Chinatown loses another legacy business as Momiji shuts down

Momiji Restaurant will close at the end of the month, after 17 years serving customers in D.C.’s Chinatown.

The Japanese restaurant announced it lost its lease to the incoming $75 million Marriott Tribute Chinatown Hotel, part of a redevelopment project led by Eddie Moy, the building’s longtime owner, and local developer Rift Valley Capital.

“As we enter another healing phase, we have all the intention of regrouping and finding another way of continuing Momiji in the D.C. community,” the restaurant wrote on an Instagram post.

Momiji’s closure highlights a broader shift underway in D.C.’s Chinatown, where longtime businesses are giving way to redevelopment projects and changing demographics. The hotel project, a new luxury apartmenttower and $800 million overhaul of the nearby Capital One Arena are set to reshape the area.

Some residents and business owners see new investments as a chance to modernize and bring fresh activity to the area, while others worry it accelerates the decline of legacy businesses that once defined the neighborhood’s character.

Andrew Cohen, a Chinatown resident since 2021, said losing local businesses to bigger corporations can impact the cultural aspect of the community.

“It’s a shame to see places closing, but if something is going to close, I hope it can be replaced with something of a similar kind,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he is not familiar with specific plans for the Marriott hotel but added that he is optimistic the company will support the Chinese traditions in the area.

Momiji joins the list of Asian-owned business losses for the neighborhood, following Full Kee Restaurant and Gao Ya Salon, two long-time Asian-owned businesses that vacated their properties in July because of the hotel project.

Moy said the businesses were not forced to leave the building. Instead, he said the owners signed a month-to-month lease with the understanding that redevelopment was possible.

The building owner said the plan is to offer local Asian business owners the option to lease street-level retails and spaces below the hotel.

The hotel project is expected to preserve the seven historic row homes along the H street, where Momiji is located, and will feature 142 boutique rooms, a pan-Asian restaurant and a Chinese market.

“The hotel would bring more foot traffic to the city and a more vibrant and exciting Chinatown to the public sector and the Asian community,” Moy said.

Fewer than 10 legacy businesses.

Momiji’s closure will leave Chinatown with fewer than 10 small legacy-owned businesses, according to Save Chinatown Solidarity Network. Shani Shia, an activist with the Save Chinatown Solidarity Network, said the closures are part of a larger trend threatening the neighborhood’s cultural fabric.

Shia formed the network in response to  D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser’s  Gallery Place/Chinatown Task Force and to “support the preservation of Chinatown’s working class.”

She said the group calls for stronger protections to keep legacy businesses in place, saying that rising rents and redevelopment threaten to erase the neighborhood’s cultural identity.

“There needs to be more cooperation, collaboration and shared prioritization of preserving the legacy businesses instead of trying to replace with new stuff,” Shia said.

Bowser created the task force in 2024 to find ways to revitalize the neighborhood. As the initial stage of the task force came to an end in 2025, the group has recommended new steps to revitalize the area with Asian grocery stores, cultural festivals and targeted funding for minority-owned businesses.

Ben Guzman, the director of the Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, said Chinatown is a key part of Bowser’s broader vision for the revitalization of downtown.

“Change is inevitable, and what’s important is how the city, from our perspective as a city agency, is how the city manages that change,” Guzman said. “The coming and going of businesses matters, but it is how we set the table in terms of being a place where businesses can and want to come that helps create the conditions of the culture we want to foster in Chinatown.”

Guzman said the role of Chinatown in D.C. has evolved since it was first established in the 1880s.

At the time, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States. The act pushed Chinese immigrants to create a place where they could integrate with others during a time when the law was against them.

Over the years, the Chinese and broader Asian communities spread to other areas, redefining Chinatown’s role as a cultural hub. In 1990, 60% of residents in Chinatown were Asian. In 2020, that number dropped to about 20%.

Guzman, who has lived around the area for almost 30 years, noted multiple factors that are leading to changes, including the effects of COVID-19 and the growth of other neighborhoods such as The Wharf and Union Market. Both districts underwent rapid redevelopment in the past decade, attracting more businesses and visitors. The Wharf and Union Market serve as examples, Guzman said. “But we’re not just trying to attract businesses to Chinatown. We’re trying to maintain a cultural legacy.”

Evelyn Moy, senior president of the Moy Family Association, agreed. She said Chinatown has long been a cultural touchstone for Chinese Americans in D.C., rooted in the history of exclusion and migrations.

Evelyn Moy said advocates won’t succeed in keeping major developments from happening. However, she sympathizes with advocates who want to preserve the culture in the neighborhood and said she encourages them to keep the cultural legacy alive.

“The city could have done more, but the city can’t save everybody,” Evelyn Moy said. “You have to adapt and change. You have to take the good and the bad, and there has to be a balance.”

The Moy Family Association is not involved in the Marriott Tribune Hotel project led by Eddie Moy and Rift Valley. Eddie Moy is the co-president of the association. However, the hotel is part of a personal project for him.

Although the Gallery Place/Chinatown Task Force completed its initial phase in 2025, Bowser appointed two community advocates to move into a second phase of revitalization. Winston Lord, a D.C. native, and Tim Ma, a local chef, will work as liaisons between the Chinatown community and the city.

Their appointment comes as city leaders seek to guide Chinatown’s transformation while maintaining its cultural identity.

“We will bring Chinatown back as a vibrant cultural destination that’s rooted in heritage and designed to bring people together.” Lord wrote in an Instagram post.