The popular Saudi-style coffee shop Shotted is continuing to expand its reach across the D.C. area, setting its sights next on a location in West Falls Church.
Founder and CEO Bandar Alhenaki says the growing chain is on track to open its first drive-thru coffeehouse this summer in the Shops at West Falls Church, where it will take over the vacated Compass Coffee building at 7393 Route 29.
“We’re excited to come to West Falls Church and really serve the community there,” Alhenaki told FFXnow by phone. “This concept has expanded from Tysons and expanded in the DMV, so West Falls Church is a really good spot for us to extend that, especially with the model that we’re going in, with the drive-thru model.”
Once a booming brand with more than two dozen locations in the region, Compass Coffee shuttered its short-lived West Falls Church shop earlier this year after filing for bankruptcy in January. That move followed years of conflict between the company’s co-founders, a worker unionization battle and various lawsuits.
While some locations, like the one in West Falls Church, have closed, others are still operating for now as Compass Coffee after the U.K.-based chain Caffè Nero purchased the brand at an auction in February. The Fairfax City cafe, which opened in 2022, remains in business.
According to Alhenaki, the Shotted team learned through a broker that property owner Edens had an available space at the Shops at West Falls Church, but they didn’t know it had belonged to Compass Coffee until they visited the site.
Started as a pop-up at festivals and universities around the D.C. area in 2019, Shotted opened a kiosk at Tysons Corner Center in 2020 that quickly gained traction — particularly within Northern Virginia’s Muslim community — for its unique drink and dessert offerings as well as its late-night hours.
The business expanded in 2023 to Tysons Galleria and has since added locations at Dulles Town Center, Gainesville and most recently, Annapolis Mall for its first Maryland outpost.
In addition to the West Falls Church coffeehouse, Shotted is also now working on expansions to Montgomery Mall in Bethesda and Potomac Mills Mall in Woodbridge, Alhenaki says.
“That’s part of our plan,” he said.
Though signs for Compass Coffee remain affixed to the approximately 2,400-square-foot building, at least as of Sunday (June 28), Alhenaki says construction to transform the interior into Shotted is almost complete.
In fact, Fairfax County issued a sign permit for Shotted Coffee just yesterday (June 30), its online Planning and Land Use System shows.
“[We’re] hopefully aiming for a late July or mid-July opening, as a soft opening, and then we’ll do a grand open by August,” Alhenaki said.
The menu will be largely the same one that Shotted fans are familiar with, featuring a mix of coffees, teas, hot and iced lattes and refreshers. Pastries and desserts will also be served, including soft-serve ice cream and cakes with flavors like pistachio, date and lotus.
However, as a freestanding building with a drive-thru, the West Falls Church cafe will operate on a different model than the original mall-based locations, targeting morning commuters with an emphasis on convenience.
“We’re aiming to open as early as 6 a.m., or we might consider also 5:30 a.m. to serve that community in the morning, especially since we’re very close to the main road,” Alhenaki said. “That’s a different model than Tysons Galleria, which is more of a social place where people can hang out and enjoy quality time together.”
He added that Shotted will still offer later hours, as it does elsewhere, but in West Falls Church, serving early risers will be a priority.
“We want them to depend on us, where we can offer a great experience as well as convenience,” Alhenaki said.
