Roaming Rooster, a D.C. Favorite for Fried Chicken, Will Move Into Maryland This Fall

Food truck-turned-local chain Roaming Rooster continues to cover the DMV with new locations selling its beloved buttermilk fried chicken sandwiches. Developer Federal Realty Investment Trust recently announced Roaming Rooster will open its first Maryland restaurant inside the Pike & Rose complex in North Bethesda this fall. The 1,843-square-foot outpost — Roaming Rooster’s sixth in the region — will serve its Nashville hot, Buffalo, and honey butter chicken sandwiches, along with wings, tenders, salads, sides, and an all-week breakfast menu with biscuit sandwiches. Roaming Rooster’s birds are free-range, grain-fed, antibiotic-free and halal.

A U Street NW location debuted last fall, followed by another D.C. locale in Tenleytown this winter. The fast-growing business from Michael Habtemariam, Biniam Habtemariam, and Hareg Mesfin is also headed to the redeveloped Western Market food hall in Foggy Bottom. and working on opening a spot in Skyland Town Center in Southeast. The Pike & Rose complex continues to come to life with a fresh crop of food options, with an incoming bagel shop from Call Your Mother and Melina, a new brand from the owners of Cava.

In other news…

• Daikaya Group announced its Navy Yard ramen restaurant, Hatoba, just revamped its menu to add a bunch of Hawaiian dishes. Chef Katsuya Fukushima’s father is a third-generation Hawaiian with Japanese ancestry. New additions include poke, loco moco, North Shore garlic shrimp, shave ice, and tropical cocktails.
• The recently renovated W hotel next to the White House is changing owners, which will signal a change for POV, the rooftop bar with one of the best views in the city. Washington Business Journal reports that the luxury brand from Marriott International will leave the property pending a sale from its current owner to a subsidiary of Newport Beach, California-based Pimco.
• The upper Georgetown space that formerly housed a Surfside (2444 Wisconsin Avenue NW) is slated to become a new American restaurant called Mario’s, per an ABRA filing.
• Morris American Bar hosts a week-long “celebrity tequila smackdown” through Saturday, July 31, with a five-flight face-off between labels from George Clooney (Casamigos), Kendall Jenner (818), The Rock (Teremana) and more.

• Beth Serowsky (Spilt Milk Tavern in Chicago) and Baylee Hopings (Bon Ton in Atlanta) advanced out of the Mid-Atlantic regions for Speed Rack, the all-female bartending competition that held its latest event at the Riggs hotel in D.C. The global competition has raised more than $1 million dollars in the fight against breast cancer.