Update (Friday, Aug. 3): Mi Cocina is slated to open in the former M Cafe space in The Collection at Chevy Chase in March 2013, according to a news release from The Chevy Chase Land Company.

Original story (Thursday, Aug. 2): The former M Cafe space, which has been vacant for nearly a year and a half in The Collection at Chevy Chase (5471-5481 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD), will have a new occupant in early 2013, Bethesda Magazine reported.

Tex-Mex restaurant Mi Cocina will open its first East Coast location in the upscale shopping center (also known as the 'Rodeo Drive of the East Coast') on Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda Magazine reported.

Mi Cocina is owned by the privately held M Crowd Restaurant group, which has restaurants in Dallas/Fort Worth, the Houston area, Tulsa and Atlanta, according to Mi Cocina's website. Mi Cocina's menu includes standard Tex-Mex fare (fajitas, enchiladas, tacos), as well as house specials.

M Cafe, its sister restaurant Famoso and Piazza Sempione, the luxury women’s apparel store that shared the space with the restaurants, suddenly shuttered on April 19, 2011, Patch reported.

The official line from M Cafe's corporate offices was that the closings were the result of a dispute—partially over rent—with the landlord, the Chevy Chase Land Company. David M. Smith, president of the Chevy Chase Land Company, couldn’t discuss the details of the businesses’ closings at that time, Patch added.

Mi Cocina is slated to fill the entire space—from Wisconsin Avenue straight through to the driveway that runs around the building at the back—in The Collection at Chevy Chase, Bethesda Magazine added.

Read more about the new restaurant on Bethesda Magazine's website.