Bethesda, Rockville Eateries Make Eater's December Hot Spots List

BETHESDA, MD — Eater D.C. keeps track of all of the restaurant openings in the area, and chooses a few to highlight. For this month's hottest new restaurants around D.C., Eater picked two from Montgomery County.

One is in Rockville and the other is in Bethesda's Pike & Rose.

Read Eater D.C.'s full list here.

Z&Z

Coming in first place on the list is Z&Z, a farm stand turned restaurant. The family who runs it has a longstanding connection to Rockville, with generations of restaurant owners.

"After 5 years at the markets we're moving into a place that's very special to us," the siblings who opened it wrote in an Instagram post. "The very same place our grandfather started our story nearly 40 years ago when he opened his first restaurant."

Melina

From the founders of Cava comes a new Greek restaurant in Pike & Rose. It just opened on on Monday, Nov. 22.

"At Melina we modernized the Greek experience, while remaining deeply rooted in our Greek culture," said Dimitri Moshovitis, Melina co-founder, in a news release. "We are passionate about our cuisine with fresh, quality ingredients offered in a fine casual setting."

The Eater D.C. staff had nothing but praise for the restaurant.

"Melina makes a big splash in Bethesda with its gorgeous Greek dishes, which come as no surprise from a Greek chef with loads of experience cooking in Greece’s upscale restaurants," Eater wrote.