Chef Jeffeary Miskiri to open Caribbean seafood restaurant at Skyland Town Center

Chef Jeffeary Miskiri plans to open a new seafood restaurant concept at Skyland Town Center in Southeast D.C., building on a growing portfolio of brands including Miss Toya’s Southern Kitchen and Suga & Spice in Hyattsville.

Miskiri and his restaurant group have leased roughly 1,520 square feet at 2714 Marion Barry Ave. SE for Hello Becky’s Seafood, which the Miskiri Hospitality Group describes in marketing materials as a “Caribbean seafood restaurant where fresh flavors meet an island twist.”

Hello Becky’s will feature dishes including paella, cajun mussel linguini and stuffed fried lobster pasta. Supporting Miskiri at the new restaurant are chefs Daouda Coulibaly and Duane Hamilton.

The restaurant fills a void left by Darrell Gaston’s Savage Breakfast Club, which closed late last year after falling behind on its rent, per D.C. Superior Court documents. The space sits at the base of The Crest, a 263-unit residential-over-retail building.

The Crest is part of the larger, multiphased redevelopment of the former Skyland Shopping Center by Marion Barry Avenue SE and Naylor Road SE in Ward 7’s Good Hope neighborhood. Other parts of the Skyland Town Center, from Rappaport and WC Smith, are still being developed.

Miskiri emerged as a prospective replacement tenant for the Breakfast Club by virtue of an in-house discussion at McLean-based commercial real estate services firm Rappaport, per Rappaport’s Kyle Gamber, part of Skyland’s leasing team, along with Bill Dickinson. 

Gamber reached across to the other side of the proverbial leasing table to Rappaport’s Thomas Bolen III, who represents Miskiri, to ask him about joining Skyland. Miskiri already has another restaurant at The Shops at Penn Branch, Miss Toya’s Creole House, about a mile from Skyland.

“We think it’s going to be a good fit,” Gamber said. “Local, community tenants do well here, and so, we wanted to find somebody that has operated in these types of markets and knows the community.”

Miskiri, who emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic with new offerings including Cajun Creole restaurant Po Boy Jim, said in an email the concept is named after his mother, Rebecca, and is inspired by her love for seafood and traditional soul-food flavors.

As of August, the retail portion of The Crest was 77% leased, by tenants including &pizza, Chase, Roaming Rooster and Trek. That occupancy figure doesn’t count the breakfast club’s closing or the planned opening of a new outpost of Andre McCain’s HalfSmoke, which had been slated to open in fall 2023 but is now planned for a summer 2026 debut, per McCain.