Items from The Eleanor, which was located at 932 Ellsworth Dr in Downtown Silver Spring, are currently being auctioned off by Capital Online Auctions. Items include a five lane mini bowling system and a bowling pin chandelier, as well as restaurant, bar, and office equipment. The restaurant closed back in June. The auction begins closing October 5.
Dim Sum & Bubble Tea replaced Class 520 at 4941 Elm St in Bethesda earlier this year. Now the new restaurant’dessert spot is available to purchase for $150K, according to a business listing. According to the listing, the space was renovated in March 2023 (when the switch was made from Class 520 to Dim Sum & Bubble Tea) and the restaurant is “Located in Landmarks Bethesda MD, The Shoppes of Bethesda, facing cobblestoned, pedestrian Bethesda Lane in Bethesda Row.” The space is 852SF, with a lease that expires in April of 2025, and the reason for selling is listed as “Owner has other priorities for business.”
Class 520, which was previously in the space, opened in May of 2017 and served “Thai-inspired” ice cream that is made by pouring a milk-based liquid onto nearly freezing metal circle. The liquid is then spread out and rolled as it freezes into ice cream. The ice cream is served as rolls in a bowl/cup. The Rockville Class 520 location, which opened in October of 2016, was also recently made available for sale.
Good Ducking Burger is now open, replacing Bethesda fine dining staple Duck Duck Goose. Like its predecessor, Good Ducking Burger is owned and operated by French-trained chef Ashish Alfred. It’s located at 7929 Norfolk Ave. and our very own Mr. MoCo gave the new restaurant a glowing review (see preview video below).
Times change, tastes change, prices fluctuate and the one who chooses NOT to evolve is the one that sinks. For Duck Duck Goose Bethesda, it all came down to the numbers. Despite having a packed dining room most nights, the rising costs of doing business caused DDG Bethesda’s profit margin to plummet. While Alfred’s four other restaurants in Baltimore and DC are both spacious and busy, Bethesda was just busy. Cozy and intimate at about 1100 square feet total (counting interior and the seasonal outdoor patio), and unable to add any more seating, it became obvious that the business was just no longer sustainable as is and, according to Alfred, he was putting an increasingly unfair demand on his employees.
Back in February we let you know that Barra Brava Cevicheria Peruana was “coming soon” to the location that was previously home to Old Hickory Grill at 15420 Old Columbia Pike B in Burtonsville. The restaurant recently announced that it will open its second location on Saturday, October 21st from 12pm until 12am. Barra Brava opened its first location at 15921 N Frederick Rd in Rockville in October of 2017.
The menu consists of seafood entrees, a variety of ceviches, non-seafood entrees like lomo saltado, aji de gallina, and more. The full announcement from the restaurant can be seen below:
Fire Pit Brazilian Barbecue opened its food truck at 804 Rockville Pike in the Golden Arcade shopping center (across from the Ritchie Center/IHOP) in Rockville in October 2022. Less than a year later, the family behind the truck is planning a second location at the upcoming Solaire Social Food Hall in Silver Spring, according to a review in the Washington Post (also reported by Source of the Spring). A video can be seen below of what our very own Mr. MoCo referred as possibly being his favorite sandwich from Fire Pit.
“Less than a year into his new venture, Gonzalez is already planning a second location at the forthcoming Solaire Social food hall in downtown Silver Spring. And why not? His version of churrasco aligns better with modern life than those pricey Brazilian steakhouses and their endless parades of all-you-can-eat meat. Fire Pit is casual. It’s affordable. It doesn’t dare you to eat like a 16th-century royal.” wrote Tim Carman in the WaPo review.
Smoothie King opened this past June, taking over the 980SF space that was previously home to Party USA at 18151 Village Center Drive, in the Olney Village Center (located between IHOP and Pho & Grill). The store will be holding its grand opening celebration/ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, October 4th from 6pm until 7pm. To celebrate, they’ll be giving away free smoothies from 5pm until 7pm on the same day.
The new Smoothie King location is locally owned, but since taking the helm, Smoothie King owner/CEO Wan Kim has led efforts to transform the brand’s menu from being packed with sugar and artificial flavors and colors to being health-conscious and packed with whole fruits and organic, non-GMO ingredients. The main focus is not only giving Smoothie King guests the ability to customize smoothies according to their preferences, Kim says, but pushing their product to more closely align with a healthier, active lifestyle.
Last week we reported that Z-Burger and Maman Joon will be taking over the space that was previously home to Taco Bar and Jerry’s Subs & Pizza at 181000 Georgia Avenue in Olney. After speaking with representatives from the restaurant, we have learned that the goal is for the restaurant to open in mid-October, likely beating out the Bethesda Z-Burger location as the first for the DMV-based regional restaurant (by a couple weeks).
Z-Burger is a local, DMV-based chain that describes itself as “a Washington DC landmark! Home to the area’s most delicious handcrafted burgers with endless toppings, fresh cut fries and 75 varieties of hand spun milk shakes and concretes made with premium Wisconsin custard.” Z-Burger has multiple locations in DC, a few in Northern Virginia, and three in Maryland– with more to come. Its first location opened in Tenleytown in 2008. Earlier this year, its first Montgomery County location was announced. Prior to starting Z-Burger in 2008, founder Peter Tabibian was the general manager at a Jerry’s Subs & Pizza in Maryland.
Champions Sports Bar will be transitioning to Mercury Lounge in the coming weeks. The bar/restaurant opened in Silver Spring this in October of 2020 and is located at 9433 Georgia Avenue, in the former home of Action House Vape & Hookah (same strip at La Casa Del Mofongo) and was recently listed for sale for $185,000. The sale is now pending, according to the listing, but a representative confirmed the change will be occurring soon.
Montgomery County’s Alcoholic Beverage Services (ABS) will hold a hearing on the application by Teko Clavet, on behalf of Destiny Real Estate Holding Company, LLC, for the transfer of a liquor license to the new tenant, which will be known as Mercury Lounge. The hearing will take place on Thursday, October 19th at 10:30am as the restaurant/bar prepares to make the change.
VinoRita Wine Slushies, the pop-up that arrived in the Montgomery Mall food court in early August, closed as summer came to an end. VinoRita popped up at the kiosk space that was previously home to HalfSmoke, Gelato Galaxy, and Coldstone Creamery.
VinoRita offered wine slushies with alcohol-infused flavors including the best selling “Black San,” which is a Blackberry Sangria, Peach Frose, Strawberry Daquiri, and Blueberry Pomegranate. Non-alcoholic options included Blue Raspberry and Lemonade. The plan for the store, which has locations in North Carolina and Georgia, was to remain until the end of summer. A new location has recently opened, or will open soon, in Orlando.
Beginning October 9, McDonald’s is a adding Mambo Sauce to its menu for a limited time. Mambo sauce, also know as Mumbo sauce, is a sweet, sour, and spicy condiment that originated in Washington, DC carry-out restaurants and can be found across Montgomery County in restaurants like Kenny’s Sub Shop (Gaithersburg, Rockville, and Wheaton).
McDonald’s describes its Mambo sauce as a “tomato-based, sweet, spicy and vinegary sauce; inspired by the regional Washington, D.C. area sauce staple.” McDonald’s will also be adding a Sweet & Spicy Jam Sauce, a “jammy red pepper sauce with a tongue- numbing Szechuan peppercorn kick and extra heat from cayenne pepper; finished with apple cider vinegar,” that the company claims is the first-ever breakfast-inspired dipping sauce to hit US restaurants.
Red Ribbon Bakeshop, a Filipino bakery chain, opened its new Wheaton location last Saturday, September 23 at 9am just as heavy rains moved through the area with Tropical Storm Ophelia. That didn’t stop hundreds of customers from showing up to support the bakery’s first Maryland location– arriving as early 3:30am. One customer, Mr. Eugie Ariaga of Rockville, became Red Ribbon’s first-ever Maryland customer. He won “one year of sweetness”– a Mango Supreme Cake every month for a year.
The bakery is located at 2501 University Blvd W, right next to the Anchor Inn sign that still stands. Currently, Red Ribbon Bakeshop has over 200 locations across the Philippines and 39 in the United States. In 2005 it was acquired by Jollibee Foods Corporation, which opened its first D.C. area Jollibee location at Wheaton Mall in 2021.