The narrow little space in Glover Park was once home to the first location of the Austin Grill chain. For its next incarnation, the space will look even further South. Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, the restless Ecuadorian entrepreneur who opens restaurants like some people open windows, is close to signing a deal on the space and developing his next project. He’s just not sure what it’ll be yet.
“There’s a high likelihood that it will be a Ceviche, but I can’t confirm that,” says Jessica Gibson, spokesperson for Latin Concepts, Fraga-Rosenfeld’s company that has developed such restaurants and bars as Chi-Cha Lounge, Gua-Rapo, and Maté.
If the place turns out to be a second Ceviche, that’ll be good news for Glover Park. Under Chef Javier Angeles-Beron‘s direction, the original Ceviche continues to produce some of the best, most original dishes in Silver Spring (and that’s not damning with faint praise), combining influences not only from Angeles-Beron’s native Peru, but also other regions in Latin America.
Fraga-Rosenfeld was in Mexico earlier this week, Gibson says, but once he gets back, he plans to firm up plans for the Glover Park location. If not a Ceviche, the space could be used for some other Latin Concepts concept, whether a new Fraga-Rosenfeld brainchild or something that already exists. Whatever it is, Gibson says it should open by June.
One of Latin Concepts’ other new projects, an Argentine steakhouse named Santo Pecado, apparently will not open at its previously announced location on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington. A new location, as well as an opening date, are still undecided, Gibson says.
The only Latin Concepts project with a clear destiny, it seems, is Yaku, a Peruvian-Chinese restaurant that should open in the new Odyssey building in Arlington by this summer. In the meantime, if you dine at Ceviche in Silver Spring, you can get an early preview of Yaku’s chifa menu. Angeles-Beron, who will be co-owner and chef at Yaku, is serving up plates of this unique blend of Peruvian and Chinese cuisines.