Hawkers in Ballston is setting its sights on opening next week.
The Orlando-based Asian street food restaurant chain is looking to open on Thursday, August 4 on the ground floor of the Ballston Exchange office building at 4201 Wilson Blvd. It’s across from Philz and next to El Ray taqueria.
The opening comes two years after it was first announced and more than a year after the restaurant was initially supposed to open in the spring of 2021. Then, its debut got pushed to earlier this summer due to supply chain woes, a common occurrence for restaurants these days.
Now, Hawkers seems finally ready to start serving in the first week of August.
When ARLnow went there this morning (July 25), construction appeared to be basically complete and employees were in the midst of training. There’s a bit of a neon aesthetic — in keeping with the street food theme — with the exterior signage wired up to glow red and the interior hued yellow. Posters plaster the walls and grates cover the ceiling.
The menu highlights street food from across the Asian continent, including dim sum, baos, chicken wings, pad thai, noodle dishes, and fried rice.
The Ballston location will also be offering rotating seasonal flavors of Taiyaki soft serve ice cream, a first for any Hawkers location.
Hawkers was founded in central Florida in 2011 when “four best friends joined forces (like the Avengers, but better) to bring the streets of Asia to the streets of Orlando.” The restaurant now has about a dozen locations in six different states, including a Bethesda outpost which opened in late 2020.
When Hawkers opens in Ballston next week, it will be the first Virginia location as well as the first to have a take-out window. The Ballston location is a “bit smaller” than the one in Bethesda, a restaurant spokesperson tells us.
There are a number of jobs listed as still being open, including server, prep cook, host, and bartender.