All Vegan HipCity Veg Opens in Penn Quarter

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If there was a flagship HipCity sandwich, it would be the Crispy Chick'n Ranch
Phila-based HipCity Veg opens in Penn Quarter/Chinatown today. The all-vegan, fast casual restaurant is located at 712 7th St NW between G and H Streets. HipCity comes just months after the demise of another all-vegan, fast casual style restaurant, Native Foods Cafe. They are alike on the surface, but not really. Native Foods may be becoming a cautionary tale of expanding too fast, and too vast. HipCity has just three stores, with two in Philadelphia and, now, one in DC. Their approach appears to be a bit more focused and measured.
712 7th Street NW was most recently a FroZenYo shop.
The menu is simple and that's a plus. The dishes are distinctive enough to provide variety, but the limited nature --just nine "main" dishes, mostly sandwiches-- means the focus can be on execution, consistency, and moving customers through the line during the busy Penn Quarter lunch block. That's so key. It's great to have a top notch menu, but most workers in PQ are looking to grab lunch and move along while minimizing time in line or waiting for an order. Online menu here (FYI - some sides and desserts differ from the DC menu).

HipCity Veg opens today at 11:00 AM. PRO TIP: They'll be offering free food from noon - 2:00 PM today. Regular hours are 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM. Good luck HipCity, you're off to a great start!
The DC menu is about 95% identical to the Phila stores. It's missing a couple of sides and salads.
You can see they're big on the adjective "CRISPY."

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