As one door shuts, another opens. Potomac Pizza, Kentlands’ oldest eatery, will cease operations at the close of business on Pi Day, March 14—almost 17 years to the day it launched. While pizza pies will no longer predominate, co-owners Adam Greenberg and Sam Lerner have something old and new and, most importantly, delicious in store. The Center Point Way site, after some “minor tweaks”—a bit of renovation, retooling and redecorating, which should take about a month—will be the new home of the Potomac Village Deli.

The kosher-style delicatessen will revive the popular institution Lerner started in 1975 as the Village Deli in Olney, which he relocated to Falls Road three years later as the Potomac Village Deli (PVD). Since 2006, PVD has operated as a catering-only business out of the Kentlands Potomac Pizza.

With people always telling Greenberg and Lerner “how much they miss the deli, and asking us to consider reopening,” they, too, realized how much they miss it. “I used to love going there with my family,” Greenberg recalled, and “Sam misses the day-to-day contact. He has so many fond memories of his amazing customers who, generation after generation, have continued to use his catering services.”

A great deal of thought and soul-searching, Greenberg said, led them to move ahead with creating the new “comfortable, very warm” dining spot, which will be open seven days a week. It will have deli and bagel counters, as well as a full-service restaurant that will accommodate 60 to 70 diners. The “true deli menu will be very large and offer a lot of choices,” featuring “the highest quality” classic Jewish fare and including made-to-order corned beef, pastrami and brisket sandwiches, smoked fishes, chopped liver, blintzes, knishes, stuffed cabbage and matzo ball soup, all-day breakfast fare like “killer” French toast and omelets, and desserts such as black and white cookies and cheesecake.

The bagels, according to Greenberg, “are the best authentic New York-style bagels in the country … crispy and crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside,” by virtue of a “10-step patented process” that includes “ultra-purified water” from a “glass-enclosed $50,000 water treatment facility” at their Bagels ‘n Grinds restaurant in Hanover. The dough will be made and par-baked in Hanover, then delivered to the deli for finishing.

Executive Chef Brad Barr, the highly regarded Jewish-style chef at Bagels ‘n Grinds, will be on-site in the Kentlands for about a year to facilitate the transition and train the kitchen staff.

Pizza lovers, don’t despair. First, Greenberg said, “Closing on Pi Day will enable us to go out with a bang, and do as many organization fundraisers as we can.” And for the future, the new deli will offer medium and large pizzas and calzones for dine-in as well as carryout after 4 p.m. daily. The Potomac Pizza in the Traville shopping center will pick up the entire delivery zone, Greenberg said, with the Kentlands delivery vehicles, plus others, relocating to Traville, so Kentlands area pizza deliveries “will be just as fast, if not faster.” (The deli will not offer delivery service.)

So much for phase one. Phase two, Greenberg said, will involve working with the City of Gaithersburg to acquire permission to extend the space eight to 10 feet to create an outdoor patio, giving the restaurant 50 percent greater capacity in warm weather. Installing garage doors and heaters will allow for even longer use of the space. Greenberg said the goal is for the patio to open by July.

Greenberg and Lerner agree that their concept, complete with ambiance, customer service and, most of all, the incomparable food will make for a successful new Kentlands destination that will welcome residents of the neighborhood and surrounding communities as well as loyal PVD fans. The outlook seems bright for the duo who are committed to “bringing back the Potomac Village Deli—just better than ever.”