Willie T’s Seafood Shack at 9326 Georgia Ave. will open at 11 a.m. on Monday, March 27, according to a post on the restaurant’s social media accounts.
John Tang, manager of Willie T’s in Springfield, Va., told MoCo360 last May that the opening date of the restaurant has been a “moving target” due to a series of delays.
The Source reported in late 2021 that Thompson Hospitality’s vice president of business development Cole Whaley said that Willie T’s will fill a local need.
The restaurant is named after CEO Warren Thompson’s grandfather, who owned fishing boats many years ago, according to Whaley. The original Willie T’s seafood shack offered lobster rolls, shrimp rolls, and crab rolls.
“One of our divisions is corporate offices, so we do cafeterias in 60 of the Fortune 500 companies around the country,” Whaley said. “Willie T’s as a lobster shack operates in some of those.”
Reston, Va. -based Thompson Hospitality decided to expand the Willie T’s concept in 2020 by offering items such as fried and grilled catfish, shrimp, oysters, and lobsters. In total, the company owns and operates 20 restaurant brands and operates over 70 locations, including Matchbox, Wiseguy Pizza, and Milk & Honey Café.
“We want to bring Wharf-style seafood,” Whaley said, referring to the Wharf along the Washington, D.C waterfront that had served the city for years, “that style of seafood out to the suburbs.”
After establishing the concept, they moved it to the Austin Grill in Springfield, Virginia (another of the company’s outlets) as a pop-up.
“I personally used to eat at Andy’s in Silver Spring,” he said. When the space became available, the company looked at it for about a year and then negotiated a lease for the location.
The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Photo: Willie T’s Seafood Shack / Instagram (h/t @silverspringeats)