The East-West Highway Corner Now Runs From Breakfast to Sundown

For most of the past seven years, the block of East-West Highway between Kennett Street and the old Denizens building held a tire shop, a dark restaurant and a lot of through traffic. As of this fall it holds a one-acre park with two dog runs, a nonprofit café that serves brunch every day, and the shell of a beer garden that hasn't opened yet. None of it is a new tower. All three are old buildings and lots that finally changed hands. Put together, they give South Silver Spring a corner that can carry a whole day, apart from the evening.

Two footprints that waited a long time

Start with the restaurant space at 1200 East-West Highway. Scion and NaiNai's Noodle Dumpling Bar shared it until both closed for good in 2019. Emma's Torch, a nonprofit from New York, signed a lease and ran a capital campaign to build out the space. It opened the café and its flagship Culinary Training Center to the public on June 12, 2026.

Across the street, the wait was longer and messier. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission paid $7.5 million in 2021 for a one-acre industrial site between East-West Highway and Kennett Street. National Tire and Battery used to operate there. Construction started in 2023. Before anything could be planted, Montgomery Parks had to clean up contaminated soil left over from the auto center years. The ribbon-cutting was set for Friday, September 18, from 5 to 7 p.m., with food and beer trucks and a School of Rock set. By late September, the Montgomery Parks profile page showed photos of the finished court, games area and seating.

The name looks back at what this block used to make. A public vote picked "Bottleworks Lane" with 71 percent, ahead of South Silver Spring Urban Park, which had been the working name, and Kennett Street Urban Park. Henry Coppola, a planning supervisor at Montgomery Parks, said the name "references the park's industrial roots while honoring the former Coca-Cola Bottling Works plant on the site and the nearby former Canada Dry Bottling Works plant."

What fits on one acre

Downtown Silver Spring has had only one other new urban park in recent years. That's Gene Lynch Park, the triangle at Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue. Bottleworks Lane packs a lot more onto its acre:

• A multipurpose court for basketball, futsal and open play
• An outdoor fitness area with equipment for all levels
• Ping pong, cornhole and bocce
• A playground for a range of ages, with nature-play features
• Dog runs, one for large dogs and one for small dogs
• Picnic tables, lawn, and a plaza and terrace for small gatherings

Montgomery Parks director Miti Figueredo said the park brings "much-needed park space to downtown Silver Spring where neighbors can get together and enjoy time outdoors."

The dog runs are the feature most likely to become part of a daily routine, and the county's rules are short. Handlers need a leash within reach, can bring up to three dogs, and have to clean up after them. Food and glass containers aren't allowed inside, and children under 16 need an adult with them. The page retrieved for this post listed no hours specific to Bottleworks Lane. Under the county's general rules, parks are open sunrise to sunset unless something else is posted. As October days get shorter, an after-work visit to the dog run has a firm cutoff.

Breakfast across the street

The park works as part of a day because of what's across the road. Emma's Torch now lists daily hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1200 East-West Highway. That's wider than the Tuesday-through-Sunday schedule it opened with in June. Washingtonian included it in a July roundup of new brunch spots, noting brunch served daily with brown-butter pancakes, steak and eggs, and shakshuka. The daytime menu at opening included an egg and cheese biscuit on a house-made biscuit, a crispy chicken sandwich with harissa mayonnaise, and pastries like a smoked cheddar broccoli tart and a cinnamon bun.

Two details from the launch have since been updated. The café now advertises lunch on its patio. Its FAQ says the location can serve wine and beer only, so the cocktails mentioned at launch are not on offer.

The kitchen runs a training program, which explains why the place is bigger than a typical café. Founder Kerry Brodie started Emma's Torch in 2016. Students go through a paid, 11-week culinary program that ends with job placement. They come from more than 75 countries. The Silver Spring space replaces the organization's former café in Brookland and is more than four times its size. It seats about 60 and can train more than 185 students a year, with room for private and community events.

The corner, by the clock

Put the hours side by side and you can see where the coverage stops.

Breakfast, lunch, a game of bocce and a dog run before dark now all fit within one block. After dark, everything on East-West Highway itself is still waiting.

The building that would finish the day

Dacha Beer Garden is coming to 1115 East-West Highway, the former Denizens Brewing Co. brewery and taproom. Denizens closed in 2023 after ten years. Dacha already runs locations in Shaw and at Navy Yard in D.C. It serves German, Belgian and American craft beers along with Bavarian-style food like bratwurst, schnitzel, and pretzels with beer cheese.

Here's where it stands as of early October. Its beer, wine and liquor license was approved in spring 2025. Source of the Spring saw indoor and outdoor demolition underway in April 2026. Co-owner Ilya Alter had told Bethesda Magazine in January that the team hoped to open in summer, depending on county permitting. Summer has passed. Dacha's own website still lists hours only for Shaw and Navy Yard. The most recent local report with timing details, from April, said no opening date had been set, and no announced date has turned up since. When Source of the Spring previewed the park opening in September, it still described the park as sitting "across from the upcoming Dacha Beer Garden."

Once Dacha opens, the park and the beer garden will face each other across East-West Highway. Until then, evenings in South Silver Spring happen a few blocks over on Georgia Avenue.

Where the evenings are for now

Third Hill Brewing's October calendar is the most concrete evening plan in the area right now. The Tuesday Pub Run goes on October 6, 13 and 20, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. NonTraditional Board Games runs the same Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Trivia is on Thursdays, October 8, 15 and 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. A Karaoke Party is set for Saturday, October 10, from 7 to 10 p.m. Across the street at 8229 Georgia Avenue, Society Seafood House opened in April after the former Society Restaurant & Lounge closed in February to rebrand and renovate.

If you'd rather pick something up for a picnic table at the park, Buna & Barley at 901 Silver Spring Avenue sells Ethiopian groceries, snacks, grab-and-go meals, and beer and wine. It was soft-open with limited hours as of August. Locavino at 8519 Fenton Street started selling beer and wine again in August after its new license was approved.

Two October dates up the hill

The new dog run sets up well for Fall-O-Ween at Veterans Plaza, 1 Veterans Place, on Sunday, October 25. It's free, family- and pet-friendly, and runs rain or shine from noon to 5 p.m. The day includes costume parades for kids and for pets, plus crafts and treats. Downtown Silver Spring's 2026 Veterans Plaza guide lists the Silver Spring Ice Rink's season as October through April. Next on the downtown calendar is the Montgomery County Thanksgiving Parade on Saturday, November 21, at 10 a.m. It starts at Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street and heads south on Georgia Avenue.

Kerri follows openings like Bottleworks Lane and the Dacha build-out because block-by-block changes like these shape daily life around Silver Spring. If you want to talk through what's changing near your street, or what a new park across the road means for a home you own or are considering, Kerri Murphy is happy to walk through it with you. Let's Connect.