Bao Bei Opening in Montrose Crossing
Bao Bei, a Rockville “ghost kitchen” and the runner-up of the 17th season of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race, will open a brick-and-mortar location at Montrose Crossing, 12015-E
Rockville Pike, sometime in the winter of 2025.
Bao Bei’s signature Bao Bei Bao made with pork belly, pickled greens and peanut sugar stuffed in a fluffy handmade bun.
(Photo: Bao Bei)
The restaurant, which opened in 2022, currently operates out of a ghost kitchen — a restaurant without dining space and no visible storefront, where food is sold through third party delivery apps or take-out — in North Bethesda. It serves Taiwanese street food including baos, bowls, sides and desserts.
The restaurant and owner/chef Kevin Hsieh, a 2013 graduate of Gaithersburg High School, competed on the most recent of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race hosted by Chef Tyler Florence. Hsieh and his friends, Zakary Keres and Cody Hoover, placed second behind Chicago-based Wally’s Waffles, which serves sweet and savory Belgian waffles. There were seven other food trucks in the competition, including Fishnet, a Baltimore restaurant that started in College Park and lost in round six.
Zakary Keres, owner Kevin Hsieh and Cody Hoover in front of their food truck on Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race. (Photo: Robert Gomez/Food Network)
“Bao Bei, a term of endearment in Taiwanese, describes someone or something you treasure deeply,” Hsieh said in a press release. “A tribute to my family, I will share my culture with the community through Bao Bei’s dishes.”
The 1,903 square-foot restaurant will be located next to Honey Pig and Kosmo Nail Bar in the former Eyeland Optical space near the plaza’s Randolph Road entrance. The current ghost location at 11910 Parklawn Dr. will close a few weeks before the new space opens, Hsieh said.
“We welcome Chef Kevin and Bao Bei to Montrose Crossing,” said Joseph Byrnes, vice president, regional leasing at Federal Realty in a press release. “Bao Bei will be a savory addition to our merchant lineup offering another premium, innovative restaurant to this shopping and dining destination.”
