Monday, June 06, 2016

Food Wine & Co. contents being auctioned off in Bethesda

Everything must go! Everything inside Food, Wine & Co. in the Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue is up for auction. The highly-rated restaurant closed a week ago, citing Purple Line construction as the cause of the closure. An auction listing calls this a complete liquidation of the restaurant's contents after the establishment "lost its lease."

Up for grabs are a Bakers Pride FC-516 Il Forno Classico brick lined gas deck oven, and a Bakers Pride DS-805 Super deck single deck gas pizza oven (the latter with a cracked stone, the listing notes), each worth around $30,000 new.

What else? A Vulcan fryer, a KitchenAid mixer that looks much like one you'd find on your kitchen counter, walk-in beer cooler, wine refrigerator, and an LG flatscreen TV.

The preview for the auction will be held on Monday, June 13, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with the actual auction following the next day at 1:00 PM.

13 comments:

Poppy said...

Interesting. My husband may appreciate the walk-in beer cooler. I will have to ask the contractor if we can fit it near the wine cellar.

Anonymous said...

Fun fact, Poppy drinks wine coolers

Anonymous said...

Poppy - I'm getting a foreshadowing of "The Cask of Amontillado" from your comment.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised Food and Wine is getting away with the excuse they're closing due to future construction. In reality, it'll take 6 months to a year to knock down the building. Why wouldn't they wait until closer to the construction date? This feels like a symptom of Bethesda being over saturated with restaurants. Supply is far exceeding demand, as evidenced by the ease of entry at virtually every restaurant.

Anonymous said...

Not the best location. Not particularly convenient to the Bethesda Row, and next to a moribund 30-year-old movie theater.

Anonymous said...

8:43 & 9:11.... did either of you actually ever go to the restaurant? Are you aware it was constantly busy. Yes, everyone is asking why they closed so far ahead of the teardown... however, lack of business is not the reason. Get your negative minds out of your arses.

Anonymous said...

@9:13 How is it not lack of business? They opened City Burger down the same street, and that failed. Now they're putting a Fish Taco there instead, which has been in "coming soon" phase for over 6 months now (is it that hard to repurpose?).

I bet the landlord at Food and Wine gave them free or nearly free rent just to stay until the demolition. The landlord knows they won't be able to find a tenant to fill a space for short-term like that, so it's in their best interest to keep the existing tenant happy.

I think Food and Wine just wasn't making it work, just like they failed with City Burger, so they used the demolition as an excuse.

If Food and Wine was so good, they'd just move it after the demolition. They wouldn't be auctioning off their equipment instead of moving it to a new location.

Other Bethesda restaurants that were successful have moved over the years, like Tako Grill and Uncle Julio's (Rio Grande).

Anonymous said...

@ 9:37 AM -

And Tommy Joe's, (House of) Foong Lin, Flanagan's (Harp & Fiddle), CalTort, and whatever Kadhai used to be.

Meanwhile, Smashburger is still going strong.

Anonymous said...

@ 10:36: You're thinking of Chokechicken.

Anonymous said...

Yep, this space was always busy...when it was Unos and when it was Food Wine & Co.
Proximity to the theater was a plus.

Anonymous said...

So much for thinking they might open a similar restaurant nearby if they are selling off everything. Cash in hand vs future use.

Anonymous said...

9:37 - it seems to point to more of a mismanagement of the business rather than a lack of business. Ever since the company parted ways with Chef Michael... City Burger was great, can't say why they pulled the plug. I don't know why they are taking a long on Fish Taco. I don't know why they closed F&W. But it certainly wasn't for the lack of customers. And it also was not cheap... and yet people were willing to pay a lot for good food in a nice atmosphere. It has to point to other business issues. Or are fish tacos and Peruvian chicken just better price margins? Not many places in town could match their food, their beer or their wine. It'll be missed.

Bethesdaguy said...

The old Kadhai was Haandi located across from where Black Fin used to be. Prior to Kadhai's current location, that location was a Jewish gourmet deli.