A note from Tenleytown Main Street’s Executive Director

Tenleytown Main Street is celebrating an important milestone this year! For 10 years, our organization has worked to make the Tenleytown corridor a vibrant and thriving place through a host of initiatives that support our small businesses and community. In ten years we have done many things including:

• provided more than $370,000 in grants and technical assistance to small businesses
• contributed more than 3,600 volunteer hours to community events and beautification efforts
• supported the opening of 58 new businesses

We are starting a fundraising campaign to commemorate our ten years of service to the community and hope that you will consider contributing to help make our next ten years as impactful!

What an incredible turnout at the 2026 Tenleytown Art All Night!

Thank you to all who came out and showed a great #TenleytownWelcome to our artists, dancers, and musicians! You all danced the night away, henna’d up, and ate your way through Wisconsin Avenue! Couldn’t make it? Lucky for you, all of the artists featured in #TenleytownArtAllNight are local!

American University is a hub of artistic, theatrical, and musical achievement! With concert season kicking off a little early this year, we wanted to make sure our Tenleytown community had the rundown of important concert dates happening in October!

• The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood (directed by Dylan Arredondo) – October 22–23 and 29–30 at 8:00 p.m. and October 24 and 31 at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. – Greenberg Theatre
• • A thrilling play set in 1759 England about female bodily autonomy and the justice system
• AU Symphony Orchestra — Halloween Concert – October 30 at 7:30 pm and October 31 at 5:00 pm – Abramson Family Recital Hall
• • Join AU’s finest orchestral musicians on halloween weekend for their take on classics composed by John Williams, Saint-Saens, Mussorgsky and others!
• AU Museum Fall Exhibitions (all open through Dec 6):
• • Ahn Chang-Hong: noon-mool 
  • Beyond Words: The Sacred Art of Ayesha Kamal
  • Observer: The Street Photographs of Norman S. Carr  
  • Double Feature: Two Graphic Narratives by Mary Garrard

For more information please click here!

Please join us in welcoming Caring Hands to Tenleytown! Caring Hands is a pet hospital that opened their doors to the Tenleytown neighborhood’s house cat and pup population. To celebrate their grand opening, Caring Hands is hosting a can’t-miss Open House event on Saturday, October 24 at 10am. Join for a ribbon cutting ceremony, halloween themed festivities, care team meeting, and a grand opening offer (including a FREE FIRST EXAM FOR NEW CLIENTS).

RSVP with this link.

Marv’s Dogs, now with soft serve, has opened up their events space for gatherings! From birthday parties, to company dinners and retirement parties, your options are limitless! For event inquiries please contact Marv’s Dogs’ events email at events@marvsdogsdc.com!

Marv’s Dogs also features the following special offers each week!

• Football Sunday Happy Hour for kids & adults from 12-5PM  throughout the regular season, featuring $2 off Alcoholic Drinks & Soft Serv and footbal screening!
• ​After School Specials (October and November)  3-6pm
• Monday Mania – one free topping on hot dog
• 2 dog Tuesday – Buy one dog get one plain dog for half off
• Game day Wednesday – free game with any food purchase
• Free Topping Thursday – one free soft serv topping
• Fryday Friday – free french fries with a hot dog & drink purchase

Making their co-hosting debut, the Wild Side Media and City Ridge Fall Fest will take place on October 24 from 1-5 on City Ridge’s Great Lawn (3900 Wisconsin Ave NW). The festival will include over 30 vendors and makers, live art activations, and immersive experiences! This is a festival you won’t want to miss!

The event is free to attend and you can RSVP on their Eventbrite here!

Botiwalla by Chai Pani

A new business has opened in Tenleytown and it just might have some of the best bites in the entire district! Botiwalla, by Chai Pani, offers patrons a taste of Indian streetfood in a fast casual format.

The restaurant is family friendly, offering chicken, lamb, and vegetarian proteins (paneer) served with your choice of desi salad, boti rice bowl, or sigri flat bread. Botiwalla also offers an extensive street food, sandwich, sides, and drink & cocktail menu. Their drink menu includes a coveted $3.99 chai which might be impossible to find at a similar price and quality! With any trip to Botiwalla, you MUST (seriously you must) purchase an order of their Gulab Jamun which are milk dumplings fried in ghee and soaked in a rose-cardamom syrup. This dessert will change your life it is just that good.

Let’s give Botiwalla a big #TenleytownWelcome and pay them a visit!

Ten years of Tenleytown Mainstreet!

We’re excited to celebrate Tenleytown Main Street’s tenth anniversary as an organization this year!

Keep an eye out for upcoming content looking back on ten years of TMS, an anniversary fundraising campaign, and a special event in the Spring.

As we reflect back on our accomplishments over the past decade, we want to thank our volunteers, supporters, and community for helping us make our work possible. We can’t wait to continue supporting our community in the next ten years.

As we look ahead, we welcome your contributions to help us continue supporting Tenleytown and its small businesses. Please consider donating to Tenleytown Main Street to help maintain this thriving community!