Breads Unlimited and Pizza, a Jewish bakery and pizza eatery, is set to open a location in Kensington this summer, combining two family businesses into one offering breads, pastries and pizza made onsite, according to owner Roberto Molina.
“The only things we don’t make ourselves are the sodas and coffee, but hopefully, we’re going to roast our own coffee soon,” Molina said.
Molina is combining his two businesses — Breads Unlimited and Edith’s Pizza — which are in the same shopping center in downtown Bethesda, into a new spot at 10303 Kensington Parkway. It will be in a retail center anchored by Johnson’s Florist and Garden Centers.
Breads Unlimited is a family business that opened in Bethesda in 1980 at 6914 Arlington Road. The bakery serves classic Jewish foods, such as challah bread and hamantaschen, as well as a variety of other breads, pastries and sweet treats. One of the bakery’s most well-known desserts is a cronut — a fusion of a croissant and a donut – which was featured as an editors’ pick for “Most delicious deviations on a croissant” in Bethesda Magazine’s 2025 Best of Bethesda issue.
In 2021, the bakery was one of the runners-up as a readers’ pick for Bethesda Magazine’s “Best Place to Buy Bread” honor, which is part of the magazine’s annual Best of Bethesda awards.
Molina bought the bakery from a Jewish family in 2019, and he and his wife Edith, along with their sons, are very hands-on with the business. While his family isn’t Jewish, he says they still make and value the traditional Jewish foods and recipes served by the previous owners.
“We have the original books from the previous owners’ great-grandfather, and they’re barely held together,” said Roberto Molina Jr., one of the owner’s sons. “In those recipes, you see the intention, details and the pride.”
Molina Jr. said he appreciates the area’s Jewish community because his family’s business, like many others, struggled during the pandemic, and the community continued to support them.
“The Jewish community was amazing for us because they always continue to support us through the holidays,” Molina Jr. said. “Even through Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah and Passover, they were still ordering with us and making sure we had our doors open.”
In 2022, Molina and his family opened Edith’s Pizzeria — named after Edith Molina — next door to their bakery. Molina said the pizzas may mimic New York-style pizza, but he calls it “our style” because of the special touches the restaurant puts into each pie.
He said the pizzeria shreds its own cheese from fresh blocks they get each day, uses four types of tomatoes in the sauce and allots extra time for the pizzas to “develop” in the oven.
Molina Jr. said his family decided to combine the two businesses, so people can get everything they need in one place.
“We’ve already been having a lot of great success having the two locations next door to each other because a lot of customers that come into the pizzeria place an order, and while they wait for their orders, they go to the bakery, and then they come on back,” Molina Jr. said.
He said the Kensington spot will be split down the middle, with the bakery on one side and the pizzeria on the other, which he hopes will be a model for future locations too. He said his family aspires to continue expanding their restaurants into other suburbs like North Bethesda, Potomac and Rockville.
Shopping center transitions
The restaurant will fill the space left by Growing Years Consignment Shop, which closed in November 2023 after 30 years of business. This was the third decades-old business to shutter in the Kensington Parkway shopping center recently.
The center’s barber shop, auto repair shop and Kensington Television Services were replaced by Carmen’s Italian Ice and BabyCat Brewery over the last few years.
This is part of an effort by Willco Companies, the landlord of the retail center, to modernize the businesses there, according to the Montgomery Newsletter, an independent newsletter on real estate development in Montgomery County. Willco purchased the center for $7 million in 2011.
Molina said he’s still getting the permits secured for the construction of Breads Unlimited and Pizza and expects it to open in around six months. However, his son said it could be open as soon as May or June.
Molina explained that this new Kensington location will be a special addition because “that was the location we were trying to open first.” This is because he raised his kids in Kensington, and his family still lives there. Molina said “it’s home for us.”
Molina Jr. echoed his dad’s sentiments, saying that he looks forward to serving the community where he was raised.
“This isn’t just another chain that’s coming into Kensington. We’re from here. We know who the community is,” Molina Jr. said. “Now we’re reinvesting in the community to provide more opportunities for people to work for us and also to create more fun stuff to do in the neighborhood. We’re really excited to do that and work with the other businesses there to make Kensington a better place for everyone.”
