Shopping

In June 2021 we let you know that Lum Thai would be coming to Muddy Branch Square. The Thai restaurant is located in the space previously occupied by Roggenart and Canela Bakery at 806 Muddy Branch Road and is currently hiring for a few positions as it prepares to open very soon in Gaithersburg (exact date not yet available).

According to its website, the restaurant will be open daily from 11am until 9pm. The menu will offer a various appetizers (all priced below $10), soups, salads, entrees/curries/noodles (all priced at $13.95), chef specialities  (going as high as $20), and desserts.

Charley Prime Foods, the new restaurant from Jackie Greenbaum & Gordon Banks (Little Coco’s, El Chucho, Bar Charley, Quarry House Tavern) that will be replacing Tara Thai on the Rio Lakefront boardwalk at 9811 Washington Blvd in Gaithersburg, has announced it plans to open in April.

According to a press release, the Charley Prime team envisions the restaurant as a mature version of their popular DC restaurant Bar Charley, with an expanded menu, but keeping its lively cocktail forward energy. The broader menu will remain steak focused, but will also feature house made pastas (a la Little Coco’s) as well as other items unique to just this location. The group has tapped Editlab@Streetsense to design the space. Explains Greenbaum, “We can’t wait to do our first suburban project and think the timing is perfect. We’ve always done restaurants that are near and dear to our hearts and that we feel are right or needed in the particular neighborhood. My partners both have young families and Rio has been a frequent destination for them for years, as it is for tons of people in north Montgomery county. This is especially true for our chef and partner in this project, Adam Harvey, who lives nearby. We’re really thrilled to bring something unique to the mix out there.” Featured photo shows a photo of food from Bar Charley.

Fry Guy Southern Homestyle Cuisine has closed its Gaithersburg location. The restaurant opened at 7601 Airpark Rd Suite B in Gaithersburg, the former site of Penang Garden, in July of 2021 and offered a wide variety of southern cuisine. Fry Guy has an additional location in Capitol Heights.

Per the Fry Guy Southern Cuisine website: “Fry Guy Southern Homestyle Cuisine is a family owned black business that is centered around great cooking, love family recipes with a southern homestyle flavor. Fry Guy was a name given to me by a close friend because I always use to cook fish and chicken in the early morning hours and he started calling me Fry Guy.  But it didn’t start there my cooking was inspired by watching my grandmother cook and helping her clean fish for dinner.  She loved her some fresh fish and I loved her cooking, so I watched her every moved in the kitchen.  Yes, grandma Dorothy “Dottie” Johnson I paid attention. I can also remember growing up in my neighborhood “Lincoln Park” when Mrs. Beet Offutt and Ella Hawkins will sell Friday night dinners  and the whole community would be talking about it and they would sell out so fast because it was that good.  As a child that always stayed in my head of how good the food was when they cooked along with my children grandmother Francis Hawkins whose chicken I would do anything for I mean it was the best.  I can’t leave out my mom who made the best old bay chicken ever the Queen B.  As time went on my passion grew for cooking on the grill  and watching people enjoy eating my food, from having the fish fry’s  on the football field for coach Rob Hill (RIP), holidays and selling dinners for my Germantown Hardknocks Basketball AAU program.  Cooking at coach Big Dog house after a great season or tournament and seeing how it bought everyone to gather in  love and happiness, I knew I was going to open a restaurant one day.  I use to tell my son one day were going to have our own restaurant and here it is Fry Guy Southern Homestyle Cuisine.  GOD IS GOOD”