Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Surfside Taco Closing in Glover Park, Reopening in Tenleytown

Wisconsin Avenue taco restaurant Surfside will close its original Glover Park storefront at the end of 2019 to open a new location up the street in Tenleytown this fall. 

Surfside has been at its first location since it opened in 2008. The exact opening date of the new storefront, located at 4200 Wisconsin Avenue, is still to be determined, according to Eaghmon Banks, the manager of Georgetown Events. Georgetown Events, Surfside’s parent catering and food service company, also owns other local restaurants in Northwest Washington, D.C., including Jetties, The Bullpen, Due South and Millie’s.

@SURFSIDE/INSTAGRAM | The new Surfside location in Tenleytown will include sit-down service and a walk-up window modeled after the features at the restaurant’s DuPont Circle location.

Georgetown Events has been looking to expand Surfside for over a year in order to offer more comprehensive services and options, Banks said.

“We’d been looking for a bigger spot,” Banks said in an interview with The Hoya. “We want to do full service, and we’re just kind of outgrowing the spot right here in Glover Park.”

The new Tenleytown location will feature sit-down service, compared to the walk-up counter ordering system currently in place. The restaurant will also include a 24-hour walk-up window where customers can order from the menu at any hour of the day, and the expanded service will also increase the staff at the location, according to Banks. Surfside’s second location in DuPont Circle already has a walk-up window for its late-night customers from nearby bars and clubs. The new location will offer 250 parking spots for customers, according to Banks.

Surfside also plans to offer jobs to students at its new location, although the restaurant may be too far to make it practical for Georgetown undergraduates to work at the taco shop, Banks said.

“We can also have jobs for students that are looking for part-time jobs,” Banks said. “So actually by expanding we will be able to offer more jobs for people in the city.”

Surfside’s further distance from Georgetown’s main campus will reduce the number of students willing to make the hike to its new location, according to Amanda Perry (NHS ’20).

“Although I have only been to Surfside a few times, it was a great, reasonably priced taco and burrito place that was wasn’t too far from campus,” Perry wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Unfortunately, I do not think I will be making the trek to Tenleytown where its new location will be anytime soon, it’s still sad to see the staple taco place closing its Glover Park location.”

Assistant Manager Kevin Chavez Lopez, who is enrolled in graduate school classes at American University and will not have to commute as far from campus as a result of the move, said the restaurant is moving because Tenleytown is an area of D.C. quickly growing in popularity.

“I’m kind of excited at the fact that it’s going to be much closer than it is right now,” Lopez said in an interview with The Hoya. “Also, the parking lot is going to be much bigger, so it will be easier for me to find a place to park.”

Surfside originally planned to open two new locations in 2019, one in Tenleytown and the other at the Wharf, according to Eater. The company wanted to capitalize on the Wharf’s late night crowds, especially concertgoers at The Anthem, but tabled plans for a new location there last February. 

The restaurant will have the same owners and the same chefs who have been serving Glover Park, Banks said.

“We’ve enjoyed being in Glover Park. I was here from the beginning with these guys,” Banks said. “They love Glover Park, but sometimes you just move out of a neighborhood. We’re just moving up the street, expanding the concept.”

 

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