Doki Toki Dessert is currently closed in Downtown Crown. The bakery and dessert shop, which is located at 202 Ellington Blvd in Gaithersburg’s Downtown Crown, opened in May of 2022. Google currently lists the store as permanently closed and Kite Realty has the space available to lease, but management tells us that they are currently in negotiations with the landlord, so Doki Toki’s future remains to be seen.

Doki Toki offers soft serve ice cream, mochi donuts, bubble tea and more.


Hello Vietnam! a new restaurant by the people who brought Vietfood/Viet Kitchen to Pike Kitchen, is now open at 2200 Veirs Mill Rd in the Twinrbook Center in Rockville. The new restaurant has taken over a 1,500 SF space that was previously occupied by Asia Market and is currently in a soft opening phase. Various pictures and menu items can be seen below.

The Twinbrook Center is located at 1902 Veirs Mill Rd, Rockville, MD 20850, and is currently anchored by Lotte Mart and previously by CVS, which closed last summer. Other tenants include Twinbrook Deli, Don Pollo, Dunkin’, Little Caesars, and more.


Update: The targeted opening is now by the end of September 

The Heights Food Hall at Wisconsin Place in Chevy Chase is now targeting a late August opening.  The new food hall will be located in the space formerly occupied by Anthropologie and PF Chang’s on the 5400 block of Wisconsin Ave. The Heights will offer both indoor and outdoor patio dining and will be open seven days a week from 11am-Midnight. According to Common Plate Hospitality (CPH) group, the food hall will include: e one full-service restaurant (Urbano), a full-service bar (The Heights Bar), a speakeasy (The Turncoat), and eight local food stalls, including one stall picked from Urbano’s “Stall Wars” competition. We expect the following culinary partners at this anticipated culinary space:


Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post’s food critic since 2000, has just released the latest version of his “6 Favorite Places to Eat Right Now” and the list features one of Montgomery County’s newest restaurants– Charley Prime. “The menu casts a wide net without going all Cheesecake Factory on its audience.” Sietsema wrote.

Charley Prime opened in Gaithersburg’s Rio Lakefront in May and has been generally well-received by the community. The new restaurant from Jackie Greenbaum & Gordon Banks (Little Coco’s, El Chucho, Bar Charley, Quarry House Tavern) replaced Tara Thai on the Rio Lakefront boardwalk at 9811 Washington Blvd. It features an extensive steak menu that includes filet mignon, New York strip, and a 36oz Tomahawk ribeye, as well as house made pastas and sandwiches like the Roasted Lamb French Dip.


Olney Winery has been operating since 2012, initially as The Winery at Olney. The winemaker was located at 18127 Town Center Drive in the Fair Hill shopping center in Olney until September of last year. In 2016, expanded and opened a tasting room in the stone house at 12810 Shank Farm Way in Hagerstown. Last week, Olney Winery opened its new space at 52 Olney Sandy Spring Road in Ashton Market. In addition to wine, they’re also offering pizza at the location.

Per Olney Winery: “Olney Winery employs the unique business model of sourcing our grape product from suppliers and vineyards all over the world to ferment over 34 different varietals of award-winning wines locally. We bring the world of wine to Maryland.


Raising Cane’s started its expansion into the D.C. metropolitan region when its first area restaurant opened last December in Sterling, VA (45545 Dulles Eastern Plaza). The first Maryland location opened in Towson in January 2023 and both stores featured lines out the door for months on several days of the week. A Waldorf Location opened in May and a Westminster location opened last week to make three for the state.

We previously reported that Raising Cane’s aims to open 14 stores in the next year, stretching from suburban Baltimore to the Richmond area, and now the chain has announced 15+ locations for Maryland alone. Currently, only three of the 15+ have been announced with a Gambrills location, at 1070 Maryland Route 3 North, opening in September. A Columbia restaurant, at 9071 Snowden River Parkway (Howard County) is coming this fall, and a Forestville restaurant, at 3270 Donnell Drive (Prince George’s County) is also set to open this fall. None of the other Maryland locations have been announced yet, and we are awaiting word on if Montgomery County will be included in the openings.


The grand opening of La Table Du Chateau takes place on Saturday, July 22, 2023 (open weekends 8am-3pm). We stopped by for a soft opening event and have put together a “first look” video available below. Situated inside of The Block at Pike and Rose (967 Rose Ave. North Bethesda), this breakfast and brunch destination invites guests to savor the delightful flavors of French cuisine, blended with a touch of home and a dash of international inspiration.

Chef Max Zelenkov’s journey began when he emigrated as Ukrainian/Russian native to the United States and was raised and pursued his education in Montgomery County. MoCo, a melting pot of culture and tradition, was the perfect setting to foster Chef Max’s fascination with the world’s diverse culinary traditions.


Lotus Cafe, located at 8077 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, will close permanently at the end of July, according to a representative from the restaurant. The restaurant has been serving the Silver Spring community for nearly 15 years and has garnered over 300 Yelp reviews and over 350 of Google reviews, earning 4 and 4.4 stars respectively. The restaurant has offered Vietnamese cuisine and is known for its outdoor patio in Silver Spring. There is no word on a possible replacement.

Featured photo courtesy of Lotus Cafe.


Ensemble at 4856 Cordell Ave in Bethesda has closed. Ensemble was a “digital food hall” from Catalogue Brands, the restaurant group behind Ted’s Bulletin, Federalist Pig, Honeymoon Chicken, Sidekick Bakery, and Kramers. Food from Ensemble was available for pickup or delivery and its menu featured the most popular items from several Catalogue restaurants that could be mixed and matched, all coming from one kitchen.


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