The building is located at 4936 Fairmont Avenue, a block left dead at night after the closure of Relic. Completion of the 7770 Norfolk apartment tower has brought some life to that end of the block, but the failure of the Bainbridge Bethesda to attract dining or nightlife tenants to their ground floor has left the bulk of the street in shadow after hours.
Getting a nightclub or big restaurant name into the old Relic building is therefore more important than ever, especially since Riemer's nighttime economy debacle resulted in the closure of 10 nightclubs and bars in downtown Bethesda. In a town now suffering from the post-Riemer darkened, deserted streets after 10:00 PM, this street is one that should have been revived by now.
Rendering courtesy Douglas Development
67 comments:
I don't think you can blame Fairmont on the Council, since various parts of the block have been under construction for half a decade. Positanos has managed to survive, as have some of the other small businesses, but its not surprising to me that a nightclub didn't make it through.
There's also the question of whether Bethesda actually wants a nightclub. Parva and Relic both closed, and nothing else can really be called a "nightclub". You can have a nighttime economy without velvet ropes and bottle service.
Relic closed for the same reason as Steamer's - repeated violations of liquor regulations, in particular, serving drinks after hours.
A sign that says "SIGNAGE"!
Definitely Dyer-bait. LOL
Two stolen bikes /= "spree".
Clickbait headline.
8:16: That sounds a lot like the new talking points from the MoCo political machine. Nighttime economy initiative fails? Move the goalposts. Before: "We need to attract millennial professionals with nightlife." After: "We don't need those damn millennials, anyway."
Meanwhile, NoVa and D.C. are cleaning our clock. Of course, what Riemer didn't understand is that you also need the plum jobs to attract millennials, which D.C. and NoVa have. We haven't attracted a major corporation to MoCo in two decades, so pretty understandable that millennials would rather go elsewhere.
#ThrowTheBumsOut
#LockThemUp
8:27: 3 stolen bikes altogether since June 1.
Lots of major corporations have opened new offices or facilities on MoCo in the last 20 years.
Definitely not part of the MoCo political machine, just someone who has lived and/or worked in Bethesda for 30 years. And one of those "damn millennials" to boot! I have never thought of Bethesda as the place to go out clubbing, that's what DC is for. Bethesda does have some good bars though, and I've happily spent Friday and Saturday nights eating and drinking in those establishments. Again, not sure why nighttime economy depends on clubs - Rock Bottom, Tommy Joes, Caddies, Brickside, and Sapphire all seem to be holding their own. For us older millennials, Olazzo, Barrel & Crow, and Gringos are welcome additions (or mainstays) to the Bethesda scene.
As for "not needing millennials" - according to census data we actually do have a healthy proportion of millennials here in Bethesda thanks in large part to the market affordable housing offered by Aldon Management. People in my generation live here, work here, eat here, and shop here. They might choose to spend their weekend nights in DC, but they spend plenty of time in Bethesda as well.
And while a major corporation would be a boost to MoCo's economy, and we need to work on that, small businesses are what is driving the economy and the job market now, and we have plenty of those here in Bethesda. (We have a good number of mid-size businesses as well. The building I used to work in has several that each employ 80 or more employees, many of them millennials.)
Mind your Ps and Qs here, Suze.
You're disagreeing with the Dyer.
The repeated and lengthy sidewalk closures in downtown Bethesda are killing the businesses downtown.
So did anyone show up for "Justice Tuesday" yesterday?
The Tapas Bar, Medium Rare and Community have re-awakened one end of Fairmont.
We need a good tenant in the old Relic space to help activate the rest along with Positano and the Bistro.
Robert, if you're going to count closings, you need to count openings as well. Your statistics are fake news! Since Relic closed, Brickside opened, Gringos opened, I think Barrel and Crow opened, Community opened, Medium Rare opened, World of Beer opened, Vino Volo Opened, etc etc..
Also "clubs" like Relic and Parva do not serve the new demographic..nobody but you wants "vegas style night clubs" They will fail in Bethesda. Do you not understand that? #birdbrain
Prince of Petworth doesn't insult his readers, other local media, or blame everything that goes wrong in his life on "the DC Machine".
@ 10:18 AM - Don't forget Flanagan's Harp & Fiddle.
Anyone know what's going in where the Fresh Grill was? That building now has two "Leased" signs on it for each storefront.
I'm a long time bethesda resident and the sidewalk closures are a pain in the butt but they also don't keep me from frequenting businesses downtown.
Glad they have activated the block. Medium Rare's windows are so dark though it feels like no one is inside and they are closed.
I agree with this. If closings are counted against, then openings should equally be counted for.
Also, I certainly wouldn't see Vegas style night clubs doing well in Bethesda - not much of a demand for it.
10:18: WHOA, there you go again - Barrel and Crow, Community, Medium Rare are not bars or clubs. Vino Volo definitely not a nightspot. Wake up.
Hey, Dyer - why do you assume that the declining number of nightclubs in Bethesda is due to Hans Riemer's nefarious fecklessness, rather than simply the free market's reaction to changing demand?
What are the 10 nightspots that closed again?
Relic was poppin!
12:19: Very simple:
A) We haven't had 10 nightspots close in that short a period before Riemer.
B) Riemer declared himself the savior of nightlife in friendly local media reports. He then owns the results when he set himself up and it instead bombs bigly.
What are the 10 nightspots that closed during Riemer's reign?
I am a fairly new reader and noticed a lot of mentions of 10 closings - what were the 10 if you don't mind sharing?
5:02: Welcome aboard. I can actually think of 11 - the Riemer damage was even worse than I thought!
BlackFinn, Ri-Ra, The Parva, Relic Lounge, The Box, Parker's, Gaffney's, Union Jack's, Quincy's, Maggie's, The Majestic.
I'll give it a shot...
-Relic - closed because of repeated liquor law violations
-Ri-Ra - chain closed other locations
-Parker's - landlord replaced that and adjacent restaurant (Sala Thai) with Williams-Sonoma
-Parva - was not a night club in January 2011 (Angeethi Indian restaurant). Closed in part due to harassment by resident of Fairmont Plaza across the street.
-The Roof - building did not exist in January 2011. One other club also failed there. Tommy Joe's, a long-standing nightclub on Montgomery Lane, moved there.
-Steamers - closed because of repeated liquor law violations. Also persistent rumors of drug activity there.
-Hard Times - closed die to owner's personal financial crisis resulting from illness. Replaced by Quincy's which later failed.
-Union Jack's - replaced by new club.
-Black Finn
Forgot Roof - that's 12. I left Steamers and Hard Times out, not wanting to pile on, but that would be 14 if you count them! 14 closures under Riemer!
The Riemer Nighttime Economy Catastrophe - "It's worse than we thought."
Tapp'd isn't a club - it's more of a gastropub/restaurant. You can try to pin the closures on various excuses, but if the businesses had been profitable, they wouldn't have closed, would have been sold to an eager new owner, or would have moved successfully (as Tommy Joe's did, which is not on my closure list).
Tommy Joe's was booted by "landlord," but was popular and made the move, so that proves that a viable nightspot doesn't disappear just because of landlords.
Thanks for the list.
Parkers, Hard Times, and Steamers were restaurants weren't they?
I didn't have Hard Times or Steamers on my original list because they could go either way. Parker's was much more bar than restaurant, with very loud, live music late at night. Basically the only life after 10 PM at Bethesda Row, which is why Bethesda Avenue is now dead at night.
I wonder, I went to parkers frequently for food but never ever thought there would be nightlife there. Tapp'd and Barrel and Crow IMHO I would consider more contributing to nightlife than Parkers did.
6:38 AM Parkers had live music- don't think B&C does...
As a millennial, I would offer the nighttime moribundity(?) would be more attributable to the lack of affordable housing, rise of Uber as a good transportation option, and rise of D.C. neighborhoods where I used to be afraid of being shot and now love going out to and know many friends who live there now where before they wouldn't even consider it.
Yeah I wasn't doubting it did, was just surprised. I would certainly rather hang at the Barrel and Crow bar at night than Parker's. Definitely a restaurant vibe at Parker's.
I get what you're saying about success or not. But if Ri Ra closed in other locations as wel, that seems to imply it wasn't just a Bethesda issue?
Is Reamer in Bethesda much in the evenings?
Not trying to be snarky, but I've never seen him around and he's claiming to be an expert.
Did he claim to be an expert somewhere?
Dwyer is always out late night so I believe him when he says he sees activity or not in the middle of the night.
Let's be honest here. Nothing on that list was a club.
6:57: You probably were at Parker's earlier in the day, then. Most definitely a bar vibe with very loud music at night on weekends.
6:59: If Ri-Ra had been successful, they would have had no problem selling it to another owner.
6:38: That's only if you're subscribing to the new, revised definition of nightlife. The MoCo cartel's new definition includes drinking a rum and Coke at the bar in Red Lobster as "nightlife." And I'm being deadly serious.
Meanwhile, millennials are lining up at Echostage, 18th Street Lounge, The Living Room, Sax, Russia House, etc. for what passes for real nightlife in the area.
7:03: You're right, Riemer is hardly ever in Bethesda. The only 2 times I've ever seen him here were a fundraiser he held at BlackFinn, and his Ride On bus tour of Westbard. Not surprising for a carpetbagger who needs a GPS to find his way around the County. That's why I've had to solve everything in Bethesda myself, because we don't have a single councilmember from Bethesda currently.
7:28: Sorry your mom doesn't let you go out after 8:00. No wonder you're pleased with Helpless Hans' new definition of nightlife. Bad wedding band playing Dave Matthews while you drink Coors Light is not millennial nightlife.
7:29: Parva, Union Jack's and Relic were nightclubs. The rest were bars/nightspots. All closed.
Agreed. Not a Flash in the bunch.
Hi I'm 7:28. I was complimenting that you knew the night activity. I'm not sure why you are attacking and insulting me, Dyer?
8:05: The way it was worded - suggesting Riemer had never claimed to be an expert, along with the misspelling of my name - I thought it was an attack. It could be interpreted both ways. If it wasn't an attack, I apologize for the misunderstanding. Taking a lot of incoming here from the troll.
Was definitely not an attack, but I understand why people do attack you with that kind of response. :(
Legitimate question if Riemer made such a claim as stated. Take it at face value.
Seriously. I get that people troll the guy, but come on. He treats his readers like garbage. I'll occasionally check in on what's going on here, but then remember why I stopped and leave. Take a queue from other blogs like Popville. That guy isn't a jerk to people that read it.
I suspect that the reason 7:28/8:05/9:39 AM misspelled Dyer's name, was in response to Dyer @ 7:03 AM misspelling Riemer's name.
9:39: No, it's definitely not understandable why somebody would be attacking someone who is engaged in the community and trying to solve problems. Of course, in reality, the attacks are evidence that I'm getting things done. Nobody wastes time attacking irrelevant people. If you don't have enemies, you're not getting anything done.
Riemer did set himself up as the guru of late night - and open data, and food trucks, and liquor, and sidewalk shoveling, and cybersecurity, and, and and - every single one of them was a complete disaster.
Has Robert Dyer's baby-metal band ever performed at any Bethesda nightclubs, open or closed?
9:47: Dealing firmly with a troll is not "treating readers like garbage." I won't hesitate to take out the trash or return fire when attacked by a paid troll from a developer or the Council. "Your blog is crazy because I'm crazy and I post crazy troll comments on it all day and all night."
Right.
Kind of comment you hear as they're fitting a guy for a straitjacket.
9:54: There haven't been any heavy metal clubs in Bethesda in my lifetime.
The person wasn't even a troll! Someone complimenting you. Look, you do post some good info, but the way you handle readers is why people keep coming back and trolling you.
@ 6:41 "As a millennial, I would offer the nighttime moribundity(?) would be more attributable to the lack of affordable housing, rise of Uber as a good transportation option, and rise of D.C. neighborhoods where I used to be afraid of being shot and now love going out to and know many friends who live there now where before they wouldn't even consider it."
That's a really good observation. I used to live in Bethesda, but when I decided it was the right time for me to buy, I really didn't even considering buying there. Could get a better deal for my money in one of the up and coming neighborhoods of DC. I'd say more of this is driven by the overall trend of more younger people choosing the city over the suburbs. Even if I had stayed in DC, with Uber I'd probably spend more time in DC as friends are there, and there's just more to do (not even talking about nightclubs).
Please don't insult baby-metal like that!
Robert - any skinny on what's going in the Greenberg building on Fairmont Ave. where Fresh Grill and Dansez Dansez were? Two "Leased" signs in the windows now. Thanks...
10:19 AM People used to choose to buy in Montgomery County because it provided the best services in the region. Sadly, that's not the case anymore. Sounds like you figured that out.
Actually, I wouldn't say I get better services in DC. My trash isn't always picked up, its not like our school system is fantastic, and there's plenty more I could gripe about. To me, and many others lately, it's just more interesting to live in a city than the suburbs.
Bethesda residents aren't having their trash picked up, so there's that.
Major issues with school security in MoCo as well.
Leventhal says we don't have any good restaurants.
DC is looking good.
10:42: I have asked two sources at the company - one didn't reply at all, and the other said no info could be released at this time. Believe me, I've tried to get the answer for you.
There's dealing firmly and then there's being defensive and childish.
12:06 - So move already.
Says the guy that is too much a punk to admit he lives in his childhood home with his mom.
Imagine if elected to county council how he will great any citizen that doesn't agree with him.
There I was sitting with Robert Costa for Washington Week and all he could talk
about was how to screw-over Robert Dyer.
The Post is secretly working with other national and local publications and in the past few years the county council has gotten involved too.
Their mandate is to cheat Robert Dyer. They meet weekly to discuss strategy.
Didn't Gaffney's get replaced with Villain and Saint?
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