On East-West Highway, Every New Thing Has an Old Address

Four addresses on and just off East-West Highway in south Silver Spring are changing hands this year. One is a new public park, one is a café that opened in June, and two are restaurants still getting ready to open. All four sit in spaces that used to be something else. One was a tire shop, one a pan-Asian restaurant, one a brewery and one a Cuban restaurant that had been there more than twenty years. The new buildings aren't what's reshaping this stretch. It's coming back through reused addresses, and since September it has a one-acre park at the center.

A Tire Shop Lot Became the Block's Front Yard

Bottleworks Lane Park sits at 1110 East-West Highway and runs back to Kennett Street. The one-acre site was a National Tire and Battery shop until the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission bought it for $7.5 million in 2021. Montgomery Parks started construction in 2023. The first step was cleaning up contaminated soil left from the lot's years as an auto center.

The ribbon-cutting was set for Friday, September 18, 2026, from 5 to 7 p.m., with food and beer trucks and live music from the School of Rock. Montgomery Parks posted its official page for the park on September 24.

A lot of program fits on one acre. According to Montgomery Parks, the park includes:

• A multipurpose court for basketball, futsal and flexible recreation
• An exercise area with outdoor fitness equipment for all levels
• Game spaces for ping pong, cornhole and bocce
• A multi-age playground with nature play features
• Separate dog runs for large and small dogs
• Picnic and lawn areas
• A community plaza and terrace for socializing and small events

Montgomery Parks director Miti Figueredo said the park "brings much-needed park space to downtown Silver Spring where neighbors can get together and enjoy time outdoors." This is the second urban park to open downtown in recent years. The first was Gene Lynch Park, the triangle at Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue. Gene Lynch is a small triangle. Bottleworks Lane gives the south end of downtown a full acre with a court, a playground and two dog runs.

The layout wasn't drawn from scratch. It follows the Silver Spring Downtown and Adjacent Communities Plan and public feedback from a 2022 open house and online survey.

The Name Points to What This Block Used to Make

Until last year, the working name was South Silver Spring Urban Park. Montgomery Parks held a public naming contest, and "Bottleworks Lane Urban Park" won with 71 percent of the vote. Kennett Street Urban Park was also on the ballot.

Henry Coppola, a planning supervisor at Montgomery Parks, explained the choice when the winner was announced:

"Bottleworks Lane Urban Park references the park's industrial roots while honoring the former Coca-Cola Bottling Works plant on the site and the nearby former Canada Dry Bottling Works plant."

So the lot has had at least three lives: a bottling plant, then an auto center, now a park. The name reaches back past the tire shop to when this part of Silver Spring bottled soft drinks. The same reuse runs through every other address on this list.

Across the Street, a Seven-Year Vacancy Ended in June

Emma's Torch opened its café and flagship Culinary Training Center at 1200 East-West Highway on Friday, June 12, 2026. The space used to be Scion Restaurant and NaiNai's Noodle Dumpling Bar, which closed for good in 2019. That's about seven years between the last dumpling and the first biscuit.

Emma's Torch is a New York City-based nonprofit founded in 2016 by Kerry Brodie. It runs a paid, 11-week culinary workforce program that ends in job placement. It's named for Emma Lazarus, the poet whose words are on the Statue of Liberty. Students come from more than 75 countries. Spokesperson Hallie Angelo said the Montgomery County location lets the organization "reach its prospective students where they are."

The Silver Spring facility replaces the group's café in D.C.'s Brookland neighborhood, which closed last year. The new space is more than four times the size, with about 60 seats, room to train more than 185 students a year, and space for private and community events.

It's a daytime café, built around breakfast and lunch. The menu includes an Egg & Cheese Biscuit on biscuits made in-house, Avocado Toast on ciabatta with pickled chilies and radish, and a Crispy Chicken Sandwich with shaved vegetable slaw and harissa mayonnaise. Pastries include a Smoked Cheddar Broccoli Tart and a Cinnamon Bun. With the park across the street, a morning dog walk and a sit-down breakfast now share one stretch of East-West Highway.

Two More Old Addresses Are Still Getting Ready

The next two reuses are underway, but neither restaurant had announced an opening date in the most recent reporting.

Dacha Beer Garden, which already runs locations in Shaw and at Navy Yard, signed a lease for 1115 East-West Highway. That's the former Denizens Brewing Co. brewery and taproom, which closed in 2023 after ten years. It sits directly across from the new park. By April 2026, demolition of the indoor and outdoor structures was underway. In January, co-owner Ilya Alter told Bethesda Magazine the project was still in Montgomery County's permitting process and the team hoped to open in the summer. The county's Board of License Commissioners approved the beer garden's beer, wine and liquor license in spring 2025. No opening date has been confirmed since then. The menu at the other locations draws on Bavarian beer gardens, with bratwurst, schnitzel and pretzels served with beer cheese and mustard.

Momiji Sushi & Izakaya is going into 1201 Fidler Lane, the former Cubano's Restaurant. Cubano's closed temporarily for renovations and then permanently in 2024, after more than two decades there. The building is 4,632 square feet and dates to 1942. The Cubano's in Bethesda is still open. As of September 14, Momiji was hiring for several positions and had filed for a use and occupancy permit in mid-August. Its liquor license was approved last fall. It has no website or social media yet, and its opening date is still unknown. It isn't affiliated with the former Momiji in D.C.'s Chinatown.

Here are all four addresses with their previous uses:

The vacancies were 2019, 2023 and 2024. The fill-ins are 2026 and whenever the two restaurants open. Each step has taken years, and the park is the piece that's already done.

What to Watch on This Stretch Through the Fall

Three things will show how much more of this block fills in by year's end:

1. A Dacha opening date. The beer garden directly across from the park has been in permitting and construction since at least January. A confirmed date would put a full-day food and drink business on the same corner as the court and dog runs.
2. Momiji's opening. With the use and occupancy permit filed in August and staff being hired, Fidler Lane's long-dark 1942 building is the closest of the pending reuses to opening.
3. The new retail building at The Blairs Shops. As of March 2026, construction had started on a new building on the East-West Highway side of The Blairs. The developer expects retail, an animal hospital and outdoor gathering space, but hasn't named tenants or a timeline.

For the rest of downtown, our Silver Spring neighborhood page and local's guide to weekend living in Silver Spring cover more ground. On this stretch, the park at 1110 East-West Highway and the café at 1200 are open now, and the other two addresses are still waiting on their opening dates.

Simone Velvel of The Velvel Group follows changes like this block by block, from a new park on a former tire lot to a restaurant getting its permits on Fidler Lane. If you'd like to talk about what's happening near your own corner of south Silver Spring, Schedule A Consultation.