College Park’s Northwest Chinese Says It Will Have to Leave Longtime Location
Northwest Chinese Food says it will have to leave its longtime College Park location soon.
Located at 7313 Baltimore Ave., the owners of the beloved local restaurant said they are being “pushed out two years before the end of our lease, without proper notice, and without fairness.”
“We are fighting not just for a restaurant, but for everything this place represents: small business, immigrant dreams, local jobs, community history, and a decade of memories,” they wrote on Instagram.
Along with other restaurants on the same block, Northwest Chinese must vacate the site as it is being demolished to make way for a new apartment complex called Terrapin House. The move comes as the restaurant celebrates its 10th anniversary.
The six-story building will have 93 apartments, totaling 298 bedrooms, and 4,800 square feet of commercial space facing Baltimore Avenue.
The redevelopment will also affect Jerk at Nite and Ritchie’s Colombian Restaurant, while Kung Fu Tea and a cheesesteak shop have already closed.
But Northwest Chinese is not just any local restaurant.
Specializing in dishes from the Shanxi province which can be hard to find even in a bigger city, it is regularly named as a top D.C. area Chinese restaurant by The Washington Post and has landed on the Washingtonian’s top “casual eats” and “100 very best restaurants” lists year after year. It was even flagged by Bon Appétit as one of eight places in the D.C. area for foodies to hit.
The news comes as other locally owned restaurants have faced trouble as College Park rapidly redevelops, even as new chain restaurants come in regularly. That’s left some residents worried the city is losing its character.
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I hope they find a new location. NW Chinese Food is one of our go to places. Those folks can cook!
I’m sad to read this because I love Northwest Chinese Food. I’m also tired of developers squeezing out our area’s beloved businesses. Some have recovered. Many have not and it’s been a loss for the community. We’re not gaining much with the increase of in big chain restaurants.
I wish Northwest Chinese Food would relocate in Hyattsville.
I don’t have an Instagram account & it wouldn’t let me read the whole thing – any indication as to how long they have left in the current space? I’ll certainly miss them. (& FWIW that building wasn’t even built, yet, when I moved here; guess I’m no longer the newcomer.)
Li Chun Café on the first floor of College Park City Hall the same owner?
Is it true they got a notice last year about the development and them needing to move out?
Move to Hyattsville Arts District! You’ll be welcomed with open arms and be part of a great community that will love you
Pho Thom got ahead of this same issue and have already reopened nearby. It’s hard not to compare the two places since they were neighbors and makes me wonder if there is more to this story.