Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Medium Rare to open in Bethesda this month (Photo)

Rendering of the exterior
of Medium Rare along
Fairmont Avenue in Bethesda
Medium Rare is coming to Bethesda, and is scheduled to open later this month, according to owner Mark Bucher. The popular fixed-price steak frites restaurant currently has locations in Cleveland Park and Barracks Row in the District. In Bethesda, Medium Rare will reside next to Bucher's other recent venture, Community, in the 7770 Norfolk luxury apartment tower.

While that arrangement might lead one to assume an operation similar to the shared kitchen of Bold Bite/Tapabar across Fairmont Avenue, nothing could be further from the case. Community and Medium Rare have different ownership partners, and will have separate staff, leases and kitchen facilities, despite sharing a ground floor. Bucher said 7770 Norfolk's developer, The JBG Companies, sought his advice for what would work best in their remaining retail space. "JBG is a very entrepreneurial company," he said. "They want to do the right thing for the community."

Don't expect too many tweaks to the successful Medium Rare formula here in Bethesda. "We like to keep Medium Rare exactly the same everywhere we do it," Bucher said. That means for around $20, you'll dine on culotte steak with secret sauce, hand-cut fries, mixed-green salad and artisan rustic bread. A wine list of four reds and four whites - and a choice of four beers - will be available, as well as dessert options like apple pie, carrot cake or a hot fudge sundae. Medium Rare only serves dinner, as well as offering brunch on weekends.

The DC wine list likely won't translate to the Bethesda outpost, as the distribution system is different here. Keeping the wine selection affordable may require finding labels of equal quality and price that will have the same profit margin. What else will be different at the Bethesda Medium Rare? There'll be a few more seats, and a separate private dining area the other Medium Rares don't have, Bucher said. He said he expects brunch at Medium Rare to be even more of a hit in Bethesda than in the District.

Richard Stokes Architecture of Philadelphia designed the Bethesda restaurant's interior, which will not be radically different from the other Medium Rare locations. Bucher said the new restaurant is about two-and-a-half weeks away from final inspections.

Medium Rare had been rumored to be planning an expansion to Arlington, but Bethesda got the jump on Clarendon. "I live here. I have kids here," Bucher said of Bethesda. "I probably know the Woodmont Triangle better than any restaurateur." He said many other restaurateurs are fixated on Bethesda Row, and consider the Triangle as "a huge polar vortex." In reality, Bucher noted, the Triangle is home to downtown Bethesda's highest volume restaurant, Woodmont Grill, while offering lower rents.

The Triangle is already taking to his Community diner in a big way. When I arrived at the restaurant yesterday morning before it opened for lunch, a literal wall of shipping boxes stood inside near the entrance. In them were sixty-six dozen fresh donuts - the same ones Bethesdans are snapping up at the diner's outdoor pickup window - ordered by a customer, which were shortly picked up by an express delivery service.

Once the doors opened for lunch, Community was soon packed full, despite miserable rainy weather outside. Customers are zeroing in on the burgers with Bucher's reputation as the founder of BGR in mind, but "people are also going crazy for" the diner's fried chicken, he said. Bucher thinks that as time goes on, regular customers will find the veal parmigiana and prime rib to be equally worthy of attention.

Community added morning breakfast hours this morning at 7:00 AM. Now, expect Medium Rare to give quiet Fairmont Avenue a much needed jolt in the arm later this month. The D.C. Medium Rares have been named "Best Steakhouse" in the District by Thrillist, and were Diner's Choice award-winners among users of OpenTable in 2016.

Rendering courtesy Stokes Architecture
All rights reserved

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

He doesn't know the Triangle better than Jeff Black. Went to Community and had a few issues. Mark Bucher offered a gift card. Haven't received it yet. If I don't, I'll never go to either of his places again. Shame cause I hear Medium Rare is good.

Anonymous said...

Medium Rare is awesome! Except their Capitol Hill location - the staff at that location suck each time.

Anonymous said...

@5:29 AM - While I agree Blacks has a very nice lineup of restaurants. The other night I experienced my first bad meal at Black's Kitchen & Bar. Long story short, long strand of hair on top of my food. They were very sorry and comped the meal. The alternate meal they brought out to replace the first one ended up having the top three ingredients missing.

@7:15 AM - I agree Medium Rare is great but only the Cleveland Park location. The Capitol Hill location is not run correctly.

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to Medium Rare as a less crowded, slightly less expensive alternative to Houston's. Hopefully comfortable, cozy, easy to get into and good for a decent price. That, at a minimum, should be possible here.

Anonymous said...

Black's Group, on measure, beats most other chainlets in this area. They are successful in large part because they know what they're doing. Shocker that many restaurateurs don't. Can they have a bad night, sure. But better than most.

Anonymous said...

I like this ghostwriter. I hope s/he stays a while.

Robert Dyer said...

8:31: "Ghostwriter"?

Gill said...

Big, big news for the Woodmont Triangle!

Anonymous said...

Too bad community is an utter mess. Bad food and worst service...yelpers seem to agree with me. The burgers are the best part, but they're essentially the same ones from BGR, but cost about 50% more.
Looking forward to Medium Rare though.

Anonymous said...

Yelpers. hahaha

Anonymous said...

Is jolt in the arm code for a place to buy Heroin? I wouldn't be surprised..

Anonymous said...

The only thing stupider than replying on Yelp for an opinion is completely ignoring Yelp.
Did you read it? Eesh...

Anonymous said...

BRING BACK COSTA DEL SOL!!!

Robert Dyer said...

11:39: I wouldn't rely just on the Yelp reviews - there's been some discussion about one of Community's competitors making an effort to lower Community's rating on Yelp with fake reviews.

Robert Dyer said...

1:06: I think Yelp reviews remain highly valuable (it's one of the top tools I use myself). I would never suggest someone ignore Yelp reviews, but I have heard this particular issue regarding Community being discussed, that a competitor was trying to post fake reviews.

Anonymous said...

I thought Costa del Sol was great-- was very sorry when it left Bethesda. Remember it fondly.

Anonymous said...

I never returned to Medium Rare after they served me a piece of tough steak. The old Le Steak in Georgetown cannot be beat.

Anonymous said...

Community is awful! No need to look at Yelp; just don't bother. I have higher hopes for Medium Rare.

Anonymous said...

I looked at their PDF menu on their website. Am I correct in reading the menu has only 1 option and only 1 type of steak or am I reading it incorrectly. I've never been to one thus I am inquiring.