The Barracks Row Storefront Still Saying "Coming This Fall," and Where to Eat Indian on the Hill in the Meantime

The sign at 713 Eighth Street SE says "A World of Flavors, One Plate at a Time!" and, under that, "Coming This Fall." A reader sent PoPville a photo of it in June, and PoPville ran the picture with a note to stay tuned for an opening date. Anyone who walks the 700 block has gone past those windows plenty of times since then. Fall is about a month old, and this is the second fall in which an opening has been expected there.

Barracks Row's South Asian dining didn't start with Taki Taki, and it isn't waiting on it either. Two blocks north, Bombay Street Food and Jab We Met have been cooking for years. Each moved into a room another restaurant had left. Taki Taki will be the latest arrival on a stretch that filled in without it.

Two falls, one storefront

The building at 713 Eighth has turned over before. PoPville's caption lists Finn McCool's and Molly Malone's as earlier tenants, then Crazy Aunt Helen's, which PoPville reported had closed abruptly in November 2023. Here is how the expected opening date has moved since:

1. March 19, 2025. Taki Taki's alcohol license goes into safekeeping, according to a DC Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration board agenda from September 2025. The same agenda records the first extension of that status.
2. September 5, 2025. Eater DC's fall preview lists Taki Taki and its upstairs sibling, Rumba Rumba, with "Mid-fall" as the opening.
3. June 8, 2026. The signage goes up, still reading "Coming This Fall."
4. August 9, 2026. Hill Rag's Capitol Cuisine column says Taki Taki is "set to open later this year."
5. Fall 2026. The Capitol Hill BID directory lists it as "COMING FALL 2026," and The List's fall preview gives its opening as "Fall."

So by the end of this month, the license will have been in safekeeping for about 19 months, and the space will have gone close to three years without a restaurant. Fall 2026 runs until late December, so this season's window hasn't closed yet.

What the city's October roster shows

The ABCA's alcohol licensee roster for October 2026, current as of October 1, lists Taki Taki at 713 8th Street SE under Karrisma, Inc. It carries a tavern license in ANC 6B, single-member district 6B03, with an expiration date of September 30, 2028. Its status reads "Safekeeping."

On the same roster, the three South Asian restaurants nearby, Jab We Met at 515 Eighth, Bombay Street Food at 524 Eighth and Aatish On the Hill at 609 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, all read "Active." The license runs for two more years, but the restaurant isn't serving yet, while its future neighbors all are.

The stretch filled in around it

Put the three operating kitchens side by side and you can see how this cluster formed. None of them needed a new building or a big launch. Each one moved into a dining room someone else had left, and stayed.

Aatish sits off Eighth, along Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Bombay Street Food was the first to stake a claim on Barracks Row itself. Washingtonian reported in June 2019 that restaurateur Asad Sheikh was opening a Barracks Row branch in the former Garrison space on Friday, June 21. The dishes it singled out back then were vada pav, Indo-Chinese fried cauliflower, a monsoon wedding curry and a Bombay thali for two. That was more than seven years ago, so check the current menu on Bombay Street Food's own site, which lists the 524 Eighth location, its hours and online ordering.

Jab We Met came across the street almost five years later. On April 1, 2024, Capitol Hill Corner reported that Parminder Singh Manan, who also owned Naanwise and Oh! Nan, hoped to open at 515 Eighth later that month. The space had been El Bodegon, which closed that January. By October 2025 the restaurant had earned a spot on Eater DC's map of the city's best Indian restaurants. Eater names Kumar Manan as chef and points readers to the chicken tikka masala, cucumber raita, palak chat and chicken coconut curry. It also notes vegan and gluten-free options, which is useful when a mixed group is choosing where to eat. Jab We Met's website takes reservations and online orders.

The Hill Rag column that gave Taki Taki its "later this year" date also described it as the newest of the group. It said Taki Taki "will join nearby Bombay Street Food (524 Eighth St. SE) and Jab We Met (515 Eighth)." So whenever 713 opens, it will be adding to a South Asian stretch that already exists.

What opening day would add to the block

Taki Taki is planned as two concepts. The fourth kitchen would bring a second-floor bar and a menu that reaches past Indian food. According to The List, restaurateur Rajiv Chopra plans a modern South Asian restaurant on the first floor and Rumba Rumba, "a global tapas and cocktail lounge," upstairs. Eater's 2025 preview named the chef as Santanu Brahmachary, whose résumé includes Shangri-La New Delhi and Michelin-mentored kitchens in the Middle East. It described a first floor designed to recall Asian street markets. Chopra told Eater he wanted a place where diners could "experience the world through food, from the soulful streets of Bangkok to the festive coastlines of the Mediterranean."

The preview menu Hill Rag published in August leans toward ambitious, shareable plates:

• Jackfruit dumplings with smoked tomato relish
• Grilled scallops with yellow curry
• Katsu chicken sliders and a butter chicken tart
• Crab fritters with ghost chili sauce
• Ghee roast lamb chops, and beef kebabs with bone marrow curry
• Tiramisu with baked coffee cottage cheese

That menu is aiming somewhere different from its neighbors. Bombay Street Food built its Barracks Row reputation on street snacks and a thali for two, and Jab We Met on curries and chaat. Taki Taki's preview reads like a night out, with a cocktail lounge upstairs for afterward. If the plan holds, Eighth Street would end up with three different South Asian options within a short walk, from a vada pav at 524 to small plates and drinks at 713.

The 700 block is already busier than one dark storefront suggests. A few doors away at 705 Eighth, Llamas' Corner opened this summer. Hill Rag describes it as a coffee and pastry shop that roasts its own organic beans and pours drinks like mango guava cheesecake matcha and sorrel and ginger lemonade, with indoor and outdoor seating. When 713 opens, it will have foot traffic right next door from the start.

For now, the most reliable updates will come from Taki Taki's website, which still says "Coming This Fall," and from the city's monthly license roster. The day the roster lists 713 Eighth as "Active," like its three neighbors, is the clearest sign this year's fall target has been met. Until then, there are curries at 515 and a thali at 524.

I've walked Eighth Street long enough to remember a lot of the restaurants that came before the current ones, and to watch the 700 block change hands more than once. If you're curious what's planned for a storefront you pass every day, or how a commercial block like this one affects the homes around it, I'm always happy to talk it through. Reach out to Donald Denton. Let's Connect.