About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, hometown friends Adam Campbell and William Brancati used to affectionately refer to each other as “dragons”—an inside joke, Campbell admits. Now, this inside joke is the central tenet of their new sandwich shop, Dragon Hero, open across the street from the 9:30 Club.
Developed by Campbell, who got his culinary start making sandwiches at a deli in Roanoke, Virginia, the menu at Dragon Hero is concise and on-theme. It features five hero sandwiches, each named after a “heroic” dragon-slayer, as well as a selection of classic and veggie subs, soups, salads, and sides. Popular menu items include the turkey-and-roast-beef King Arthur and pork-and-lamb-meatball Mario heroes.
Campbell has cooked in kitchens across Virginia— at Roanoke’s Brambleton Deli and BBQ,the Berkeley Hotel and Balliceaux, and, most recently, he served as the executive chef of Richmond’s Rappahannock Oyster Company.
But aside from two earlier pop-up barbecue concepts, Dragon Hero is the first eatery of Campbell’s own—and he says it comes with its own set of unique challenges.
“With the pop-up, while pretty physically demanding, there was less to worry about—a little bit of simpler times,” he says. “This brick-and-mortar is obviously taking a lot of my attention.”
But Campbell says he’s been up for the challenge— and that his latest idea has been well-received by DC diners.
“As soon as I explain the ‘hero’ concept, everybody has a little chuckle,” he says. “Everybody likes the idea. And, more importantly, everybody seems to be liking the sandwiches.”
2016 9th St., NW.
