Chinatown Goes Italian!

Good to hear something good is coming into that space. I kinda thought it would make a good spot for a nightclub named Orange or something.

H Street, the main corridor of DC’s official Chinatown district, is being infiltrated by non-Chinese businesses. It is only a matter of time before the Arch is the only significant remaining symbol of Chinatown.

But here is the question for the next quarter of a century:

Will we still be calling this neighborhood Chinatown out of habit after the Chinese businesses are long gone?

Will the city regognize the changing and now irreversible demographic shift and legislate accordingly?

By the way, I hope that you restaurant diversity seekers will find a little more happiness at the prospect of a non-Mexican/Tex-Mex restuarant moving in. We still do have a good stock of unleased and future retail space (over 100,000 square feet) yet to be claimed in the neighborhood.

The arch should be removed. Chinatown doesn’t exist. The developers have won.

It’s exciting to think that Gallery Place will be home to the first American venture for this company. I just hope the other two restaurants planned in the DC area are outside of the city, so our location doesn’t loose its appeal.

I forgot to notice, does Hooters have Chinese signage?

Last evening i walked around 7th and H and it feels like St. Catherine’s Street in Montreal. Really great to see all the activity.

Where is the latest TodayBus/Ivymedia bus stop?

It’s amazing that DC is the first “state” that they choose to start opening stores with in the States. Are we hot or what!

Hooters has had Chinese sinage since before it opens. Translation:owl restaurant.

Either DC is hot or our Italian restaurants are so lame a German chain can move in and be successful.

Right now, I am currently located near Frankfurt in Germany for work. Vapiano has a restaurant on Goetheplatz in Frankfurt, and I walk past there alot when I am there. I will stop by there in the next few days and report back my findings on here, if that is ok!

otavio_dc: Please do!

Otavio_dc, i think that is a great idea. Thanks!

To me, the Arch is to preserve the History, not the present. Chinatown changed not because the developers got the bright idea to run down Chinatown and then build it back up. In my view it changed because the majority or the Chinese moved to the much safer suburbs (especially back then) with far better school systems and in-state universities. People I know that migrate here straight from Asian come into the suburbs, not Chinatown. There is far better support for them to get acclimated into society then DC seems to provide, they have better schools, and usually other familiy members there. It is not like NYC Chinatown that has immigrants continually coming in. And I don’t see many of the Chinese developers, like the woman that owns the building at 7th & H with Starbuck’s in it, trying to make sure Chinese businesses stay in those spaces. She evicted the Chinese businesses that were there, renovated the building, and then leased to Starbuck’s to make more money. Chinese people I know whose parent’s live in Wah Luck House have no desire to live in Chinatown. They moved out to nice houses in the burbs long ago and have no desire to come back even they can afford it (now in their 40s). There are a lot of good Asian markets all over the suburbs for a reason – because that’s where the majority of the Asian’s are. The demand in Chinatown is for Matchbox now. I eat more than my share of Chinese noodle soup, buy roast Pig and duck and Kam Fong deli, and buy fish sauce, rice and other supplies at the market next door, but I don’t think enough demand exists for more Chinese restaurants and markets than there are now, possibly with the exception of a Chinese fish and produce market. Ahh, wouldn’t that be nice?

Wasn’t there a clothing store business at the Starbucks(7th & H st) location? And i thought the owner was a popular white Jewish merchant named Stan who moved his business to 8th & H NE before the Starbucks renovation.

Has there been any discussion here on residents’ favorite chinatown chinese restaurants? That might seem like too simplistic a question for this blog, but the reality is that I and most of my neighbors I know tend to stick to the one or two places they’ve found to be acceptable, and have never really ventured out to others. I know I like Chinatown Express, so I go there and haven’t strayed. But I’m really curious on whether I’m missing something, and I find the WaPo and Washingtonian reviews to be highly outdated and in the one time I tried another “recommended” spot — inaccurate. I was intrigued by a recent poster’s review of Jackey Cafe (no other reviews online about this place I can find) and will be trying that soon. Any other favorites, and why?

Greetings all,

I am just returning home from my visit to Vapiano restaurant, and you would not believe my experience there.

This restaurant chain can best be described with just one word: Lame!

Vapiano restaurant is a self-serve restaurant chain out of Germany.

This particular Vapiano is in Frankfurt, Germany on Goetheplatz 1-3. It is a hit with the Germans, but I can tell you that Washington, DC has much better Italian food than this one!

Customer Service – Nil, zilch, pretty darn low. When you walk in the door, you get a card that you then take to each station to record how much and what you have purchased. You have a Salad line, a Pasta line, and a Pizza line.

This Vapiano was way too overcrowded. You have to get a tray and get into each line to get what you want. I spent 15 minutes waiting, tray in both hands, to get my salad. They prepare the dish while you wait at the counter.

Then I waited another 15 minutes to get my main dish in the pasta line. If there is a crowd of 7 people waiting in front of you, then you just stand there holding your tray until you get to the counter. In my former military days, we called this muscle failure! There is no place to rest your filled up tray while you wait in line.

If you want a pizza dish, then you have to wait in the pizza line.

So, it took me 30 minutes before I could sit down. Of course, since it was overcrowded, it took me another 10 minutes to find a seat.

Also, there is no waiter service. You also get your drink in the salad, pizza, or pasta line.

Food: It tasted like Chinese! There is no way that Italian food should be tasting like Chinese. Aweful! The salad was tasteless, and my dressing tasted like sweet and sour sauce. My pasta was dry and clumped together. Aweful!

Ok, after all of that torture was over, then you go to pay. There is a check out line! So guess what! If there is a line, as in my case, you wait another 10 minutes standing in line to pay! Terrible!

Decor/Interiro design: Simple and conservative. Of course, the German way. Gallery Place could use a bit more originality. This restaurant chain will not bring it unless they change their format for the US-based locations.

All-in-all, this restaurant chain gets a big thumbs down from me. Lame.

Washington, DC residents: Don’t get your hopes up on this one!

GPLiving and all: I took 2 photos of the outside and inside for people to get a sense of the concept here. I will post them on my flickr account. You can click my name to go there.