New Buenos Grill Mexican Restaurant to Open in Annandale

A new family-oriented restaurant will open its doors in Annandale soon.

Buenos Grill, a Mexican grill and fast-casual restaurant, is slated to open this summer.

According to owner Charles Lee and manager Simon Yi, Buenos Grill will serve burritos, tacos, salads, nachos, chicken wings and ceviche. Lee and Yi presented an overview of the restaurant to the Annandale Central Business District Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday.

The restaurant, located at 7023 Columbia Pike across from the Annandale Shopping Center and the Columbia Pike Animal Hospital, will be mostly dine-in, but will accept phone, online, and fax orders for pick-up.

Yi said the goal is to open by July 1, but they are still waiting on permits to be approved. Tentative hours of operation are likely to be Monday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Based on the layout, the restaurant may seat 60 patrons in the main dining area and a maximum of 36 patrons on a brick-paved patio area that will feature saguro cactus inlay [see PDFs above at right for scans of the layout].

The property will have some landscaping, including flowers and small small trees. The sidewalk landscape will have Japanese maple with additional plants and flowers to be planted before the opening.

Members of the planning committee expressed concerns on Tuesday about the restaurant lacking enough parking to accommodate the employees and patrons. The restaurant expects to create 27 parking spaces. Yi said gravel was laid in the back lot behind the restaurant to accommodate overflow parking. An anticipated 15-20 parking spaces will be added if necessary and if Lee and Yi can successfully acquire a zoning change to create the spaces.

Although they plan to include beer and wine on their menu in the future, Yi said that Bueno Grill will not have alcohol when they initially open. Yi said they want to see how the business fares without alcohol as a draw. A few committee members suggested Lee and Yi re-considering their plan since they may not see the return customers they expect without the alcohol.

Depite the proximity of the nearest residential properties, Yi said they anticipate that the noise disturbance to the residents who live just behind the restaurant will be minimal.

This is the first restaurant for Lee, who also owns Annandale Catering on Tom Davis Drive. The property is on the former the site of a Shell gas station.