A new Wingstop is set to open at 1839 7th St NW in Shaw on October 14, moving into a storefront inside The Shay that has cycled through a strikingly varied lineup of tenants over the past decade. The buffalo-style chicken wing chain, which traces its roots to Garland, Texas, will become just the second Wingstop location within Washington, D.C. proper.
The news was first reported by PoPville, which noted the opening date and location inside The Shay development. Before Wingstop, the address most recently housed Stop Smack'n, a Black-owned Southern comfort food restaurant founded by D.C. natives DeAndre Green, Stanley Childs, and Chef Larry Cooper. That restaurant launched a crowdfunding campaign in February 2024 after struggling with dropping sales and rising operating debts, according to WUSA9. Stop Smack'n began as a home-based operation during the pandemic before opening its permanent Shaw location in July 2021.
A Storefront With a Storied Past
Before Stop Smack'n, the same address was home to mixologist Derek Brown's notable oyster bar Eat the Rich, which opened in October 2013, along with high-profile pop-up concepts like Miracle on 7th Street, per historical reporting cited alongside the property's record. Eat the Rich opened as part of a cluster of cocktail-focused venues that helped fuel Shaw's initial nightlife surge along the corridor.
The Shay itself is a mixed-use development built by JBG, featuring 242 residential apartment units and roughly 29,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space spread across the 700 and 800 blocks of Florida Avenue NW and 7th Street NW. Residential tenants first moved into the building in late 2015 as part of the broader redevelopment around the Shaw-Howard University Metro station.
Wingstop's Rapid National Expansion
The Shaw location will mark Wingstop's second restaurant inside Washington, D.C. proper, joining an existing location at 300 Riggs Road NE in the Fort Totten/Riggs Park neighborhood, according to delivery listings on DoorDash. Wingstop has otherwise built out its presence largely in the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs, a pattern common among national fast-casual chains that often expand into suburban strip centers before establishing central city storefronts.
Founded in 1994 and offering franchises since 1997, Wingstop has grown into what PoPville describes as one of the fastest-growing brands in the restaurant industry. As of June 27, 2026, the company reported a global network of 3,255 system-wide restaurants, including 2,728 in the United States, after adding 102 net new store openings in the second quarter alone, per Wingstop's own investor materials. Roughly 98% of those locations are operated by franchisees, and the company has stated a long-term goal of eventually reaching 10,000 locations worldwide.
Digital Orders Driving the Business Model
Digital ordering made up 71.6% of Wingstop's total system-wide sales in the second quarter of 2026, reflecting how heavily the chain now leans on app orders, carryout, and third-party delivery. That reliance helps explain why a compact urban storefront like the one at The Shay, built for off-premise ordering rather than sit-down dining, fits the brand's broader strategy. Wingstop also launched its Club Wingstop loyalty program in May 2026 to further bolster digital customer retention.
The company posted $185.6 million in total quarterly revenue and a domestic average unit volume of $1.9 million per restaurant in the second quarter, even as domestic same-store sales fell 7.5% year-over-year. Total system-wide sales still climbed 5.3% during the quarter, driven primarily by new unit additions rather than existing-store growth.
What Diners Can Expect on the Menu
Wingstop's standard menu features 12 signature sauce and dry rub flavors served across classic bone-in wings, boneless wings, crispy tenders, and chicken sandwiches, rounded out by hand-cut seasoned fries and house-made ranch dip. According to PoPville's report on the chain, Wingstop has served more than one billion wings since 2002 and was ranked by Circana in March 2024 as having the number-one wings in the United States. The chain says its mission is to serve the world flavor, one wing at a time, and it emphasizes proprietary recipes across its menu.
The new Shaw location will join a stretch of 7th and 8th Streets NW that has increasingly filled with fast-casual chains, including Compass Coffee, CAVA, Insomnia Cookies, and Cracked Eggery, catering to the dense mix of residents and Howard University students in the area. That shift reflects a broader transformation of Shaw's 7th and 9th Street corridors, which have seen former low-rise automotive and light industrial buildings replaced over the past decade by mid-rise apartment developments and national retail chains near the university campus. The corridor still sits immediately adjacent to historic Black cultural landmarks even as its retail mix continues to change.
