The Ins and Outs of National Harbor Restaurants

Crunch time is officially here for National Harbor and Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center ... As you can see from yesterday's posts, Gaylord is making a push with key food and beverage hires as they ready themselves for the job fair in a couple of weeks. With management in place they can fill the 2,000 or so jobs needed to run the hotel complex.

Less clear is what is happening with the retail/restaurant side of project as rumors fly about who is in and who is out. At the beginning many names were leaked, released or rumored as potential tenants. Here is a list of who is out and more importantly who is in.

OUT:
Gallagher's Steak House
Morton's The Steakhouse
Sequoia

IN: (officially announced by National Harbor as a signed deal with approximate opening date)
Sauciety (restaurant inside of Westin), April 2008 ... link shows Boston as a concept example
McCormick & Schmick's, April 2008
Dolce Enoteca, June 2008
Rosa Mexicano, June 2008
Grace's Mandarin, July 2008
Ketchup, February 2009

As the names come on board, I will keep you posted ... but only when they are a signed deal ... there are plenty of other resources for rumors. Now it looks like the Hampton, Westin and Gaylord along with McCormick & Schmick's will own the opening rush ... the second phase looks like in reality a mid-to-late summer affair. The foto above shows the primo location of Grace's Fortune curving between the Gaylord and the Westin ... it looks like National Harbor is giving the local Bowie clan a fighting chance for success.