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Salt Hank's, the viral French dip shop, is now owned by ghost kitchen company Wonder. It's the growing company's second restaurant acquisition after Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken earlier this year Aug 20, 2026, 7:30 AM PDT Salt Hank's Nadia Chaudhury is a born-and-raised New Yorker who is the deputy editor for Eater's Northeast region and Eater New York, was the former Eater Austin editor for 10 years, and often writes about food and pop culture. West Village French dip sandwich sensation Salt Hank's has been acquired by ghost kitchen food hall behemoth Wonder. This means the physical restaurant and its entire branding and menu have been sold to the company. Starting in the fall, Salt Hank's hefty beefy sandwich will be available for pickup and delivery from Wonder's Upper East Side location. Sometime after that, it'll expand to other locations in the city. As part of the acquisition, Salt Hank's co-founders Henry Laporte (the titular Salt Hank) and Ian Henderson-Charnow will both work with Wonder in some capacity. Salt Hank's chef Daniel Rubenfeld is joining the Wonder team The deal was finalized on Friday, August 14; a rep for Wonder wrote to Eater that "the financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed." The sandwich shop will be serving at the U.S. Open this summer. Laporte, Henderson-Charnow, and Rubenfeld opened Salt Hank's in June 2025 with a single-item menu that became so popular that people were waiting in long lines for the sandwich to the point that there's a live feed. Earlier this year, Wonder acquired NYC-based brand and East Village restaurant Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken. The company's food lineup includes fast-casual spots from chefs like Esther Choi and Marcus Samuelsson and NYC restaurants such as Di Fara Pizza and SriPraPhai Thai. Marc Lore, an e-commerce billionaire, opened Wonder in NYC in 2023, and it's grown to around 153 locations along the East Coast, with 25 in New York City and many more to come. The company is gearing up for an IPO launch in 2027. Eater NY. All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you

New & notable: what's opening in Reston, Herndon, Sterling & Ashburn. The Dulles corridor's dining scene is having a moment. From a 27-restaurant food hall to a sister concept of D.C.'s historic Old Ebbitt Grill, here's what's new and what's coming soon across Reston, Herndon, Sterling, and Ashburn. Reston. Wonder Food Hall has already opened its doors, and it's a big one - the fast-growing take-out concept brings menus from more than 27 restaurants under one roof, including offerings from celebrity chef partners like Bobby Flay and José Andrés. Over at JW Marriott Reston Station, The Simon and its adjacent Schar Bar are now open, serving elevated Mid-Atlantic fare with standout touches like tableside Duck à la Presse, a roaming cheese cart, and one of the region's most extensive amaro and rare-bourbon programs. Reston Row is shaping up to be a destination in its own right. Ebbitt House, a sister concept to D.C.'s historic Old Ebbitt Grill, is bringing raw-bar oysters, elevated American comfort food, and seasonal specialties to 1860 Reston Row Plaza. Nearby, Grazie Nonna is opening a red-sauce Italian-American spot at 2000 Opportunity Way, and Noku Sushi - already established in Leesburg - is expanding to 1800 Reston Row Plaza with poke bowls, katsu, ramen, and udon. Yunnan by Potomac Noodle House is also headed to the RTC Next section of Reston Row this spring or summer, bringing its all-you-can-eat "Chef's Endless Table" concept and rich noodle bowls. Vienna favorite Clarity is opening a Reston outpost at 1996 Opportunity Way, with a dedicated lunch menu, three private dining rooms, and a curated cocktail and happy-hour bar. And breakfast fans should watch for Toastique, the gourmet toast-and-juice bar, opening under the new Skymark Apartments at RTC Next. One note of change: the MOD Pizza location in Reston is closing at the end of September, with a new concept expected to take its place. Herndon. Herndon's Elden Street corridor is in the middle of a genuine restaurant boom. Panda Express held its grand opening on August 10 in a fully remodeled former Burger King at 598 Elden Street. Just up the road, Beignets & Brew - the first Northern Virginia location for the Southeastern beignet-and-coffee chain - opened August 7 at 348 Elden Street in the Herndon Centre. At Arrowbrook Centre, Super Kyuramen has started serving - a ramen counter by day that transitions into a full izakaya at night, with the brand's signature honeycomb-style private booths. NH44 Indian Brewing Company is targeting a late-spring opening in the same development. Earlier in the year, Herndon welcomed 246 Thai Street (171 Elden Street) and Anjappar, a Chettinad Indian restaurant off Centreville Road. And there's more on the way: a new pizza concept - the second Northern Virginia location for a growing regional brand - is currently in the works for Herndon. Sterling. Sterling's dining scene, long overshadowed by its neighbors, is filling in fast. Wonder - the same multi-restaurant food hall concept now open in Reston - is scheduled to open its Sterling location in June, a format shift that's expected to reshape how residents grab a casual meal. Colombian's Place Sterling is targeting an April grand opening at 22365 Broderick Drive, with a full-service kitchen and dining room seating 60-80 guests - a significant upgrade from the brand's original food-hall footprint in Leesburg. Bobby's Bagel Cafe quietly began its soft opening in early August, and Saahil Restaurant has also recently opened its doors in town. Ashburn & One Loudoun. Ashburn's dining growth is centered heavily around One Loudoun, where Tatté Bakery and Café and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream are both in the final stages of construction, with Bartaco following behind them. Elsewhere in Ashburn, Falcon & Fig held a soft opening that drew rave early reviews for its food, cocktails, and live music. Tiffin Hut is moving into Ashburn Farm Village Center with an all-day vegetarian Indian menu - think butter dosas, vada, and a possible gourmet gelato bar - alongside fellow newcomer Fantasticks in the same center. Cloud Fizz, a customizable craft soda concept, has also arrived in town, and Tous Les Jours, a French-Asian bakery and restaurant chain, is finalizing its grand-opening plans. The Taco Shop & Bar recently opened its third Northern Virginia location here, joining sister restaurants in Woodbridge and Alexandria. Opening dates and addresses are subject to change - check with each restaurant directly for the latest details before you visit.

Serve Robotics adds Grubhub to delivery network as Diligent rolls out Moxi 2.0. Discover more Artificial Intelligence Applications Material Handling Solutions Serve Robotics is expanding its autonomous delivery network through a new partnership with Grubhub, while its Diligent Robotics subsidiary begins rolling out the next generation of its Moxi hospital robot across the United States. The Grubhub agreement adds a third major delivery platform to Serve's network alongside Uber Eats and DoorDash, increasing the number of restaurants and orders available to its autonomous sidewalk delivery fleet. Robot delivery through Grubhub is beginning in Chicago, Los Angeles and Alexandria, Virginia. More than 100 participating Grubhub merchants in Chicago and nearly 200 in Los Angeles are included initially, with additional restaurants expected to join over time. Wonder, the food technology company that owns Grubhub, is also introducing Serve robot delivery from its Alexandria location. Ali Kashani, co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics, says: "Not long ago, its robots were delivering dinner in a handful of neighborhoods. Today, they're rolling into new cities from San Jose, California's third largest city, to Washington, DC, the nation's capital. Their hospital cousins, its new Moxi robots, are showing up in health systems across the country. Discover more Automation Consulting Service Engineering & Technology "Welcoming Wonder and Grubhub to our network is the clearest signal yet of where we are headed. Every new partner puts more robots to work, and every delivery makes the whole fleet smarter." PJ Poykayil, EVP of customer delivery operations at Wonder, says: "At Wonder, Robotics & Automation News is constantly looking for ways to make the customer experience more convenient and reliable. "Its partnership with Serve brings autonomous delivery to Grubhub customers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Alexandria, while also enabling robot delivery from Wonder's Alexandria location. "As we continue to grow, partnerships like this help us expand delivery options, improve efficiency and create a more seamless mealtime experience." Serve expands to Washington and San Jose. Alongside the Grubhub agreement, Serve is expanding its geographical footprint with launches in Washington, DC and San Jose, California, both in partnership with DoorDash. The two additions become Serve's seventh and eighth major US markets and join Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami. Serve says its robots have already completed their first month of deliveries in San Jose, its first Bay Area market. In Washington, robots are operating in Dupont Circle and parts of downtown, with Talkin' Tacos among the early restaurant partners. The company is also introducing its first "micro depots" in Miami. The smaller facilities are designed to handle robot staging, charging, dispatch and maintenance without the build-out required for a full-scale operating site. Serve says the model should allow it to enter high-demand neighborhoods more quickly and at lower cost. Another new product, Beacon, is intended to simplify connections between restaurants and Serve's delivery robots. The standalone countertop device uses built-in cellular connectivity to alert restaurant staff when a robot arrives for a pickup. It requires only a power connection and does not require restaurants to install another tablet or make changes to their existing back-of-house systems. Serve says Beacon could extend autonomous delivery to restaurants whose existing systems cannot easily integrate with its platform. Diligent begins Moxi 2.0 rollout. At the same time, Diligent Robotics, which Serve acquired in 2026, is beginning deployments of its Moxi 2.0 mobile manipulation robot to hospitals across the US. Initial deployments include Endeavor Health Edward Hospital in the Chicago area, Providence Saint John's Health Center in Los Angeles and Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The new platform incorporates five years of operational experience from Moxi deployments at more than 25 US hospitals. Moxi 2.0 includes 10 times more onboard computing capacity and perception processing that Diligent says is 10 to 15 times faster than the previous generation. The robot also gains upgraded cameras, sensors and storage, improved autonomy and edge-case recovery, redesigned handles and ergonomics, and up to 18 hours of daily operating time. It can operate for up to nine hours at a time and charges 30 percent faster. The compute platform uses Nvidia A2000 hardware. Development also uses the Nvidia Isaac Sim open simulation framework and elements of Nvidia Cosmos open world models, including its 3D lidar tokenizer. Andrea Thomaz, founder and CEO of Diligent Robotics, says: "Today Robotics & Automation News is deploying its most sophisticated physical AI platform yet. "Hospital hallways are some of the most dynamic environments a robot can operate in, full of fast-moving people, doors, and carts, all in tight spaces. To operate safely in that world, its first-generation platform often had to move conservatively. "Moxi 2.0 is built with the compute, sensors and models to reason about that complexity in real time, so Moxi can move with more confidence without compromising safety." Diligent introduces robotic world model. Moxi 2.0 also introduces what Diligent describes as a robotic world model, which forms part of a learning system designed to improve robots using experience collected across the deployed fleet. Data gathered by robots operating in hospitals feeds into Diligent's cloud training infrastructure, allowing the company to refine models for navigation, task execution and recovery from unusual situations. The cloud infrastructure is developed with Amazon Web Services, with Diligent training the World Model using Amazon SageMaker HyperPod. T-Mobile for Business is also working with Diligent on network access in hospitals and planning for future private 5G deployments. Safety and autonomy functions continue to run onboard the robot, allowing Moxi to complete tasks without Wi-Fi. Cellular connectivity provides a fallback in areas where hospital networks have limited coverage. Diligent says the next-generation platform requires no changes to existing hospital infrastructure. Omkar Kulkarni, chief innovation and transformation officer at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, says: "Moxi has become an integral team member at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "Since Moxi joined its team, it has completed more than 40,000 deliveries, representing over 16,000 hours of work that its staff didn't have to spend transporting supplies and medications across the hospital. "We expanded our Moxi fleet from two to three robots over time, and utilization continues to grow, increasing more than 10 percent in the second quarter alone. Our nursing leaders and pharmacy team appreciate that we're investing in technology that allows team members to work at the top of their skill set." Serve says it has deployed more than 2,000 robots across the US and supports deliveries from more than 4,000 restaurants. Its acquisition of Diligent extends the company's operations from outdoor autonomous delivery into indoor hospital service robotics.