaurant the Conche has opened a Mexican/Spanish restaurant that’s cashing in on trendy birria de res tacos. [NVM]