The Owner of Wagshal’s Popular Deli and Market Plans to Expand to Sit-Down Restaurant

Wagshal’s, the family-owned deli and market that has served Spring Valley since 1925,
is in the process of creating a new 4,000-square-foot sit-down restaurant in the space
on New Mexico Avenue that used to be Balducci’s, and before that Sutton Place Gourmet.
The new restaurant, which owner
Bill Fuchs hopes to open in February or March of next year, will be called Wagshal’s on New
Mexico.

“We’re real excited about it,” said Fuchs, talking on the phone from the new location.
“It has a lot of components and will be something very different from what we’ve done
before.” What they’ve done before is operate two popular businesses in the Spring
Valley Shopping Center: the deli, its walls covered with the photos of Washington’s
famous, which is a sandwich shop, liquor and wine store, and bakery; and the market,
which has a butcher, a fishmonger, fresh produce, flowers, and more desserts. Of the
new place, Fuchs said, “If the delicatessen and the market had a child, this is what
it would be.”

Travels to Spain and the
mercado inspired him to go for Spanish decor, but “the menu will be pretty much Wagshal’s
driven,” which means fresh cuts of meat, lobsters, plus a griddle and a fryer. “We’ll
roast our chickens here and bake our own breads,” he says. Beer and wine will be available
to be consumed both on and off the premises. Food can also be carried out. It will
be open seven days of the week, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

We asked if he felt comfortable taking on a third business. “We’re only four or five
blocks away from Spring Valley. This proximity made a big difference to us. Plus there’s
more than 30,000 people living in a one mile radius of where we are.” Did he feel
competitive toward next door neighbors, Roberto Donna’s Al Denta and Geoff Tracey’s
Chef Geoff’s? “Oh, no. We’re going to complement everybody who’s here.”

Carol Ross Joynt