Food

Muncheez Expands to Dupont Serving Lebanese Street Food Until 4:30 AM

The fast-casual restaurant takes over the former DGS Delicatessen space.

Muncheez will open in Dupont serving late-night Lebanese eats. Photography by Scott Suchman courtesy of Muncheez

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If your manakeesh craving hits after midnight, you’re in luck: late-night Middle Eastern street food spot Muncheez is opening in the former DGS Delicatessen space in Dupont Circle. The branch will be the biggest yet for owner David Nammour, who was born in DC and grew up in Beirut. (Other locations include Georgetown and Tenleytown.) Look for an opening in the next few weeks. 

Patrons can pick between mezze like kibbeh, spinach pies, and grape leaves.

An all-day menu will start at 11 AM and run until 2:30 AM early in the week, until 3:30 AM on Thursdays, and 4:30 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. Nammour says he hopes to catch the lunch crowd with pita sandwiches and customizable bowls, and the bar/club kids with cheesesteaks and Nutella crepes. (DIY bowls stop late-night for obvious reasons—if you think Jumbo Slice is bad, imagine drunk people navigating 20-plus toppings.) The first floor of the fast-casual will have standing room-only, while a second floor dining area seats 40.

Manakeesh, fresh-baked flatbreads, come with toppings like za’atar.

Nammour, an engineer who moonlit in the hydropower industry when opening the first Muncheez in 2010, grew up in restaurants. His father owned Paolo’s and J. Paul’s in Georgetown (both closed) and still operates Georgia Brown’s downtown as well as hospitality venues in Beirut. Nammour takes cues from his family’s full-service spots—most everything at Muncheez made in-house, from the falafel to the marinated-and-stacked chicken or beef shawarma, mezze like kibbeh and spinach pies, and doughs for Lebanese flatbreads. There’s no alcohol, so quench your thirst with fresh watermelon juice or minted lemonade instead. 

Muncheez. 1317 Connecticut Ave., NW .

Food Editor

Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.