On June 5, a new ice cream counter started scooping at 521 Maple Avenue West, in the space where Molly's Yogurt Shop used to be. By August 21, a Yemeni restaurant was serving dinner at 111 Church Street NW, where Le Bistro had been. Between those dates, Vienna gained a doughnut shop, a bakery, an espresso bar, a coffeehouse and a shawarma grill. Nearly all of them moved into spaces another business had left.
Vienna's food scene changed a lot this year, mostly inside existing storefronts, and the shift leans toward breakfast and the afternoon. Before 5 p.m. there are now many more choices than there were last spring. For dinner, the town mostly swapped one restaurant for another. The one big new dinner room is still behind a "coming soon" sign.
The storefronts behind the openings
The table shows each confirmed 2026 opening and what was in the space before it.
| New business | Address | What it replaced | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whistler's Ice Cream Extraordinaire | 521 Maple Ave W, Village Green | Molly's Yogurt Shop | June 5 |
| Bakeshop | 421 Maple Ave E | Skorpios Maggio's Greek Family Restaurant, closed June 2024 | June 20 |
| Shipley Do-Nuts | 256 Maple Ave E | A long-vacant former T-Mobile store | June 22 |
| Kin Espresso Bar | 145 Church St NW, rear of the building | Not reported | July 6, soft launch |
| Weird Brothers Coffee | 106 Lawyers Rd, Windover Square | 29th Parallel Coffee | August 10 |
| Mashahweez Shawarma and Grill | Vienna Shopping Center, Maple Ave W | Maru Korean Cuisine and Sushi | August 19, soft launch |
| Sheeba | 111 Church St NW | Le Bistro | August 21, soft launch |
Some of these spaces had been empty for a while. Skorpios Maggio's closed in June 2024, so Bakeshop's corner on Maple Avenue East sat waiting for about two years. Founder Justin Stegall told FFXnow that Vienna "was always the next spot for a Bakeshop," but no space suited the business until Skorpios closed. He also said the Vienna shop is bigger than the company's other two, with room for seating.
Whistler's got its space a different way. Owner David Galinsky noticed that Molly's Yogurt hadn't opened for the 2026 season. Molly's was run by the family behind The Italian Gourmet, the deli that has been in Village Green for more than 50 years. Galinsky asked to run a pop-up there for a couple of weekends, and then got approval to make it permanent.
Breakfast and the afternoon got most of the new choices
Five of the seven openings are mainly coffee, pastry or dessert shops. Opening hours as first reported show how early the day now starts on Maple Avenue and Church Street:
- Shipley Do-Nuts opened daily from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. FFXnow reported that its bakers arrive at 3 a.m. so the first customers can get the hexagonal glazed doughnuts hot. The menu has 40 kinds of doughnuts plus kolaches, which are enclosed sausage, ham or egg-and-cheese pastries. It's the chain's second Virginia location, after Lynchburg.
- Kin Espresso Bar opened at 7 a.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. on weekends. It serves ceremonial matcha from Japan, specialty coffee, house-made syrups and desserts. Manager Nicole Badraa said it's modeled on the Japanese kissaten, a style of coffeehouse built around attentive hospitality.
- Weird Brothers Coffee opened daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. It's the Herndon roaster's first franchise location. It serves breakfast sandwiches, burritos, paninis and pastries from Sterling's Baguette Republic, and sells a coffee blend made with Bunnyman Brewing.
- Bakeshop pairs cupcakes, cakes and macarons with breakfast sandwiches.
- Whistler's opened from 1 to 9 p.m. daily and serves French custard, a style of ice cream made with egg yolk.
These hours come from opening-week reports, so check each business's current schedule before you go.
Doughnuts got especially crowded. Shipley opened across the street from Texas Donuts, which arrived in December. FFXnow called it "a new contest between more traditional, Southern-style donut chains." Ice cream is crowded too. Whistler's joined Bruster's, Rita's, Toby's Homemade Ice Cream and Cafe de Vienna, and FFXnow reported that a combined Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin' was planned for the town.
Church Street had a busy year apart from food, too. In the same Kin Espresso Bar article, FFXnow reported that Bards Alley bookstore planned to move to 110 Church Street NW and that The Bamboo Room, a mahjong social club, planned to open at 101 Church Street NW in August. Those were plans at the time of that July report.
Dinner mostly traded one restaurant for another
The evening openings didn't add new spaces. Each one took over a dining room that had just closed.
Sheeba for Le Bistro. Chef Roberto Donna and Nancy Sabbagh Donna closed Le Bistro in early March 2026, about two and a half years after it opened. They sold the restaurant after what Sabbagh Donna called "an amazing opportunity" involving the lease. Their Roberto's Ristorante Italiano is still down the street on Church Street.
Sheeba took over 111 Church Street NW. It's a Yemeni and Mediterranean chain founded in Dearborn, Michigan, and this is its first franchise outside Michigan. Owner Nadir Naimi runs it with his uncle and business partner, Mohamad "Izzy" Alkibsi. More people showed up than expected at the soft opening, so Sheeba served dinner only, 5 to 10 p.m., at first. Naimi told FFXnow he hoped to move to 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends. Breakfast dishes such as shak-shookah and hummus with lamb or chicken are served all day.
Mashahweez for Maru. Maru Korean Cuisine and Sushi closed its Vienna location in March, after about 10 years in town. It moved all operations to its Merrifield restaurant at Providence Place Shopping Center. A worker there told FFXnow the owners chose a single location because of the economic climate and staffing challenges.
Ibraheem Alshawi and his son Abdullah, the general manager, took over the space. The family began serving shawarma at community events during the pandemic, and people kept asking when they would open a restaurant. Mashahweez planned a soft launch on August 19 with hours of 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. It planned to start with shawarma, fries, handmade falafel and hummus, and add kababs and other grilled dishes later. Abdullah told FFXnow that a grand opening would come "in a few months, once we roll out our full menu." The restaurant's site now lists regular hours and online ordering. FFXnow gives the address as 128 Maple Avenue West and the restaurant's site gives 126. Both put it in Vienna Shopping Center.
Le Bistro's French bistro food is gone from Church Street, and Maru's Korean and sushi menu is now in Merrifield. In their place are Yemeni and Iraqi menus. The number of dinner rooms stayed about the same, but what they serve changed.
Two storefronts that went dark
Two closures in late summer went the other way and left empty spaces behind.
ViVi Bubble Tea closed its Glyndon Plaza shop at 233 Maple Avenue East on August 30. It had opened in May 2024. Owner Yaya Zhang told FFXnow she would focus on her Fairfax City cafe at 9974 Main Street, where Vienna customers can still use membership points, rewards and gift cards.
Crumbl Cookies closed its bakery at 203 Maple Avenue East in Vienna Marketplace after six years. That location opened in early September 2020 as the chain's first in Virginia. Crumbl pointed Vienna customers to its Birch & Broad shop at 1106-A West Broad Street in Falls Church. The chain also has locations at Plaza America in Reston, Kingstowne Towne Center, Chantilly and Fair Lakes.
As of early October, we haven't seen any reported tenant for either space. Bakeshop's corner sat empty for two years before it reopened, so a vacant storefront on Maple Avenue doesn't always fill quickly.
The one new dinner room still on the way
The 2026 project that would add the most to Vienna's dinner choices hasn't opened yet. Electric Bull, an Argentinian live-fire steakhouse with a butcher counter, is planned for 176 Maple Avenue West. That's three doors down from Victor Albisu's Vienna Taco Bamba. Eater DC's fall preview, published September 8, says it will serve hanger, flank and flat iron steaks, South American-style short ribs, sweetbreads and a family chorizo recipe. Albisu brought in Pittsburgh chef and butcher Justin Severino as a partner and Adam Hoffa as executive chef.
The opening has already slipped once. In March, Northern Virginia Magazine described it as opening soon. Eater's September preview gives only "Fall," and as of October 10 the Electric Bull website still says "coming soon to Vienna, VA." Until there's an announced date, it's a plan, not a place you can book.
When it does open, it will be the only new 2026 dinner spot on this list that didn't take over another restaurant's dining room. Mashahweez and Weird Brothers have both said grand openings are still to come, so even the places already serving are still settling in.
I follow these changes because they affect how a home in Vienna fits into everyday life, from where the morning coffee comes from to which dining rooms on Church Street are open on a weeknight. If you're weighing a move within Vienna, or wondering how the latest changes on Maple Avenue fit into your plans, Monica Gibson would be glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
