Estadio Owner Max Kuller Forms In Living Kuller Restaurant Group - Eater DC
"Although Kuller often sports a vintage Washington Bullets hat, these days he’s showing love to Estadio’s second home with an old-school baseball hat for the Charleston Rainbows, the former name of the city’s minor league team (now the RiverDogs). He compares the location of Estadio Charleston to the scene at the beginning of the restaurant boom on 14th Street NW. Eight Airbnb units are housed above the restaurant on Spring Street, and the long-term plan is to offer room service to its upstairs guests. Estadio’s second location will sit about half as many guests as its 100-seat D.C. counterpart. The low-rise, mixed-use residential neighborhood has old Charleston charm, with lots of hot dining options around its 10-block radius. “It’s an exciting time for the city,” Kuller says. “There’s a sense of freshness and expansion.” Head chef Alex Lira is prepping for a big research-and-development trip across Spain next month. A three-week stage will take him to a range of top kitchens in and around San Sebastián and Madrid. “This will feed the direction of the [Charleston] menu in ways we don’t even know yet,” says Kuller. After he returns in late June, the plan is to host a round of pop-ups around town to drum up excitement and sharpen recipes, he adds. While the core of D.C.’s menu will be imported to Charleston — like patatas bravas and cured meats and cheeses — some dishes will differ depending on what’s in season in the South. “We aren’t going to take a salad from here and recreate it in Charleston,” Kuller says. Cocktails will also taste a little different. Estadio’s lauded gin and tonic program will incorporate tonics on tap from a Southern producer. Charleston diners got a first taste of Estadio — which means “stadium” in Spanish — during a preview party for Charleston’s Food & Wine Festival this spring. Charleston City Paper wrote about the skewered pintxo gilda and cited Bernbach’s Oloroso old fashioned — with El Maestro Sierra 15 year Oloroso sherry — as its “hands down” favorite drink of the week. Instead of its iconic wooden sign out front, the new Estadio will welcome guests with cursive neon pink lettering spelling out its name. The bathrooms will also have a new vibe. Colorful labels from Valencia orange crates he personally collected during travels to Spain, along with some amassed on Ebay, will function as new wall art." - Tierney Plumb
