One potato, two potato: How local food halls are helping to change the dining industry
Tato’s growth at downtown Silver Spring’s Commas leads to expansion at Bethesda mall
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Jacqueline KalilMay 5, 2026 10:58 a.m.
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It’s 10 a.m. inside Commas Food Hall in downtown Silver Spring, but the owners of Tato’s are already thinking beyond the lunch rush—and beyond a single location.
Cristian Saucedo and Victor Nava, co-founders of the fast-casual concept built around loaded baked potatoes, saw opportunity in a model that has reshaped how restaurants are launched, tested and scaled. What began as an idea for a food truck has quickly grown into something larger: two locations in less than a year, with plans for more.
“I was just here, walking in the mall, and saw the space was getting new tenants. We decided to give it a shot,” Saucedo told Bethesda Today in a April 21interview about their entry into the food hall that opened in late September in downtown Silver Spring’s Ellsworth Place mall.
The gamble has paid off. Tato’s now operates a second location at Westfield Montgomery mall in Bethesda, which opened just two and a half months ago—an expansion made possible, the founders say, by the flexibility and lower barriers of the food hall model.
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“We’d like to open a location at every mall in America,” Saucedo said with a laugh.
At Tato’s, a baked potato is split, fluffed and layered with a variety of toppings. The dish may look simple, but it reflects a broader shift in the restaurant industry, in which food halls can serve as launchpads for small businesses.
Unlike traditional food courts, food halls are built around independently owned concepts, shared infrastructure and a focus on community—an approach designed to reduce startup costs and operational risk.
“We do not have franchises in our location,” Commas General Manager Yecenia Marroquin told Bethesda Today in a phone interview on April 23. “By the definition of a food hall, we’re more that entrepreneur-, grassroots-, owner-operated kind of business.”
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That structure has become especially appealing as restaurants face rising costs, labor shortages and shrinking margins. Within food halls, vendors operate in a shared ecosystem in which utilities, maintenance and other overhead expenses are often handled collectively, allowing owners to focus on their product and customers.
“There’s less things to concern yourself about—utilities, accounting, things like that,” Marroquin said. “We assist with making sure a lot of these things are already managed so they can concentrate on building their business and their rapport with guests.”
Food halls also encourage collaboration among vendors, she added, fostering a sense of shared growth inside high-traffic spaces.
“That sense of community—where they can support each other—is really important,” Marroquin said.
The model is also increasingly being used to revitalize struggling retail spaces in malls and suburban shopping hubs. As traditional malls continue to decline—a 2025 Capital One Shopping report projected that 87% of large malls could close over the next decade—developers are turning to food halls to drive foot traffic and reimagine retail as an experience. The sector has grown roughly 25% since 2023, according to Colicchio Consulting’s “State of Food Halls 2026” report.
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Commas Food Hall, which is managed by South Florida-based Fireten Hospitality, includes 12 vendor stalls anchored by a central bar and is part of that trend.
“The bar acts as the heart of the hall,” Marroquin said. “It ties everybody together and creates that sense of community.”
Still, the model is not without risk. In Montgomery County, the track record has been mixed, with three food halls closing since 2024, including The Block Foodhall & Bar in North Bethesda, Solaire Social in Silver Spring, and The Heights in Chevy Chase.
For entrepreneurs like Saucedo and Nava, however, the appeal remains strong: lower upfront investment, immediate exposure and the ability to refine a concept in real time.
Both founders said they spent years working in Washington, D.C., fine-dining kitchens, where precision and consistency were essential. At Tato’s, they’ve translated that discipline into a fast-casual menu built around baked potatoes, wedges and fries topped with globally inspired flavors.
“Everything you see right now, we do every morning, like chopping fresh herbs,” Nava said. “We think that’s very important, and people really appreciate those things.”
Their goal, he said, is speed without sacrificing quality.
“We wanted to bring amazing food in less than five minutes—affordable, but still high quality,” he said.
Serving affordable, chef-prepared dishes in minutes has proven to be a winning model for Tato’s – leading to the expansion to the Bethesda mall within the nine months since opening its first location at Commas.
From incubator to expansion: ‘We went them to outgrow the space’
Food halls, Marroquin said, are often designed to function as incubators—places where businesses can test concepts, build customer bases and eventually grow beyond the space.
“We want them to grow—we want them to outgrow the space,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for them to learn and expand.”
Tato’s has leaned into that opportunity, building a menu that uses a single ingredient—the potato—as a canvas for global flavors. One standout dish features Jamaica-inspired wedges topped with jerk chicken marinated for 24 hours, finished with spicy house sauce, parmesan, pineapple and toasted coconut.
“It’s a super-hot, super-spicy sauce,” Saucedo said. “And then we add pineapple, so you get that sweet and spicy combination—not for everybody, but people love it.”
Another dish centers on slow-cooked barbacoa made from brisket, marinated overnight and cooked for hours.
“It’s all about the treatment that we give to the product—that’s the secret,” he said.
Even the fries reflect that attention to detail, using Idaho russet potatoes that are soaked, cut, blanched and fried in beef tallow over nearly two days.
“It gives more flavor to the potatoes,” Saucedo said. “We think it’s a better option than more processed oils.”
Beyond the food, the food hall format itself has changed how customers interact with the vendors. At Commas, diners stand just feet from the Tato’s kitchen, watching as meals are assembled.
“You actually get to meet people, talk to people,” Saucedo said.
Those interactions, Nava added, are part of what sets food halls apart.
“Sometimes people don’t even expect a smile or they’re surprised when we remember their names. … They really appreciate those little things,” he said.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine