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Toimoi Bakery is preparing to open its first full retail storefront in the Mosaic District, taking over the compact space that Falafel Inc. plans to leave as it expands elsewhere in the development.
The bakery plans to occupy the 540-square-foot storefront at 2985 District Avenue, Unit 170. Falafel Inc., the unit’s current tenant, intends to relocate to Unit 115 at the same address and open a substantially larger flagship restaurant.
Falafel Inc. hopes to open the new location in early fall 2026. Toimoi is targeting early 2027, although co-owner Gabriel Santos said its schedule will depend on the construction process.
“Design is underway now with our architects, and exact timing depends on the buildout,” Santos said.
The Mosaic shop would give Toimoi its first conventional retail location. The bakery’s Chantilly production hub offers limited walk-in pastry sales on weekends, but its business otherwise reaches customers through six farmers markets in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. Those include the Burke market and FreshFarm’s year-round Sunday market at Mosaic.
Toimoi plans to keep Chantilly as its primary production facility and continue operating all its existing weekly market stalls after the storefront opens.
At Mosaic, the bakery expects to serve its full pastry selection along with tea, hot coffee, cold brew and bubble tea. The proposed format would combine morning bakery service with a dessert-and-tea concept in the evening.
“A permanent home at Mosaic finally gives that question a good answer,” Santos said. “It also lets us do things a market stand never could: warm pastries all day, a full drink program, and a place to come visit us 7 days a week.”
Toimoi began in 2021, when Shurou Pu started selling homemade pastries at the Fairfax City farmers market. The business launched its Chantilly production hub in 2023.
Falafel Inc.’s planned move would increase its Mosaic footprint from 540 square feet to 2,760 square feet, making the new restaurant nearly five times the size of its current location. Unit 115 is directly across from Barnes & Noble and has been vacant since Kreole Seafood and Cocktails closed in July 2024.
The larger restaurant is planned to provide more seating and kitchen capacity. Falafel Inc. also expects to add ful and msabbaha to the menu and incorporate a juice bar. A planned “Food Lab” would give the company space to test and introduce other menu items.
“The move we are making is about meeting demand while taking advantage of a unique opportunity to create something we’ve envisioned for years,” an unnamed company spokesperson said.
Falafel Inc. also wants to use the flagship for events serving food entrepreneurs and emerging brands. Its plans include product tastings, conversations with founders and other talks for the region’s food-business community.
“Beyond serving food, we want this location to become a gathering place for the region’s food and entrepreneurial community,” the spokesperson said.
Entrepreneur Ahmad Ashkar founded Falafel Inc. in Georgetown in May 2017 with a mission that included raising money to feed refugees through a partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme. As of the source article’s publication, the company had 13 restaurants across Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Its Tysons Corner Center location opened in 2019, followed by its existing Mosaic restaurant in 2024.
The company said three more locations were scheduled to open during 2026, including restaurants in downtown Silver Spring and National Harbor. Those openings, like the two Mosaic projects, remained plans rather than completed operations at the time they were reported.