Union Kitchen Eckington — Restaurant in Washington

Update: March 2022

After several visits to Union Kitchen since my first review below in November, we have had MULTIPLE awful experiences.

One of which being the manager of the store, Ashley, being extremely rude. Not only to paying customers, but to employees she is working with and in front of customers. I watched interrupt an employee that was ringing me up, and sarcastically patronize him for asking me my name for my order. It made me so uncomfortable, I wish I could have unseen it a million times. I once asked her if I could have some ketchup, and she looked at me and said "uhm yeah that's what it's there for......" My jaw actually dropped behind my mask.

Second, but most importantly, their employees are on strike because the owners do not support the employees creating a union for standardization of work processes. They took away tips from their wages, without adjusting it in their paychecks.... Employees are retaliated against for complaining about racist remarks, being treated unfairly, and uncomfortably (makes perfect sense from the situation I referenced above).

I want to support small local businesses, especially the ones on my block. But I won't be going back here until there are changes made. Very disappointing overall.

11/2021 Delicious chai, lots of snack options, a solid variety of IPA and craft beers too.

Plenty of seating and good vibes all around. So excited to have this spot in our...

Starting out as a food incubator for local makers out of Ivy City, Union Kitchen now runs six small grocery stores across the area. The Eckington location is the newest one, which opened on October 19, 2021. Here's what you should know:

1. Products: Many of the its products are from local makers from D.C., Virginia, Maryland and a few other nearby states. However, you can still find goods from big brands as displayed in their candy bar selection (Snickers, Mars, etc.). They have a long row of wines, a fridge full of beer, cider, etc. and lots of ice cream in the back. For most munchies, it has it all!

2. Cafe: There's a cafe inside that brews Compass Coffee (a local brand) and breakfast, lunch and dinner. Their sausage and egg sandwich is very flavorful and filling.

3. Space: It's laid out well and has an industrial feel to it. There's a mural inside from a local artist.

4. Parking: In the mornings, there's usually paid parking spots open out front or just down the road. I've never had a problem...

My partner and I really want to like this place, but we keep having issues. First of all, everything is pretty expensive for what you get: this goes for the grocery side of things (where everything is marked up a couple of dollars compared to larger stores) to the restaurant side, where you get a pretty small sandwich for your $15. On top of that, the service continues to be subpar. I've waited 10 minutes for a sandwich with no one else in the store while the staff had a conversation about sports instead of working on my order. Most recently, we ordered two salads an hour ahead of time and when we got there they hadn't looked at the online orders so the salads weren't made. On top of that, when we got home both salads were missing the goat cheese that's supposed to come in them, we paid $28 for some chicken and greens. Consistently disappointing...