Popular Northeast D.C. restaurant Indigo will expand to the Union Market area after acquiring an industrial property there, formerly occupied by a wholesale meat business, for $1.415 million.
An affiliate of the Indian restaurant, Sant LLC, bought the 2,400-square-foot 509 Morse St. NE earlier this month. The owners of the business that formerly occupied there, D&H Co. Inc., decided to retire and retained Ian Ruel, Josh Feldman, Adam Costanzo, and Roman Degliantoni of Feldman Ruel to market the building, which sold for just over its listed price.
Indigo, located at 243 K St. NE, two blocks north of the H Street corridor near Union Station, is owned by Nidhi and Dinesh Tandon. Speaking of Union Market, the couple said in a statement “it has long been our aspiration to introduce our culinary offerings to this dynamic and thriving food district.”
The existing Indigo is expected to remain in operation, at least for now, making this an expansion, not a relocation. The restaurant got a glowing review from The Washington Post in 2014, which noted the “homestyle Punjabi cooking transports diners to northern India.”
"All around me are handwritten scribblings on the wall, on the door jamb and even on the cooler stocked with beer and soda," the reviewer wrote. "Then there are the aromas, an invisible cloud of cardamom and ginger that hangs in the air, teasing you about things to come."
The Morse Street property is expected to undergo "extensive renovations" before debuting as Indigo.
"We look forward to seeing how the new space will reflect the unique and authentic flavors for which Indigo has become known," Ruel said in a statement.
The sale of 509 Morse came just days after D.C.-based Olivia Macaron acquired 405 Morse St. NE with plans to open a shop for its confections on the first floor of the building and a cocktail bar on the second floor. That $1.55 million sale — its prior owner was also a wholesale meat business — was brokered by Feldman Ruel as well.