Moby Dick House of Kabob opened its North Bethesda location at 11431-A Rockville Pike on Monday, Moby Dick’s Chief Operating Officer Alex Momeni said.
The restaurant is known for its freshly made Mediterranean cuisine, including kabobs, gyros, rice, falafel, pita bread and hummus.
The restaurant’s soft opening was this week, and on Jan. 2, they will host a big event for the location’s grand opening, Momeni said.
At the event, the first 100 guests will get a free entrée, and throughout the day the restaurant will give away T-shirts, hummus and more, according to Momeni.
The franchise’s founder and president, Mike Daryoush, died in 2019, but Momeni said that his legacy is still very present in the restaurants, with his main goal of serving “food with character,” is always being carried out.
“The rule of thumb that we live by is making sure the food is always craveable, always delicious and obviously as healthy as possible without cutting corners,” Momeni said.
Food is cooked-to-order, and the only things that are pre-made are the dips, Momeni said.
The franchise has 26 locations in the DMV, including ones in Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Potomac, Rockville and Olney, but this is the first Rockville Pike location.
Moby Dick’s replaced the Verizon store that previously filled the space.
“As the area evolved and North Bethesda became its own ZIP code, we just knew all along we had to have one on the Pike,” Momeni said. “We were waiting for good real estate in that area, and then that previous Verizon store ended up becoming an opportunity that we explored further.”
Momeni said that the food chain is in the process of adding several more locations, including one in Burtonsville at 15701 Old Columbia Pike.