Potomac Pizza is closing the book on nearly a decade in College Park. The restaurant will permanently shut its doors on Friday, December 18, 2026, after nine years of serving the university town, with owner Adam B. Greenberg confirming the company will not renew its lease there.
Greenberg cited rising food, labor, insurance, utility and other operating costs as the driving factors behind the decision, according to The MoCo Show. He described College Park as a community that welcomed and supported the restaurant since it opened there in 2017, and said he believes restaurants are ultimately about people, friendships, traditions and shared memories, not just food.
Potomac Pizza will keep running its three other Montgomery County locations in Chevy Chase, Potomac and Rockville after the College Park closure, the same report notes. Greenberg has worked in the restaurant industry for more than three decades, acquiring the original Potomac Pizza in Potomac in 1995 before expanding to the Kentlands in 1999, Traville in 2003 and Chevy Chase in 2006.
A Second Brand Steps In
Even as the pizzeria exits, Greenberg's other venture, Bagels 'n Grinds, will keep a presence in College Park. The company notes that it will continue serving the College Park community through that brand, which lists locations in College Park, Hanover and Potomac on its own website. Bagels 'n Grinds opened its first location in Hanover in 2012, expanded to College Park in 2017 and added a Potomac location in April 2025. Greenberg also acquired Hunter's Bar and Grill, a longtime Potomac restaurant, in 2023.
This isn't the first time Greenberg's pizza business has pulled back from a location. The Kentlands restaurant, which had converted from pizza to deli fare the year before, closed after 18 years in business, according to Store Reporter. At the time, Greenberg said that closing would not affect the Rockville, Chevy Chase or Potomac Village restaurants, the outlet reported.
A Tough Stretch for College Park's Restaurant Row
The College Park closure lands amid a broader run of restaurant turnover near the University of Maryland campus. College Park economic development director Michael Williams told The Diamondback that the state of the economy and the rising trend of delivery services have made it difficult for some displaced businesses to reopen. Peter Chang Kitchen & Bar closed after less than a year at its Route 1 location, with the high cost of occupying the site leaving the restaurant with no choice but to close down, per the same report. Northwest Chinese Food, Ritchie's Colombian Restaurant and Jerk At Nite were also forced to close last winter ahead of a strip's scheduled demolition for the Terrapin House apartment complex.
Nearby, the College Park Shopping Center itself changed hands this year. A joint venture between Terrapin Development affiliates and Northpond Partners bought the shopping center for $53.05 million in a sale that closed June 17, according to the Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation. The center was about 86% leased at the time of the sale, with two nearby student-housing developments having added more than 1,300 units across Hartwick Road. Campus Village Shoppes north of campus had already shuttered in 2023 after LV Collective LLC announced plans to replace it with 300 apartments and 16,000 square feet of commercial and institutional space.
For now, College Park diners have just over a month left to grab a final slice before the December 18 close. Greenberg's Bagels 'n Grinds location will remain open in town, giving the owner at least one foothold in the community he says embraced his pizzeria for nine years.
