Elsi Ethiopian Restaurant & Bar opening in Silver Spring

Elsi Ethiopian Restaurant & Bar is coming soon to the Briggs Chaney area of Silver Spring. It will be located at 13825 Outlet Drive in the Briggs Chaney MarketPlace shopping center. The 3765-square-foot restaurant will seat 100, and will open this summer. Hours of operation will be 7:00 AM to 2:00 AM Sunday through Thursday, and 7:00 AM to 3:00 AM on Fridays and Saturdays.

Mi Mariachi to return in Wheaton

Mi Mariachi Bar & Grill, a Mexican-Salvadoran restaurant with live mariachi music, is returning to Wheaton. It will open at 11301 Fern Street, which was most recently home to Nava Thai. This will, for the immediate future, preserve this historic building that began its life as one of the famous Sir Walter Raleigh Inns in the Washington, D.C. area. Mi Mariachi was previously on University Boulevard. 

The owner hopes to open at the beginning of August. Hours of operation will tentatively be 11:00 AM to 1:45 AM Sunday through Thursday, and 11:00 AM to 2:45 AM on Fridays and Saturdays.

Juste Lounge opens in downtown Silver Spring

Juste Lounge: The International Restaurant has opened at 8241 Georgia Avenue #200 in downtown Silver Spring. Formerly Mix Bar and Grill, the restaurant is described as "a modern casual American bistro with a trendy and vibrant bar scene." However, there is also a selection of African entrees on the menu alongside the burgers, tacos and wings. The new restaurant also hosted a "Haitian signature brunch" buffet this past weekend. There is apparently a connection between this Juste Lounge and the one that operated many years ago on Cordell Avenue in Bethesda (now home to Barrel & Crow).

Prime Coffee & Bakery "coming soon" in Silver Spring (Photos)

Prime Coffee & Bakery is "coming soon" to downtown Silver Spring, according to window screens posted inside the shop's future storefront. It will be at 930 Thayer Avenue, in the ground floor of the Thayer & Spring apartment block. 

Astro Lab Brewing closes in Silver Spring

Astro Lab Brewing last night

A great addition to downtown Silver Spring in recent years has departed. Astro Lab Brewing closed permanently last night at 8216 Georgia Avenue. The brewery welcomed customers for the last time, and the Cafe Vino truck served pizzas. Longtime readers of this website will recall the construction updates I posted during 2018, in which we saw the old Champion Billards building transformed into a neighborhood destination brewery. "We're a little older, a little weary but a whole lot better off for having spent the last 4 and half years with you," the owners wrote in a farewell message on social media.

Car stolen from downtown Silver Spring apartment building

Montgomery County police are investigating the theft of a vehicle from an apartment building in downtown Silver Spring Sunday night, May 28, 2023. The vehicle was reported stolen from the garage of an apartment building in the 8700 block of 1st Avenue at 9:14 PM.

A last look at Tastee Diner in Silver Spring (Photos)

Here's a last look at the venerable Tastee Diner at 8601 Cameron Street in downtown Silver Spring in its original form. Opened in 1935, the historic diner closed March 22, 2023. Roadside Development, which plans to redevelop this and adjacent property into a mixed-use residential building, has promised to retain the north, east and west facades of the diner car and its canopy in the design of the future high-rise.