Earlier this year, while construction was underway at 115 N. Washington Street, signs for La Poteria Local went up in the window. The shop that opened there on September 24 is Bogotá Coffee House, and La Poteria has confirmed it has no connection to it. La Poteria went ahead in Rockville anyway. Eight days earlier, it opened a coffee trailer up the street at 200 N. Washington Street.

The result is two unrelated Colombian coffee stops that opened a week apart on the same street. The mix-up also points to a simple rule for planning a fall weekend in Rockville Town Center. A sign in a storefront is an intention. A first day of service is a fact. The rest of October works the same way: some things have dates, and some are still waiting behind their signs.

Two Counters, Two Different Orders

The two businesses get mentioned together because of where their signs went up. Their menus overlap less than you might expect.

La Poteria Coffee Trailer sits at the Exxon station across from Trader Joe's. It first served customers on Wednesday, September 16. The espresso is Pergamino Lomaverde single-origin, served with waffles, empanadas, pandebonos and specialty drinks. The trailer isn't La Poteria's first venture. The company has run a brick-and-mortar shop at 19116 Montgomery Village Avenue since 2021, known for empanada fillings like pineapple, ham and cheese and for its cassava-and-cheese "Pan-De-Waffles." It also runs food trailers at Clarksburg Premium Outlets. The only published hours so far are for opening day, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Before you make a trip, check the trailer's own channels for regular hours.

Bogotá Coffee House has committed to a full day: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., every day. It moved its opening up from September 28 to September 24. The drinks menu is built on espresso, with cortados, macchiatos and cold brew, plus specialty drinks: Café con Leche, Dirty Chai Latte, Pepi Matcha and Mocha Avellana. The kitchen leans on waffles in the form of avocado waffles, waffle sandwiches and sweet versions, along with pandebono and almond guava pastries. Smoothies come in mango, lulo and guanabana. Patch quoted Bogotá Coffee House's Instagram profile:

"A little taste of Bogotá in Rockville"

If you want a quick espresso and an empanada before noon, go to the trailer. If you want somewhere to sit with a lulo smoothie at 5 p.m., Bogotá Coffee House is the stop on the corridor with posted evening hours.

Still at the Sign Stage

North Washington Street isn't the only place in Town Center with signs but no confirmed opening date.

• iSMASH, a rage room and splatter-paint attraction, has signs up at 36-C Maryland Avenue in The Square. As of September its official Rockville page still said "opening soon." MoCo Show reported on September 9 that no opening date had been announced. An earlier report pointed to late fall.
• Hong Kong Tea House is listed as coming soon at 605 Hungerford Drive. In early September it was hiring cooks, baristas and assistant managers, but it hasn't given an opening date.
• Koala Kreme has made it past the sign stage. The self-serve frozen yogurt shop replaced Marble Slab at 100-I Gibbs Street and opened on June 20. It's the most recent Square dessert opening with a confirmed first day.

Hiring is usually a good sign that a business is getting close. Until a first day of service is announced, Hong Kong Tea House and iSMASH are businesses to watch, not places to plan around. The 115 N. Washington signs showed what can happen in between.

What Has a Date in October

The firm dates this month mostly come from the City of Rockville, the public library and a long-running literary nonprofit. Here's the confirmed calendar from today forward, in order:

1. Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6 to 8 p.m. Public workshop for "Shared Passage" at Rockville Housing Enterprises, 1201 First Street. Pizza and drinks provided.
2. Thursday, Oct. 8, 6 to 8 p.m. A second "Shared Passage" workshop at the Pump House, 401 S. Horners Lane. Space is limited.
3. Thursday, Oct. 8, 6:30 p.m. The F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival's Short Story Readings at Rockville Memorial Library. Contest winners read their work, and no registration is required.
4. Saturday, Oct. 10, 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. City-led public art walking tours of The Square. Each lasts about an hour, and registration is required.
5. Saturday, Oct. 17, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Rockville Antique and Classic Car Show at Glenview Mansion in Rockville Civic Center Park, 603 Edmonston Drive.
6. Saturday, Oct. 17, 6 to 8 p.m. Croydon Creep at Croydon Creek Nature Center, with Halloween games, crafts, treats and a campfire.
7. Friday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m. Evening of Tributes to Tobias Wolff at The Writer's Center in Bethesda. It's free, but registration is required.
8. Saturday, Oct. 24. F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival Day at Montgomery College in Rockville.

Every Saturday through November 21, the Rockville Farmers Market runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the jury parking lot at East Jefferson and Monroe streets. That means the Oct. 10 art tours start an hour after the market opens, a few minutes' walk away. The market matches SNAP/EBT and WIC fruit and vegetable benefits dollar for dollar, up to $15 a week, through the Eat Fresh Rockville and Maryland Market Money program. It's also reachable by Metro's Red Line and Ride On Route 47.

Oct. 8 is the busiest evening on the list. The second "Shared Passage" workshop and the Short Story Readings overlap. If you want to weigh in on the sculpture design and also hear the contest winners, you'll have to choose.

The Art in The Square Is Getting Repaired

The Oct. 10 tours come at a useful moment. The City announced on October 1 that artwork in The Square will be cleaned and repaired in the coming months. Some pieces just need routine maintenance. Others need repairs because of vandalism. The City hasn't said which works were damaged.

The tour covers the City's collection in Town Center. Two pieces the City lists at Courthouse Square Park are "Spirit of Rockville" by Dan Davidson, from 1996, and "Logistique" by Deirdre Saunder, from 2012. Seeing the collection before the repairs gives you a baseline for comparing it afterward.

Two new public artworks elsewhere in the city are at different stages of their own timelines, and the City gives each stage a date.

• "Shared Passage" is an 18-by-25-foot sculpture planned for the entrance of David Scull Park, a 4.1-acre park at 1133 First Street. The design team, CJRDesign, is in Rockville Oct. 7 through 9. Feedback from the workshops will shape how the colorful acrylic panels and arches are arranged, and whether the sculpture gets a solar lighting option.
• "Guiding Light" by Dina Fisher is headed for fabrication at Memory Walk Park. Park preparation is expected to begin this month, with installation expected in late October or November. A dedication may follow in spring. Fisher conducted 14 interviews, six workshops and three community listening sessions so the piece reflects Lincoln Park's history.

Two Saturdays to Plan Around

Oct. 17 is a full day. The car show is free for spectators. The City expects more than 500 cars, along with a flea market and live music from The Rock-A-Sonics. Every show-car registration ticket sold out on September 13, with no waitlist. That applies to people entering cars, not to visitors. Public parking is limited and opens at 9:30 a.m. An accessible courtesy shuttle runs every 15 to 20 minutes from Meadow Hall Elementary School between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. The show wraps up at 3:30 p.m., and Croydon Creep starts at the nature center at 6 p.m., so families can fit both into one day.

Oct. 24 belongs to the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival. This year's honoree is Tobias Wolff. The theme, "Growing Up Is Hard to Do," comes from his memoir "This Boy's Life." The day at Montgomery College includes writing workshops, presentations, book signings and a film. Registration is open on the festival's website. The night before, the free Evening of Tributes in Bethesda features Richard Bausch, Varun Gauri, Mahreen Sohail and Wolff himself.

From the market in the jury lot to the tours of The Square and the readings at the library, a lot of this month happens within walking distance of Town Center. You can still pick up an espresso at 200 N. Washington Street on the way.

The 115 N. Washington signs are a small example of how quickly a block's ground floor can change. That kind of turnover is something Dana Rice Group tracks closely in Rockville. If you're curious how what's opening near your street fits into your own plans, request a complimentary market plan and staging consultation.