Paris Baguette, “the neighborhood bakery café where communities come together over expertly crafted baked and brewed goods,” has announced it will hold the grand opening of its Rockville Town Square location at 101 Gibbs Street on Friday, April 28. Paris Baguette offers cakes, gourmet sandwiches, salads, and an assortment of baked goods such as croissants and donuts.

The company detailed its expansion plans back in August: “Paris Baguette currently operates in 14 states with a focus on expanding to a nationwide footprint in top-tier markets through a combined strategic approach of corporate-owned and franchise locations; franchise agreements have been signed to expand across 25 states. “The increased interest we’ve seen in franchise agreements and rapid expansion through new store openings at Paris Baguette is a testament to the success we’ve seen by focusing on the elevated bakery café experience and creating an emotional connection with our guests,” said Darren Tipton, Chief Executive Officer, Paris Baguette America. “We set an aggressive goal to open 1,000 locations in the U.S. by 2030 and we’re on track to exceed this plan with strategic direction on growth, quality products, customer experience, and innovation.”


In addition to HalfSmoke closing its Westfield Montgomery Mall location, the restaurant also closed its Baltimore location earlier this month. According to a report from BizJournals, the Baltimore restaurant closed at 2400 Boston St. in Canton’s Can Company on April 4.

At the mall, HalfSmoke was located in a kiosk in the mall’s food court/terrace (previously occupied by Coldstone Creamery and Gelato Galaxy) and was the first restaurant/bar to serve alcohol in the food court (nearby restaurants off of the food court served alcohol, ex: Slade’s). The menu consisted of the best-selling sausages and sides from its DC location (651 Florida Ave, NW), as well as boozy milkshakes and a funnel cake bar. HalfSmoke’s sister restaurant Butter Me Up also closed its Montgomery Mall location earlier this month.


At its peak, Bed Bath & Beyond operated the largest home furnishing retailer in the United States with over 970 stores across all 50 states, consistently at the forefront of major home and bath trends. Operating stores spanning the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, Bed Bath & Beyond offers everything from bed linens to cookware to electric appliances, home organization, baby care, and more. Now, Bed Bath & Beyond has announced that it will close all 360 stores and 120 Buy Buy Baby locations on Wednesday and seek to sell parts of its business. In its filing with the bankruptcy court, the company said that it expected all stores to close by June 30, according to the New York Times.

According to the New York Times report, customers may use Bed Bath & Beyond coupons until Wednesday, when store closing sales begin. Customers will have until May 8 to use Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards. The company did not specify when its Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby apps would shut down, saying only that customers can continue using the apps “at this time.” The Gaithersburg location closed a couple years back and the Germantown location closed permanently on Sunday. The Rockville location is the only Bed Beth & Beyond store left in MoCo with Buy Buy Baby also having a location in Rockville.


Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services responded to a collision with rollover on Friday afternoon in Rockville. According to the Rockville Police Department, the collision occurred at Southbound Frederick Rd and Redland Rd. Three people have been transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Drivers should expect delays. We will post an update if additional information is available.

Traffic Alert – 4/21/23 at 3:00 p.m. Southbound Frederick Rd at Redland due to rollover collision. 3 people transported to hospital w/non-life threatening injuries. pic.twitter.com/2bczeDvwTw


Rockville Little Theatre (RLT) has announced that their production of “Pride@Prejudice” by Daniel Elihu Kramer was selected Outstanding Production at ESTA (Eastern States Theatre Association) on Sat., April 15 at the Tatnall School in Wilmington, Delaware. Participating states included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland). “Pride@Prejudice” received several other accolades as well:

– Outstanding Achievement in Ensemble Acting – Niranjali Amerasinghe, Lena Winter, Meghan Williams Elkins, Ian Swank and Joseph Coracle


In November we let you know that RASA, a fast-casual Indian restaurant with four locations in DC and Virginia, would be taking over the recently-closed Slapfish location at 12033 Rockville Pike in the Montrose Crossing shopping center. Earlier today, RASA announced that it will be opening its Rockville location on Thursday, April 27th at 10:30am.

The restaurant, founded by Rahul Vinod and Sahil Rahman (combined to create the name, RASA), opened its first location in Navy Yard in 2017 before opening a location in Mt. Vernon Triangle in 2020, Crystal City in 2021, and Fairfax this past summer. The menu offers seven chef-curated bowls under the “We Got You” portion of the menu, that includes their signature bowls like the “Tikka Chance on Me”, “Open Sesame”, “Eat Your Veggies”, “Home Cooking”, “Goa Your Own Way”, “Aloo Need is Love”, and “Caul on Me” or the “You Got It” portion of their menu that allows customers to “DIY” and design their own bowl using the assembly line format of a base, main, sauce, veggies, toppings, and chutneys/dressings. The full menu can be seen here.


Per MCPD: Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Major Crimes Division have charged 19-year-old Mateo Paredes-Vincent and 20-year-old Havanna Holland-Miller with an attempted armed carjacking that occurred on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, in the 100 block of Talbott Avenue in Rockville.

Through the investigation, detectives identified Paredes-Vincent of Washington, D.C. and Holland-Miller of Southbridge, MA as the suspects.  On Tuesday, March 28, 2023, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Paredes-Vincent, charging him with attempted armed carjacking related charges. He is currently in jail in Alachua, Florida on an unrelated arrest. He is awaiting extradition to Montgomery County.


Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services (MCFRS) responded to a call for a fire at a single family home on the 11700 block of Sherbrooke Way in Rockville at approximately 9:30pm on Wednesday night.

According to MCFRS Chief Spokesperson Pete Piringer, the homeowner heard crackling sounds outside and checked exterior cameras to find smoke coming from garage. At about the same time, a passerby pounded on the door of the house to let the residents know it was on fire. The resident and the passerby used a garden hose to control fire spread along the vinyl siding of the garage.


Per Pike’s Peek 10K: The race will take place on Sunday, April 23 at 7:50am. Road closures begin at 5am. The Montgomery County Road Runners Club works in conjunction with the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, Montgomery County Police, City of Rockville Police, Montgomery County Department of Recreation and City of Rockville to ensure that the Pike’s Peek 10K course is safe for runners and has the least impact on traffic in the area.

We use a process of rolling road closures so the flow of traffic is stopped for the least amount of time possible.  All of the intersections on the course are assigned a City of Rockville/Montgomery County police person and/or a Pike’s Peek 10K course Marshal.  We ask that the drivers in the area of the race course please pay attention to the instructions given to drivers.


Nosh Grill House, located at 12 N Washington Street in Rockville, is holding its soft opening this week. The restaurant, which offers contemporary Chinese-style bbq, is the neighbor and sister restaurant of East Grill Karaoke and East Dumpling House. Along with all-you-can-eat bbq, Nosh Grill House offers karaoke. The soft opening began on Monday, April 17th and runs Monday-Thursday from 5pm until 1am and Friday-Sunday from 5pm-2am. Full menu  and first look available below.

Per Nosh Grill House: “NOSH is a contemporary Chinese-style BBQ restaurant and karaoke bar that pays homage to traditional Northern Chinese food culture, while embracing neighboring countries’ influences, including Japan, Korea, and Russia. Forged with skill and passion, this family-owned restaurant has been a years-long journey in the making; the result is a welcoming, eccentric space with a boisterous bar and a 12-foot screen for karaoke, sporting events, and shows.


In October, we let you know that a new Korean barbecue restaurant signed on to take over the space previously occupied by Saffron Indian Cuisine at Woodmont Station in Rockville (1319 Rockville Pike). In February we let you know that the restaurant is Damso Korean BBQ, and the restaurant “soft opened” on Friday, April 14th. Current hours are 5pm-9pm daily. A sneak preview, courtesy of Damso Korean BBQ’s press shoot from last night can be seen in the video below:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrL-889gd0R/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=


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