WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL: The first Luna Hall from restaurateur Zong Chen opened in Chinatown over the summer.
The restaurateur behind D.C.’s Luna Hall plans to open at least three more suburban food halls, including at sites in Tysons and Rockville, following the launch of its first location in the Chinatown neighborhood over the summer.
Zong Chen has leased the former Sapphire Tysons restaurant space at 8201 Greensboro Drive, an office building that sits just across from Tysons Galleria. That will be followed by a third Luna Hall at Pike Center in Rockville and a fourth in Ellicott City.
The planned expansion marks the evolution of a brand — or rather, several brands — for Chen, the son of a Chinese food takeout restaurant owner. Chen disliked the complexity of his dad’s carry-out model, with its 150-plus menu items, so he opted for something simpler, securing the rights to a Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt franchise in suburban Maryland. He expanded his franchise network over time to include other brands, such as Kung Fu Tea, TKK Fried Chicken, and a concept of his own invention, Dumpling District.
Chen has experimented with locating more than one franchise at the same center — a Bibibop Asian Grill and Kung Fu Tea at Pike & Rose in North Bethesda, for example — and it was after a trip to New York’s Chelsea Market that he decided to tap into the growing momentum for food halls locally. With the aid of real estate broker Marc Rosendorf, of the Rosendorf Group, he struck a deal for the former Vapiano space at 623-625 H St. NW in Chinatown. It’s now the home of his first Luna Hall featuring four of his eateries — Dumpling District, Kung Fu Tea, TKK Fried Chicken and Pollo Aria.
Chinatown has struggled due to factors including extended remote work for D.C.’s office dwellers and a spike in crime downtown, and Chen said that’s meant Luna Hall can be super-busy one day and quiet the next. Still, Chen said activity from customers who live in the suburbs and seek out Luna Hall when they’re in the city is what prompted him to search for new locations in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia.
Taking over the former Sapphire space in Tysons might have seemed an ambitious leap so soon after opening Luna Hall, but Chen didn’t see it that way.
“We have people driving from Arlington and Tysons saying this is the best dumpling you can get locally,” he said. “People come to us because we make delicious food, so I want to do this deal.”
