About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Joia Burger is bringing its smash burgers with Filipino flare to two new locations this fall. A takeout-only outpost with late-night hours is opening on 14th Street, taking over Cafe Saint-Ex’s next door kitchen, by the end of the year. A burger kiosk will also join Capital One Arena (section 105) next month.
Purple Patch owner Patrice Cleary opened the first location of Joia Burger in Mount Pleasant in the spring of 2024 and expanded to Glover Park last year. The new menus will pretty much be the same. The burger shop is known for its unique way of doing toppings: Lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles are diced up and mixed in special sauce, so you get a bit of everything in each bite. Customers can choose one to three wagyu patties ($9 to $24) or a housemade veggie burger consisting of beans, wild rice, oats, carrots, and onions. Burgers can also come topped with a Filipino-style papaya salad.
The small menu is rounded out by fries and ube soft-serve, but the ice cream will not be available at Capital One Area because the venue already has a vendor contract for ice cream. Meanwhile, the main differentiator for the 14th Street location will be its nightlife-friendly hours; Cleary plans to keep it open until 3 AM on weekends and 2 AM on weekdays.
Cleary says she’s had opportunities to expand both Joia Burger and Purple Patch, but only one of them makes sense in DC’s current economic climate.
“I feel like expanding Joia is smart. It’s a simple concept. The menu is simple. Inventory is very low,” Cleary says. But her full-service Filipino restaurant? “Absolutely not. It’s way too risky.” Purple Patch closed its streatery amid new regulations with increased restrictions costs, which forced the business to drastically cut staff hours.
Cleary has her eyes on further growth for Joia: “Going into the next couple of years, I just want to continue to expand within the District to then potentially franchise.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
