Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.

At the moment, the building at 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE is unremarkable: Bare brick on the outside, gutted inside. But by as early as 2016, it will be the home of Busboys and Poets’ first east of the Anacostia River location and a culinary training academy that parties involved in the project promise will produce real jobs.

In a building owned and operated by Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative — a non-profit that serves families in Ward 8 — Busboys will open a full service restaurant and Hospitality and Culinary Leadership Institute. The building will also include office space for FSFSC.

Perspective Southwest.

Perry Moon, executive director of FSFSC, said the organization held a “listening series” to understand what the community wanted from the building. Their desires, Moon said, were exactly the same as the board’s: An opportunity to go to restaurants and have some choices and options.

“This training restaurant will lead to actual employment,” Moon said.

“We are so proud to be part of this project,” Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal said. “I have had my eyes on this street and this neighborhood for a very long time. … This connects all the dots that we’ve been working on for so long.”

Like Moon, Shallal promised the restaurant and academy would be a “true job creation opportunity.” He also promised that Busboys would benefit the community as a whole, including the restaurants that are already in Anacostia and Ward 8.

“There are lots of possibilities here [in this building] that go far beyond the surface, just like this community,” he said. “Our intention is not to push people out, but to bring people in and bring out the community.

“I did not want to come in here on my own. I wanted to come in with the collaboration.”

With a 20-year lease, Shallal called the Anacostia Busboys a “long-term engagement.” Like the other locations, Shallal said it will serve as a community hub with poetry reading, jazz performances and gatherings. One room will be named for Frederick Douglass, whose one-time home in Anacostia is a historic site.

Moon asked those gathered to be patient with the project, as it won’t be built “next week or next month.”

“We’re asking you all the stay with us in the long haul,” he said, adding that “everything may be realized” by 2016.

Shallal thanked the members of his team for assisting the new location and the community for its love and support.

“I’m going to give it right back to you all.”

Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.