Busboys and Poets in Anacostia to Open in the Coming Days

• March 6th 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

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Over two years after breaking ground in Historic Anacostia, the first Busboys and Poets location east of the River will open in the coming days.

The seventh location of the local chain is expected to open at 2004-2010 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE (map) next Tuesday, complete with a city-sponsored ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

"We may be open sooner depending on permitting but the 12th is the ribbon cutting," Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal told UrbanTurf. 

This outpost of the socially-conscious restaurant/bar/bookstore/event space, occasionally cited as a harbinger of hipster culture — if not an outright gentrification catalyst — will also include a culinary training program in partnership with nonprofits.

The Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative, a nonprofit which also owns the building, will use the upper levels as its headquarters. The new restaurant, similarly to other locations, will also feature a mural; a competition was held earlier this year for artists from Southeast. 

The arrival of the restaurant takes place as Anacostia has increasingly gotten attention from developers and house-flippers, leading to some anxiety about whether long-term residents will be displaced.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/first-busboys-and-poets-east-of-the-river-to-open-next-week/15089.