Christiana Candon won a year of free rent, a $245,000 interest-free loan, free legal services, and free financial advising as the winner of Ballston BID’s controversial Restaurant Challenge. Now she’s seeking an additional $15,000 via Kickstarter for her Spanish restaurant, which will be called SER (Simple, Easy, Real).
The restaurant, located at 1110 N. Glebe Road, will serve Spanish food, but not tapas. Rather, the menu will feature other traditional dishes, including recipes from the family’s mothers and grandmothers.
Candon says in a Kickstarter video that she plans to use the money to make the space “a little more homier and inviting than it currently is.” That will mean renovations for an open kitchen, patio furniture, tables, chairs, lighting, a new dishwasher, an indoor herb garden, frames for photos, linens, plates, glassware, and more. “This is sort of like a bridal registry for our new venture,” Candon writes.
Candon's restaurant concept was among the final two in the Ballston BID's Restaurant Challenge, in which eight finalist chefs and restaurateurs competed for a lease earlier this summer. Her Spanish tavern, initially called Casita, became the winner after competitor Victor Albisu dropped out of the contest two days before a final cook-off.
If all goes according to plan, Candon hopes to open SER in December.