On Chapman Avenue, the garage entrance faces a nail salon, an Afghan kabob house shares the block with a Brazilian steakhouse, and a jasmine tea counter on Festival Street had a line wrapped around the block on its first day. A little over a year ago, most people came to these blocks behind the Wegmans for groceries and left.
The roughly 80,000-square-foot Wegmans anchoring Twinbrook Quarter opened in summer 2025, at the southwest corner of Rockville Pike and Halpine Road. Since then the restaurants have come in one at a time, about one a season. Most of them are a brand's first location in Maryland or in Montgomery County, so Chapman Avenue gets a concept before the rest of the county does.
Four Openings, and Most of Them Are Firsts
Here is the order things opened, going by The MoCo Show's September roundup of Twinbrook Quarter:
- Terra Gaucha, 1651 Chapman Ave., December 2025. This was the Brazilian steakhouse's first Maryland location and its first in the D.C. region. Gaucho chefs carve wood-fired picanha and ribeye at the table in rodízio style, and there's a Gourmet Hot and Cold Table and a Papaya Cream dessert.
- Molly Tea, 860 Festival St., April 2026. The brand started in Shenzhen, China, builds its drinks around jasmine and other floral flavors, and opened its first DMV shop here with a line around the block.
- Genki Wagyu House, 870 Festival St., June 2026. It's all-you-can-eat wagyu and hot pot next to Wegmans, with broths that include Sukiyaki, Shabu Dashi, Tomato, Spicy Miso, Mushroom and Tom Yum.
- ZiZa Kabob, 1675 Chapman Ave., September 2026. This is the first Montgomery County location for a halal Afghan kitchen that started in Jessup.
Bonne Nail Bar opened at 1679 Chapman Ave. in June, with manicures, pedicures, custom nail art and spa treatments.
None of these four restaurants is a chain you could already find on Rockville Pike, and three of them are a brand's first step into a new market. Before Twinbrook Quarter, a jasmine tea brand making its DMV debut would have been more likely to land in the District. A Rockville address next to the Twinbrook Metro station and a busy grocery store now pulls those openings out to the suburbs.
ZiZa Kabob Is Still Finishing Its Opening
ZiZa is the newest of the four, and it's still moving through its rollout. According to The MoCo Show's first look, the restaurant soft-opened in September while it was still hiring and training staff, and table service wasn't available yet. The plan is counter ordering at lunch and full table service from 4 p.m. Co-owner Fahim Rafiq told the outlet that Rockville is the company's first move into full-service dining.
The menu is made up of Afghan family recipes: flame-grilled kabobs, stews and spiced rice dishes. Rafiq describes the kitchen as 100% halal. All of the artwork in the dining room was hand-painted for this location. The original restaurant is at 7351 Assateague Dr. in Jessup, and the business is associated with Baltimore's Maiwand Grill.
The restaurant scheduled its grand opening celebration for Saturday, October 17, at 1 p.m., with food samples, a DJ and a celebration of Afghan culture and food, The MoCo Show reported. In that October 9 report, the switch to evening table service was still described as a plan for once the team is ready. Call ahead before planning a sit-down dinner.
The Garage Math Fits a Dinner
These blocks can host a sit-down restaurant scene partly because of the parking. Visitor parking is in the garage at 850 Festival Street, and the first two hours are free. Here are the posted rates on Twinbrook Quarter's directions page:
| Time parked | Rate |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 hours | Free |
| 2 to 3 hours | $3.00 |
| 3 to 4 hours | $4.00 |
| 4 to 8 hours | $15.00 |
| 8 hours to all day | $30.00 |
Two free hours covers a hot pot dinner at Genki or a bowl at ZiZa with time left for a Wegmans run. A long rodízio meal at Terra Gaucha could run past two hours and into the $3 tier. The official page lists garage hours for Monday through Friday only, 6 a.m. to midnight. ZiZa's announcement, as The MoCo Show reported it, says the two free hours apply seven days a week.
You don't have to drive at all if you live near the station. The development sits next to the Twinbrook Metro Red Line station and is served by bus lines 5, 26 and 46.
What's Next on Chapman Avenue, and How Firm It Is
More openings are on the way, but their timing varies a lot from one business to the next:
| Business | Location | Status as of mid-October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Slurp Noodles | Halpine Rd. and Chapman Ave., behind Wegmans | Construction picked up in September. No opening date announced, and progress suggests a possible year-end opening |
| RIVA Boutique | Between Slurp Noodles and Bonne Nail Bar | Lease signed. Construction had not started as of September 17 |
| Pizza Monkey | 2009 Chapman Ave. | Official site lists the new location as "coming soon" and the restaurant as temporarily closed |
Slurp Noodles might be another first for the area. The MoCo Show notes that a restaurant with the same name was announced for the Baltimore area by Jerry Chan, who opened Lanzhou Pull Noodle at Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg. Menu details for the Rockville location are still limited.
Pizza Monkey is the one Rockville regular in the group. It served its last day at 330 North Stonestreet Ave. on August 31 and announced it was moving to Chapman Avenue, according to The MoCo Show, though it hadn't set an exact reopening date. For now, the restaurant's own site is the best place to check for a reopening date.
The next phase is further off. Saul Centers' plans for the 18.4-acre site allow for up to 473,000 square feet of retail in total. The Phase 2 application filed with the City of Rockville proposes up to 413 apartments, up to 77,500 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a central park, and a four-level underground garage with about 610 spaces. The city's October 2026 report lists that site plan as under review, and the applicant asked for an eight-year implementation period. For the coming months, the lineup on Chapman Avenue is what's open today plus a noodle shop and a boutique.
The Same Pattern Is Showing Up Along the Pike
The first-location trend reaches beyond Twinbrook Quarter. Teas'n You Fusion Tea House, a tea, coffee, pastry and halal chicken spot founded in Vienna, Virginia, in 2017, chose 838 Rockville Pike, Unit C, for its first Maryland location, per Patch. In an October 9 post, the company said the Rockville shop is open and that it's working toward 2 a.m. closing times in the coming weeks.
Across town, ZiZa isn't the only Afghan kitchen to open in Rockville this fall. Store Reporter covered Aria, which serves halal Afghan and Persian food at Rockville City Centre, 587-621 Hungerford Drive, near the Giant. The menu includes mantu, which are steamed dumplings filled with ground beef and onions, aushuk, which are filled with leeks, and shiryakh, an ice cream flavored with cardamom and rose water. Hong Kong Tea House opened in the same strip, with a menu that runs from potstickers and crêpes to Vietnamese coffee and bubble tea. "It's meant to be a taste tour with something for everyone," owner Youssef Takhssaiti told Store Reporter. Comparing ZiZa's kabobs on Chapman Avenue with Aria's dumplings on Hungerford Drive makes for an easy two-dinner plan this fall.
For errands, Nordstrom Rack is set to open Thursday, October 29, at 1683 Rockville Pike in Congressional Plaza. It takes over the former Buy Buy Baby space, about 26,000 square feet, and will offer online order pickup and returns, The MoCo Show reported.
At Pearlman Meekin & Co., we follow openings like Slurp Noodles and Pizza Monkey's move to Chapman Avenue because they change daily life a few blocks from the Twinbrook station. If you'd like a local read on how the area around Twinbrook Quarter is changing, book a consultation and we'll go over it with you.
