Since June, the Chevy Chase, DC stretch of Connecticut Avenue has picked up a seafood restaurant, a sushi counter, a coffee shop and its first citywide arts festival. None of them needed a new building. One took over a former market, one runs out of an existing kitchen, one doubles as a gallery, and the festival used storefronts that were sitting empty. The one ground-up project on the strip, the rebuilt library and community center at 5601 and 5625 Connecticut, has a Council hearing in November and an official opening target of early 2030. Until then, change here happens inside rooms the block already has.
Wheelhouse took a storefront the block already knew
Wheelhouse opened on Wednesday, June 10, at 5 p.m. at 5714 Connecticut Ave. NW. It's in the space that used to be Wine & Organic Market. The restaurant comes from Georgetown Events Hospitality Group, restaurateur Bo Blair and chef David Scribner. The concept is nautical, with Chesapeake-influenced American cooking, a raw bar, seafood, sandwiches, salads, cocktails and weekend brunch.
The online raw-bar menu lists oysters, littleneck clams, salmon carpaccio, tuna poke, hamachi crudo and ceviche. The hours matter more for an evening on this end of Connecticut Avenue. The restaurant's website lists:
- Monday to Wednesday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., bar until 11
- Thursday and Friday: 11 a.m. to midnight
- Saturday: 10 a.m. to midnight
- Sunday: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., bar until 10
On Thursday through Saturday, that puts a kitchen-and-bar room open until midnight a few doors from Chevy Chase Circle, inside a storefront that used to sell groceries and wine.
BirdSong's kitchen had room for a second restaurant
The clearest example of the pattern is at 5507 Connecticut. BirdSong is the Thai restaurant that restaurateur Aaron Gordon and chef Kitima Boonmala opened last year. On September 17 it also became home to MiShi, an izakaya and sushi pop-up. Gordon, who also runs Little Beast up the street, told Washingtonian why he could do it in the same space.
"Our kitchen in some ways is too big."
He also said that opening inside an existing restaurant helps chef Michael Kang keep prices down.
Kang came to MiShi from a wagyu beef company closely tied to the Japanese government, after stints at The Oval Room, Oyamel and Nobu. Its name pairs a personal name with "sushi." A request for more sushi helped start the project. It's billed as a pop-up, but Washingtonian reported it's likely to be permanent, closer to a second restaurant sharing one kitchen.
When you sit down, you get two menus and can order from both. Kang's side includes nigiri, sashimi and hand rolls, chawanmushi with uni and caviar, fries cooked in wagyu tallow, hamachi tiradito with mandarin, ají amarillo and persimmon, and soy-braised A5 wagyu shank over pine nut congee. You can also order a flight of different tuna cuts from a single fish.
BirdSong also started serving lunch on September 19, its first daytime service. Kang's dishes and a shorter Thai menu are available at lunch and dinner. So the same address went from one dinner-only restaurant to two concepts serving midday and evening, without adding a square foot.
Barista sells coffee and hangs local art in the same space
Barista, at 5520 Connecticut Ave. NW, was already in soft opening when PoPville reported on it August 11. That report mentioned cappuccino, a Nutella croissant and Wi-Fi, with planned hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. At the time, pastries weren't fully stocked yet. Those hours came from the soft opening, so check them before you plan an early stop.
Barista's other role is gallery. Ch/Art, the community arts nonprofit serving Chevy Chase in both DC and Maryland, describes Barista as a coffee shop that shows and sells its artists' work. The exhibit rotates every six to eight weeks. In practice, a storefront on the strip is now a standing exhibition space whose walls change about every two months.
September showed what the empty storefronts could hold
On Saturday, September 12, Chevy Chase hosted its first Art All Night, joining a citywide festival that covers all eight wards of DC. It ran from 4 to 10 p.m. inside businesses, on sidewalks and in vacant spaces along Connecticut Avenue, from Livingston Street to Chevy Chase Circle. Anna Claire Walker, interim executive director of District Bridges, listed live music, musical theater, improv, puppetry, comedy, pottery, art galleries and local vendors on the program, according to the Bethesda Beacon. District Bridges runs the festival with funding from the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development. Two glowing pedicabs carried people for free between the Chevy Chase and Van Ness Main Street events.
A week later, Chevy Chase DC Day returned on September 19, from 1 to 4 p.m., at Chevy Commons, the open space around the library and community center at 5601 Connecticut. That's the same land the city has picked for redevelopment. More on that below.
October on the strip and up the avenue
The fall calendar continues the arts thread. Two of the dates below are on the Chevy Chase strip, and the rest are a short trip south at Van Ness.
| Date | Event | Where | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu., Oct. 15, 7 to 9 p.m. | Trivia Night | Parthenon/Chevy Chase Lounge, 5510 Connecticut Ave. NW | 10% of proceeds benefit Chevy Chase Main Street |
| Sat. and Sun., Oct. 17 to 18, noon to 5 p.m. | Ch/Art's 7th Annual Art Walk | 35 homes and studios in Chevy Chase, DC and MD | Rain or shine |
| Fri., Oct. 23, 6:30 p.m. | Spooky Movie Night | Van Ness Main Street | Upper Connecticut Avenue |
| Sat., Oct. 24, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Octoberfest Artisan Pop-Up Market | 4340 Connecticut Ave. NW | More than 20 local makers and artisans |
| Sun., Oct. 25 | Spooktacular | Forest Hills Park | Followed by trick-or-treating along Connecticut Avenue |
Ch/Art posts the Art Walk schedule and map on its site. Looking further ahead, Chevy Chase Main Street's annual Winter Market is set for Saturday, December 5, from noon to 5 p.m., at 5500 Connecticut Ave. NW.
The one new building is still a hearing away
The library and community center are open as usual. The Chevy Chase Library at 5625 Connecticut lists these hours:
- Monday to Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Thursday, noon to 8 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.
The community center at 5601 Connecticut lists school-year hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Its facilities include an auditorium, a dance studio, an outdoor basketball court and a playground. No temporary location or move date has been announced for either one.
The rebuild is moving on paper. On January 16, 2026, Mayor Bowser selected Rift Valley Chevy Chase LLC to develop the site. The plan includes a 23,500-square-foot library, a 21,600-square-foot community center, 177 homes, about 8,000 square feet of retail and new public outdoor space. The next step is the DC Council. The bill to declare the site surplus and authorize its disposition, B26-0801, was introduced September 16. It has a public hearing set for November 12, 2026.
Here's the official timeline from the DC Public Library's June presentation, which notes the developer's schedule may change:
- Spring to fall 2026: building program and concept design
- Early to fall 2027: design development and construction documents
- Late 2027 to late 2029: construction
- Early 2030: opening
The city's May Q&A put construction at about 24 months. In September, The Wash reported that groundbreaking is expected in 2028, which is later than the official late-2027 start. The fairest reading is a start somewhere between late 2027 and 2028, with doors opening around 2030. Until then, the restaurants, coffee counters and arts events on this strip will keep working out of the storefronts already standing between Livingston Street and Chevy Chase Circle.
We'll be following the November 12 Council hearing on the civic core and how each phase affects the blocks around 5601 Connecticut. If you own near the strip and want to know what the next few years of construction and new storefronts could mean for your home's timing, Koki Adasi and the team can walk through it with you block by block. Work With Us.
