The long-awaited Roaming Rooster, a locally owned fried chicken eatery, will be holding its grand opening April 24, marketing director Jerusalem Tilahun said Tuesday in an email to Bethesda Today.
From 10 a.m. to noon, the Roaming Rooster team will hold an event with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the shop at 8537 Georgia Ave. Local elected officials and community leaders are expected to attend. The event will end at noon and then the eatery will be open to the public.
The first 100 customers who line up at the shop will receive a free fried chicken sandwich of their choice, according to Tilahun.
After the ribbon cutting, the grand opening festivities will commence with a live DJ and giveaways of gift cards, samples and exclusive merchandise, Tilahun said.
The shop, which sells fried chicken sandwiches, wings, nuggets and tenders, is currently in a soft-opening mode, focusing on training staff and testing equipment, Tilahun told Bethesda Today on Friday.
Roaming Rooster also serves milkshakes, frozen custard and cookies in addition to chicken dishes and sandwiches that can be customized for spiciness. The shop also offers a vegetarian sandwich option, “The Veggie Roo,” consisting of a buttermilk-fried oyster mushroom topped with a house-made vinaigrette slaw and pickles.
According to the eatery’s website, Roaming Rooster uses grain-fed, free-range, antibiotic-free and halal chicken in its offerings. Several Roaming Rooster locations also serve breakfast sandwiches and sides. It is unclear whether the Silver Spring location will offer such dishes.
The website says the family-owned eatery was founded in Washington, D.C., in 2015. It began as a food truck serving fried chicken sandwiches and quickly expanded to three trucks. The eatery now has 13 brick-and-mortar shops around the D.C. region.
The Silver Spring location is the eatery’s third in Montgomery County. In June 2022, Roaming Rooster opened a shop at 11586 Old Georgetown Road in North Bethesda’s Pike & Rose. The third location is at 511 Quince Orchard Road in Gaithersburg.
