Scott Chung is opening Major Yum in the old Bad Saint space, and Columbia Heights is ready

Scott Chung is opening Major Yum in the old Bad Saint space, and Columbia Heights is ready

The address is 3226 11th Street NW. If you ate in this city anytime between 2015 and 2022, you know it. You probably stood outside it, too, on the sidewalk, in the rain, checking the time on your phone, willing the line to move. That was Bad Saint. The tiny Filipino restaurant that made a neighborhood block feel like the center of the culinary universe, until the pandemic eventually wore it down and owner Genevieve Villamora served the last dinner on July 9, 2022.

The space sat unresolved after that. The former Bad Saint address in Columbia Heights has felt like hallowed, or cursed, ground since the pioneering Filipino restaurant closed in 2022, and a short-lived bar that took its place shuttered after a feud between the owner and a local advisory neighborhood commissioner. For anyone who cared about this stretch of 11th Street, it was an uncomfortable limbo.

That limbo is about to end. This November, chef Scott Chung opens Major Yum in the same storied space, a fast-casual restaurant built around his take on Chinese, Korean, and other Asian flavors.

Who Scott Chung is

Chung is not a newcomer manufacturing a first impression. He has been building something in this city for years, starting much smaller than a restaurant. He started selling steamed buns under the name Bun'd Up at the Pike and Rose farmers market in North Bethesda, then at farmers markets across D.C. In 2018, Chung did a three-month pop-up at Union Market that was so successful the landlord offered to extend his lease for two years.

Chung grew up eating Korean dishes made by his mother and extended family, initially thought about going to culinary school, but decided to attend college instead. He had a bread-making internship, helped open a couple of ramen shops, and later worked at River House with chef and owner Nathan Sowers. He combines his background in bread baking and his family's Korean recipes in his food.

Chung also owns Bun'd Up in Westpost (formerly Pentagon Row) and, in a spare room of that restaurant, a speakeasy-style bar, restaurant, and mahjong hub called Sparrow Room. Major Yum is coming from Chung of Bun'd Up, Sparrow Room, and Rice Crook, and he has stepped away from those projects to work 100% on Major Yum. That is a meaningful bet. Chung is not splitting his attention. He is going all in on 11th Street.

What Major Yum actually is

Chung calls the concept "Mostly Asian." The counter-service restaurant is opening in the former Bad Saint space in early November, with a menu inspired by Chung's favorite Chinese and Korean dishes. Everything will be made to order.

The anchor item is "Chung's Chicken." It is a mix of General Tso's and Korean fried chicken, served alongside pickled veggies inspired by the banchan spreads at Korean restaurants, with specialty Asian drinks, beers, and wines rounding out the beverage list. Chung is also planning a crispy tofu dish and assorted banchan-inspired pickled vegetables.

The format matters here. Fast-casual in a space this size, Bad Saint's intimate dining room held around 25 seats, means Chung is not trying to replicate the reservation-driven, hushed-room experience that defined his predecessor. He is leaning into the neighborhood, into accessibility, into something you can eat on a Tuesday without planning three weeks out. That is a smart reading of what Columbia Heights actually needs right now.

Why this address carries so much weight

Bad Saint opened in 2015 and quickly became a D.C. dining scene star, it was named the number two best new restaurant in America by Bon Appétit in 2016, and then-chef Tom Cunanan won a James Beard Award for his work at the restaurant in 2019. In its heyday, diners lined up down the block, hours before opening, for a taste of the modern Filipino cooking.

Bad Saint's owner noted that the restaurant had one of the smallest dining rooms in the city, and part of its magic came from the encounters and connections between strangers who cozied up next to each other in such tight quarters. Bad Saint was one of the restaurants that helped make D.C.'s food scene 'cool' on a national level, and it no doubt popularized Filipino food across D.C. and the U.S.

So any new tenant is walking into a conversation that started a decade ago. The pressure is real. The building at 3226 11th Street NW was previously home to Johnny's All American and the legendary Bad Saint before them, and before that, the legendary Jeans N Things. Every layer adds expectation.

What Chung is not doing is trying to honor Bad Saint or position himself as a continuation of its legacy. Major Yum is its own thing, Chinese-Korean fast-casual with its own name, its own energy, its own flagship dish. The room will be repainted, re-signed, remade. By September, observers walking past the space in Columbia Heights could already see progress on the future Major Yum, with a new coat of paint going up. The building, at least, is moving on.

What to expect when it opens

Guests can look for pop-ups and collaborations with D.C. chefs and restaurants leading up to and around the opening. Those collabs have been part of Chung's playbook before, he built Bun'd Up through exactly this kind of community presence, one market stall and one pop-up at a time.

Major Yum sits at 3226 11th Street NW in Columbia Heights. Official hours and a full menu had not been released as of this writing. Follow updates at PoPville and The List, which have been tracking the buildout since July.

When you do go, order the chicken.

Sources

• PoPville: Major Yum exclusive announcement, July 29, 2026
• PoPville: Major Yum buildout update, September 18, 2026
• The List: Major Yum coming soon listing
• City Cast DC: Best New Restaurants Fall 2026
• Washingtonian: 14 New Restaurants This Fall and Winter, August 25, 2026
• Washingtonian: Bad Saint closure, July 11, 2022
• DCist: Bad Saint owner reflects on closure, July 11, 2022
• Arlington Magazine: Scott Chung and Bun'd Up profile
• ARLnow: Rice Crook closure and Chung background, January 2024
• DC Cititour: The DC Dish, Major Yum