Montgomery Mall’s new restaurant introduces a unique beach-style cuisine to the food court.

Established in 1981, Boardwalk is located between Panda Express and Sarku Japan in the Mall. Boardwalk is a combination of a fast food restaurant and classic beach cuisine. The Montgomery Mall site opened Nov. 23, 2016 and is now becoming a growing competitor to surrounding restaurants. Currently, Boardwalk has 250 franchises under development and that number is expected to increase within a year.

“We’re excited to be here,” Director of Operations John DiFerdinando said. “We’re happy to be in the community and we’re a local brand, so any time we can have a location in Maryland means a lot to us.”

At Boardwalk, the beach atmosphere associated with the restaurant adds to the chill vibe created at Montgomery Mall. Boardwalk offers a wide variety of burgers, from the Boardwalk Classic to Hawaiian. In addition to serving burgers, Boardwalk also offers hot dogs, fries and milkshakes.

“I could compare Boardwalk to fries at the actual boardwalk in Rehoboth and Bethany [beaches],” sophomore Karenna Nambiar said.

The Montgomery Mall location is convenient for those in the DC suburbs, especially those who live in Bethesda, Potomac and Rockville. However, there’s another Boardwalk in Columbia, and a third is located in Halethorpe. In addition to expanding to Montgomery Mall, Boardwalk has over 100 licensed locations in multiple states, including California, Florida, Georgia, and New Jersey.  

“We would want to be in any mall, like Tysons and Capital Mall,” DiFerdinando said. “We used to just serve fries, but instead of having to go to Ocean City, you can just come to Montgomery Mall.”