Workers were still cutting cups of cheese and lettuce, stocking napkins by the soda fountain, and hauling furniture into place Friday as Big Greek Cafe raced to get its newest Frederick location ready. The fast-casual Greek chain is set to open Monday at Westview Promenade, taking over a 2,501-square-foot storefront at 5221 Buckeystown Pike that sat empty after Noodles & Company closed earlier this year.
Yamileth Reyes was among the staff prepping ingredients Friday, dicing tomatoes as the crew put the finishing touches on the space, according to The Frederick News-Post. The storefront had stood vacant since Noodles & Company abruptly shut down the location without advance notice, according to The MoCoShow. The closure was part of a national corporate restructuring that included more than 40 store closures for the chain in 2025 and up to 32 more planned for 2026, as reported by NBC4.
A Second Frederick County Location
Monday's opening marks Big Greek Cafe's second site in Frederick County, joining its existing spot in the Village Square at Urbana development in Ijamsville, which opened in October 2022. The chain has grown into a regional presence, operating nine locations across Maryland as of October 2024 with further expansion into Carroll County and Northern Virginia, per the Howard County Economic Development Authority. Westview Promenade itself is a 200,000-square-foot outdoor shopping center at Route 85 and Crestwood Boulevard, anchored by a 16-screen Regal movie theater and managed by Hill Management Services Inc.
The new restaurant joins a wave of recent food and beverage additions to the center this year, including a Cold Stone Creamery that opened in May and a Playa Bowls franchise that signed a lease in July, per the Maryland Daily Record. Commercial managers there have been actively backfilling vacant storefronts with popular regional and national franchises as the retail mix shifts.
Family Recipes Rooted In Silver Spring
Big Greek Cafe traces back to downtown Silver Spring in 2009, when twin brothers Nikos and Simos Marmaras opened the first location to fulfill a vision their late mother, Koralia, held for an informal spot serving traditional Greek family recipes. The brothers launched the concept following their mother's passing in 2006, per Patch.
Their restaurant instincts run deeper than that single generation. Their father, Vassilios Marmaras, a Greek immigrant from the island of Andros, began working in U.S. food service in 1968 and went on to operate the Golden Flame fine-dining restaurant in Silver Spring for more than 40 years, according to the same MoCoShow report. The brothers grew up working alongside their father before building their own fast-casual concept from those roots.
The chain has since picked up outside recognition beyond its home turf. The Washington Post named Big Greek Cafe's flagship gyro the top gyro in the D.C. area during a regional sandwich review, a distinction local coverage frequently cites when reporting on the brand's continued expansion.
A Familiar Deal Comes To Frederick
Big Greek Cafe is also known throughout Maryland for its weekly $7 Gyro Wednesday discount, a longstanding promotion designed to keep the chain's Greek street food affordable, according to the company's own website. It is a tradition that aligns with the founders' original mission of serving budget-friendly Greek cuisine, and one Frederick diners will now be able to take advantage of closer to home.
Hoodline previously covered the chain's Bethesda debut back in 2018, when Big Greek Cafe first brought its fast-casual Greek food to the Woodmont Triangle. Nearly a decade later, the brand's footprint has stretched well beyond Montgomery County, with Monday's Frederick opening marking another step in that steady regional growth.
