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Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 12:49 PM EST
New chicken restaurant
tries a different recipe for attracting customers
Washington
Business Journal - by
Erin Killian Staff Reporter
A couple who met seven months ago have opened a rotisserie
chicken place in the District on U Street. They are billing it
as organic, healthy and environmentally friendly -- a departure
from such national chains as Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Lukas Umana and Victoria Garcia, both Department of Defense
employees who have been dating for about seven months, opened
Chix D.C.
at 2019 11th St. NW where there used to be Inca Chicken.
The restaurant sells three types of rotisserie chicken and wraps
such as the black bean hummus and veggie wrap. The chicken is
"100 percent natural, free-range and antibiotic- and
hormone-free," Umana said.
"We're going to have a grand opening in the spring," he said.
"We want to wait until the weather is nice."
The couple opened the restaurant the week before Thanksgiving,
hoping that the word would get out about their spot near the U
Street/Cardozo Metro station before the official grand opening.
Umana and Garcia used a Small Business Administration loan from
Adams National Bank to refurbish the
1,800-square-foot space on two floors in an old townhouse. They
spent $300,000 to buy the lease and the kitchen equipment, paint
the restaurant and outfit it with wireless Internet service.
There are 25 seats upstairs. People can buy their food from a
counter.
Umana is buying eco-friendly products. He said he gets his
packaging from Eco-Products, based in Boulder, Colo. The
plastic-looking products, made out of corn starch, are
biodegradable.
"We're concerned about the environment," Umana said. "Our slogan
is eat responsibly."
His mother, who is a diabetic, came to visit late last month and
ate at Chix for 10 days, Umana said. That time was the "lowest
her sugar levels have been since she found out she was a
diabetic," he said. "That was 15 years ago."
Umana says 50 percent of the menu is organic, including the
organic basmati brown rice, black beans and a salad of organic
chick peas, green peppers, onions and parsley.
His family has owned a restaurant in Bogota, Colombia, for more
than 40 years, although Umana grew up in Miami. He said he is
using one if his family's recipes -- a garnish of white vinegar,
water, scallions and onions -- for the lentil soup at Chix.
Umana and Garcia also have received advice from her father, a
chef opening a restaurant in Pensacola, Fla., in the next month.
He came to D.C. to train the managers and draft the menu for the
couple.
They need help with the logistics because they both have day
jobs.
"We don't like people to know we work for the Department of
Defense," Umana said. "With the negative connotation the
government has with the war, we try to keep it out of our lives.
People ask us how we can do both jobs. We both love food. We
have grown up around it."
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