Roaming Rooster opens up new location on U Street

Roaming Rooster has built up a lot of buzz during the past couple of years and are now expanding their business with the grand opening for newest location on U Street.

The Ethiopian-owned restaurant will celebrate its grand opening on Wednesday, September 30th, at 1301 U Street NW. The new restaurant will be replacing TaKorean, a Korean Taco Grill, just below the Ellington Apartments.

Since 2015, Roaming Rooster has been priding themselves on serving free-range, grain-fed chicken cooked to perfection, satisfying their customers’ tastebuds. They started with one food truck to have three more additional food trucks and now two standalone locations. Earlier this month, the restaurant received a lot of feedback in the Washington City Paper’s annual Best Of issue, coming in first place in the reader poll for Best Fried Chicken, Best Sandwich, and Best Food Truck.

Co-founder Michael Habtemariam said Friday that the new shop planned to host some “soft opening” shifts over the weekend to train staff.

Habtemariam describes its second standalone restaurant as a pop-up because it has finished construction on the kitchen but has yet to renovate a seating area for customers. The U Street shop will be offering to-go service for now, with online ordering available for pickups and deliveries available through Uber Eats and Postmates. From Wednesday through Friday on the first week, Roaming Rooster will disperse a $20 gift certificate every hour it’s open (11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily).

“We’re pretty busy with the sandwiches right now, and we just want to keep it nice until everything has settled down,” Habtemariam says.

Habtemariam says the U Street outpost will carry the group’s entire menu on U Street. Including free-range chicken sandwiches in five flavors (plain, Buffalo, honey butter, Nashville hot, and a bacon ranch club) along with wings, tenders, salads, and fries. The restaurant plans to add milkshakes at some point and has experimented with breakfast sandwiches. Neither are part of the menu just yet, so it is only right we patiently wait for the extra goodies.

Roaming Rooster is planning to open a third location at Western Market Food Hall in Foggy Bottom early next year.