Besta Pizza has been in business since 1994, and their cheese pizza received the Golden Grub award from GrubHub users in 2014. A record number of downtown restaurants have closed since the Montgomery County Council's "nighttime economy task force" disaster, and since the Council allowed the demolition of the Regal Bethesda 10 theater without requiring the developer to provide a replacement cineplex. Cineplexes showing mainstream blockbusters can attract an average of 20,000 additional people to an urban area per weekend, according to a study of the economic impact of theaters.
The Bethesda economy must be moribund if residents can't afford pizza. Sad.
ReplyDeleteAren't like 2 major pizza restaurants (Anthony's and Matchbox) opening in Bethesda in the next few months?
ReplyDeletePlease post a link to this mythical theater study. Prove it exists, or stop citing the nonexistent study.
ReplyDeleteI heard Hope Floats might be expanding into this space.
ReplyDeleteBesta pizza is almost a mile from the old theater and is a ramshackle delivery joint. Did it even have seats? I mean, come one.
ReplyDeleteFulfilling my appetite for Openings & Closings!
ReplyDeleteBesta pizza was terrible. For delivery it's hard to beat Domino's for price and service.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with the Cineplex comment though, even if the study is not cited we did go into Bethesda more as a family during the week or weekend for movie and dinner.
Actual Google Review of this place:
ReplyDelete"I ordered a pizza but they insisted on a hot dog they were all out of pizza"
7:08AM Yup- the Bethesda Row Cinema is great for what it is, but it doesn't have family films like a Regal or AMC.
ReplyDeleteI guess it wasn't the Besta!
ReplyDelete"Cineplexes showing mainstream blockbusters can attract an average of 20,000 additional people to an urban area per weekend, according to a study of the economic impact of theaters."
ReplyDelete[Citation needed]
I agree with Robert that we really could use a big chain theater in downtown Bethesda. But the Besta Pizza location was nowhere near the previous theater nor in a location where a theater might go since it’s on the residential side of Wisconsin.
ReplyDelete10:33 AM
ReplyDeleteCitations are in Robert's brain only.
Robbie, looks like you just missed some yuuuge Retail Apocalypse news in Gaithersburg today.
ReplyDelete#MallwalkersFTW
5:17: Announced by the Gaithersburg Councilman Ryan Spiegel.
ReplyDelete1:35: Unlike you, I have a very, very large brain. A very stable genius.
"Announced by the Gaithersburg Councilman Ryan Spiegel."
ReplyDeleteHow is that an excuse for not reporting it?
12:51: I am reporting it - on Sam Eig, the news site that covers Gaithersburg, not Bethesda. My understanding of geography is just another example of my very stable genius.
ReplyDeleteI love Sam Eig! Great coverage of Gaithersburg, Germantown, Damascus and surrounding towns!
ReplyDeleteJust lost a great neighborhood pizza place! We really enjoyed Besta pizza--right up the street. Can't believe they're gone. I thought if anything would fold it would be that Hope Floats place. What a joke, floating in a tank. They don't even offer normal services like a massage, etc. So hoping they'd go belly up.
ReplyDeleteBoy sex and pizza. You really don’t know why the doors closed?
ReplyDeleteThey'll be back up somewhere else under a different name doing the same thing... :(..
ReplyDelete