For Darnestown resident Rob Gresham, a teachable moment during the pandemic led to Isaac’s Poultry Market, a Gaithersburg fast-casual restaurant specializing in chicken, sold roasted, fried (tenders, wings and sandwiches) and in chicken salad. Sides, salads and frozen custard round out the fare.
Explaining to his sons Robbie and Jackson (now 17 and 16) four years ago that the world has faced pandemics before and prevailed, Gresham relayed that Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity and invented calculus while quarantined for the plague in 1665. As a learning opportunity to go along with virtual schooling, he had Jackson help write a business plan for an imaginary restaurant; his son suggested they name it after Newton, and Isaac’s Poultry Market was born. Gresham says he focused on chicken because from his first-hand experience running and consulting for fast-casual brands, the protein accounts for more than 50% of their sales.
Gresham’s no stranger to the restaurant business. His first job while growing up in Montgomery County was at Chesapeake Bay Seafood House in Burtonsville, where he started as a dishwasher and became a cook at 16 while attending Paint Branch High School. “I’ve been in restaurants and kitchens ever since,” he says.
His resume includes many now-closed Montgomery County establishments, among them Eatzi’s Market & Bakery in Rockville, Cafe Deluxe in Bethesda and Harry’s Cafe in Silver Spring, where he met his wife, Christine, who was bartending there while attending law school. From there, he climbed the corporate ladder, working for successful powerhouses including Founding Farmers, Chipotle and Cava, which he joined in 2010. He says he helped develop the Cava Mezze Grill brand (now known as Cava) as the business grew to 80 restaurants, with 20 in the pipeline. “My job was morphing into an office guy, but I like building and creating,” Gresham says. He left in 2019 and started a restaurant consulting business.
When the pandemic hit, Gresham says, restaurants didn’t need consultants, and he found himself at home baking bread like everyone else. He moved forward with Isaac’s, and the 2,400-square-foot space opened in February 2023. (It’s called a market because the plan is to offer retail items in the future, such as baked goods and olive oil.)
It took two years to develop the recipes. The roast chicken is dry-rubbed for 24 hours with a blend of za’atar, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic and other spices and roasted in a combi oven (a combination convection and steam injection oven) to keep it moist. In August, the fried chicken breast Isaac sandwich (toasted potato bun, broccoli slaw, dill pickles and a mustard honey barbecue sauce) won the 2023 Restaurant Association of Maryland’s Best Sandwich competition. “I put a giant banner on the store about it, and sales skyrocketed,” Gresham says. The win qualified him to enter the World Food Championship in Dallas in November, where he finished in the top 10 and was invited to compete in next year’s competition.
A second location of Isaac’s is slated to open in the Burtonsville Crossing development in Burtonsville at the end of the year.
Isaac’s Poultry Market
12163 Darnestown Road, Gaithersburg
240-477-5037
isaacs.market