“We’re getting very close,” promised Meg Kavanagh, marketing manager for District Taco, about opening a new store in the Blair Park Shopping Center on East-West Highway.
The Silver Spring outlet will be the 14th location and the first in Montgomery County for the local chain, which started as a food truck in 2009. The only other Maryland store is in Riverdale Park.
“At this point, we have a really good following in kind of the northern Virginia area, the D.C. area, and are just looking to expand more regionally,” Kavanagh said. “That’s why we started opening stores in Philly, and we kind of wanted to close the gap a little to service that side of the DMV, to [serve] some of the customers who are really big fans of us and maybe only get DT during the week at work, if they work downtown [in D.C.].
“Our expansion plan’s pretty aggressive, in a good way,” she continued, “so it always keeps it exciting here in the office.
“[We] wanted to hit a new community, offer new job opportunities and new a new food outlet to the Silver Spring community, and Montgomery County as a whole,” she added. “It’s kind of a good central spot in Montgomery County.”
The new store will seat 99 people and employ 25-30 full and part time people initially, which Kavanagh said is the company’s usual practice with a new opening.
Different locations run different operating hours; the Silver Spring store will begin by operating from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. seven days a week, Kavanagh said. The hours will be adjusted, if needed, based on the market.
The new location will offer the same menu as other locations, featuring breakfast tacos, huevos rancheros, burritos, and a variety of other tacos, including a “build your own” option. Side dishes include corn chips, guacamole, queso, rice and beans (black or pinto beans) and garlic-lime rice. The company also offers catering services.
While the Silver Spring date is not yet set (due to some lingering construction issues), the company typically holds a grand opening celebration with an outdoor tent, offering free food and a swag bag to the first 100 customers.
Generally, they will do a soft opening a few days in advance, Kavanagh said, “whether it’s just opening our doors for a couple of hours and inviting people in, if they kind of happen to be around, or if there are formal invites with our loyal VIP rewards holders or different businesses in the area.”
The new outlet is located in a portion of the space previously occupied by Oriental East, which closed at the end of September 2017.
Photo by David Lay.