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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Junction Bistro, Bar & Bakery will close its Chevy Chase, Maryland, location after Friday, leaving the Del Ray original as the company's only remaining restaurant.
The announcement, posted to social media Wednesday, emphasized that the Alexandria store is not affected.
"This announcement is specific to our Chevy Chase location — our Alexandria location is open and doing great, and we're excited to keep serving our Alexandria community," the company wrote.
The note thanked Chevy Chase customers for years of morning coffees, weekend brunches and lunches, and invited them to visit once more before the last day of business Friday. The company did not give a reason for the closing.
The Alexandria Brief has asked Junction what led to the decision, whether Chevy Chase employees are being offered positions elsewhere, whether the Del Ray restaurant will be the company's only remaining location, and whether the wholesale bread operation is affected. This story will be updated with any response.
Friday's closing is Junction's second in about a month. Its Capitol Hill restaurant at 238 Massachusetts Ave. NE in Washington closed in late July, according to the neighborhood news site PoPville, which reported the closing July 31. A sign posted at that location said the Alexandria and Chevy Chase restaurants remained open and fully operational.
The Chevy Chase location was at 5471 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 320.
Ten years on Mount Vernon Avenue
Junction opened at 1508 Mount Vernon Ave. in spring 2016, taking over the address where Barbara Mancini had run Mancini's Cafe + Bakery since 1996. Mancini retired and closed the business, and kept ownership of the building rather than selling it.
"She wouldn't sell it to me, but she made me promise that if I leased it, I would keep it real," co-founder Noe Landini told Northern Virginia Magazine in 2015.
Landini opened the restaurant with Nathan Hatfield, a baker who had worked at Restaurant Eve, Society Fair and Le Diplomate. Landini is also behind Landini Brothers, Fish Market and Pop's Old Fashioned Ice Cream in Old Town.
The restaurant took its name and its look from Del Ray's railroad history, when the neighborhood housed workers at Potomac Yard. A tin ceiling uncovered during demolition was kept as part of the design.
A wholesale bakery was part of the concept from the start. Junction supplies fresh-baked bread to Landini Brothers, Fish Market and CXIII Rex — all Alexandria restaurants operated by REX Management, the hospitality group Landini leads as chief executive and under which Junction operates.
Junction expanded to Washington in March 2020, opening on Capitol Hill days before pandemic restrictions closed restaurant dining rooms across the region, and later added the Chevy Chase store.
In Alexandria, the group went the other direction.
Junction proposed a patio in its Del Ray parking lot in January 2024 and opened the expansion that July, adding a 750-square-foot patio at the north end of the building along with a new bar, additional seating and expanded happy hour service.
Six months later, in January 2025, REX opened Cooper Mill at 10 Duke St. on the Old Town waterfront, a two-story tavern, market and event space in a restored 1856 warehouse that once made barrels for the Alexandria Flour Company and served as a Union Army commissary during the Civil War. Landini is a part owner and the operator, partnering with builder Murray Bonitt and real estate executive Larry Nicholson. Its market sells breads and baked goods from the group's other venues.
REX Management's six properties now include five in Alexandria — Landini Brothers, Fish Market & Anchor Bar, CXIII Rex, Pop's Old Fashioned Ice Cream and Cooper Mill — along with Junction.
