The Grove recalibrates for today's economy at Cabin John Village

The Grove has undergone the second revamping of its concept since the Common Plate Hospitality Group first signed a lease at Cabin John Village about a year ago. Initially envisioned as a Belgian restaurant, by the time it opened in the December, the cuisine had shifted to the Mediterranean. It was positioned as upscale fine dining. But it just closed for a few days, and has now reopened with changes to the menu and dining room.

Most noticeable are the additions of the words "Bar & Grill" to the restaurant's name, and the flatscreen televisions now showing live sporting events around the bar. It looks like prices on the menu have been reduced. The cuisine is now American, with a number of dishes inspired by a body of water much closer to home: the Chesapeake Bay. Burgers, crab cakes, chicken, pasta dishes, and seafood - including Maryland favorite rockfish - are slightly more reasonable in price, as well.

There seemed to be a good crowd on hand for one of the first nights under the new concept. The Grove has broadened its appeal, and can now attract more of a neighborhood, family target audience. Every shopping center needs a restaurant like this, where even the pickiest members of the group can find something on the menu that doesn't break the bank - in relative terms. This is Potomac, after all.

Mon Ami Gabi closes for renovations at Bethesda Row

Mon Ami Gabi has temporarily closed for renovations at 7239 Woodmont Avenue at Bethesda Row. Signage has been removed from the exterior. The popular French restaurant will not only undergo remodeling, but will expand to become even larger. 

Changes will include a new, relocated main entrance, and the addition of a larger outdoor dining area. An expansion into the vacant former Chaia space next door will allow for two private dining rooms. Mon Ami Gabi is anticipated to reopen by the end of 2024.

Rendering of future entrance

Mui Japanese restaurant to replace The Block at Pike & Rose

The Block is gone at 967 Rose Avenue at Pike & Rose, but the space is going to remain a destination for Asian cuisine. Mui, a Japanese restaurant, will open in the former food hall spot next to West Elm this coming winter. Inspired by the modern cuisine of Japan, the menu at Mui will combine traditional and innovative new dishes. Seafood and meat will be cooked on a Robata grill. Like many top sushi restaurants in the region, Mui will offer an omakase dining option, which will leave the selection to the chef, who will surprise and delight diners with their latest creations.

A wine and champagne list will join a curated selection of cocktails. These will be complimented by a menu of fine agave, scotch and sake brands. 

"We warmly welcome Mui to Pike & Rose," Federal Realty Senior Vice President Stuart Biel said in a statement this morning. "Our highly amenitized neighborhood is a popular destination for foodies and shoppers from North Bethesda and the greater community, and we are thrilled to share this new dining experience." "With its lively environment, Pike & Rose is the perfect setting for Mui’s first restaurant location, noted Mui's Edward Wong.

Assault at 7-Eleven in Bethesda

Montgomery County police responded to a report of an assault at the 7-Eleven at 7820 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda Tuesday night, May 7, 2024. Police were called to the store at 10:08 PM Tuesday. Two readers report a large police response, with one counting seven police cruisers at the scene. A Black man in his 30s was seen handcuffed, surrounded by officers, in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven around 10:25 PM. Police were still on the scene at 10:45 PM, but no further information about the incident has been released as of this writing.

Demolition of Westwood Shopping Center in Bethesda (Photos)

It's a sad sight at 5400 Westbard Avenue in Bethesda, where the Westwood Shopping Center demolition has been taking place in recent days. The historic 1959 strip mall holds golden age memories for many longtime members of the community, especially those who grew up in the neighborhood. 

Westwood Shopping Center was home to many beloved businesses over the decades: the over-the-top desserts, birthday celebrations, and arcade games of Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor; Crown Books, which was founded because Robert Haft had a prophetic vision of our present day in which "books cost too much;" the hardware store; the Westwood Pet Center (now at The Shops at Sumner Place); Drug Fair; Beyda's Lad & Lassie; the 31 flavors of Baskin Robbins; Pants Corral; the Westwood Barber Shop (still there in the new building next door!); Fashion Craft Cleaners; Frame World; the 24-Hour Bob ATM of Bank of Bethesda; Anglo Dutch Pools & Toys; and, of course, the legendary RadioShack. 

A Martian landscape is being left behind for the time being. The shopping center and its parking lot will be replaced by an apartment building with ground floor retail and restaurants, a town square, an EYA townhome development called the Brownstones at Westbard Square, and a small park. Delivery of that phase of the Westbard Square development is anticipated for 2026-27.

Chocolate Moonshine reopens at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Chocolate Moonshine has reopened at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. It is now on the edge of the Dining Terrace food court on Level 2. This is the spot recently - and shockingly - vacated by 7-Eleven. Chocolate Moonshine closed in its old location in early April, where it had been in operation since 2016.

Chocolate Moonshine's chocolate bars are made with bourbon, whiskey, champagne, rum, and Barrel aged Irish whiskey. Moonshine Bars are filled with smooth and creamy centers. All bars are gluten-free, and made with only natural and organic ingredients. Their fudge is cooked in small, 50-pound batches, and made with 30% less sugar than competing products.

Xfinity outages refocus attention on failing infrastructure in Westbard area of Bethesda

Just when the Westbard area of Bethesda had several months of respite from an ongoing series of Pepco electricity brownouts, a barrage of Xfinity service outages has hit the community over the last two weeks. At least three sustained Xfinity outages have been reported by residents in that area during that period, all lasting for several hours. The latest occurred yesterday morning around 7:00 AM, residents reported, and continued for a large portion of the business day. Comcast indicated that up to 2000 Xfinity customers lost service during Monday's outage, but has not given an explanation for the recent series of extended service interruptions.

Loss of Xfinity service no longer just means the inability to watch cable TV. In the working-from-home era, such extended outages could result in residents losing money, or being fired from their jobs. Many so-called "smart" appliances, devices and doorbells require Wi-Fi to operate. And customers relying on Xfinity for home phone service are left without the ability to even make emergency calls.

The outages have returned attention to the question of the adequacy of infrastructure in the Westbard area, where Montgomery County has approved the potential construction of thousands of new housing units in 2016, and will likely approve thousands more on River Road in the coming years. County Council and Planning Board members rudely brushed aside infrastructure concerns raised by residents during that two year approval process, but those residents have once again been proven correct. 

Westbard area residents and utility customers have not been informed why they are experiencing outages since the redevelopment of the area began in 2018. Montgomery County elected officials are nowhere to be found on the matter, and have not been representing their constituents or holding anyone accountable. The question on many minds is, if the utility infrastructure cannot even handle the current population, what will service be like when thousands of new residents are added to the load?

TD Bank closes Wisconsin Avenue branch in downtown Bethesda

TD Bank has closed its branch at 8101 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. Signage has been stripped from the building. The closure was expected, as customers had been informed several months in advance. What is new, is that the property is now being marketed by CBRE as a "freestanding building with drive-thru." That would suggest that redevelopment, or assembly of the property with adjoining parcels for a larger project, is not expected in the immediate future. Hopefully we can get a Jack-in-the-Box, Taco Bell, Cook Out, Raising Cane's, or Burger King out of this.

Six Ways to Sunday gastropub opening this summer in Bethesda

Six Ways to Sunday, a Sino-Siamese gastropub, will open this summer at 8003 Norfolk Avenue in downtown Bethesda. That is best known as the former location of Buon Giorno. Six Ways to Sunday will feature Thai and Cantonese small plates, Japanese whiskey and sake, and a selection of Asian beer and wine. The restaurant is currently hiring for all positions. Construction has been underway inside the building for several weeks.

New water feature activated at Bethesda Row (Photos)

The new "interactive" water feature on the revamped plaza outside Anthropologie & Co. at Bethesda Row was activated yesterday. It replaces the old fountain that was demolished. The new water feature is the centerpiece of the remodeled plaza, which also includes new lighting, seating and landscaping, and a canopy. Bethesda Row property owner Federal Realty recently completed a reimagining and expansion of the sidewalk on the Elm Street side of the development.

Historic Bethesda bank building sells at a loss in auction

The historic former Bank of Bethesda building at 7500 Wisconsin Avenue was auctioned off in March. A resulting real estate transaction, which closed on April 23, has just been entered into Maryland property records. The winning bid was $4,100,000, a significant haircut from the last sale of the building in 2020, when it sold for $6,175,000. That sale was in turn a major drop in value from the $9,300,000 SunTrust (now Truist) paid for the landmark crossroads property in 2016. SunTrust had sold the building in 2008 for $5.5 million, so it's been a money loser for every buyer for over a decade now.

Who acquired the bank building late last month, and what can we expect to happen to it? The property record is too confusing to reach a solid conclusion on that at the moment. "DNA Real Properties LLC" is listed as the new owner. That entity is a real estate firm located in Las Vegas, with no public-facing website that I can locate. But...the address given on the state record for DNA Real Properties LLC is right here in Montgomery County, at 3111 Automobile Boulevard in Silver Spring. That's the Koons Silver Spring auto dealership at the Montgomery Auto Sales Park. 

But the property at 3111 Automobile Boulevard is not owned by DNA Real Properties LLC. The dealership site is currently owned by the Mary A. Nonnemacker et al Trust. That is the only property at the Auto Sales Park owned by that trust, and as far as my research finds, the only Koons dealership property owned by the trust in Maryland.

Koons recently opened an urban-style Lincoln dealership in downtown Bethesda. Will the bank building become another storefront dealership for Koons, or do DNA Real Properties or the Mary A. Nonnemacker trust have other plans? Who is the real owner, and where are they actually located? Was DNA a holding company for the property until the real buyer could obtain financing and close on it, and is mistakenly listed as still being the current owner? The transaction record raises almost as many questions as it answers.

The Christopher Condominium in Bethesda installs brighter lighting for safety (Photos)

Bethesda, like all of Montgomery County, has been experiencing a surge in crime for the last four years. Over that time, the Montgomery County Council has largely left residents and commercial property owners to fend for themselves against the criminals preying on the community. One approach has been to install brighter lighting around properties, whether they be homes or shopping centers. We've seen this recently at Bethesda Row and at Kenwood Station. The latest is The Christopher Condominium at 4808 Moorland Lane in downtown Bethesda, where brighter lighting has just been added to the entrance staircase on Woodmont Avenue.

Norfolk Avenue Bethesda Streetery to return on Fridays for summer concerts

A number of readers have been asking about the promised return of the Norfolk Avenue Bethesda Streetery in the spring of 2024. It appears the Streetery will return in a limited fashion for the late spring and summer seasons. Norfolk Avenue will close at St. Elmo Avenue on Fridays only during the Friday night Summer Concert Series events beginning on May 17, and ending on September 20. It's not clear yet whether the closure will terminate at Cordell Avenue, or at Del Ray Avenue, but the closures reportedly will begin each Friday during the concert season at 1:00 PM, and end at 10:00 PM Friday night.

The Streetery and the Summer Concert Series are both organized by the Bethesda Urban Partnership. Bethesda UP is continuing to pursue an effort to convert part of Norfolk Avenue into a permanent shared street. That concept was recommended in the 2017 Bethesda Downtown master plan. The Streetery was first established during the pandemic in 2020, and features seating areas for outdoor dining from nearby restaurants.

Man stabbed in Bethesda robbery

A hectic scene played out in downtown Bethesda's Woodmont Triangle late Wednesday night, May 1, 2024, after a man was allegedly stabbed and robbed. Several details remain unclear, as Montgomery County police have not publicly commented on the incident yet. Here's what we know so far, based on accounts of residents and visitors in the area, and police communications at the time:

Shortly before midnight Wednesday, there was a commotion near the 7-Eleven at 7820 Wisconsin Avenue. People in that area recall hearing a man yelling loudly. Police were dispatched to the 7-Eleven at 11:54 PM. Montgomery County police officers soon arrived at the convenience store. Bystanders were reporting that someone had been robbed.

It then seems there was a second 911 call from Tommy Joe's at 7940 Norfolk Avenue, where the male victim apparently sought help, as the restaurant and bar were still open at that hour. Police located the victim. An officer reported to a dispatcher that the victim had a "large gash" knife wound. Police said the suspect was last seen fleeing toward the Bethesda Metro station. No one I've spoken to so far was an eyewitness to the actual robbery itself.

@DCNewsLive on Twitter reported that a laptop might have been what was taken by the robber, and that the victim's wound was on his arm. @CordellTraffic reported that officers applied a tourniquet to the victim's arm, and that he was then transported to a hospital. The victim's injury was not believed to be life-threatening at the time. No further information has been released as of this writing. If this was a random attack, it is certainly one of the more shocking incidents to occur during this ongoing crime wave.