Park Tavern, the restaurant being developed at Capitol Riverfront's Canal Park, is set to open late February, according to its head chef Robert Wood.
The 100-seat restaurant is among the latest attractions to open after the park’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in November.
Located at 200 M Street SE, Xavier Cervera’s eighth Washington diner will feature a large pavilion with outdoor seating alongside the skating rink.
“It’s a little bit more modern in design,” Wood, who worked at Cervera's Chesapeake Room at Barracks Row, says about the new location. “Certainly different from his other restaurants.”
The restaurant is part of a larger project to revive the area and transform what used to be an abandoned parking lot into a modern park.
The community is also home to the Washington Navy Yard, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Nationals Park baseball stadium, among other developments.
After years of construction and waiting for the park to open, Jay Davis, Cervera’s purchasing director, hopes many local restaurateurs echo Park Tavern’s initiative to "spark it and regenerate" the area.
“I think once the weather gets a little better that park is going to be a refuge for a lot of people in the city that are looking for green space,” he says.
Luis Velarde writes about business, investments, real estate, and urban development. His work has appeared in the BBC World Service, Voice of America and others.