North Bethesda

Restaurant industry professionals and their fans gathered at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center earlier this week for the 40th Annual RAMMY Awards as Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) announced winners and a range of special distinctions in a number of categories celebrating excellence in long-standing and pandemic-era categories that range from individual professional honors to accolades celebrating culinary concepts and service. Three Montgomery County restaurants were presented with awards.

For 2022, the RAMMYS returned with a program of familiar categories honoring RAMW members, representing a year during which the industry rebuilt, recovered, and grew with new establishments. A selection of categories also spoke to pandemic-era aspects that both restaurants and diners have continued to enjoy and employ – all of which were decided via public vote earlier this year. Another carryover from last year, publicly voted categories were open to any foodservice operation in the region.


Montgomery Village

Signage has been installed at the Antojitos Salvadoreños Isabel, which is coming to 19114 Montgomery Village Ave, the former Einstein Bagel Bros location. We first reported that a new Salvadoran restaurant would be coming to the Village in May. Construction on the interior of the restaurant is ongoing and a representative tells us they hope to open by October.  The restaurant will serve popular Salvadorian dishes like pupusas, tamales, and yuca con chicharron, as well as traditional Salvadorian cuisine such as pastelitos. La Poteria, which sells Colombian street food and coffee, is located next door.

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit previously opened its second Maryland location in Montgomery County when it opened in Germantown in February 2013. The restaurant closed the following year and reopened under new management in July 2014 before closing permanently in early 2016. The first Maryland location was in Gambrills, but has since closed. Currently there are nearby locations in Pasadena, MD, two in Fairfax VA, and one in Alexandria VA. There is no expected opening date at the moment.


Real Estate

Rock Creek Property Group, LLC (“Rock Creek”) has announced it has acquired 51,000 square feet and two floors at 9707 Key West Avenue in Rockville, MD. The property is strategically located in the epicenter of Montgomery County’s life science cluster. This is the second acquisition by Rock Creek’s Fund III and the purchase price was $8.925 million. The three-story office building is divided into two condominium units owned by separate entities. The unit acquired by Rock Creek, comprises the entire second and third floors each measuring approximately 25,500 square feet. Rock Creek plans to rebrand the space as Precision Labs™ | Shady Grove, adding to its burgeoning first class life science portfolio.

Per the press release: As Rock Creek’s second Precision Labs™ location, the space will offer maximum flexibility for both large and small life science users. The space can be configured either as a rare 51,000-square-foot contiguous block, two-floor combination of lab, R&D and supporting office space, or as one to two floors of spec suites able to accommodate smaller tenants with more immediate needs. The space has:


Sponsored

POTOMAC, Md., Jul 26, 2022/PRNewswire/ – Shulman Rogers welcomes Lita Rosario-Richardson (Shareholder) and Kandyce Hall (Associate) to the Firm. Most recently the principal of LITA ROSARIO, PLLC, a boutique entertainment and intellectual property law and consulting firm in Washington DC, Rosario-Richardson will lead the Firm’s Entertainment Practice. Lita notes “Shulman Rogers offers a full cadre of services that will be of great benefit to my clients. Now all of their legal needs can be tended to under one roof.”

Lita Rosario-Richardson is widely recognized for the legal advice she provides for creators in the arts and entertainment arena and her expertise in copyright recapture. She began her career in entertainment law as a co-founder/owner and VP of Business and Legal Affairs for University Music Entertainment, a music production company that produced multi-platinum recording artist Dru Hill, Mya and ultimately SisQó. Lita went on to represent such artists as Missy Elliott (and is responsible for Missy owning her copyrights), Crystal Waters, Tank and Robin S. She has secured back royalties for many artists and songwriters including, Peaches & Herb, Mr. Cheeks, Das EFX, and Big Pun. Lita has negotiated distribution and publishing agreements with all of the four major record distribution/music publishing companies including Warner Music Group, Sony/RCA, Universal Music Group, EMI/Capital Records as well as major television and cable companies, including Disney, UPN, TV One, BET, VIACOM/MTV, DISCOVERY CHANNEL, E! NETWORK and Universal Pictures.


Silver Spring

At approximately 6:30 p.m., 4th District officers responded to the 14000 block of Connecticut Avenue for the report of a strong-armed robbery that just occurred.

The investigation by detectives determined that the unknown suspect entered the Wendy’s and approached the counter to order food. Upon ordering the food, the suspect removed change from his pocket and handed it to the employee. When the employee opened the register to put the money in, the suspect immediately lunged over the counter and ripped the register tray out of the drawer. The employee and the suspect began to wrestle over the register tray. The suspect was able to gain control and fled the store with the stolen tray and money.


Gaithersburg

Jazzercise, a fitness franchise that combines dance, strength and resistance training with popular music for a full-body workout class, will be opening a new location in Muddy Branch Square next to Giant. The workout classes that have been around for over 50 years have additional Montgomery County locations in Aspen Hill, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, and Silver Spring.

Judi Sheppard Missett began teaching an easy-to-follow dance class back in 1969. Blending jazz dance, Pilates, cardio kickboxing, resistance training and yoga, Jazzercise program benefits include improved cardiovascular endurance, increased strength and flexibility plus an overall “feel good” factor, according to the company. The international business franchise now boasts over 8,500 franchisees teaching more than 32,000 classes a week in 25 countries, and Missett serves as the company’s CEO.


Gaithersburg

In June 2021 we let you know that Lum Thai would be coming to Muddy Branch Square, in the space previously occupied by Roggenart and Canela Bakery at 806 Muddy Branch Road. Since then things have been mostly quiet, but renovations began for the upcoming restaurant a couple weeks back (photo below). We stopped by earlier this week and the previous bakery counter that was located at the front of the store is now gone, with construction underway.

Lum Thai is a Thai food and chicken restaurant, according to signage, but we have not been able to find out too much more about the restaurant. A restaurant in Jacksonville, FL with the same name and similar font used in its logo has told us there is no connection between the two restaurants. Based on current construction progress, we anticipate an early 2023 opening for the restaurant. We will provide additional information as soon as we have it.


Events

Per the event page: Attendees will get an industry insider’s sneak peek at the newest local food and beverage offerings, sample, and take home new and unique local products. Whether you are a savvy food system professional, a budding vegan chef, a beginner at buying local, trying to eat healthy, or you just love a great beer, this event has something for you. Parking at adjacent Silver Spring municipal parking garages. Limited street parking available. Tickets will be available at the door.

The Montgomery County Food Council invites all food and beverage professionals to participate in our 2022 Food Expo at the Silver Spring Civic Building on Thursday, July 28th from 11AM – 2PM.


Restaurants

Earlier this month, Max’s Kosher Cafe at 2319 University Blvd W in Wheaton announced that its last day in business will be July 28, 2022. The restaurant, known for their falafel, shawarma, fried chicken, and deli sandwiches, has been a Wheaton staple for nearly three decades. According to a Bethesda Beat report, the cafe hopes to open again in the Kemp Mill shopping center, which is the home of Shalom Kosher- a supermarket owned by The Shalom Group (owners of Max’s). “We hope that people will voice their opinions and voice their feelings and hopefully we’ll be able to get it into the shopping center here,” he said in the interview.

The restaurant released the following statement announcing Max’s closing on July 28th:


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