Gaithersburg's 33rd Oktoberfest fills Kentlands on Sunday, October 11, from noon to 5 p.m. It spreads across the Village Green, the Arts Barn, Kentlands Mansion, Main Street and Inspiration Lane, and admission and parking are free. Anyone walking from the Mansion lawn toward Market Street that afternoon will pass more covered windows and "coming soon" signs than Kentlands has had in years. Most of that paper marks the same change. Kentlands is cutting large single-tenant spaces into smaller ones, and it is renting those smaller spaces to operators who have never been here before.
The math is easy to follow. Two closed chain spaces are turning into five businesses. One stretch of parking lot is approved for three more buildings. A handful of Market Street restaurant spaces are changing hands to owners with family recipes and Montgomery County roots.
Two big boxes, five new tenants
The old Party City space was divided into three storefronts after the retailer closed. Wonder took the first one at 124 Main St. and opened on Thursday, August 13. Wonder works differently from a food court. One kitchen team prepares the whole menu, with much of the prep done at a central hub in New Jersey and dishes finished on site in high-speed ovens. A single order can combine a steak inspired by Bobby Flay, tacos tied to José Andrés and pizza from Brooklyn's Di Fara, all delivered in one bag.
VEG ER for Pets, also known as Veterinary Emergency Group, signed for the largest section of the old Party City. It will be the network's first location in Montgomery County. It is an emergency-only hospital, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no appointment needed, and it treats dogs and cats as well as birds, reptiles, rabbits and ferrets. STRONG Pilates was confirmed in July as the third and final tenant. No Gaithersburg opening timeframe had been announced at that point.
The former Buca di Beppo at 112 Kentlands Blvd. in Kentlands Market Square has been empty since June 2024 and is now being split in two. About half will go to Maman, the French-inspired café and bakery, and the other half to Mattress Warehouse. Tatte Bakery & Cafe had earlier been planned for the space before those plans changed. Maman opened its first location outside New York at 7140 Bethesda Ln. in Bethesda in June 2022. The menu runs to croissants, kouign maman, loaf cakes and beignets, plus the nutty chocolate chip cookie that made Oprah's Favorite Things list in 2017.
The same subdividing logic now reaches the parking lot at Kentlands Square. Saul Centers has approval for three infill buildings totaling 21,700 square feet between Giant/At Home and Chipotle/Lowe's. The Mayor and City Council approved the plan on April 4, 2022. The Starbucks drive-through building and the Shake Shack nearby came out of earlier approvals. Current leasing plans show four tenant spaces in the building closest to Chipotle, four more in the center building, and a standalone drive-through restaurant near Lowe's. No tenants have been announced, and no construction timeline is available.
Where each covered window stood as of early October
| Business | Address | Previous tenant | Last reported status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compari Trattoria | 72 Market St. | Caspian House of Kabob | Permanent sign up Aug. 26, windows still covered, no timeline |
| Arepa King | 109A Market St. | Potomac Cookie Co. | Construction underway, opening expected before the end of 2026 |
| Gina's Cucina Siciliana | 640 Center Point Way | Cinco de Mayo | Liquor-license hearing scheduled Oct. 1, no opening date |
| SWTHZ/Sweathouz | 107 Market St. W. | Poke Bros. | $800,000 city permit, construction began in September |
| Catlands | 375 Main St. | Baby Bar | Company site says October 2026, local report says by year-end |
| Maman | 112 Kentlands Blvd. | Buca di Beppo | Construction underway, no opening date |
| VEG ER for Pets | Former Party City | Party City | Signed tenant, no opening timeline |
None of these businesses has announced a firm opening day. We found no public result from Gina's October 1 hearing. Catlands' own site says October 2026, while the newest local report gives the wider target of year-end, so the lounge's own channels are the best place to check before stopping by.
The smaller spaces are going to owners with local roots
Arepa King shows most clearly who is taking these spaces. Owner Jorge Ramos graduated from Watkins Mill High School in 1994. He started in 2020 with a single food truck called Arepa Queen in Frederick County, opened a restaurant in Frederick's Westview area in 2023, then launched Arepa King as an independent brand. Its Hagerstown restaurant opened in February 2025. He spent more than a year looking for a Montgomery County location before choosing Kentlands, which he said "feels like coming home." The signature King Arepa, or Arepa de Pabellón, is filled with shredded beef, black beans, sweet plantains and cheese. Once a beer and wine license is approved, the plan includes Venezuelan and Colombian coffee plus Polar and Aguila beers. Installing the kitchen hood was described as one of the biggest steps left.
Gina's Cucina Siciliana is built on one family's effort to preserve the recipes of Gina, a Sicilian mother and grandmother who died in 2014. The menu draws on the regions of Agrigento and Messina, with arancini, spiedini, pasta puttanesca, chicken marsala and Sicilian pizza. Compari Trattoria has said only that it will serve "modern Italian dining." The menu, the owners and the interior have not been made public.
Catlands is billed as Montgomery County's first adoptable-cat lounge, built around the idea of "play, lounge, adopt." It takes over 375 Main St., where Baby Bar operated briefly in 2023 and where a planned salon never opened. Sweathouz offers contrast therapy, which alternates heat and cold. Its first Maryland location opened in March 2025 on Old Georgetown Road in North Bethesda.
What is already open on festival day
Two businesses that opened earlier in the year make good stops between beer tents. The Paper Heart Bookstore is on the second floor at 200 Main St., with its entrance next to Grilled Oyster Co. It soft-opened at the end of March. Owners Ashley Le and Mike Luu told The Banner they started the shop as a community "third space" after struggling to find one when their daughter was a newborn. In April they described plans for book clubs and a Friday '90s crafts night. Chew & Chill DIY soft-opened in July at 367 Main St., Suite 100. It pairs coffee, tea and desserts with projects like candle-making and cup decorating.
The festival is set up in three zones, each with its own music and food:
- Oktoberfest Green: The Alte Kameraden Band and Alt-Washingtonia Bavarian Dancers play from noon to 5 p.m. Beer comes from The Grape Escape Kentlands, Lone Oak Farm Brewing Company and Silver Branch Brewing Company. Food vendors include Little Austria, Swiss Bakery, Sherri's Crab Cakes and Old Smokey BBQ.
- Kentlands Mansion: Rock-A-Sonics play at noon and Magical Mystery Girls at 2:45 p.m. Dawson's Market pours wine. Kids get crafts, balloon twisting, inflatables and a pumpkin-painting fundraiser, and the Mansion Sensory Zone offers a quiet space with sensory toys and low-volume children's music.
- Main Street and Inspiration Lane: Stacy Brooks Blues Band plays at noon and Garrett Mabe at 2:45 p.m. Drinks come from Clear Skies Meadery, Dogfish Head Alehouse, Liquidity Aleworks, Saints Row Brewing and Waredaca Brewing Company. Maryland Brat & Butcher and Positive Vibes Jamaican Grill are among the food vendors. Free paint-and-sip classes, apple-pressing demos and a business expo on Inspiration Lane round out the zone.
Getting in and out of a closed Main Street
Street closures start at 6 a.m. and are expected to end around 9 p.m. Closed streets include Kent Square, Selby Street, Main Street between Midtown and Market Street West, parts of Kentlands Boulevard, Firehouse Lane, Hart Road and several segments of Inspiration Lane. The two circles on Kentlands Boulevard close to circle traffic from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The City also lists the Kentlands Boulevard crossovers and the parking-lot entrances at 7-Eleven and Whole Foods as affected. A free, wheelchair-accessible shuttle runs regularly during festival hours from satellite parking at 101 Orchard Ridge Drive, just off Quince Orchard Road.
The rest of October in Kentlands
The festival is only the busiest date on a full month:
- October 14: Brewing Bliss, a blend-your-own-tea session at Kentlands Mansion.
- October 17: The Kentlands Market Square Fall Festival and Artisan Market, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Kentlands Citizens Assembly holds its Little Entrepreneurs Market and Kentlands Yard Sale on the Clubhouse Lawn the same morning, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- October 16 to 23: The KCA Halloween house-decorating contest, which closes with a Halloween Happy Hour on October 23 at Kentlands Manor, 217 Booth St.
- October 29: Sugar Skulls for Día de los Muertos at Kentlands Mansion.
By the time the Market Square festival comes around, a few of those covered windows may have come down. The former Party City alone still has two tenants to open, and the Saul Centers pads have eight tenant spaces and a drive-through with no one signed.
Every new tenant on Market Street changes what a Kentlands address offers, and buyers notice when a café, a bookstore or a 24-hour pet hospital is within walking distance. If you own near Main Street or Market Square and want to know how this round of openings affects what your home is worth, The AG Group will put the numbers together for you. Request a Complimentary Home Valuation.
