Tapp'd Bethesda at 4915 St. Elmo Avenue has been closed for two days. No one is answering the phones, and no explanation is posted on the door or on social media. A Door Dash employee attempted to pick up an order that somehow was placed online Wednesday evening, only to find upon arriving that the gastropub was closed.
If Tapp'd Bethesda does not ultimately reopen, this will be the 17th bar to close in downtown Bethesda since the Montgomery County Council's disastrous Nighttime Economy Task Force initiative ended up tanking the nighttime economy.
54 comments:
On Tuesday I saw a group of guys removing the “pop a shot” machine and the change dispenser.
And Benny Beanbag kills yet snother Bethesda nightspot.
The county is not cool. It used to benefit from crime in DC. Now it does not. Our leaders were too busy with progressive policy to realize our neighbors to the south were cleaning us out. This is not a surprise. Tommy Joe's next.
Is Robert Dyer the return of the God SALMONZI here to bring peace to the world for 5,000 years?!
Bethesda is the grumpy old man that screams "get off my lawn" - the community is chasing off the kids (millennials) when we are all gone. This won't end well.
It seems like Bethesda doesn't have enough unique offerings to draw people from other parts of MoCo and certainly not from DC or VA.
Let's be honest, Pike & Rose, Crown, Silver Spring, etc. have better options than Bethesda.
Downtown Crown, Rio, Pike & Rose and downtown Silver Spring aren't being slowly suffocated by Beanbag Crapital.
Dyer ignores that which is obvious to all who live here.
Sly will NOT be happy with what has become of Bethesda.
7:54am community activist,news publisher, life long resident, top vote getter in his field...good qualifications for serving in public office!
Bethesda Lane has been pretty dead this summer with Redwood closed and it's replacement not opening anytime soon.
The new stores (blinds and jewelry) aren't open evenings.
What does everyone want to see in this space? We've had Shark Club, British theme pub and tapp'd.
8:27 An Apple Store, Starbucks or a Lululemon
How about having Chef Tony's restaurant and/or VUK pizza/pinball move across the street to this vacated space; both are currently located in buildings scheduled to be demolished shortly to make way for a new high rise.
I wish this blog was shut down. IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY!
I went a few times to Tappd but I found the food to be awful. The beer selection was good but the whole place seemed to be the equivalent of a flipped home. Like when you examine it in detail you notice all of the flaws.
9:10am yes, Rock Bottom is around the corner and is much better. Brickside and Harp & Fiddle are better as well.
Their name sounded way too much like "Tepid".
Tommy Joe's won't be the next to go. They're about the best option around and they still pack it in.
Maybe Caddie's? It does have a good following, but now it's managed by Heckman who owned the failed deli next door (which then become an Eritrean restaurant, which then failed).
Shark Club did really well back in the day. There would actually be lines out the door. In Bethesda!
Anyone remember when Hanaro used to turn into a nightclub later in the evening? Why did they stop doing that?
Yeah, Tommy Joe's is still pretty popular. The rooftop has lots of people even on week nights. They have a built in loyal base of customers.
Blackfinn used to have lines out the door as well. I guess it's been a few years and Pike & Rose, etc are filling the need.
Atleast Heckman, Bold Bite, etc were trying some new ideas.
It's a shame. Other places in the suburbs- Pike & Rose or Mosaic in Fairfax are doing quite well.
I still think the "Bethesda Plan" isn't offering any improvements to the downtown in terms of arts and entertainment. It's simply adding new apartment buildings, many if which have no compelling retail. Atleast one project will bring a trader joes.
We also need to refresh the Bethesda UP events. Outdoor movies are fine, but recycling the same "arts" festivals and such aren't bringing in the crowds and appeal to and older demographic.
BUP is basically run by Trawick since she's their main benefactor, and she's in her 70s if not 80s. That's why you see so many "arts" events, many of which are a joke as it's just a bunch of vendors from far outside this area selling their recycled garbage to gullible Bethesdans will to pay $400 for a napkin holder made from the bottoms of Coke cans. I fail to see how such events are local given all the artists are not from around here.
What they should do is organize a Saturday afternoon bar crawl and shut down parts of Cordell and Norfolk so you can walk between bars there and have a band on a stage in the closed street.
Silver Spring does OK with this in terms of their Friday music festivals on Fenton (where the fountains are).
Also why is the Central Farm Market still at Bethesda Elementary? I thought that was temporary due to construction. They used to be on Woodmont near Bethesda Row as I recall. They should move it back -- those streets are quiet on Sunday mornings and it would bring in more business for the local restaurants.
On another note, anyone tried Casa Oaxaca? I think this has the potential to be a decent happy hour spot at the very least.
10:44 AM
Agreed. I've been to a few of the arts festivals and I've seen the same "art" appear several times by out of town vendors. There are a few gems mixed in, but overall not that great.
They really do need something else food and drink related other than Taste of Bethesda.
Used to always go on their 2 for 1 beer night, but then they stopped so I stopped. Lot of better bars in the county.
17 bars have died (weird you just ignore the openings; a net +/- would be useful but I assume it disproves your whining) in Bethesda because 4x that amount have opened in other parts of the county. If you're young you go to Silver Spring; if you're old you go to P&R or Crown. Bethesda is far down on the list at this point because it's a boring place with boring people with boring offerings.
Best bar around is Saphire....
Will Sapphire survive redevelopment on that block? I'm assuming they can look at the empty spaces around the Woodmont Triangle.
@1:32 What about Blackfinn and 4935? I used to go drinking at both places.. I'd consider them nightspots. Heck, 4935 used to have VIP table service (ok, only 2 tables, but still).
I hear you 1:32PM, but can we all agree and reach consensus that Bethesda nightlife is not excellent and has declined in the past 10 years?
There are less people frequenting Bethesda. I understand there is greater competition in the surrounding MoCo towns now, but I haven't heard anyone claiming Bethesda nightlife is a draw.
Most folks out of the immediate area see it as a much older crowd compared to Arlington, DC, etc and therefore not appealing.
@2:51 Bethesda used to have a better nightlife for sure. I think part of it is that if you live in Gaithersburg or Rockville, it was your best option without going all the way in to DC. Now those areas have gotten better (Pike and Rose; Rio) and that has given them less reason to venture far away from home.
Of course all the regulations are a cost on business, and that makes it more difficult to make it work in Bethesda as well. Think of the outdoor smoking ban. It affected about 5 restaurants in Bethesda total -- why bother? Customers can go to 100+ other restaurants if they didn't like it.
I remember a few years ago my buddy and I did our own little "bar crawl" in Bethesda. Drinks at Parkers and Nest on Bethesda Row, then catch the Circulator up to Cordell and hit up Blackfinn, Caddies, Hanaro, and Parva. Those were the days.. sigh..
Has nightlife in downtown Bethesda changed in the past 10-15 years? Yes, it has.
Does this have anything to do with the "Nighttime Economy Task Force"? Unlikely, since Robert Dyer has not identified any specific policies recommended by the task force that were implemented by the County Council that caused specific "nightspots" in downtown Bethesda to close; and also given that nightlife is thriving in other areas of the County.
Does this have anything to do with the Montgomery County Department of Liquor Control monopoly? Probably not, since the DLC has existed for 68 years - it didn't just suddenly come into existence after Hans Riemer was elected. And as with the previous point, nightlife is still thriving in other parts of the County.
It seems more likely that it is happening for the same reason that nightlife in Georgetown declined after its peak in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. As Georgetown became more and more popular, both housing prices and commercial rents skyrocketed - meaning that residents became older and richer - and less likely to go to bars, and more likely to complain about noise from bars, and popular bars closed one by one as rents increased.
7:32pm kind of a depressing picture you painted. Dyer is showing some leadership in proposing things that could improve Bethesda nightlife such as a new movie theater.
One difference between Georgetown and Bethesda is all of new housing units going up in Bethesda.
They're coming...
7:44 I don’t think anyone argues we need a new movie theater. That’s not a unique proposal. The reality is who is going to do it and where? If a theater thinks there is a viable market they will try to do it. This isn’t Dyer’s proposal by any means not is it unique.
3:46: While I think all sensible people recognize we need a new theater, I am certainly the only public figure who has been outspoken on the need for it since 2014. Not a single MoCo elected official has the understanding of how a downtown works from a business perspective, and the important synergy between theaters and restaurants in an urban center.
Ergo, it's no surprise that they did not recognize what a mistake they were making in not requiring the replacement cineplex at 7272 Wisconsin. The fact is, it is not purely a market demand issue in this case. Previous and new master plans do not encourage the development of shopping malls or entertainment centers downtown, and theaters are more costly to construct than standard retail space, so it really required government to mandate a theater use.
"Previous and new master plans do not encourage the development of shopping malls or entertainment centers downtown, and theaters are more costly to construct than standard retail space, so it really required government to mandate a theater use."
Who knew Dyer was such a Communist?
"Not a single MoCo elected official has the understanding of how a downtown works from a business perspective"
Says the never-employed Robert Dyer.
5:46: Unlike you, I most certainly have been employed since I was a teenager. You again made a jackass out of yourself.
Those drinking the Kool Aid will never acknowledge that the nightlife task force wasn't a success.
Are these the same people claiming Crown is the pinnacle of nightlife? Some of the trolls need to visit some other areas in our region if they believe that.
"Those drinking the Kool Aid will never acknowledge that the nightlife task force wasn't a success."
Someone needs to get out of Bethesda more often. Many dozens of bars, breweries, and lounges have open up across the county. Some of that is simply thanks to population growth and macro trends, but some of it - particularly the breweries and late-night lounges in Silver Spring - are thanks to specific county changes such as the 3am weekend closing time, less restrictive food:alcohol ratios, and allowing microbreweries to sell privately rather than going through the DLC. Those are actual facts leading to specific, positive results that should be built off of rather than derided or ignored.
Bars and restaurant's are notorious for the number that go out of business, often within the first year of their existence. Rather than citing the number that have closed as evidence of anything, it would be more useful to provide the number that have opened during that same time span. I'd be surprised if the net change in number of these establishments is negative or stated differently, if the total number has gone down. I live in Bethesda, but it must be in a parallel universe to Robert's and some other commentators on this blog. In my Bethesda, the number of dining and drinking establishments seems to continually increase rather than decrease, as does its development (largely residential & mixed use). I say this neutrally, as I'm not necessarily in favor of continual development.
What exactly is this so-called nightlife task force. Are you a journalist or a blogger? Cite your sources or stay home and snort doughnuts and cheese puffs on YouTube.
@ 7:24 AM: "Those drinking the Kool Aid will never acknowledge that the nightlife task force wasn't a success."
There is a huge difference between saying that the Nighttime Economy Task Force did not achieve all of its objectives, and claiming, as Robert Dyer has, that they were the direct cause of the closure of "17 nightspots".
"Are these the same people claiming Crown is the pinnacle of nightlife? Some of the trolls need to visit some other areas in our region if they believe that."
Where did anyone say that?
This bar sucked. Service was terrible. They won't be missed.
10:36: There hasn't been a single new brewery in Bethesda since the "Nighttime Economy Task Force" disaster - and at the same time, there were breweries like Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch that opened many years before the NETF was even created.
Little micro changes that should have been made decades ago - like growlers, and brewery sales - are the equivalent of towns trumpeting their paper mail will now be delivered by email. Wow!! Embarrassingly late, tiny changes that are only meant as a diversion from the disastrous decision to keep the government liquor monopoly in place.
We don't need to "build off" of laughably-late minor tweaks when we've known all along - thanks to the bar owners themselves - that the liquor monopoly is the problem.
11:59: There most certainly haven't been over 17 new nightspots in downtown Bethesda since the task force - not even close, in fact. Therefore, there was no net gain, but a net loss of nightspots after the NETF.
Remember, we're talking about actual nightspots - clubs and bars - not regular restaurants.
There has never been a closure of 17 nightspots in the same short number of years in the history of Bethesda. So, no, there's no "different way to look at this" that would not make the Council look like total idiots.
5:38: Nice try, but never before the NETF did we have 17 closures in such a short period - and remember, the NETF and the 17 closures occurred long AFTER the great recession. So the NETF debacle literally did more damage to the nighttime economy than the recession!
Humiliating!
8:20: Wait a minute, you were the one that claimed Tapp'd was a happening and hip replacement for the jam-packed popular Union Jack's.
@ 8:20 PM said: "This bar sucked. Service was terrible. They won't be missed."
Robert Dyer responded: "Wait a minute, you were the one that claimed Tapp'd was a happening and hip replacement for the jam-packed popular Union Jack's."
You're a loon, Dyer. You have no idea who made either comment. You don't even know what an IP address is.
"There has never been a closure of 17 nightspots in the same short number of years in the history of Bethesda. So, no, there's no "different way to look at this" that would not make the Council look like total idiots."
https://dc.eater.com/2019/6/17/18681771/dc-restaurant-closings-2019
Bring back Flaps Up
Maloney Concrete. Beat it, Boomer. Barking Dog is awesome.
Good riddance! Tapp'd was terrible. On my last visit, I ordered the chicken Caesar and the chicken was raw. And I've twice found metal flakes in the head of my beer and, several times, have been served way out of date beer.
Beer list was great but this died because not everyone wants to go to a basement bar. The service was too slow and people don't return when they wait too long for drinks more than once.
I think one of the main problems overlooked by most commenters is the fact that every land lord, that is the people that charge and collect rent, want to suck every business dry. If you are making a 10% profit well they will increase your rent so you are now making -1% profit. They don't care if their property sits vacant for months or longer. I'm sure the local landlords are just looking at all these high rises going up and figure that they should be able to charge premium price.....even though in reality consumer behavior is changing and businesses can not manage the higher rents.
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