On April 21, the line for Molly Tea at 860 Festival Street went around the block. It was the jasmine tea brand's first shop in the DMV, and The MoCo Show reported that opening-day crowd as it formed in Twinbrook Quarter. The brand started in Shenzhen, China, and builds its drinks around jasmine and other floral flavors.
Molly Tea is one of many recent firsts here. In under two years, the stretch of Rockville Pike from Towne Plaza south past Congressional Plaza to Twinbrook Quarter has picked up a run of concepts that had never opened in Maryland or in Montgomery County. A new opening on this end of the Pike is now often a place nobody nearby could get to before.
A Short Stretch With a Long List of Debuts
Some of these businesses are the first of their brand in Maryland. Others are the first in the county. Put together, the list shows how many brands picked this one corridor for their entry point.
| Business | Address | Opened | Why it counts as a first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tatte Bakery & Café | 12232 Rockville Pike | Jan. 29, 2025 | Maryland's third Tatte |
| California Fish Grill | 12238 Rockville Pike | Nov. 10, 2025 | First in Maryland |
| Terra Gaucha | 1651 Chapman Ave. | Dec. 28, 2025 | First in Maryland and first in the DC region |
| Molly Tea | 860 Festival St. | April 21, 2026 | First in the DMV |
| Wonder | 12240 Rockville Pike | June 4, 2026 | First of four planned Montgomery County locations |
| ZiZa Kabob | 1675 Chapman Ave. | September 2026 | First Montgomery County location |
| Just Salad | 12242 Rockville Pike | Not yet announced | Planned as Maryland's first |
The list covers a wide range. It runs from a tea counter to a tableside churrasco steakhouse, and from a family-run Afghan kitchen to a food hall built for delivery. What these places share is the Pike, and most of them are clustered in two developments.
Twinbrook Quarter Has Filled Its Storefronts With Places to Eat
Twinbrook Quarter is a 12-story mixed-use development at the southwest corner of Rockville Pike and Halpine Road. Its anchor is a Wegmans of about 80,000 square feet at 1590 Rockville Pike, which opened on June 25, 2025. Once the grocery store was open, the smaller storefronts on Chapman Avenue and Festival Street started filling, and the businesses that came in have almost all been food and drink.
Terra Gaucha came first, in late December 2025. It serves Southern Brazilian churrasco rodízio-style, with gaucho chefs carving wood-fired picanha and ribeye at the table and a hot and cold table of salads, cheeses and charcuterie. Papaya Cream is the dessert regulars tend to ask about.
Molly Tea opened in April. In June, Genki Wagyu House opened its all-you-can-eat Wagyu and hot pot restaurant at 870 Festival Street, next to Wegmans. The broths include Sukiyaki, Shabu Dashi, Tomato, Spicy Miso, Mushroom and Tom Yum. Bonne Nail Bar opened at 1679 Chapman Avenue that same month. It is the only non-food business on the list of 2026 openings.
ZiZa Kabob is the newest arrival. It began a soft opening at 1675 Chapman Avenue in September and serves Afghan family recipes, including flame-grilled kabobs, stews and spiced rice dishes. According to The MoCo Show, co-owner Fahim Rafiq said the kitchen is 100% halal. The name combines the names of the owners' children, Zidane and Zayn, and the artwork inside was hand-painted for this location. The original ZiZa is at 7351 Assateague Drive in Jessup, so the Rockville restaurant marks the brand's move into full-service dining. The owners plan counter ordering at lunch and table service from 4 p.m., though the restaurant had not made that switch yet as of mid-September.
ZiZa scheduled its grand opening celebration for Saturday, October 17, with food samples, a DJ and a celebration of Afghan food and culture. One practical detail for a weeknight visit is that the restaurant offers two hours of complimentary garage parking, seven days a week.
Across the Pike, Congressional Plaza Is Changing Its Retail Mix
Restaurants are filling the newer buildings at Twinbrook Quarter. A few blocks north at Congressional Plaza, the changes this year have mostly been in clothing stores.
Lands' End at 1667 Rockville Pike closed permanently in January 2026. Gap Factory opened at 1667 Rockville Pike on May 20. The next big opening is a week away. Nordstrom Rack opens Thursday, October 29, at 1683 Rockville Pike, in the 26,000-square-foot space that Buy Buy Baby used to occupy.
The MoCo Show reports that the new store will offer online order pickup and accept returns from both Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack websites. That means a return no longer requires a drive to Shady Grove Road. The Shady Grove Road Nordstrom Rack is still open, and no changes there have been announced. Federal Realty first announced the store last November with a fall 2026 target, and the October 29 date meets that target.
Once Nordstrom Rack opens, two off-price stores that arrived within six months of each other will share a center that lost a full-price apparel brand in January. Congressional Plaza's retail changes are swaps of one store format for another, while the restaurant openings along the Pike keep bringing in brands that had no local location before.
Towne Plaza Shows the Same Pattern on a Smaller Scale
Towne Plaza, in the 12200 block of Rockville Pike, follows the Twinbrook model in a smaller strip. Tatte Bakery & Café opened at 12232 in January 2025, and California Fish Grill opened its first Maryland location at 12238 that November.
Wonder opened next door at 12240 on June 4, 2026, in the former Stephen Anthony Salon space. It is a food hall that handles dine-in, takeout and delivery under one roof, and one order can include dishes from several of its restaurant brands. The Rockville Pike location is the first of four Wonder plans to open in Montgomery County. The others are planned for Burtonsville, Germantown and Gaithersburg. So a concept chosen for Rockville Pike is now heading to the rest of the county, and the Pike is where it started.
Coming-soon signs for Just Salad went up at 12242 Rockville Pike in late summer. It is billed as the brand's first Maryland location. A construction permit has been approved, but as of September no opening date had been announced.
What Is Still on the Way, and Where It Stands
Several projects on the same blocks are in progress, each at a different stage.
- Slurp Noodles, at the corner of Halpine Road and Chapman Avenue behind Wegmans. Construction picked up in September, and The MoCo Show wrote that it could open by the end of the year. No date has been announced, and few menu details have been released.
- RIVA Boutique, which has signed for the space between Slurp Noodles and Bonne Nail Bar. Construction had not started as of mid-September.
- Just Salad, at 12242 Rockville Pike. It has a permit and signage, and the opening date has not been announced.
- Twinbrook Quarter phase two, at 1582 and 1584 Rockville Pike. The City of Rockville's October 2026 Rockville Reports lists a site plan for a mixed-use project with 413 units and up to 77,500 square feet of retail. The application is still under review and has not been approved.
Phase two matters most for the long run. Up to 77,500 square feet of new retail next to the existing Twinbrook Quarter would give this corridor much more space to keep attracting first locations, if the plan moves forward. The city tracks these applications on its development watch page.
Rockville is also writing its first economic development strategic plan. The next community meeting, on targeting and opportunity assessment, is Thursday, November 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Mayor and Council chamber at City Hall, 111 Maryland Avenue. People can attend in person or join online. That meeting is the city's public forum on which kinds of businesses Rockville should try to attract next. A follow-up session on the implementation framework is set for Thursday, January 14.
If you live near Twinbrook, Congressional Plaza or Towne Plaza and want to know how this stretch of the Pike is changing your part of Rockville, I'm glad to talk it through. I watch openings like these the same way I watch the market around them, one block at a time. Jen Goroff is here whenever you'd like to compare notes. Let's Connect.
