Apparently, there's no demand for wine slushies in Bethesda. Last weekend, I noticed that VinoRita, which opened only about five weeks ago in the Dining Terrace food court at Westfield Montgomery Mall, was closed on a busy Saturday evening. Now their kiosk is entirely cleared out. It's recently become one of the unluckiest spots in the mall, as HalfSmoke lasted less than a year in the same kiosk, and VinoRita has now chased that with one of the fastest business failures I've ever reported in the 17 years I've been publishing news in Montgomery County.
It looks like wine moms have been following the ultra-rich out the door in their mass exodus from moribund Montgomery County, folks. You would think County residents could have used a stiff slushie after looking at their new, jacked-up MoCo property tax bills. VinoRita may want to try a Spring Valley, Leesburg or Clarksville location instead. Meanwhile, Westfield may need to break the emergency glass, and bring in Steak and Shake, In-N-Out Burger, Jack in the Box, Raising Cane's or Zaxby's to hit a home run in this struggling kiosk. In the words of Shia LaBeouf, "I'm tired of starting over...just DO IT!!!!"
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| VinoRita was still there, but abandoned, last Saturday night |
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| A week later...VinoRita is gone |
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| *Sad trombone* |
As I understand it, VinoRita was a pop-up from the get-go, which I take to mean they were on a very short lease. Since we were not allowed to take alcoholic drinks even 50' from the kiosk (and certainly not into the nearby theaters), VinoRita never saw a snowball's chance of surviving.
ReplyDeleteUpscale moms don't go to Montgomery Mall any more. Put this in downtown Bethesda instead.
ReplyDelete"A slushy's chance," @7:58.
ReplyDeleteYou continue to blame the economy on any closing and never credit the economy for any opening. You’re a broken record. Maybe it closed because it was just a bad concept.
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ReplyDeletePity they did not open in the summer. A friend and I were jonesing tot try it back in August and were disappointed that it was not open yet.
Learning
Commenting here is like speaking out in Russia.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe the idea of "wine slushies" is kinda gross. Especially when you're trying to get some shopping done?
ReplyDeleteThe nearest In-N-Out is in Texas.
The nearest Jack in the Box is in Indiana.
Why would either of these want to open in a spot that is obviously designated for pop-ups?
Kind of obvious that it’s a bad location, esp if you can’t drink it anywhere else in the mall, but always appreciate the attempts to turn every business problem into a failure of the council!
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