Thompson Restaurants is bringing its Southern-inspired Milk & Honey concept to Tysons Corner Center in McLean, signing a deal that adds another full-service option to the region’s largest mall as it keeps reinventing itself. The new restaurant will join a growing slate of sit-down spots at the retail giant, which has been reshaping its mix in recent years. Local business readers first got wind of the move on June 29, 2026.
According to the Washington Business Journal, Thompson Restaurants had been eyeing a Tysons location for some time and has now inked a lease to put Milk & Honey inside the high-traffic complex. The outlet reported that the deal fits into Thompson’s broader push to place its strongest concepts in busy, mixed-use environments where office workers, shoppers and residents all collide.
Milk & Honey's DMV footprint
Milk & Honey is already one of Thompson’s fastest-growing brands in the DMV, and its high-profile Wharf outpost sits right next to the company’s Makers Union gastropub. That side-by-side pairing at the Southwest Waterfront helped put Milk & Honey on more diners’ radar and offers a glimpse of how Thompson likes to cluster its sister concepts in a single destination. Eater DC covered the Wharf openings when they debuted in 2023.
Thompson's expansion push
Thompson Restaurants has been on a steady growth tear. A company release via PR Newswire notes that Milk & Honey added five locations in 2025 and has multiple projects lined up for 2026 as part of an aggressive rollout.
"We've always believed that restaurants are about more than food, they are about culture, connection and community," Thompson said in the release, which lays out a strategy that also targets nontraditional venues such as airports and transit hubs.
Why Tysons matters
Tysons Corner Center has been methodically repositioning itself as more of a dining and entertainment hub, layering in experiential tenants and new restaurants as part of a wider redevelopment. The mall’s own redevelopment materials highlight “day-to-night” programming and tenants such as Level99 and Maggiano’s, while local coverage has flagged other arrivals, including Dick’s House of Sport, as signs of landlord Macerich’s leasing momentum. For details on the mall’s plans and recent deals, the Tysons Corner Center site and reporting from FFXnow fill in the picture.
What to expect next
The Washington Business Journal did not identify the specific storefront Milk & Honey will occupy at Tysons Corner Center or offer an opening date, and Thompson has not released a public timeline for the buildout. Given the company’s recent pace of openings and its stated goal of reaching roughly 100 locations, the Tysons project is likely to move on a familiar, staged leasing and construction schedule. For now, most of the available context comes from coverage in the Washington Business Journal and the company’s materials on PR Newswire.
