How El Rey, D.C.’s first shipping-container restaurant, was built on U Street

In what was once a scraggly paved lot next to Dodge City, you'll now find a glass storefront flanked by a trio of brightly painted industrial shipping containers. El Rey, the long-awaited taqueria and beer garden set to open early next month on U Street, was created almost entirely from the giant steel boxes, a resource that's finding favor around the world as an inexpensive, upcycled way to build both restaurants and living quarters.

"Anything that's under cover is containers," says Ian Hilton, who with his brother, Eric, is one of the primary proprietors of the 3,100-square-foot El Rey.

The idea itself isn't new; Southeast Washington entertainment venue Fairgrounds uses the containers, too, though mostly as eye-candy. El Rey, which means "the king" in Spanish, is the first construction in Washington to employ them in substantive ways, to build out kitchens, bathrooms, dining space and design flourishes. In back, a large patio sits under a retractable roof, which can slowly roll back on nice days to shed sunlight on diners, or keep everyone under cover when the prospect of being outdoors is less appealing.

El Rey's menu will focus on tacos and tequila. It will keep a handful of beers on tap, most hailing from Mexican brewers, with a few lesser-known South American brews as well. At a street-facing window, U Street partiers will be able to score tacos without walking inside. But getting to this point was a three-year process, one that included rethinking the whole model for the business.

How El Rey was built:

July 2010: Co-owner Eric Hilton broaches the idea for a temporary summer beer garden and taco shop built out of industrial steel shipping containers. "I had seen, in different places in the Caribbean, houses built out of containers. It's a cool, recycled building material," says Hilton, whose other restaurant/bars include

The first proposed design submitted for El Rey, at 919 U St. NW. (Edit Lab @ Streetsense)

Brixton, Marvin and American Ice Company. "One of our partner-investors owns a shipping company [the Washington-based Paxton Van Lines], so that made it pretty easy to get them." The original plan? "We thought we were just going to throw some containers down and build some bathrooms and call it a day," Hilton says. "The project just sort of mushroomed."

Early 2011: Change of plans. Goodbye, "temporary." The District requires El Rey to undergo the same review process as a permanent structure, and rent on the property is due year-round, regardless of whether the restaurant would be open, co-owner Ian Hilton says. The team decides to rethink El Rey, adding the infrastructure of a year-round business, including a roof.

The architects' second go at El Rey adds a fixed roof over part of the restaurant, and a retractable roof over the beer garden. (Edit Lab @ Streetsense)

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How El Rey, D.C.’s first shipping-container restaurant, was built on U Street