This sounds like an awesome addition to Park Road: a new fast casual Ethiopian restaurant will be opening in the old Señor Chicken space on the Park Road side of DCUSA. Fast casual means something like Cava or &pizza: you line up and pick the veggies, bread, protein, sauces and so on.
Borderstan reports that it will be called Letena, which roughly means “for our health,” and they’re aiming for a spring opening. It’s right between Mattress Discounters and the parking garage entrance.
Letena is run by husband and wife team Bona Tilahun and Yamrot Ezineh, who will be using their family’s recipes.
Señor Chicken was pretty tasty but sporadically open, then was replaced by People’s Bao and Noodle Bar, a pretty delicious ramen and Chinese dumplings restaurant, but that also moved on.
The space has sat empty for at least a year, if not more, since then.
This also marks a return to the neighborhood for Ethiopian food, as Dynasty on 14th closed, as did the delicious Tegeste. Kokeb on Georgia is still around and pretty tasty, however.
