Two new restaurants open in Town Square

‘‘We wanted to make this location like a Peruvian home,” said owners Juan Rodriguez, a Rockville resident, and Lilian Clary.

So they brought in a Peruvian architect, who designed the outside with wrought iron and painted tile.

Inside, there are three distinct dining areas. The first is a place to be seen, with a large hand-painted mural of a Peruvian street scene and enormous mirrors. You can see the scene from the second-level bar, where people coming in the tiled entryway are visible through a large arched window. Up one more flight of stairs is a more private room serving 45.

The restaurant is decorated with elaborately carved wood chairs and tables, tile floors, wrought iron banisters, and carved wood pictures, all imported from Peru.

The three-story configuration is the owners’ solution to the challenge of a small ground-floor area, but the result is a cozy and unique dining experience.

The first la Canela has mostly served the local Peruvian population, which, according to Clary, eats ‘‘all day long – there is no ‘‘lunch rush” per se.”

Clary and Rodriguez expect their non-Peruvian clientele to increase in Rockville, and they are prepared for diversity: all of the servers at la Canela are bilingual.

Clary and Rodriguez have catered for the Peruvian embassy and for Peruvian attaches.

The owners expect to add live Peruvian music soon.

‘‘It will be very soft,” Clary said. ‘‘Just vocals, guitar and cajon (Peruvian box drum).

Stonefish Grill has a sparer décor of warm yellow and black. The gray stone fireplace, support column and hostess stand add texture, but the real focus here is on extremely fresh seafood.

Owner Anil Lahori has been in the restaurant business for 18 years, including eight as a chef. He has run many kinds of restaurants, including Mexican, Indian and classic American hamburger grills. This is the first time he has owned a restaurant.

‘‘I know the franchise person at Stonefish Grill, and realized that this was a great opportunity and a great location,” Lahori said. ‘‘Seafood is the ‘in’ thing now, and there is great demand for it here in Rockville.”

Lahori is a Montgomery County resident and loves the diversity of Rockville. He gets rather passionate when he talks about why he offers Montgomery County police, firefighters and teachers 20 percent off on food Monday through Thursday.

‘‘It is not easy to be in their place, to do what they are doing. We need to thank them for being there for us,” he said.

See you in the Square.

Sally Sternbach is executive director of Rockville Economic Development Inc., the private-public economic development arm of the City of Rockville. This is part of a series of columns written in conjunction with the opening of Rockville Town Square, the new mixed-use redevelopment project in the heart of the city.