A couple of local casual restaurants announced today they are expanding. First up, Busboys and Poets inked a deal to open its fifth location at the forthcoming Takoma Central mixed-use development in Takoma Park.

Andy Shallal’s newest restaurant-bookstore-coffeeshop-performance space will take up a majority of the commercial space on the ground floor at Takoma Central, which is slated to be completed in late 2014. The $36 million development, located at the intersection of Carroll and Maple streets NW, is designed by Level 2 Development LLC and financed by Federal Capital Partners. When finished, it will also contain 150 residential units.

The new Busboys and Poets will take up 6,500 square feet and will enjoy frontage that wraps around the corner of Carroll and Maple. Shallal also told The Washington Post he is interested in opening a sixth location in Brookland, and that he is still eyeing the Anacostia location formerly occupied by Uniontown Bar & Grill.

Meanwhile, U Street NW is getting a new pizza spot as soon as this spring, with the expansion of the H Street NE restaurant H &pizza in a new storefront at 1250 U Street. The building, which was purchased last year by EastBanc, Inc. and Jamestown Properties, is located at the mouth of the U Street-Cardozo Metro station and currently features a Quizno’s sandwich shop on the ground floor.

The new pizza shop is targeted to open in the 1,300-square-foot space by mid-May, according to a press release from the building’s owners. However, there’s a tricky thing about the new eatery’s name. As it will be located on U Street, the name “H &pizza” does not make much geographic sense. Instead, the new place will simply be called “&pizza.” Yes, that’s an ampersand—the ugliest punctuation mark in the known universe—at the beginning of the name. Copy editors, be advised.