Work has already begun at 1819 14th St. NW to make way for a taquería. (Photo: Jay Westcott)

CORRECTION: As noted in comments, I am a world-class dunce for misreading the ANC 1B meeting agenda referenced below, which was merely referring to the last name of Commissioner Peter Raia, who chairs the neighborhood commission's ABC licensing committee, as mentioned later in this story. The name has nothing to do whatsoever with the possible name of this restaurant.

A prime piece of real estate adjacent to the Black Cat is set to be converted into the District’s largest taquería.

Interior renovations, including a dig-out of a new basement level, are already underway at 1819 14th St. NW. Smack dab in the middle of the myriad furniture stores and bars that have transformed the 14th Street corridor over the last decade, it’s a location that’s stood empty for a head-scratchingly long time. That particularly uninviting exterior of peeling yellow, red and green paint, blacked-out windows and wheat-pasted posters looks soon to be a thing of the past.

Chefs Richard Sandoval (Zengo) and Kazuhiro Okochi (KAZ Sushi Bistro), the same duo behind nearby Masa 14, are the creative brains behind the project, as Metrocurean reported on Sunday (ADDITION: U Street Girl also correctly guessed at the connection a few weeks back).

Masa director of operations Latif Guler will also manage the new restaurant. It’s going to be a "straight-up taqueria," according to Guler, with prices running somewhere between $3 and $4 per taco. Reached by phone, Chef Kaz couldn’t offer many more details on the cuisine, apart from that it would be "mostly Mexican." The restaurant doesn’t even have an official name at this point — a recent ANC 1B meeting agenda referred to the project as "Raia," but Okochi says he’s never heard that name before. "Nothing is official" as far as the name goes, he says, and menu planning is still in the initial stages.

More details are available on the ambitious build-out, which Okochi acknowledges is already behind schedule (they had originally been hoping to open in November, but now it’s looking more like March at the earliest). Conceptual documents currently before the Historic Preservation Review Board call for a three-story affair, complete with a bar/lounge/restaurant combo in the basement, a bar and grill paired with a special late-night carry out area on the main floor, and a 99-seat rooftop patio and deck on the third level. The roof deck plans somewhat resemble the layout at Marvin, only in reverse.

Taquería Plans

More taquería plans

Community opposition to the transformation so far appears to be nil. ANC 1B voted unanimously on Thursday to support an alcoholic beverage license application for the taquería, with the understanding that the owners would enter into a voluntary agreement similar to the one under which Masa 14 already operates. And thanks to the inclusion of an exterior “party wall” designed to block roof-level noise from spilling out on to the street, no Masa-style battle over the deck looks to be looming. Commissioner Peter Raia, who chairs ANC 1B's ABC licensing committee and has been at the center of a number of contentious restaurant and bar battles over the last year, went so far as to give the taquería his blessing on Thursday. “I’d like to support the application,” he said.

Both the ABC Board and the Historic Preservation Review Board will consider applications for the restaurant in September.

As evidenced by the faded letters still attached to the facade, the building most recently housed Georgetown Refinishing and Antique Restoration, which first opened back in 1981. City records show that before that, a certificate of occupancy was issued in 1978 to one Sylvester Watson, proprietor of a "Variety store" that sold pre-packaged foods, and before that, an automotive parts distributor, RPS Products, Inc., called the space home in the late-1960s and ‘70s.