When Junction Bistro, Bar & Bakery closed at The Collection on Aug. 28, Bethesda Magazine quoted a reader under the closing announcement asking why "everything" keeps closing in Chevy Chase. The list behind that question has gotten long. Over about a year, the Maryland side of Friendship Heights lost a food hall, a Latin American restaurant, an Irish pub and a bistro that served from breakfast through dinner.
The more useful question is what's taking their place, and the announced tenants have a lot in common. The list is a toast café, a Baltimore bakery, an all-day café with a wine bar, a children's gym and a veterinary clinic. Most of them do their business before dinner. Late nights have moved to one place, the renovated bar inside Clyde's.
The addresses that kept emptying
Two street addresses tell most of this story. The Collection, which CCLC owns and runs, uses 5471 Wisconsin Ave. for its restaurant spaces. CCLC is the company formerly called The Chevy Chase Land Company. The Shops at Wisconsin Place sits on Western Avenue next to the Friendship Heights Metro station.
| Space | What closed | When | What's announced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5310 Western Ave., Wisconsin Place | The Heights food hall | August 2025 | Toastique, building out now |
| 5471 Wisconsin Ave., The Collection | Joy by Seven Reasons | Dec. 21, 2025 | No successor announced |
| 5471 Wisconsin Ave., The Collection | Junction Bistro, Bar & Bakery | Aug. 28, 2026 | Cove, an all-day café and wine bar |
| 5471 Wisconsin Ave., The Collection | The Hunter's Hound | Late summer 2026 | Open Road |
| 5330G Western Ave., Wisconsin Place | Peet's Coffee | Before September 2026 | Kneads Bakeshop |
Every one of the closed places served into the evening and had a bar. The Heights was a food hall of roughly 10,000 square feet, with eight stalls, a Mexican restaurant and a bar. It opened in December 2023 and closed after less than two years, Bethesda Magazine reported. Joy by Seven Reasons arrived in October 2022 as a more casual version of the Seven Reasons brand from DC. It ran a little more than three years, according to The MoCo Show. Its space had already gone through one concept before that. Little Beet Table opened there in November 2019 and closed in March 2022.
Junction's closing was the one that got people talking, because the place looked busy. Its closing post said the Alexandria location was "open and doing great" and gave no reason for closing the Chevy Chase location.
What the replacements have in common
The clearest example is at 5310 Western Ave., where The Heights used to be. Toastique has a permit for a $578,000 buildout there, near The Capital Grille, The MoCo Show reported on Oct. 9. It's a fast-casual café with thick-cut toasts, smoothie bowls, cold-pressed juices and a full espresso bar. The grab-and-go case carries overnight oats, chia pudding and protein waffles. The first Toastique opened at The Wharf in DC, and this will be the brand's first location in Montgomery County. No opening date has been announced.
Kneads Bakeshop, a bakery and café from Baltimore, is going into the former Peet's Coffee space at 5330G Western Ave. The Wisconsin Place directory lists it as "Opening Fall 2026," and the Kneads site shows the Chevy Chase location as coming soon. Neither gives a date.
Across Wisconsin Avenue, Junction's old space at The Collection is going to Cove. The center's listing for Cove calls it "an entirely new all-day café and wine bar" from Metropolitan Hospitality Group, expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. Junction served breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, so the space keeps the same morning-to-evening hours and adds a wine bar.
Some of the newcomers aren't restaurants at all. My Gym, a children's fitness program, is listed at The Shops at Wisconsin Place as "Opening Fall 2026." Its online schedule shows classes starting Dec. 7, 2026. At The Collection, CCLC counted CityVet among the new tenants it signed in the fourth quarter of 2025.
A food hall with a bar is becoming a toast and espresso café. A coffee shop is becoming a bakery. A bistro is becoming a café with a wine bar. A gym class for kids and a vet clinic fill in the rest. Most of these businesses are busiest in the morning and early afternoon.
The one dinner restaurant in the lineup
Open Road is the main exception, and it's a known quantity. Metropolitan Hospitality Group, a restaurant group based in Falls Church, will open Open Road in The Hunter's Hound's former space. Bethesda Magazine described the menu as American food with a "nautical twist." Wings, pizza, burgers, steak frites, fish tacos, grain bowls and fajitas are all on the existing menus. The group already runs Open Road in Reston and Merrifield, along with CIRCA, El Bebe, Trio Grill, SALT and Heirloom in Northern Virginia and DC. Open Road and Cove are its first restaurants in Maryland.
MHG President Matthew Carlin explained the choice in the announcement. "It is an established community with a strong sense of place, excellent connectivity and residents who value quality dining and genuine hospitality," he said, as reported by The MoCo Show. When an established group expands into a new state, it usually leads with a concept it already knows how to run. Here MHG is pairing a proven grill-style menu with a brand-new café.
Joy's former space is still the open question. No successor had been announced when it closed in December. CCLC's September announcement put Cove in the Junction space, not Joy's.
Where the late nights went
The other half of the pattern sits across from Junction's old patio at Clyde's of Chevy Chase. In December 2025, CCLC announced that Clyde's had renewed its lease at The Collection. The plan included a new roof, refreshed dining rooms and a reimagined Race Bar that would become a live-event venue. Clyde's closed Nov. 1 through 5, 2025, while work began. By early February 2026, Eater DC reported the renovated bar was back with local live music on weekends.
Here's the Race Bar's weekly schedule as Clyde's lists it for this fall:
- Tuesday: Trivia Night starting at 7 p.m.
- Wednesday: Wine Wednesday, half off all bottles in the Race Bar from 5 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday: live bands or a DJ from 9 p.m. to midnight
That gives this side of Friendship Heights a bar with a band at 11 p.m. on a Saturday. The cafés coming in nearby are built around espresso, toast and pastry.
The next few weekends
This post goes up Thursday, Oct. 29. Here's what's on the calendar from here into November, in order:
- Through Saturday, Oct. 31: CityVet's Paws & Pumpkins at 5 Wisconsin Circle, with Halloween dog treats, pup cups, goodie bags and a raffle.
- Friday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m.: The Town of Chevy Chase Halloween party at Lawton Center Playground, 4301 Willow Lane.
- Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31, 9 p.m. to midnight: Vadim and Friends, then City Groove, in Clyde's Race Bar. Halloween night includes a costume contest with prizes of $300, $200 and $100.
- Sundays, Nov. 1, 8 and 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: The Sunday Commons Market, just over the DC line on the 5200 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW by 5210 Wisconsin Ave. There's no market on Nov. 15.
- Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: The Friendship Heights Alliance Holiday Makers Market & Street Festival. It runs along the west side of Wisconsin Avenue from Booeymonger's to Rodman's, between Jenifer and Garrison streets NW.
The fourth quarter ends Dec. 31, and that's the deadline the announcements set for Cove and Open Road. Toastique, Kneads and My Gym are all listed for this fall. My Gym's class schedule starts Dec. 7, which makes it the most specific date among the new tenants so far.
For more on the strip south of the DC line, our earlier post covers what changed on Connecticut Avenue this summer, and our Chevy Chase neighborhood page covers the wider area.
If you live near Friendship Heights and want to talk about how these openings fit with your own plans for the next year or two, The Velvel Group is glad to sit down with you. We'll walk through what the changes on Wisconsin and Western avenues mean for your block. Schedule A Consultation whenever it suits you.
