In October 2022, The Shops at Congressional Village sold at auction for $44 million. Store Reporter described it at the time as a half-empty center whose tenants included Armand's Pizzeria and Mosaic Cuisine. The buyer was Ivea Restaurant Group, which already ran a string of Rockville restaurants. Most of the businesses that have opened at 1701 Rockville Pike since then are concepts Ivea owns or franchises. That's why the place feels unusually consistent for a strip center on the Pike. The landlord and the restaurant operator are the same company, so the lineup works more like a menu than a leasing list.
That one fact explains most of the past four years on Halpine Road. It explains how quickly the center filled up. It explains why the newcomers share a theme. It also explains why the longtime tenants who left have such different stories from the ones who arrived.
A landlord that already had a restaurant portfolio
Ivea didn't arrive as a stranger to Rockville dining. When it bought the center, Store Reporter listed the group's existing restaurants: The Spot Asian food hall, Urban Hot Pot, Akira Ramen, Poki DC, Gyuzo Japanese BBQ, Kyoto Matcha, Lao Sze Chuan and bubble tea shop Gong Cha. According to the Washington Business Journal, Ivea planned to fill the property with international stores and restaurants new to the area.
For scale, the $44 million price was $11 million more than a Canadian firm had paid for Rockville Town Square a month earlier. A restaurant group paid more for one shopping center off the Pike than an outside investor paid for the city's downtown square.
The plan became public in February 2024, when Store Reporter named the coming restaurants: Kanpai, Kajiken, Uzu and Okaeri. They all opened within the next year, and other businesses followed them in.
The build-out, in order
| Opened, per Store Reporter | Business | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| July 2024 | Kajiken | "Soupless" ramen, including pork belly with nori and scallion, Old Bay shrimp, or plain noodles with toppings you choose |
| August 2024 | Okaeri Japanese Cafe | Flavored drinks, Japanese pancakes, mochi donuts, rice balls, sandwiches and savory plates |
| September 2024 | Kanpai | Southeast Asian BBQ and hotpot with an all-you-can-eat buffet and cook-your-own tabletop BBQ and shabu-shabu |
| November 2024 | Uzu Revolving Sushi | Plates arrive by conveyor belt or by robot |
| November 2024 | Teso Life | Asian variety store selling beauty and body care, snacks, housewares, toys and collectibles |
| January 2025 | Meow Claw | Claw-machine arcade with plush, anime figures and limited-edition collectibles in the former Snowbots storefront on the back side |
| June 2025 | Chateau de Rockville | Cafe and bakery with specialty coffee, tea, fruit drinks, and pastries and cakes baked on site |
As of Store Reporter's September 2026 coverage, all seven were still listed as part of the center. Store Reporter's November 2024 headline already called the place "Rockville's Asian supercenter."
The order says something too. The restaurants opened first, then retail and entertainment came in around them: a variety store, a claw arcade, a bakery. When a landlord also runs the kitchens, it can plan the center around the full trip. Ramen, dessert next door, then a few minutes at the claw machines.
Who left, and why it reads differently
The same transformation that brought in new concepts also cleared out tenants that had been there for years. In September 2026, Halpine Beer Wine & Deli closed after a decade on the back side of the center. Store Reporter counted it as the fourth longtime business to leave since the 2022 sale, after 7-Eleven, Gyroland and Armand's.
Armand's is the one with the longest history. The Chicago-style deep-dish chain started 51 years ago in Tenleytown and grew to 14 locations across D.C., Maryland and Virginia. It had shrunk to a single shop on Halpine Road, which closed June 20, 2026. That made this center the last home of a regional pizza name that started a few miles down Wisconsin Avenue. In the same report, Store Reporter noted that the Pizza Hut at 842 Rockville Pike had also gone dark.
None of these spaces has a named replacement yet. Store Reporter's Armand's story named no successor. Its Halpine Beer Wine & Deli story ended by asking who would open next. When 7-Eleven closed in 2024, the outlet reported "no word yet" on a new tenant. It guessed another Asian business would follow, and that was only a guess. Given everything else at the property, the guess makes sense. Nobody has confirmed it.
One nearby closing is easy to misplace. Mykonos Grill, a Greek restaurant just off the Pike since 1998, will close December 31. It sits at 121 Congressional Lane in the Congressional North shopping center, across the street rather than inside Congressional Village. The restaurant isn't disappearing, either. Owner Angelo Mitsotakis and his wife, Rodi Tzani, are moving to the Mykonos Restaurant they opened at Cabin John Village. "Eighty percent of the menu, the trout, the swordfish, the moussaka, the oven-baked potatoes, the bread, is going to be moving over from Rockville, and the prices will be the same," Mitsotakis told Store Reporter. The chef is moving with them. Mitsotakis also ran Gyroland, and its 2025 closing counted among Congressional Village's departures.
Across the Pike, a different kind of owner and a different result
Congressional Plaza is filling up too, but it's following a different pattern. Store Reporter expects Nordstrom Rack to open October 29 in the former Buy Buy Baby space. The outlet said the store will make the Plaza "the undisputed hub for off-price shopping in Rockville," next to Gap Factory, J. Crew Factory and Dick's Sporting Goods' Going, Going Gone! The new store will be 26,000 square feet, roughly 30 percent smaller than the Nordstrom Rack on Shady Grove Road, and for now the two are expected to operate side by side.
The food side of the Plaza looks like national chains filling open slots. Mango Mango House of Desserts, a New York-based chain built entirely around mango, opened the week of September 24 between Starbucks and Häagen-Dazs. This is its second try in Montgomery County. A location under different ownership had a short run at Downtown Crown during the pandemic. Spirit Halloween opened a seasonal pop-up above The Container Store, in the space Neiman Marcus Last Call and Roche Bobois once used.
Put the two centers next to each other and the pattern is clear. One side of the Pike is assembled tenant by tenant from national brands. The other is programmed by a single operator using its own concepts. Similar formats do show up on both sides. Store Reporter noted that Uzu works much like Kura Revolving Sushi, which opened a month earlier at nearby Federal Plaza. What separates Congressional Village is that so many concepts in one parking lot share an owner.
How to eat your way through the block
Since one company planned the center as a set, it works best as a single visit rather than a quick stop. Here's a sequence based on what each place offers:
- Start at Chateau de Rockville for coffee and something from the pastry case, since everything is baked on site.
- Browse Teso Life before you're hungry. The selection runs from snacks to housewares, and the snack aisle will tempt you.
- Choose lunch by how much time you have. Kajiken is the fast option, a bowl of soupless ramen. Uzu works when you want to graze, picking plates off the belt. Kanpai is for a longer group meal around tabletop BBQ or shabu-shabu.
- Save room for Okaeri. Mochi donuts and Japanese pancakes make dessert a separate stop.
- Finish at Meow Claw on the back side if anyone in your group can't walk past a claw machine.
If you have time after that, cross the Pike for Mango Mango. After October 29, the new Nordstrom Rack is in the same lot.
What to watch through New Year's
Three dates and three empty storefronts will shape this stretch over the next few months. Nordstrom Rack is scheduled to open at Congressional Plaza on October 29. Mykonos Grill's last day on Congressional Lane is expected December 31, and after that most of its menu moves to Cabin John Village. Inside Congressional Village, the former Armand's, Halpine Beer Wine & Deli and 7-Eleven spaces are still waiting on announced tenants. Whoever Ivea picks will be the next concept on the center's menu.
Things change quickly on this stretch of the Pike, and buyers and sellers in Rockville ask us what it means for the neighborhoods nearby. If you'd like a straight answer about what's opening, what's closing and how it affects your plans, Stacy Berman is happy to talk it through. Coffee at Chateau de Rockville works for us.
