Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company will be closing its Rockville restaurant later this month, the owner said.
The barbecue restaurant, at 819A Rockville Pike in the Wintergreen Plaza shopping center, will serve its last meal on April 16, owner John Snedden said Friday.
The landlord decided not to renew the lease, Snedden said. He said the restaurant had not been struggling and that the closing was not related to the recent opening of Mission BBQ in the same shopping center.
The space will be taken over by The Halal Guys, a brick-and-mortar branch of a popular New York City food truck serving Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. The Halal Guys plans to open in late summer or early fall.
Though he said he was “disappointed” the restaurant would be closing, Snedden said Rocklands Barbeque will have a continuing presence in the area.
“We enjoy serving all of our customers up in Rockville and look forward to continue doing it through efforts of our catering services and our food truck,” he said.
The food truck will appear at the Shady Grove farmers market on a biweekly basis in the summer, Snedden said, and caterers or the food truck will also make stops at pool clubs in the area and at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda.
The restaurant serves a barbecue menu with offerings including ribs, briskets, barbecue chicken and sandwiches along with sides such as barbecued baked beans and mint cucumber salad.
Rocklands Barbeque has three other locations—in Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, and in Washington, D.C.—which will remain open, he said.
