Good Company Doughnuts and Cafe is looking to open its new location at Amazon’s HQ2 in early summer.
Construction is nearly complete on the 3,000-square-foot second location of the Ballston-based donut shop, which is coming to 1400 S. Eads Street, managing partner Charles Kachadoorian told ARLnow. The plan is to open there in late May or early June, he said.
Like Peruvian Brothers, that hoped-for debut aligns with Amazon’s schedule for the first phase of its new Pentagon City office complex, also known as “Metropolitan Park.” Back in July, it was announced Good Company and a number of other local businesses were opening at HQ2 Phase 1.
The eatery first opened on N. Glebe Road in Ballston in 2019 and has since become popular as well as crowded on weekends, with lines and seating sometimes spilling onto the sidewalk.
That history played a big part in how this new location is being approached and designed, Kachadoorian said.
“It’s almost twice the size… compared to our tiny little spot in Ballston,” he said. “We’ll have more seating, indoor and outdoor seating, and we will have a great flow which we are excited about. Folks tend to get cramped up here in Ballston.”
The larger space will allow the cafe to have dinner service as well, a feature of the Ballston location prior to the pandemic. The menus will be pretty much the same at both locations.
“The [food] will be very, very similar. I’m sure there will be small things,” Kachadoorian said. “But, for the most part, the bulk of the menu is the same. The donuts are the same and the same coffee.”
The new Pentagon City location isn’t the only one that Good Company will be opening in the coming months. The company just completed construction on a new commercial baking facility in Tysons that will allow the majority of the baking to shift to that location. The hope is that it will open as soon as next week and alleviate some of the customer congestion often found in Ballston.
“We [currently] make everything in Ballston. We’ve spilled out of the kitchen into the dining room, so it’s time to get some more capacity,” Kachadoorian said.
Beyond baking for the two Good Company locations, the Tysons facility will also pick up the slack with the wholesale items the shop sells to area coffee shops and for catering. One of those places that Good Company provides pastries to is Misha’s in Old Town Alexandria.
Kachadoorian said he expects the company’s wholesale offerings and commitments to increase “dramatically” over the next few months due to the opening of the new Tysons commercial baking facility.
There’s also a plan to open a Good Company location in D.C. in the spring of 2024, but exact plans have not been finalized as of yet.
For the moment, what Kachadoorian is most excited with the new Pentagon City location is getting to know the community.
“It’s a new neighborhood. What’s really fun thing when you open a restaurant is getting to know everybody from the area,” he said. “So, we hope that, just like it has in Ballston, it becomes a really cool spot for people to gather and weave the fabric of the community a little bit.”