Tuesday, November 07, 2017

Community reopens as burger restaurant

The burger to try before you die. That's the new message on the sandwich board outside of Community at 7776 Norfolk Avenue. The Mark Bucher venture that began as a diner has refocused on its strengths and most-popular items, with burgers and its locally-famous donuts taking center stage.

Bucher has major burger credentials, including having been a founder of the BGR chain. The restaurant's beef is dry-aged for 38 days, and delivered fresh daily from Roseda Farms in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Their potato bun is a custom-order from Martin's Bakery, which like their Nueske's bacon and Kreider Farms eggs, is from Pennsylvania. They are also offering turkey and veggie burgers.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Four days. (3 days, 16 hours and 45 minutes, to be precise.)

Anonymous said...

And you didn't even mention the name of the restaurant.

Friends of Woodmont Triangle said...

We'll always welcome a new burger place!

Anonymous said...

I really had high hopes for Community. It was centrally located, had a nice homely feel, and integrated nicely into the street scale (especially considering how tall 7770 Norfolk is). Too bad it never evolved into a place to go. I personally tried it twice and the service was so incredibly bad. If you follow the Bethesda Bars Facebook group there are a lot more horror stories, from customers and employees alike. The owner just pitched in with a letter there too. I hope the best for them.

Anonymous said...

Dead on arrival. Friggin a-hole, clueless owner. Bye Felicia!

Anonymous said...

Dyer should open a nightspot here. Since he is such a fucking expert on that kind of business.

Anonymous said...

The bigger issue with community was the oil-fry smell that hung in the air all over, ostensibly from the donut fryer? your coat and hair would smell like you'd been in a greasefire when you left. Does this solve THAT problem? Also, why all the hating on Dyer? seems like a nice chap to me.

Anonymous said...

That is very strange how you (Dyer) can write a story and not once, NOT ONCE, mention the name of the establishment. The basics of journalism are who, what, when, and why. WHAT WHAT WHAT IS the name? -F

Anonymous said...

7:12 AM If that is your biggest problem today, you're lucky. But, don't spend so much time over analyzing that.

Anonymous said...

Pretty strange to open up a burger place directly within eyeshot of BGR, isn't it?

Here's my take: Community was doing badly, due to poor execution and poor service. At the same time, Medium Rare (which he also owns) was doing OK. They're in the same building, and probably signed a lease that covered both locations in one lease. That lease probably also has a clause how you're in breach of the lease if you shut your establishment down. So that's why Community reopened as this new place within about a week. Their menu as of Friday was handwritten on the back of a piece of cardboard (I'm not joking).

So this is his attempt to keep from breaching the lease and hope to break even on the ex-Community space, to ensure that Medium Rare stays around since that one is making money. I'm guessing he chose burgers because that's how he got his start (having founded BGR), so might as well go with what you know how to do best.

Still I don't see this working out well. BGR is across the street and is half the price for a burger.

What he should try is to open a more bar/nightlife place to fill the gap left by Parva and Relic. Brickside and 4935 have been doing well with that focus. Maybe there's a noise limit in the lease because of the residences just above it though.

Robert Dyer said...

7:12: The restaurant doesn't have a name. The sign still says Community. The Facebook says Community Donut Window. My competitor called it One Shot One Burger Something. The latter name was not displayed anywhere outside the building when I stopped by on the weekend. My only advice is to just eat the burger while they decide on a name.

Anonymous said...

The owner confirmed the name in the Facebook post.

Robert Dyer said...

8:18: Which name did he call it?

Anonymous said...

He called is Hans Riemer Community Nightlife Initiative Diner

Anonymous said...

@9:00, You made me laugh out loud. Best comment!

Anonymous said...

I imagine he had a typo or two but he wrote:

“... we actually are calling it one Burger. One Scott one beer but it’s a work in progress”