Restaurants

After a little bit of a wait for eager diners, Naz’s Halal has let us know that they hope to open next month at 11209 New Hampshire Ave in White Oak, the former location of White Oak Dry Cleaners. The restaurant could open as early as the first week of March, but has a couple things left to do before that can happen. Naz’s Halal offers rice platters, sandwiches, gyros, wings, salads, and more.

The first location outside of New York was also in MoCo, at the Burtonsville Town Center, next to Tropical Smoothie Cafe. That location opened in August 2020 and has become a local favorite with late night hours. The restaurant has since opened locations in Rockville and Germantown with an additional MoCo location planned for Takoma Park (7653 New Hampshire Ave).


Business

Rockville’s Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc., a discovery and development stage specialty pharmaceutical company located at 1 Research Ct and focused on improving the outcomes of cancer patients treated with radiation therapy (RT), announced it has entered an agreement to lease new laboratory and office space, commencing in June 2023, to complement the development of the Company’s lead drug candidates and accelerate broader diagnostic capabilities on predictive biomarkers. The new laboratory space, located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is located within the Maryland Biotech Corridor.

Per the press release: Shuttle Pharma’s platform of sensitizers offers a pipeline of product candidates designed to address the urgent clinical need for new radiation sensitizer agents. The Company’s pipeline includes Ropidoxuridine, its lead clinical sensitizer drug candidate, to sensitize rapidly growing cancer cells and selective histone deacetylase inhibitors to sensitize cancer cells and stimulate the immune system. In addition, the Company has also pursued research related to the development of human cell cultures for health disparities studies and predictive biomarkers of radiation late effects through awards received from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute for Phase I and II Small Business Innovation Research contracts.


Gaithersburg

F45, which has been opening locations across Montgomery County with recent openings in Potomac and Olney, is coming to Gaithersburg with an upcoming Kentlands location. The company had pre-Covid plans to make a move into Gaithersburg’s Rio Lakefront, which fell through, but has signed on to take over the space that was recently closed for a few years and previously home to Subway (between Caspian House of Kabob and the recently closed Edible Arrangements).

F45 offers consumers functional 45-minute workouts that are effective, fun and community-driven. F45 utilizes proprietary technologies including a fitness programming algorithm and a digitally-enabled delivery platform that leverages a rich content database of thousands of unique functional training movements to offer new workouts each day and provide a standardized experience across F45’s global franchise.


MCPS

More than 100 middle and high school students from eight schools participated in a taste testing for new menu items last week. During the Taste of MCPS, students and staff evaluated innovative concepts and sampled new flavors. Their feedback will be incorporated in the menu development process for the next school year. New menu items tested included:


WMATA

Last week, Metro’s Board of Directors marked the 50th Anniversary of Metrobus service, now the nation’s sixth largest bus network. The milestone coincides with Metro’s Better Bus Initiative to redesign the bus network and improve the Metrobus system for decades to come including new bus facilities, zero-emission buses, more bus lanes and signal priority.

Long-time Metrobus employees joined the Board to celebrate, among them was Bus Operator Robert Miles, who worked for DC Transit when it merged with three other bus companies in 1973 to become Metrobus. Retired General Superintendent of Bus Services Sherman Ramey, who also started with DC Transit in 1964 and transitioned to Metro, was recognized too along with Depot Clerk James Woods, marking his 50th year with Metrobus, and other past and present bus employees.


MCFRS

Per Rockville Police: “Traffic Collision – 2/26/23 at 5:23 p.m. Maryland Ave/Rockville Town Center. Vehicle crashed into ice rink, driver and passenger transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Thankfully, no pedestrians or skaters injured.”


Montgomery Planning

The Montgomery County Planning Board and the Montgomery County Planning Department have announced their March 2023 calendar of events and meetings. Residents can participate in Planning Board meetings by testifying in-person, testifying virtually, over the phone, and by watching the meetings on the Planning Board’s live stream. Community members may also testify by sending in written comments to the Planning Board. Information about submitting written testimony and testifying in front of the Planning Board can be found below. Contact us for accessibility accommodations.

For more details, review the list of events below and visit www.montgomeryplanning.org. These events are subject to change. To sign up to testify for Planning Board meetings, please go to the sign up to testify page and view individual agendas. Agendas are usually made public 10 days prior to the start of a meeting. Consult the Development Review Committee (DRC) and Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) websites for their  agenda information.


Montgomery Planning

Newly launched plan focuses on improvements surrounding a three-mile stretch of University Boulevard/MD 193 between Wheaton and the Capital Beltway

The Montgomery County Planning Department will host two community meetings in March to provide updates and receive additional feedback on the University Boulevard Corridor (UBC) Plan. The UBC Plan effort launched in November 2022. At the meetings, to be held in-person at Northwood High School on Wednesday, March 8, and on Zoom on Tuesday, March 14, Montgomery Planning will report back on the feedback it received during the UBC Plan’s first community meetings held last fall and provide additional information on transportation-related elements of the plan.


Gaithersburg

Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana has been open in Gaithersburg (12207 Darnestown Rd.) for nearly 7.5 years. As of this past Saturday, there was still a line into the parking lot full of eager diners hoping to get a table before the dough ran out for the night– something that’s a common occurrence for Inferno (see our video below). For those unfamiliar with the restaurant, it was opened by Chef Tony Conte in October 2015 after he spent nine years in DC’s Oval Room. Inferno specializes in pizza, but regulars will tell you that the appetizers are often just as much of a draw.

The restaurant is currently open four days a week– Wednesday through Saturday, from 5pm-9pm…or until the dough runs out. Sometimes that can be pretty early, so if you’re interested in getting a seat we would highly recommend getting there before the restaurant opens and lining up outside. If you want to eat the pizza at home, you can call in your order earlier in the afternoon and pick it up when the restaurant opens at 5pm to take with you, but even carry-out orders are limited to ensure enough dough for customers dining in each day.


Derwood

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is investing in a well connected pedestrian and bicycle network which enriches the livability of a community. Therefore, MCDOT is implementing bicycle facilities such as off road shared use paths, which serve as critical links in the transportation system, providing access to residential areas, transit, commercial districts, schools, places of worship, parks, and recreation areas.

MCDOT has initiated preliminary design for the Emory Lane and Muncaster Mill Road (MD 115) Shared Use Path Project from Holly Ridge Road to Muncaster Mill Road at the proposed North Branch Trail in order to provide safer bicycle and pedestrian access between the ICC bike path along Georgia Avenue and the proposed North Branch Trail/Rock Creek Regional Park. Photos courtesy of MCDOT.


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