Laurel Avenue Is Closed to Cars Until the New Year. Here's How Old Takoma's Holiday Season Works Around It

The pavilions are switching sides of the street. Under the city's plan, the Laurel Avenue Streetery's pavilions and furniture move between October 19 and November 2 from the side of the block they've used since the pandemic to the opposite curb, clearing room over the buried gas main. Both lanes of Laurel Avenue have been closed to cars since October 19, and the City of Takoma Park's alert puts the end of the work at the end of December 2026.

So Old Takoma heads into the holidays with its best-known outdoor room still open but turned around. The construction runs only on weekdays, and nearly every holiday event on the calendar falls on a weekend, a Friday evening or an address a few blocks from the trench.

What's on the closed block

The closure covers a short stretch, but it's a busy one. Main Street Takoma's business directory lists these storefronts on the block:

• Takoma Beverage Co., 6917 Laurel Ave. Coffee, beer, cocktails, wine and small plates.
• Park Florist, 6921 Laurel Ave.
• Magic Carpet, 6925 Laurel Ave.
• Tabletop, 6927 Laurel Ave.
• The Post Office, which the city's notice names specifically as a place pedestrians must still be able to reach.

The Sunday Takoma Park Farmers Market sits behind those shops too. Its entrance is next to Truist Bank at 6931 Laurel Ave.

WUSA9's list of businesses likely to be affected also reaches around the corner. It names Spring Mill Bread, Cielo Rojo, Gusto Gelateria, Dolci Gelati and The Girl and the Vine. Main Street Takoma lists Gusto Gelateria at 7000 Carroll Ave, Cielo Rojo at 7211 Carroll Ave and Spring Mill Bread Co. at 7300 Carroll. Those spots are close enough to share foot traffic with Laurel but sit outside the barricades.

Washington Gas told the city it will put up barricades and other protective measures so people can still walk safely to every business and the Post Office on the block. The block is still open on foot, just not by car.

Why the city moved the Streetery instead of taking it down

The Streetery started as a pandemic measure. In July 2021, the Takoma Park City Council passed a resolution calling it a popular place for outdoor dining and gathering, and it set Laurel Avenue's lane closure to renew automatically each year. One lane has been closed to cars since June 2020, more than six years. Through December, both are.

The gas main happens to run under the Streetery's side. The city's plan moves the pavilions and furniture across Laurel for the length of the project. When the work is done, they go back to their permanent spot and the traffic side reopens.

A WUSA9 report on the businesses shows what those seats are worth. Chris Brown, who owns Takoma Beverage Company, told the station his place has about 40 seats inside and more than 50 on the Streetery, and that he staffs extra people every shift to cover the outdoor tables. For a café on this block, outdoor seating is more than half the room. Brown also told WUSA9 that taking down his pergola and putting it back up later would cost about $25,000. Being able to keep that seating, he said, "would totally change our fall."

The pull reaches past the restaurants. Elizabeth Brinkama, a manager at Tabletop a few doors down, told WUSA9 that the Streetery "draws so many people." In the same report, some neighbors worried about cut-through traffic. They remembered more trucks and cars on nearby streets when a lane first closed during COVID. The plan the city posted on October 9 keeps the seating and closes the whole street, which is still the arrangement on its alert page.

The crew works weekdays. The season mostly doesn't.

The city scheduled the gas-main work to start November 2, with crews on site from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The street stays closed around the clock, but the digging, machinery and noise are a weekday thing. Old Takoma's holiday calendar mostly lands somewhere else in the week:

Of the six, only Crossroads falls inside the crew's hours, and it's on University Boulevard, nowhere near Laurel. The Gift Market starts at 5 p.m. on a Friday, the same hour the weekday crew is scheduled to stop. Everything else is on a Saturday or Sunday.

The table also shows how spread out the season is. The Flea/Art Market and Pajamarama are both across the line in Takoma, DC. The Gift Market sets up at the Junction end of Carroll. The farmers market is the only event on the list that actually lives on the closed block.

A closer look at the weekends

The Flea/Art Market, Saturday, Nov. 28. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Seekers Church hosts more than 17 vendors, along with a jazz quartet, a bilingual storyteller and a coffee pop-up, according to Main Street Takoma's listing.

Pajamarama, Sunday, Dec. 6. Shoppers who show up in pajamas get discounts from 8 to 11 a.m. An outdoor holiday market runs beside the Takoma Theater from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Laurel Avenue farmers market is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. that same morning, so the two overlap.

The TKPK Gift Market, Friday, Dec. 11. Main Street Takoma calls it a holiday night market with local makers and collectors, food and drinks by a fire, and holiday lights. It's held outdoors, it's free, and the page says street parking is available.

The Cocoa Crawl, Saturday, Dec. 12. You can hit one participating café or several. Some offer grown-up versions of their cocoa, and each place sets its own sizes and prices, served in single-use mugs or to-go cups. Main Street Takoma's event listing has the date as December 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. The headline on its featured-event page says Saturday, December 19, though the date field on that same page says December 12. Check with Main Street Takoma before you plan around it. The list of participating businesses on that page is from an earlier year, so the 2026 lineup could be different.

The Crossroads market's last Wednesday, Nov. 25. It's the day before Thanksgiving, and the market's 2026 season ends that day. The Laurel Avenue market keeps going on Sundays year-round.

Across town, a new pub on Flower Avenue

While Laurel is torn up, the newest restaurant in Takoma Park is on the far side of the city. Brad Feickert, the chef-owner behind Soko Butcher and Koma Café, is opening MilePost 7 Pub in the Flower Avenue space where Mansa Kunda used to be. Source of the Spring reported on October 13 that the pub was hiring for every position ahead of an opening "in the coming weeks." No firm date has been announced.

According to that report, the plan includes a daily $5 happy hour, full dinner service, weekend brunch, sports on TV and live music. The menu will be built around a dry-aged pub burger, and an ice cream and candy shop will be tucked into the back of the space. The name comes from the location, which sits between railroad mileposts 6 and 8, a nod to Takoma Park's history as an early railroad suburb. Feickert told Source of the Spring he wants it to feel like "the kind of pub you find in a small town."

MilePost 7 will open before Phia, Feickert's Appalachian fine-dining restaurant in the former La Mano Coffee Bar space. Phia is taking longer than expected. Mansa Kunda, which opened on Flower Avenue under Hatib Joof, is moving to Takoma, DC.

When the street reopens

The city expects Washington Gas to finish by the end of December 2026. Then the pavilions and furniture go back to their usual side, and the traffic lane reopens. If you have questions before then, the city lists Public Works Director Daryl Braithwaite as the contact at 301-891-7615.

If you'd like to talk about what Takoma Park's in-town blocks are like to live near, or what a street that's been half-closed to cars for more than six years means for the homes around it, Stacy Berman is glad to compare notes. Contact Stacy.