Rockville Town Square Is Growing Toward Its Trader Joe's Side This Fall

Since mid-October, a trailer on North Washington Street has been selling Colombian coffee and empanadas at 7 a.m., across the street from Trader Joe's in downtown Rockville. A short walk down the same block, a Colombian café opened in late September. A year ago neither was there.

Over the past few months, the openings and moves around The Square in Rockville Town Center have kept landing on the same side, the one that faces Trader Joe's. That side now opens before the ice rink on Gibbs Street, and the rink closes later than anything else nearby. Here is how the town center looks the week the season starts in earnest.

The side that faces Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's opened at 225 North Washington Street on June 12, 2025, in the space Dawson's Market used to occupy. A power outage pushed the planned 9 a.m. opening back to 1 p.m., according to Store Reporter.

Sixteen months later, three changes this fall all point toward that end of the block:

1. Bogotá Coffee House opened the week of September 24 at 115 North Washington Street, across from The Square.
2. La Poteria Local parked a Colombian food and coffee trailer farther down the block, across the street from Trader Joe's, by mid-October.
3. Nature by Trejok, a boutique that has been at The Square for six years, moves from Unit B to Unit D at 130 Gibbs Street starting Friday, October 30. The new space faces the Trader Joe's parking lot.

Coffee on North Washington Street, starting at 7 a.m.

The trailer opens first. La Poteria Local serves daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its menu includes house-made Colombian coffee, puff pastry empanadas, pandebono, and pandebono waffles. The owners, Andrés Londoño and Monica Pulecio, also run trailers at Clarksburg Premium Outlets and a café in Montgomery Village. Rockville is their first location here. Londoño told Store Reporter that the hours may change "as we get a feel for the neighborhood and what works best for our customers." If you're planning an early stop, check before you go.

Bogotá Coffee House is built for staying longer. Marcela Serpa and Carlos Eduardo Isaza, a married couple, own it. They serve croissants and waffles alongside pastel de pollo, a chicken and mushroom pie, plus palitos de queso and pandebono. The drinks include specialty lattes, matcha, smoothies, frappés, and bonbon coffee, which is hot espresso poured over sweetened condensed milk. Store Reporter's opening coverage says the shop is designed for lingering, with plenty of places to plug in a laptop.

Both shops sell pandebono, the Colombian cheese bread. If you want to compare, you can try one at the trailer and one at the café in the same walk. With the trailer's version folded into a waffle, they come out quite different.

Gibbs Street, from brunch to the boutique move

Head south from North Washington Street toward the rink and you reach Gibbs Street, which has had its own turnover this year.

Fork & Kitchen opened in February at 150 Gibbs Street. That space was home to Bar Louie for years and most recently to Èkó House. The father-and-son owners, John Sarsah and Lewis Asare, also run South House Garden in Gaithersburg. The menu is mostly Southern, with seafood grits, crab cakes Benedict, and biscuits with gravy, plus classic American dishes and a full bar. It serves brunch, lunch, and dinner, per Store Reporter.

Koala Kreme held its grand opening on Saturday, June 20, at 100 Gibbs Street, Unit I. That was the Marble Slab Creamery space, which had been at The Square for more than a decade before closing in September 2025. The menu runs from frozen yogurt and soft-serve to floats, sundaes, cakes, milkshakes, and smoothies.

Nature by Trejok makes its short move on Friday, October 30. The woman-owned boutique carries vintage and contemporary styles. That includes clothing made at its Rockville location, shoes handmade in Brazil under the direction of Dr. Kenia Garcia, and home décor and crochet pieces made by Garcia's mother, according to The MoCo Show. It reopens in Unit D at the same 130 Gibbs Street address, facing the Trader Joe's lot.

The rink runs later than anything else on the block

The coffee trailer closes at 2 p.m. The outdoor rink at 131 Gibbs Street opens at noon on weekdays and stays open until 10 or 11 p.m. Between the two, there is something to do on this block from early morning to late evening.

The rink opened for the season on October 22, The MoCo Show reported. Visit Montgomery lists the season as running through February 28, 2027.

Prices for the 2026–27 season:

A family of four that walks up and rents skates pays $4 more than one that books online. Walk-up tickets also depend on space being available. The rink's own site says sessions do sell out. Tickets can be bought up to two weeks ahead and cover up to two hours of skating. The rink asks skaters to arrive within 10 minutes of their reserved time, and it validates two hours of parking.

Standard hours:

• Monday through Thursday: noon to 10 p.m.
• Friday: noon to 11 p.m.
• Saturday: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
• Sunday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The holiday schedule opens earlier and stays open late. Hours are 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, December 26 through 30, and New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve the rink closes at 9 p.m. Hours also run longer on days when school is out.

The operator, Tristate Ice Management, offers group lessons on the same ice. Options cover aspiring hockey players, beginning figure skaters, and adults getting back on skates, and more class times are added during the season.

Two Maryland Avenue storefronts still to come

On the Maryland Avenue side of The Square, two announced tenants have not opened yet.

iSMASH is coming to 36-C Maryland Avenue, next to Dirty Dough, in the space the Rockville Science Center used to occupy. Permanent exterior signs went up in early September, The MoCo Show reported. It will be the company's first Montgomery County location. The plans include rage rooms, where guests break glassware, electronics, and furniture with bats and sledgehammers, and a Splatter Paint room, where they throw neon paint under blacklights. Splatter Paint is open to children as young as 3. No opening date has been announced.

Huntington Learning Center has also been announced for 36-F Maryland Avenue. It will offer in-person, online, and combined tutoring, and no opening date has been given.

December 4 brings a new market to Gibbs Street

The next big date at the town center is the City of Rockville's annual Tree Lighting. It runs Friday, December 4, 2026, from 6 to 9 p.m. at The Square, 36 Maryland Avenue. The city's event page lists live music, local performance groups, ice skating, and photos with Santa.

The new piece this year is the Gibbs Street Holiday Market, a place to shop for gifts during the lighting. The vendor application is open to nonalcoholic food and beverage, alcohol, merchandise, services, and nonprofits. It carries a $200 fee, and applying doesn't guarantee a spot.

The Square is also partnering with Toys for Tots. Bring a new, unwrapped toy to the lighting and you are entered in a raffle.

There's more holiday shopping the next morning in a different spot. The city's calendar lists a Holiday Bazaar on Saturday, December 5, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Rockville Senior Center, not at The Square.

If you want to talk through how a walkable town center like this fits into your plans for where to live next, the Katie Bocock Team is glad to compare notes over a cup of coffee, Colombian or otherwise. Contact Us.