“Shrimp Boat Plaza?” is what an apparently confused friend texted me on June 8.

She’d arrived at Benning Road Metro station late that evening and noticed someone was in the process of renovating the Northeast landmark once popular for serving steamed crabs, fresh fish, shrimp, and more.

Before walking home, she stopped to send me, a Ward 7 native who’s written several stories about the lack of quality food options east of the Anacostia River, a photo of the building’s interior that she captured after peering through a hole in the two-story boat-shaped building.

She told me there was signage for made-to-order donuts and a Metro PCS. “It looks like it might be a legit business,” she said.

On July 29, ANC Commissioner Janis Hazel tweeted that she was “pleased to announce the @ShrimpBoatPlaza will have a ‘soft opening’ this week.” She encouraged folks to “stop by to enjoy the great new menu.”

Woundim Demissie, a 37-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, purchased the building for about $1 million, according to The Washington Post, which reported on the landmark’s rebirth. Though it thrived after opening in the 1950s, the building eventually deteriorated while operating as a video store and carryout.

Now, patrons can stop by for everything from coffee, smoothies, and bagels to Asian noodles and chicken and waffles as part of the extensive breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus.

“I never thought I’d have anything with curry in my neighborhood,” Edith Hancock, a longtime neighborhood resident told The Post. “The other day I had baked chicken,” Hancock said. “In other neighborhoods, this is no big deal. To get baked chicken and greens in my neighborhood is a big deal. We are a community that used to have this kind of thing. We just haven’t had it in the last 15-20 years.”

While he offers much more than seafood, Demissie told The Post that he decided to retain the building’s original “Shrimp Boat” moniker after realizing that it was also a geographical landmark at Benning Road and East Capitol Street NE, but he added “Plaza” to signal “a new era” with a variety of services and amenities. Currently, he’s working on installing indoor and outdoor seating and raising funds to open an adjacent organic market.

While there were talks about transforming the building into a Checkers, neighborhood residents told Demissie that they did not need any more fast food restaurants in an area that has very few sit-down restaurants and quality grocery stores.

Demissie says on the Shrimp Boat Plaza website that he and residents agreed that location should have quality, simple, and real food.

While many residents are enjoying the rejuvenation, some folks insist that it could further gentrification at a time when home buyers are eyeing neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River because of their affordability.

But it appears that Demissie is attempting to instead cater to the needs of longtime residents who are already there.

“We will never have a lottery machine, Keno Screens, or a big obnoxious TV blaring at you,” he says on the site. “We will have community bulletin boards, we will hire from the neighborhood, we will be active in the neighborhood community. We want to support local activities, we want to make the corner of East Cap and Benning a place where community happens again.”

Previously:
Report: Wards 7 And 8 Have Three Grocery Stores For 149,750 People
Report: More Than 11 Percent Of D.C. Is A Food Desert
Amazon Adds Restaurant Delivery Service To D.C., But Not To Some Areas That Need It Most
Some Meal Delivery Companies Stop Short Of D.C. Residents Who Need Them Most
Data Desert: New Stats Could Help Address D.C.’s Food Access Challenges
New Sala Thai Location Is The Third Sit-Down Restaurant In Ward 7