Now celebrating a decade in Ballston, an award-winning Spanish restaurant is opening an outdoor patio as its owners consider plans for a new Arlington eatery.
SER co-owners Javier Candon and Christiana Campos commemorated 10 years at 1110 N. Glebe Road over the weekend alongside about 300 supporters. Expressing gratitude for community support and regional recognition, they teased expansion plans.
“We are looking into opening another location in Arlington,” Candon told ARLnow. “We love Arlington.”
He and Campos have been searching for a spot to open another restaurant following the December closure of SER’s D.C. sister outpost, Joselito Casa de Comidas.
“My intention is to continue to build community,” Candon said. “We know the customers that come every single day. Our customers are friends, the parents of the children that go to my children’s school, people from church, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
SER recently wrapped construction on a 100-seat covered patio that is expected to open this month. The outdoor space took two years in the making, and the restaurant plans to keep it open in the spring, summer and fall.
The restaurant opened in 2015 after winning the Ballston BID’s 2014 Restaurant Challenge. The prize came with a year of free rent, a $245,000 interest-free loan and an 11-year lease, which Candon said SER is planning to renew for another decade.
Throughout its first 10 years, the restaurant cemented itself as one of the D.C.-area’s best Spanish eateries, earning praise in Washingtonian’s annual “100 Very Best Restaurants” list and Eater D.C.’s 2025 “38 Best Restaurants Around D.C.” list, which came out yesterday (Tuesday).
SER also received recognition for its monthly Wine Club program last year, receiving an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator. Candon, a native of Spain, sees SER’s libations as a way to teach Arlington diners about his cultural heritage.
“We try to feature all different grapes of Spain, all different regions of Spain,” Candon said. “Giving them the opportunity to learn more and try different grapes that they never heard, or regions that they never heard — they say that it is very educational for them.”
Reflecting on the past decade, Candon stressed the importance of gratitude and resilience in weathering multiple flooding incidents as well as the pandemic.
“We had to close the restaurant three times and rebuild the restaurant,” he recalled. “Like, it was destroyed, absolutely destroyed. But, you know, it’s being resilient.”
Marking this new milestone, SER is grateful to its regular patrons, who helped support the location through these setbacks.
What’s next for SER? In 2025, Candon expects the restaurant to continue its focus on its namesake values: simple, easy and real.
“It’s no secret, but the only secret is to sell good food and treat our customers, basically, like a we’re doing a party in our own house,” Candon said. “They choose us because they feel that they’re having dinner in their own house.”
