NaiNai's Noodle and Dumpling Bar: Scion's Restaurant Family Expands in Silver Spring

NaiNai means grandmother in Chinese, a word that's fitting for restauranteur Joanne Liu's latest concept: a casual noodle and dumpling bar situated at 1200 East-West Highway in downtown Silver Spring.

"When you have parents that own a restaurant, when you’re not at the restaurant you’re at your grandmother’s, you gotta be taken care of," Liu said. 

Liu and her sister practically grew up at their parents' restaurant, Jenny's Asian Fusion in Southwest Washington, DC. 

"When you have immigrant parents that own a restaurant, that’s your living room, so we spent more time there than we did in our own living room at home," Liu said of Jenny's.

Liu's first restaurant in Dupont Circle, Scion, means "branch of the living tree or offshoot," she said, because the American restaurant with international influences represented Liu's upbringing and an evolution of the restaurant business her family started. 

NaiNai's, which is scheduled to open in Silver Spring sometime this spring, brings the restaurant family tree full circle. 

Read more about Scion in Silver Spring. 

The restaurant, which is connected to Scion's second location, will offer a variety of handmade dumplings, including pork, seafood, chicken and veggie. NaiNai's will offer steamed baos, an Asian delicacy that Liu compares to Portuguese sweet bread with different fillings, almost like a sandwich, and also different noodle soups. 

"We’re not necessarily doing the specific style, there will be some good variety, but there certainly is an Asian concept, so it will be Asian dumpling and noodles," Liu explained.

The two restaurants, NaiNai's and Scion, will have separate entrances, but shared kitchens and bathrooms.

"Part of what attracted us to Silver Spring and the space is that I could kind of do it together," Liu said. 

Scion in Dupont Circle has garnered much popularity since opening in 2009 and the Silver Spring location will mirror the original. NaiNai's, however, is new and exclusive to this neighborhood. 

"It seems like something that people need around here," Liu said. 

Prices at NaiNai's will reflect the more casual atmosphere, hovering between $5 and $15.

Liu plans to stagger the opening of the two restaurants sometime in April or May, possibly just opening for one shift before expanding to lunch and dinner service. She hasn't selected a firm date for either opening. 

Read more about Silver Spring's foodie scene.