If you have lived in Brandywine for more than a year or two, you already know the shorthand. Route 301 for errands, Route 5 for the commute, Crain Highway for everything in between. What has changed since last summer is the density of reasons to actually stop.
Three things are happening at once. Brandywine Crossing is finishing a tenant refresh that took most of a year. A second retail node is going up two miles away at the MD 5 and Accokeek Road interchange. And the rural side of the ZIP code, the part visitors miss entirely, has a weekend rhythm that is easier to string together than it used to be. This post is a map of all three for people who already live here.
The Brandywine Crossing refresh is almost done
The Safeway-anchored center on Matapeake Business Drive has been the default weekend stop for a decade. What is worth knowing this summer is which slots are finally filling and which are still on the way.
First National Realty Partners, which owns the 231,036-square-foot center, signed a wave of new tenants over the last year. The additions include Burlington, backfilling the 25,310-square-foot space that previously housed Joann Fabric and Crafts, along with Another Broken Egg Café and Buffalo Wild Wings Go, with the restaurants set to open in the fourth quarter and Burlington expected to open in 2026.
The smaller moves matter just as much for how a Saturday afternoon actually plays out:
| What | Where at the center | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Another Broken Egg Cafe | Former Pet Valu space | Opening (brunch, full bar) |
| Buffalo Wild Wings GO | Former Wing Heaven space | Fast-casual, takeout-focused |
| Burlington | Former Joann Fabric, 25,310 sq ft | 2026 |
| Joyland | Next to Hanabi Japanese Grill | Open now |
| Saladworks | Next to the UPS Store | TBD |
A couple of these deserve a second look. Joyland is an indoor, space-themed play center for kids 10 and under with rocket slides, galactic play zones, interactive games, open play, birthday parties, field trips, and private events. If you have been driving to Waldorf or National Harbor for a rainy-day option, that is a shorter trip now. Buffalo Wild Wings GO is the smaller, fast-casual version of the chain, focused on quick service and takeout with wings, tenders, fries, and familiar sauces without the sit-down experience. Read that as: a wing pickup on the way home, not a sports-bar night.
The existing lineup at the center still holds the day-to-day. Brandywine Crossing sits on a 30-acre site anchored by a nearly 60,000-square-foot Safeway, with other tenants including Bonefish Grill, Panda Express, Marshalls, Advance Auto Parts, Truist Bank, Visionworks, Wells Fargo, AT&T and The UPS Store.
The second retail node at 13800 Branch Ave
The piece a lot of residents have not caught yet is the Brandywine Gateway project going in at the intersection of Brandywine Road and Old Brandywine Road, right by Gwynn Park High School and the volunteer fire department. It is small, but it changes the geometry of a weekend errand run. Rather than looping back to the Crossing for a coffee and a quick lunch, the Gateway pad will pick off a lot of that traffic before it ever gets there.
According to the local Brandywine MD community feed, a 7-Eleven gas station is anchoring the corner, and the first phase of about 13,000 square feet of retail is being built out for Starbucks, Honeygrow, and Pollo Campero. Honeygrow in particular is a real addition. A stir-fry and salad concept at a Southern Prince George's County crossroads is not what the block looked like five years ago.
The rural circuit most residents underuse
Drive ten minutes east of Route 301 and you are in a stretch of the county that reads as farm country. The two anchors are worth building a Saturday around.
Cedarville State Forest, at 10201 Bee Oak Road, is the closer one. Located at the headwaters of Maryland's largest freshwater swamp, the Zekiah, Cedarville invites exploration of its natural, recreation and historic features, with hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians enjoying over 19 miles of trails and over 50 species of trees thriving in an actively managed 3,707-acre forest. The cost of entry is nominal. Fees run $3 per vehicle for Maryland residents and $5 for out-of-state residents, in correct change with no credit cards.
Two things a first-time visitor should know before loading the car:
A section of Blue Trail is closed at the 0.25 to 0.5 mile level due to an unsafe bridge. All park visitors are advised to follow directions to other trails.
The Orange Trail is the workhorse loop. It runs about 7 miles, is relatively flat and mostly single track with an easy rating, and passes semi-mature forest and pine-dominated areas mixed with holly, magnolia, marsh plants, and native wildflowers, crossing Hidden Springs, Bee Oak and Forest Roads to make it easy to shorten a hike, with the trailhead by the Park Headquarters parking lot. If you want something shorter with a historical hook, the White Trail is a popular 3.5-mile loop through hardwood forest and pine plantations, good for bird watching, hiking, and riding, with the trailhead at the Charcoal Kiln parking lot. That charcoal kiln is not a signpost. In the 1950s the forest operated three charcoal kilns burning wood to produce up to 3,600 pounds of charcoal a week for other Maryland state parks, and one kiln at the Blue and White trailhead remains as a demonstration of the historic method.
Two smaller things worth knowing. Hunting is allowed on part of the forest, so plan around hunting seasons, consider wearing blaze orange, or visit only on Sundays during deer and turkey season. And for the horse owners in the neighborhood, equestrian camping is primitive with a bathhouse in the center of the equestrian and special events loop, costs $23 per night per campsite, and can be reserved by calling park headquarters during the April through October camping season.
Robin Hill Farm & Vineyards is the second anchor, twenty minutes north at 15800 Croom Rd. The farm offers views of red barns, rolling hills, grazing farm animals and a tasting room with estate-grown wines, and has been family owned and operated since 1955 in scenic Southern Prince George's County, about 25 minutes from downtown Washington. The hours are the tight part. Robin Hill is open only Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 6 p.m. That is the entire window, so a summer Sunday afternoon becomes the natural pairing with a Saturday morning hike at Cedarville.
What actually happens on a weekend there is closer to a neighborhood cookout than a formal tasting. The winery pours 15 or so wines ranging from dry to sweet to fortified across a range of red and white shades, and on weekends usually hosts a food truck plus local musicians on a small bandstand under mature shade trees, with a small field of goats and ducks nearby for the kids. Barbecue Everything Co. is one of the food-truck regulars, running a free-entry Saturday from 12 to 6 p.m. at Robin Hill with live music and barbecue.
If you want to make a full day of it, Gemeny Winery, Janemark Winery, and the P.A. Bowen Farmstead sit within a short drive of Robin Hill on the same Croom Road corridor.
One traffic heads-up for the summer
If your commute or your errand loop touches Croom Road, plan around the bridge work. The MD 382 Croom Road at Covington Road bridge replacement is expected to force a detour with a roadway closure starting in June 2026, according to project notices circulating on the Brandywine community site. The alternate routes back toward Route 301 add real time in the middle of the day, so if you are trying to make a noon opening at Robin Hill, leave earlier than the map app suggests.
The through-line
The old story about Brandywine is that it is a place you pass through on the way to somewhere else. The through-line this summer is that the crossroads is quietly becoming the destination. A brunch spot, an indoor playground, and a Burlington are opening on one end of Route 301. A Honeygrow and a Pollo Campero are going up on the other. And the rural loop that has always been out here, the state forest and the farm winery, is finally paired with reasons to stay in town before and after.
If you are thinking about how any of this shapes what your home is worth, what a move within Brandywine could look like, or how the Gateway build might affect your block, Yolanda Burgess and the Platinum Partners team are a phone call away. Schedule a free consultation and we will walk you through it.
