“I guess we have to put our group name together,” says Fito Garcia, laughing. The team behind the new Inca Social has at least six restaurants, combined, including Velocity Wings, Pio Pio, a Peruvian restaurant in Great Falls, Courthaus Social and High Side, the latter two Garcia helped launch.
High Side, a craft beer bar with Asian street food, is most similar to Inca Social, a craft beer bar, but with Peruvian food (High Side celebrates its first year next month). And though Inca Social has only been in soft-open mode for the last two weeks, the unnamed group is already scouting two more locations, one in Maryland and another in either Loudoun or Centreville.
Garcia grew up in Oakton since the age of 6, and visits Peru, where his parents are from, every two years. “Peru has become a foodie destination,” says Garcia, and he wanted to put more than “just chicken” on the menu.
He started with his mom’s recipes, including lomo saltado, a stir-fry steak dish with french fries and rice, plus a vegetarian version with the same soy sauce marinade but with mushrooms.
With its location near the Dunn Loring metro, taking over the space of the short-lived Black Squirrel, Inca Social also caters to commuters with many of the items offered to-go, including a chicharron sandwich with fried pork, sweet potato chips and criolla sauce; chaufa, a Chinese-influenced fried rice dish; and fried (Colombian-style) empanadas.
The 23 taps all feature Virginia beers (three ciders), with plenty of sours and fruity and citrusy IPAs from the likes of Aslin, Old Bust Head and Port City.
Inca Social celebrates its grand opening on Feb. 1, at 4 p.m. with live music and, the first 100 guests get a free appetizer. // Inca Social: 2670 Avenir Place, Vienna
This post originally appeared in our weekly Food newsletter. Subscribe to get it in your inbox.
