Victor Albisu finally opens Electric Bull, and Vienna has been waiting long enough
The Taco Bamba chef brings live fire, South American butchery, and a family chorizo recipe to his hometown - three doors down from where it all started.
In brief
Victor Albisu finally opens Electric Bull, and Vienna has been waiting long enough
Victor Albisu did not set out to build an empire. He set out to grill meat. And yet, after sixteen Taco Bamba locations strung across the Mid-Atlantic and into Nashville, a James Beard semifinalist nod (twice), and a televised victory over Bobby Flay on Beat Bobby Flay, the Northern Virginia native is finally doing the thing he says he wanted to do all along. Electric Bull, his new live-fire South American steakhouse and butcher shop, opens this September at 176 Maple Avenue West in Vienna - three doors down from the original Taco Bamba that started everything.
The delay was real. Albisu originally planned to open this steakhouse, inspired by South American butchery traditions, more than a year ago. After a delay with inspections, it is finally set to debut in September. That gap matters not just as backstory but as context: Electric Bull has been one of the most-anticipated tables in the D.C. region for the better part of two years, and it arrives now with both the weight of expectation and - apparently - a team large enough to carry it.
A personal project, not a brand extension
It began as a basic idea: a neighborhood grill and butcher shop centered on great meat and live fire. Somewhere along the way, that vision attracted an elite group of chefs and partners whose combined experience helped shape it into something much bigger. 'This started very simply,' Albisu says. 'A butcher shop grill. I've always been drawn to meat and fire.'
Albisu was born to a Cuban father and a Peruvian mother. His grandfather was a baker in Cuba. His mother, meanwhile, runs a Latin market - and a butcher counter - in Falls Church. 'My upbringing in a Latin butcher shop, learning the craft from Argentinean butchers, has been a cornerstone to my culinary career,' Albisu said in an announcement. 'I'm ready to challenge expectations for what a neighborhood steakhouse can be, and I believe Vienna is the perfect place to do it. It's been home to my family and my businesses for more than 15 years.'
Instead of recreating the formal steakhouse model familiar to Americans, the Northern Virginia native wanted something more relaxed and community-oriented. The interior design is expected to have a moody, energetic vibe - something Albisu describes as cool and welcoming rather than stuffy or traditional. The goal isn't to create a special-occasion steakhouse visited once a year. Electric Bull aims to become the kind of neighborhood spot where locals can drop in regularly for a great meal and a good drink.
The menu: more than a rib eye
The restaurant combines a butcher counter selling specialty cuts with a live-fire kitchen and an evolving menu built around butcher's cuts, house-made charcuterie, and bold flavors. Raw bar dishes, tartares, and carpaccios appear alongside steaks rubbed with house-made spice blends and sauces inspired by South American grilling traditions. The adjoining butcher case offers dry-aged steaks, house-made sausages, and prepared items like bone broth and a signature 'Bullognese' sauce.
Steaks take center stage with options that include hanger steaks, teres major, picaña, flank and flat iron steaks, South American-style short ribs, house-made chorizo from a family recipe, lamb ribs, sweetbreads, and other cuts. Albisu also brings back his menu-favorite burger and rolled skirt steak - the latter the cut he used when he beat Bobby Flay on Food Network.
Bread service at Electric Bull is not a basket of rolls. It includes the option for fugazetta pizza, the Argentine specialty with caramelized onions and mozzarella. That double-crusted, focaccia-adjacent invention is common enough in Buenos Aires and rare enough in Northern Virginia that it alone is worth noting. And eggs are not limited to brunch: they appear on the menu all day, in omelets, scrambles, fried egg platters, and steak and eggs, with additions like caviar and truffles.
The 2,500-square-foot steakhouse features 80 seats for dine-in service, including a full-service bar and a front patio. Weekend brunch brings dishes like chorizo and eggs, tortilla española, and steak and eggs to the lineup.
The team behind the grill
Albisu assembled a crew that is anything but casual. Leading the culinary side alongside him are Justin Severino, Jennifer Resick Williams, and Adam Hoffa. Severino, in particular, brings serious credentials as a butcher and charcuterie specialist. Electric Bull combines a butcher counter selling specialty cuts with a live-fire kitchen and an evolving menu built around butcher's cuts, house-made charcuterie, and bold flavors.
For Albisu, who spent years as executive chef at BLT Steak before launching his own restaurants, this is a return to what originally drew him into professional kitchens. He created the fine-dining Latin American restaurants Del Campo and Poca Madre in Washington, D.C., which have since closed, and the fast-casual chain of taquerias known as Taco Bamba, which features traditional and inventive tacos. Del Campo, his first solo project, earned the title of Washington's best steakhouse from Washingtonian while it was open. Electric Bull is not Del Campo reborn - the register is lower, the format more neighborhood-facing - but the seriousness about meat is the same.
Why Vienna, why now
The location is deliberate and personal. Vienna is not a dining destination in the way that Penn Quarter or 14th Street is, and that is exactly the point. Electric Bull will occupy a 2,500-square-foot space on Maple Avenue in Vienna, just a few doors away from Taco Bamba. Albisu is not chasing trend-forward real estate. He is going home.
There is also something worth saying about timing. The D.C. restaurant market in 2026 has been crowded with out-of-town operators arriving with outside capital and little local history. Electric Bull is the opposite. It is a local chef, on a local block, cooking food shaped by a local family - down to the chorizo that came from his mother's recipe.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
