A food hall currently being built out at the Ellsworth Place shopping center in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, has the first two of a planned dozen food vendors lined up.
Gaithersburg-based DMV Empanadas, from Bolivian brothers Marco and Nacho Almaraz, will bring their hand-held meals to the food hall. They’ve also been selling their empanadas at area farmers markets for a decade. Its website calls them, “The Best Empanadas in the DMV.”
Trini Vybez, launched as a food truck in 2020 and with a popular farmers market following, will serve Trinidadian street food, including curries and roti.
Cana Development, which will manage the food hall called “Commas,” is assembling what it expects to be a collection of 12 food and beverage merchants representing a range of international cuisines, and all from local chefs and restaurateurs.
On its list for the 13,000-square-foot food hall are cuisines from Ethiopia, Korea, Malaysia, El Salvador and others.
No firm opening date for Commas has been set, other than sometime in 2022.
The food hall’s name, Commas, is named for the symbol used to separate items in a list, a reference to the number food styles, and ways to dine and socialize at the food hall.
Ellsworth Place, at 8661 Colesville Road, is about a block away from The Fillmore Silver Spring music venue.
GBT Realty Corp acquired the shopping center in 2018.
Cana also operates the recently-opened Western Market food hall in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom and the soon-to-open The Bevy food hall at Bryant Street, Northeast.
