Beyond MoCo

Gordon Ramsay’s Fish & Chips is now open at 665 Water Street (at the base of the Williams & Connolly building) at The Wharf in DC.  Originally, Ramsay planned on opening his Fish & Chips restaurant at 501 Seventh Street, Northwest, DC, but decided he would open a bottomless pizza restaurant there instead (coming soon).  The fast casual Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips menu offers six different types of combos, including a fish, shrimp, and chicken combo, as well as fishwich, chickenwich, and fish & shrimp combo, ranging in price from $14.99-$18.99. You have the option to “hook it up” by adding either extra fish, shrimp or chicken ($3.99-$5.99). Each combo comes with your choice of two sauces, and you can choose between Gordon’s tartar, curry & mango, sriracha aioli, southwest ranch, dijon mayo, and cocktail sauce. Chips are also available on their own, either plain or in three different versions of “dirty chips.” For dessert you can choose either a sticky toffee shake or a biscoff shake. Alcoholic beverages (beer and wine) are also available for those 21+.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClHrXJuuH8U/


Beyond MoCo

Per the Frederick Police: At approximately 8:20 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, the Frederick Police Department received multiple reports of gunfire in the Unit Block of South Market Street near the area of W. All Saints Street. The calls described two individuals in a confrontation that eventually escalated to the pair exchanging gunfire with each other.

Upon arriving at the scene, a Frederick Police Department officer observed one of suspects reported to be involved in the exchange fleeing the scene and discharged his department-issued firearm at one of the suspects. One of the suspects discarded his firearm and raised his hands in the air. He was taken into custody without incident. No one involved in the incident was injured.


Arts

The City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Division is seeking submissions for future performances in the Takoma Park Arts series, including concerts, theater, dance, multi-media, etc.

An honorarium of $200-$400 is paid for selected performances which are held in the Takoma Park Community Center auditorium. Applicants don’t have to be Takoma Park residents, and there is no fee to apply.  Please use the online submission form to apply by the Dec. 18 deadline.


Entertainment

Joe’s Record Paradise, currently located 8700 Georgia Ave at the Cameron St intersection in Silver Spring, but in various locations across MoCo/Maryland since 1974, was recently featured on an episode of Pawn Stars Do America, according to the record shop’s Instagram account (video below).

Pawn Stars, a television series on the History channel that where it chronicles the daily activities at the World Famous Gold & Silver pawn shop, has taken to the road to travel to other shows, pawn shops, and places like Joe’s Record Store to find deals across the country. One of its stars, Chumlee, makes a deal for Nas’ Illmatic and OutKast’s ATLiens.


Montgomery Planning

County Bill 3-22 passed in July 2022 requires climate assessments of bills, zoning text amendments and master plans

The Montgomery County Planning Department briefed the Planning Board on a proposed approach to conduct climate assessment of Zoning Text Amendments (ZTAs) and master plans as required by the County Bill 3-22. On July 25, 2022, the Montgomery County Council signed Bill 3-22, “Climate Assessments” into law. The bill requires the Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) to conduct a climate assessment of introduced county bills starting January 1, 2023, and the Planning Board to conduct a climate assessment of proposed ZTAs, master plans, and master plan amendments starting March 1, 2023.


Aspen Hill

Since Inspire Brands acquired Dunkin’ and Baskin Robbins in late 2020 for $11.3 billion, the company has been opening in former bank locations that allow for easy installation of a drive-thru window. Dunkin’ has also aimed for non-traditional development that includes opening in airports and on college campuses, including the University of Maryland, but the three newest Dunkin’ coffee/donut shops that are coming to MoCo will all be in locations that were formally banks.

One of the latest upcoming Dunkin’ locations is currently under construction at the Layhill Center (14328 Layhill Rd) in Silver Spring. The new location, which will have a drive-thru, will be located next to Sole D’Italia, in the space that was formerly home to Truist and BB&T Bank. Dunkin’ also has an upcoming location coming to the Traville Village Center in Rockville. It will be taking over the former Capital One Bank building at 9761 Traville Gateway Dr. We expect more news coming out of the shopping center regarding the former Nantucket’s Reef location very soon. Dunkin’ is also working on an upcoming location coming to the Goshen Crossing Shopping Center in Gaithersburg/Montgomery Village. It will be taking over the former Capital One Bank building at 20000 Goshen Rd.


Education

What is illicit fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a prescription medication for pain that is 50-100 times more powerful than morphine. The type of fentanyl driving overdose deaths is illegally made and sold in the form of powder, pills, liquid, or nasal sprays. Other drug products like marijuana, cocaine, heroin or illegally sold pills thought to be prescription medicine may be laced with illicit fentanyl, without the knowledge of the user.


Business

United Therapeutics, a public benefit corporation headquartered in Silver Spring, announced that the company has been named on Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies 2023. This award is presented by Newsweek and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. The list of awards was announced on December 7, 2022, is available on Newsweek’s website, and recognizes the top 500 most responsible companies in the United States, spanning 14 industries.

Per the press release: America’s Most Responsible Companies were selected based on publicly available key performance indicators derived from Corporate Social Responsibility Reports and Sustainability Reports, as well as an independent survey asking U.S. citizens about their perception of company activities related to corporate social responsibility. The key performance indicators focused on company performance in the environmental, social, and corporate governance areas, while the independent survey asked U.S. citizens about their perception of company activities related to corporate social responsibility. United Therapeutics’ 2022 Corporate Responsibility and Public Benefit Report can be found at corporateresponsibility.unither.com.


Arts

Kamie Crawford, a 2010 graduate of Churchill High School, has just announced that she’ll be the host of the latest season of Are You The One?, which will air exclusively on Paramount+ after 8 seasons on MTV and a 3 year break. Crawford is no stranger to MTV, as she she served as part of a panel of rotating hosts for the second part of season 7 of the television series Catfish after Max Joseph’s departure from the series. In 2020, she became the permanent co-host of the MTV series.

On July 24, 2010, just weeks after graduating from Churchill High School in Potomac, Crawford represented Maryland in the Miss Teen USA 2010 pageant where she made history by being the first contestant from Maryland to win the title. While at Churchill, Crawford was the captain of the Varsity cheerleading team. She was selected into the medical program for the Congressional Student Leadership Conference at Georgetown University. In September 2010, Crawford enrolled in classes at the New York Film Academy while taking some core classes at a local college. She graduated from Fordham University in 2015 with a degree in communications and media and began a career in television and hosting.


Gaithersburg

Shortly before kickoff of Thursday night’s Maryland 4A state championship football game at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman noticed that he’d received a text message from former Quince Orchard High School football star Johnny Hodges. “He wants to know where he can get a livestream of the game,” said Ashman to his companions at the 50-yard-line as they prepared to watch QO defend its state title against C.H. Flowers High School of Prince Georges County. 

That Hodges, a 2019 QO graduate and cocaptain of the 2018 championship team, would still want to watch a team of players who weren’t even at QO when he played, isn’t all that remarkable when you think about it. Hodges’ loyalty to his former coaches and the QO football program runs deep. Neither is the fact that of all the people he might contact to find out where to find a livestream, he’d choose the Mayor of Gaithersburg. Ashman’s love of QO football as a parent of two QO alums, including a former football player, is well known throughout the community.


Events

Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg will hold a ‘Holiday Street Fest’ that will include a fireworks presentation on Saturday, December 10th. The fun begins with a market during the day from 1pm-5pm, a DJ playing music from 5pm-7pm and fireworks at 6:45pm. Additional details, per Rio, below: