The Halal Guys, lobster grilled cheese, more changes at the mall

Feb. 16th is opening day for The Halal Guys at Wintergreen Plaza, the first Maryland location for a business that started on the streets of New York City. The menu features chicken, beef and falafel dishes in platter or gyro form, topped with hot sauce or the restaurant’s signature white sauce. “We’re bringing the original New York food cart inside,” says Tony Pizzola, director of franchise operations. The Halal Guys will be open for lunch and dinner in the former Rocklands Barbecue space, with seating for 20 people and prices around $10. Catering will be added in the weeks to come, as well as delivery via Uber Eats and other services. To check out the menu, click here.

What’s this, you ask? Meet the Clobster, a crab/lobster mashup squeezed into a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s one of the signature items at Slapfish, the fast-casual restaurant we told you about last week that’s on the way to Montrose Crossing. Pricing is mostly in the $7 to $15 range for items like shrimp ceviche, lobster grinders, baja mahi sandwiches and surf-n-turf lobster burgers; beer and wine will also be served. Jon Friedlander and Mike Burke, local franchisees for the California-based concept, say they’re planning a rapid expansion in the D.C. area. The Rockville location, next to the new Honeygrow along Rockville Pike, is scheduled to open in June. For a preview of the menu, click here.

Still more vacancies to report this week in the Macy’s wing at Westfield Montgomery Mall. Teavana has closed its doors — part of a nationwide shutdown of the Starbucks-owned chain — and the imminent departure of Solstice will leave three empty spaces directly across from the Apple store. The storefront right next door to Apple also emptied out this week as clothing boutique Patrizia Luca Milano relocated to the Nordstrom wing. Who’s taking its spot? An Invisalign dental center. For a look at what else is coming to the mall in the next few months, click here.

Coming this spring to the Woodley Gardens shopping center in Rockville: Corner Market and Pharmacy, a locally owned grocery featuring on-site medical services and home delivery of your meds. The store is a new venture from the owners of Chevy Chase Supermarket, which is closing its doors after 60 years to make way for new construction in that area. Corner Market is scheduled to open in April at Woodley Gardens, best known as the home of Carmen’s Italian Ice and Hard Times Cafe.

This past Wednesday morning — one of those snowless snow days for Montgomery County Public Schools — a car apparently slid on the ice and crashed through a window of the Fresh Baguette bakery on Hungerford Drive. There was a similar incident last December at Rockville’s Kielbasa Factory, which is just now getting ready to reopen after nearly two months of repairs. But things went more smoothly at the bakery this week, where the owner offered the unharmed driver a cup of coffee and graciously made some jokes about drive-through service. The damage was patched temporarily, and Fresh Baguette was back in business a few hours later. For a video of the incident, click here for a report from Fox 5.