LeFantome Closing - End of April

As announced on Business Wire and Yahoo Finance -  First Washington Realty bought the retail portion of Riverdale Park Station on March 25th 2025 from Cafritz Enterprises.

Yahoo Finance story here

Financial details and more later announced in Biz Journals here

The entire thing sold for only 69 million which was a lower value than I would have expected considering the quality tenants but I guess the fact that 10+ locations still remain vacant and not even built out after 8+ years impacted the sale price.

A major casualty of this sale is LeFantome.

When this location was still not rented Cafritz Enterprises decided to build out LeFantome itself so this location was not actually being rented, just "self-rented" and managed by Cafritz.

Seems First Washington is in the business of renting locations to tenants and not self renting/managing locations like Cafritz was doing... so they are closing LeFantome and they are looking for a tenant to rent the location.

Their new rental site is here and LeFantome is available to rebrand/rent.

I do think the fact that this is already built and and has been very successful especially the last year means it will rent quickly, but they have informed all the kitchens/ghost kitchens that they have to be out by the end of the month.   

Chunky and Bops was already planning to leave at the end of the month (before the sale) as they have a new location in Landover which opens next month and they were the most popular at LeFantome.

Horu Sushi which was my personal favorite and the only restaurant which had been there since LeFantome opened back in August of 2022 will be gone.   This place had some of the best sushi I have had.

Munchin Burger which just opened in October 2024 in what was the original food pickup area is also out because that location is also part of LeFantome.

Other vendors which are out of a home at the end of the month with LeFantome closing are:

J&J Mex-Taqueria

Vegan Junk Food

Holy Croque (Chez Georgette)

The Exotic Chef

I wish they could have kept these vendors here but I understand First Washington not wanting to rent one of the largest properties in their development to themselves since they are in the business of collecting rent, not the business of running a food hall.

This was a large portion of my dinners over the past 2 years but the positive is all the other food locations here will probably see a pickup in business and also I do expect a new renter/operator will take over this space at some point.

Call Your Mother Food Truck - Soft Open on Friday

 

YOU'RE INVITED TO THE CALL YOUR MOTHER RIVERDALE FRIENDS & FAMILY PRE OPENING EVENT :)

Call Your Mother is doing the soft open of their food truck on Valentines Day.

They will have complimentary carbs and caffeine.

WHAT:
Call Your Mother Deli Riverdale Friends & Family Opening!

WHERE:

Call Your Mother Food Truck

Near Bear Square, parked in front of Starbucks on Van Buren in the pedestrian walkway

 

WHEN:
This Friday, 2/14

7am - 11am - Testudo will be there from 7:30am-9:30am

 

WHO IS INVITED:

Anyone who RSVPs

 

Please rsvp HERE and let us know if you're coming! 

Call Your Mother Food Truck arrives in Riverdale Park Station

The Call Your Mother Food Truck has arrived in Riverdale Park Station.

Here is the picture I took from inside Golds Gym this morning (2/2/25):

This is the same food truck that was in Bethesda, they moved that one which had been there for 5 years.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/01/29/call-your-mother-lil-deli-moving-bethesda/

Call Your Mother plans to officially announce this move on Tuesday and soft open next weekend.

It's open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.

Here is a link to the menu:

https://order.toasttab.com/online/call-your-mother-georgetown

I've been to this a few times in the different locations and it very good and hugely popular. 

My only issue with it is we already have a huge problem with people stopping on Van Buren in front of the Starbucks and run in and get a coffee, this will be that situation times 10.   In addition that large surface lot that is currently being heavily utilized is being sold off to another developer, so we will have to rely on folks not stopping and driving over a block to the parking garage which I am not sure is going to happen.

Here is a picture where I have put an X where the Call Your Mother will be and circled the large surface parking lot which is going away.

There are still 7 ground level retail locations that are empty and have been empty for 8 years here in Riverdale Park Station, so its a real shame they could not rent one of those.

This being said, I believe this will be massively popular and a huge draw for the area.  I know I will be using this quite a bit myself.  Overall I think its a good thing for the community.

Yogi Castle is Open! Plus other retail updates.

Yogi Castle is open as of today! (11/23/24)

We were the very first customers there today.

Nice to have this so close.  I think this location will do great business in the summer.

The Club Pilates that was announced here back in January 2024 is also going to open on December 7th 2024.

First classes are on that day.

The Roxa Bowl place that is next door to the Pilates also looks done.  They had less work to do since they just took over the Cafe Azul spot that closed.   Looks like Roxa Bowl will open in the December timeframe as well.  Probably waiting for the customer from the Pilates place. 

https://www.roxabowl.com/

Nice to see how all the retail has filled in.

They even put a small burger place in what was the pickup area for LeFantome next to Gold's which is part of LeFantome's vendor list.   

https://www.munchinburger.com/

In addition it does seem like business at LeFantome has picked up over the last few months and the vendors who have survived seem to be doing well.  None of them have left or gone out of business in the last 6 months or so which is good to see.   

LeFantome Getting a Philly Cheesesteak Place (and another Mexican place)

Chunky and Bop's cheesesteak and hoagie shop is coming to Riverdale Park Station June 1st.

Looks like something that will be one of my go to spots at LeFantome.  

https://chunkyandbops.com/

                                       

Another place called "J&J Mex-Taqueria" which is another Mexican themed restaurant is also opening at LeFantome.  With District Taco across the street the Mexican themed places here have not fared well, so we shall see.  

LensCrafters Open

LensCrafters here in Riverdale Park Station is finally open.  They said it was slow permitting and then they had some issues with the construction.

Good to have another non-food retailer here.

Riverdale Park Station Retail Updates + Pilates

First the bad news.   

Cafe Azul was evicted from Riverdale Park Station.  

This is the first and only retail location in Riverdale Park Station to close.  

They had issues paying rent and all their stuff was actually put out in the street on 11/14/2023

Also Le Fantome has been struggling mostly due to issues with management.

They have went through 4 different ordering systems in just over the first year it has been opened and during each conversion ordering was down for period of time, during the last conversion you could not order for 2 weeks unless you went in the store which is not very conducive for ghost kitchens.

They finally installed ordering touchscreens/kiosks which was desperately needed to keep the ghost kitchens alive, but by the time they were installed most of the ghost kitchens had already failed.   Also the kiosks didn't work very well and eventually were removed after only a couple months in service in Fall of 2023.  They still have not been added back as of today (01/06/24).  

All of the ghost kitchens except Vegan Junk Food have closed due to the lack of ordering kiosks and ordering system issues but there are still three vendors in the visible locations in the food hall.

These are the concepts that closed, in order of when they closed over the past year.  I may have missed one:

·        Mokbar
·        Bombay Kitchen
·        Laoban Dumplings
·        Alta Calidad
·        Fish Scale
·        Mission Burger
·        Greek Aroma      (this is really missed by me!)
·        Sonny and Sons
·        Money Muscle BBQ 
·        Mr. Bake Sweets    

The building itself is very nice and the location gets lots of foot traffic, they just need more effective management ASAP and need to fix the ordering kiosks and get them back and stop changing ordering systems so often.  It has a lot of potential to be good under the right leadership.

Now for the good news!

Riverdale Park Station is getting a Pilates Studio next to District Taco.

https://www.clubpilates.com/location/riverdalepark

Since Gold's does NOT offer Pilates this makes a lot of sense.  

This should also help out Le Fantome with even more foot traffic.

Also Le Fantome still has Horu Sushi which is probably the best sushi I have tried and was the only survivor from the original 10 Le Fantome kitchens for a good reason.  If you not tried Horu Sushi you should.  Really top notch.

They also replaced Sonny and Sons chicken sandwiches with what I think is a better chicken sandwich place, Hot Lola's.   Hot Lola's has very good chicken sandwiches' and you can choose your spice level which is nice.   

The also just added Holy Croque which is mostly French food like Croque Monsieur sandwiches.

In other retail news, Lens Crafters looks done.  Construction finally started at the end of 2022 and it looks like they are getting ready to open.

Yogi Castle which was announced way back in 2022 had lots of permitting problems and just got the permits it needed at the end of 2023.   Construction still has not started there so it's going to be a long while before this opens.   I am not sure how these businesses are willing to wait so many years to open and it seems like permitting around this area must be a very high bar.

The last thing that is coming here is Removery which is a laser tattoo removing business.

Construction on this is completed and it is slated to open in 10 days on 1/16/2024.

In addition, the retail leasing company also subdivided the empty location next to the FedEx Office location to make it available to rent just half of it, probably because no one has taken the leap to rent that whole space.

Glad to see more of these locations filling in.  It's been a slow process but it's getting there.

Cafe Azul opens on April 29th! (2023!)

Cafe Azul finally opens on Saturday, April 29th!

1.5 years later than expected but it’s finally happening.

Le Fantome is open!

Eater officially announced the other restaurants that will be in Le Fantome.

The article is really well done and is a must read:

https://dc.eater.com/2022/8/19/23313035/what-to-eat-at-riverdale-marylands-exciting-new-international-food-hall

I went tonight (Sunday, 8/21) the the pre-opening event and tried the three restaurants that had stalls.

Mokbar was my personal favorite but the sushi from Horu Sushi was also pretty amazing.

They also have a full bar in there.

The three restaurants with full time "stalls" on display are Sonny and Sons, Mokbar and Horu Sushi.

Bombay Kitchen, Dayo’s Kitchen, Fishscale, Greek Aroma Mediterranean Grill, Laoban Dumplings and Mr. Bake Sweets will all just have their kitchens in the back and they are not open yet, they will open in another week (or so) according to the manager.

The plan is to have kiosks where food from any of the other restaurants without stalls can be ordered and they will bring it out to you. 

This one food hall will have Greek food, New Orleans food, Sushi, Mexican, Nigerian food, Seafood, Chinese food and bakery to boot!

Riverdale Park Station continues to become the destination in really all of PG county.  This really is a huge win for the community.

Riverdale Park Station scores a bakery!

First Eater announced back on June 7th that Le Fantome at Riverdale Park Station was getting three top restaurants. 

I profiled that Eater story HERE 

Now on Instagram Le Fantome just announced that Mr. Bake Sweets is coming to Riverdale Park Station!

Finally a bakery in this area!

Information about the company is here:

https://www.mrbakesweets.com/

And here is the Instagram post:

I know they have also been working on crowdfunding a bakery down in Riverdale Park Town Center and they just hit their funding goal HERE, but this seems like this bakery at Riverdale Park Station is going to be a reality a lot sooner and may also be a bit fancier and more focused on sweets/cakes.