WASHINGTON DC (WUSA) -- Mike Isabella, owner of the restaurant Graffiato and former Top Chef contestant, is opening a new restaurant called Bandolero this spring.
For him, the timing was perfect when D.C.-based daily deals provider LivingSocial offered him a temporary space to create a new pop-up restaurant in a building it was opening.
Isabella had the opportunity to train his new hires and try out recipes. He says he previewed 16 to 18 dishes and "probably 15 of them might make it to the menu."
In just hours, LivingSocial sold out of the pop-up restaurant deal, one of the inaugural offers for its new 28,000 square-foot, flexible events space, 918 F Street NW. The company that's known for selling deals is now hosting events too in the six-story, historic building.
Maire Griffin, Communications Director at LivingSocial, says the flex spaces are attracting "everything from a yoga instructor, who can teach a great class. We can teach painting classes." 918 F Street also boasts an intimate concert space that just hosted an acoustic event with O.A.R. vocalist Marc Roberge and guitarist Richard On. More pop-up restaurant events are on the calendar. There's also a 36-person space for cooking classes with local chefs.
918 F Street could be just the first of more live event spaces to come for LivingSocial. Griffin says "We're testing here and then our hope is that you'll see similar spaces from LivingSocial throughout the country."
Written by Jessica Doyle
9 News Now & wusa9.com