Sunday, January 03, 2016

Parva Cocina & Tequila Bar closes in Bethesda

Sadly, The Parva has closed in Bethesda. A sign on the front of the shuttered restaurant and bar states that the lease was up. All social media accounts appear to have been shut down, and the website is almost empty of content besides an online ordering prompt.

While it was known that a new landlord had purchased the building at 7904 Woodmont Avenue, and put it up for lease last year (and that the lease was indeed due to run out in 2016), it was surprising it closed so soon. The restaurant opened in May 2011, not January.

The owners say they hope to reopen soon in a nearby location. With all of the shuttered nightspots in Bethesda, there are some spaces available, such as the former Relic on Fairmont Avenue.

This is at least the seventh nightspot to close in downtown Bethesda since 2011.

The restaurant evolved from the South Beach/Miami Vice-inspired lounge it debuted as in 2011, to a Tex-Mex theme in 2014. It was one of only three nightspots to offer bottle/VIP table service in Bethesda.

While the property presents a potential redevelopment opportunity, the most viable scenario would be to consolidate this site with the Jetties/BGR building next door. There's no indication that landowner is interested in doing so at this time.

The owners of The Parva should be commended for bringing something new and unique to Bethesda nightlife, and hopefully they will be starting a new business here soon.

22 comments:

Robert said...

Fairmont Plaza residents must be cheering this welcome nightclub closure.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, good riddance.

Any updates on the other closures? The Nest is officially dead, right? And Urban Heights? Still being "re-imagined"? I was at Mussel Bar the other day and they had a little flier listing his group of restaurants and I noticed that Urban Heights was missing.

Anonymous said...

Parva closing is a good thing. That place was a menace. While Bethesda could use some more night life, the Parva was a blight and brought nothing positive. It wasn't the high-end crowd Bethesda needs.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully any new businesses the owners start don't consistently involve street fights and police at 2:00am every other week in the streets of Bethesda. I'm surprised Robert never stumbled upon these incidents while stalking the streets of Bethesda at 2:00am.

Anonymous said...

I have been to Parva twice and thought the food sucked. It wasn't authenticate nor good tasting. The beans I got reminded me of those microwaveable bags of beans made by Uncle Ben's. Glad to see this go for the opportunity for a decent restaurant to move in. I also always had a weird feeling that the place was a drug front.

Robert Dyer said...

7:25: The same thing happens in front of Union Jack's on St. Elmo at closing time. Bars = drunk people. It's hard to single out one club for criticism. There aren't many people "stalking the streets of Bethesda at 2:00am" since your man Hans Riemer took office, and ran the Bethesda nighttime economy into the ground. 7th nightspot to close on his watch.

Anonymous said...

We also did not go to Parva. We did not find that it attracted a progressive, cultured crowd. My husband and I also do not care for establishments that attempt to be exclusive by offering bottle service. If you really want to control who gets in, use something meaningful like private memberships or having people provide proof that their children are enrolled in high-end private schools. Even the scruffiest riffraff can afford a night of bottle service if they save up.

Anonymous said...

Is Weidmeir using the same renovators as Faryab?

Anonymous said...

urban heights is reopening as a sports bar next month

Anonymous said...

So by this logic everything good that has happened gets attributed to Riemer as well. Let's start the congratulations!

Robert Dyer said...

6:04: Taking money from Wall Street crooks, developers, mortgage sharks and health insurance companies makes Riemer the tool in MoCo. What's really moronic is trying to ignore the decline of the nighttime economy in Bethesda since Riemer took office.

Robert Dyer said...

3:17: He publicly took ownership of the so-called "nighttime economy", so he therefore gets the blame for its decline, as well.

Anonymous said...

Let's stick to restaurant discussion here.
Councilmember Leventhal has already taken the "take credit" prize when he took credit for ending homelessness.
I suspect he'll take credit when NIH cures cancer.

Anonymous said...

In what universe has the county's nighttime economy declined? Have you ever been to Silver Spring, Rockville, or North Bethesda? They're all 10x what they were even just a few years ago. Some of it is due directly to new laws pushed by Riemer (new licenses that allow breweries, relaxed food/drink ratios, etc.). Exactly zero closures have anything to do with the legal changes pushed by the county, you complete buffoon. God, I honestly wonder if Dyer has an IQ above 80. He just repeats the same shit, yet has never provided 1 fact linking even one closure to anything even remotely to do with the local government.

Anonymous said...

Hear ye hear ye!

Anonymous said...

I concur. Unless Dyer starts providing a lot more correlary data to support his claims, this is just nonsense.

Robert said...

Yes Riemer may have laid claim to the nighttime economy revival but even so there's no direct correlation between the taskforce recommendations and the closings you mention.

And if you consider all the positives going on in silver spring, north bethesda, etc., the nighttime economy is improving overall.

Your claims just don't hold a lot of weight. And with your refusal to back up your claims, they mean even less. Just because you are on a podium doesn't mean what you are shouting is right. But by all means if you give us some supporting data we will be more inclined to listen and perhaps even agree.

But to this point so far, it's just drivel.

Robert Dyer said...

9:47: Uh, seven nightspots have closed in downtown Bethesda alone. Businesses have cut back hours. The streets are darker and emptier earlier on weekend nights. These are just facts.

You also are ignoring all of the other votes cast by Riemer that damaged businesses countywide since he took office. Nobody's even taking advantage of Riemer's vaunted "extra hour of liquor" because there aren't any live bodies out downtown to imbibe it.

The only improvements in nightlife are indeed in Silver Spring, and the Fillmore and Dave and Buster's have nothing to do with Riemer's weak-handed "changes". He's left government in control of liquor despite a majority of citizens and establishment owners favoring privatization.

Anonymous said...

Why did some closings have to do with Riemer's weak-handed changes and some improvements did not?

Anonymous said...

How does it make sense to only count closures and not openings? And the above commenter does have a good point that it's because of the changes that some of these new places opened in MoCo.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of your love or hate for Riemer, that doesn't change the fact the the Parva was a menace and Bethesda is a better place for it being closed. It's not just about having "night life", it's about having the right kind of night life. Do you want Bethesda to turn into PG County? We need more bars like Caddies, Brickside, Rock Bottom, American Tap Room, Gringos etc..not more places to watch bar fights and barfing on the streets at 2am!

Anonymous said...

Weidmeir obviously believes in the 12 days of Christmas.

Will he admit that he's over extended himself? Urban Heights has received dreadful reviews. Villain & Saint is serving lunch out of a small U-Haul trailer. Total disasters.