A neighborhood favorite for sandwiches in Brentwood has some big plans for expansion.
MGM Roast Beef, which started as a humble lunch spot at 905 Brentwood Rd NE, attached to the Capitol Auto Auction building, has just finished up a kitchen expansion that will allow the sandwich spot to do more catering, owner Ryan Zaritsky says.
Also in the pipeline is a fully enclosed glass patio that will seat 50 and be climate controlled so it can be used year round, Zaritsky says. "I'm working on the permits for that," he says, but don't hold your breath, brisket lovers: it'll probably be summer 2014 before the project is finished.
"These types of projects...I'm not going to super super push it, because I'm trying to run a restaurant in the meantime."
The restaurant opened more than four years ago after the owner of the Capitol Auto Auction building, Zaritsky's father, decided to replace the liquor store that was there with a sandwich shop to serve lunch to the crowds shopping for cars. The sandwich shop has built a reputation in the area for its fresh, high-quality ingredients in a neighborhood mostly served by the likes of McDonalds and 7-11.
"My clientele is the working crowd around here," Zaritsky says. "The post office [the main location for D.C., across the street from MGM Roast Beef], D.C. government employees, police officers. That's my traditional customer base right now." That said, Zaritsky acknowledges the changing neighborhood.
"I'll almost guarantee," he says, that when the year-round patio opens, "I'll be open later hours. The neighborhood is changing. I want to be ahead of the curve."
Rachel is the managing editor of Elevation D.C. She also covers tech, business and science for publications nationwide. She lives in Brookland.