New Restaurant: Mi Cocina Set to Open May 10

Come Friday, the vacant space next to Christian Dior on Wisconsin Avenue in Friendship Heights no longer will be vacant.

Mi Cocina will open at 11 a.m. Friday at The Collection at Chevy Chase (5471 Wisconsin Ave.). Its ribbon-cutting ceremony (at 10:30 that morning) will be attended by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-District 18) and Sen. Brian Frosh (D- District 16).

The restaurant is the latest location for a popular Tex-Mex chain that originated in Dallas, TX, more than 20 years ago. Management saw the Chevy Chase area as a good place for growth, a restaurant spokesperson told Patch.

Mi Cocina's menu focuses on traditional Tex-Mex dishes made with fresh ingredients. On the menu: classics like tacos "de brisket" and fajitas, as well as salads and caloric information for every dish. Many of the dishes are named after long-time employees. Beverages include wines, beers, margaritas and house-made sangria.

Mi Cocina will hire about 100 employees, and hiring still is in progress, a restaurant spokesperson told Patch.

The new location in Friendship Heights will seat 155 in an open dining room with custom chandeliers and "a showpiece mural from Mexican-born artist Luis Sottil. ... Sottil’s bright and vibrant works are crafted with natural pigments, depicting creatures and plants found locally alongside wildlife found in abundance in his native Tampico, an exuberant port in the Gulf of Mexico," according to a restaurant news statement.

The old stairwell in the corner of the space has been made over into a private dining room seating 25 diners, and features four hand-painted urns by Sottil. The urns are unique to the Chevy Chase location of Mi Cocina—they were fired at a pottery shop in Mexico, and took several months each for Sottil to paint, a restaurant spokesperson said.

Outdoor dining—seating about 60—will be available on the adjacent patio.

"We consider Mi Cocina [to be] a big, extended family, from our staff to our customers, and are happy to grow that family to a new community in Chevy Chase," co-owner Ray Washburne said.  

"Our team is excited to meet new regulars and provide a neighborhood spot for Texas transplants and fans that have anxiously awaited our arrival," he added.

Mi Cocina takes the place of the former M Cafe, M Cafe's sister restaurant Famoso and Piazza Sempione, the luxury women’s apparel store that shared the space with the restaurants. All three businesses shuttered unexpectedly on April 19, 2011, Patch reported. The space has been vacant in The Collection at Chevy Chase—sometimes referred to as 'The Rodeo Drive of the East Coast'—for nearly two years.

Mi Cocina will be open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Prices range from $9.95 to $19.95 per entree. The restaurant currently is not taking reservations, a restaurant spokesperson said.