Brandywine Crossing New Stores: What's Open in Fall 2026

If you have been checking the storefronts along Crain Highway every few months since last fall, waiting for something you read about to actually open, you are not imagining the lag. Brandywine Crossing announced a wave of new tenants back in the spring of 2025, and more than a year later, some of them are open, one is still a sign taped to a dark window, and a new competitor just announced plans to open across Route 301. The timing of announced openings is worth keeping in mind before you plan a dinner or an errand around a business that has not opened yet.

What's Actually Open Right Now

Start with the sure things. Another Broken Egg Cafe took over the old Pet Valu space and is serving its brunch menu, cocktails included, to a shopping center that previously had no upscale breakfast option. Buffalo Wild Wings GO moved into the former Wing Heaven storefront with a smaller, takeout-focused footprint built for people who want wings without the sports-bar seating. Burlington backfilled the roughly 25,000-square-foot space JOANN Fabric and Crafts left behind after its bankruptcy, and it is now open and running. Joyland, the indoor space-themed play center next to Hanabi Japanese Grill & Bar, is also open, with rocket slides and galactic play zones aimed at kids ten and under, plus the option to book birthday parties there.

That is four real, operating businesses. If you have eaten at Another Broken Egg or dropped a kid off at Joyland this year, you already know they exist. What you might not know is why the rest of the list has moved so much slower.

Saladworks' Delayed Opening and What to Know

Saladworks was supposed to open in the space next to the UPS Store. It was first announced back in 2024. It is still not open. Local tracking of Southern Maryland commercial listings has flagged the same "opening soon" signage sitting untouched for over a year, a detail that may not be apparent from the original announcement alone.

Here is what makes that delay worth a second look. While Saladworks sat dormant, a competitor called Salad House announced it is opening across Route 301 at Brandywine Village, so two salad-focused fast-casual concepts may open in the same small stretch of road, and Salad House may open before Saladworks. It is a reminder that a lease signing and a grand opening are different stages, with construction schedules, permitting, and buildout costs in between. When you read that something is "coming to Brandywine Crossing," treat it as a lease, not a date on your calendar.

The practical version of this: if you are planning around a business that hasn't opened yet, whether that is a dinner reservation or just routing your errands, call ahead or check the storefront in person before you build plans around it. An announcement does not guarantee an opening date.

After Lunch, Check Cedarville State Forest Trail Conditions

Once you have actually eaten somewhere real, the other half of a Brandywine weekend usually involves Cedarville State Forest, ten minutes down Bee Oak Road. The forest has more than 3,500 acres and over 19 miles of marked trails, and it comes with its own genuine, working charcoal kiln left over from the 1950s, when the forest produced up to 3,600 pounds of charcoal a week for other Maryland state parks. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the original roads and trails here in the 1930s, and the land itself was a winter camping ground for the Piscataway Tribe before that, drawn by the mild climate and the game along the Zekiah Swamp.

None of that history changes the fact that, right now, a section of the Blue Trail is closed. Maryland's Department of Natural Resources has flagged an unsafe bridge between the 0.25 and 0.5 mile mark and is directing hikers to the other loops until it's repaired. If your plan was to do the full Blue Trail loop, that plan needs to change for the moment.

Here is how the three main loops actually compare, so you can pick a substitute without guessing:

The Orange Trail is the one to default to this fall. It's the longest loop in the forest, it connects with both the White and Blue trails so you can shorten or extend the walk depending on how much daylight you have left, and it doesn't run through the section currently closed. It's also one of the trails AllTrails flags specifically as a fall pick for the Brandywine area, alongside the Indian Head Rail Trail and Jug Bay's Blue and Brown Loop if you want to range further afield.

Two Places, One Pattern

What ties the shopping center and the forest together this season is less about either place individually and more about what they tell you regarding Brandywine right now. Both are mid-transition. The retail center has real new tenants operating alongside empty storefronts still waiting on their expected businesses, and the forest has a fully mapped, historically rich trail system with one section currently roped off for repair. Neither situation is broken. Both are simply not finished, so check the current state before planning around either one.

That is a small thing, but it is the difference between a wasted trip and a good one. Skip the Blue Trail loop until the bridge is fixed. Wait to plan a dinner around Saladworks until it opens. Everything else on this list, the egg cafe, the wings, the play center, Burlington, the Orange Trail, is ready for you this weekend exactly as described.

If you're weighing what any of this means for a home nearby, whether it's the shopping center's growth signaling more foot traffic on Crain Highway or simply wanting a local read on the neighborhood before you make a move, Pryor Residential & Co. knows this corridor block by block. Let's Connect.