Matchbox Pizza Lands in Silver Spring With Ginormous Meatballs and Spaghetti

Matchbox opens its latest location in downtown Silver Spring tomorrow, sprinkling in new lunch and dinner dishes with its familiar lineup of wood-fired pizzas.

Culinary director Jim Drost’s expanded menu at Matchbox No. 12 (919 Ellsworth Drive) includes a ginormous meatball served over herbed spaghetti; a grain bowl built around blackened chicken, avocados, and kale; and new pizzas topped with pork belly, jumbo lump crab, and corn.

The homegrown chain is on a fast regional expansion track. A representative for Thompson Hospitality Group tells Eater a lease was just inked for a Fairfax County location slated to open in early 2020 at 1900 Reston Metro Plaza Drive. The 5,500-square-foot space will include an expansive patio steps from the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station.

The 6,000-square-foot, 150-seat space in Silver Spring has separate lunch and dinner menus, a first for the brand since Thompson acquired it with an $11 million investment last summer.

Those day-to-night menus (with some items a little cheaper at lunch) will also pop up at new and existing locations soon. The newest locale will also run a burger of the month in partnership with Thompson’s fast-casual burger chain, Big Buns.

The new menu items join Matchbox’s months-old “Brunchbox” format on weekends that includes bottomless bloody marys and mimosas along with unlimited small plates such as mini “walk of shame” burritos and fried chicken and grits.

Deb Lindsey/Deb Lindsey Photography

Deb Lindsey/Deb Lindsey Photography

Deb Lindsey/Deb Lindsey Photography

Thompson’s regional blueprint for Matchbox calls for smaller, neighborhood-focused sites that sport an intimate pizza parlor feel. Streetsense’s design touches in Silver Spring include vintage flags, pizza paddles, and direct sight lines of its brick ovens.

This summer, Matchbox will also open a third Montgomery County location in Bethesda Row (7278 Woodmont Avenue), with 190 seats across 6,000 square feet.

Around that time, the bustling neighborhood near Capital One Arena will get a 4,500-square-foot Matchbox at 750 E Street NW in the former Hen Quarter space that closed near the end of 2018. That Penn Quarter location will replace Matchbox’s original location nearby, which will go dark soon.

The pizza chain already has eight restaurants in the D.C. area to go along with locations in Richmond, Virginia; Dallas, Texas; and Sunrise, Florida.

• Matchbox Is Moving Out of Its Original D.C. Location in Chinatown [EDC]
• Matchbox Pizza Adds Penn Quarter Location to Local Expansion Plan [EDC]
• Matchbox Pizza Plans to Open in Bethesda Row by the Summer [EDC]
• Thompson Hospitality Is Now in Charge of Matchbox Food Group [EDC]