Monday, March 24, 2025

St. Elmo Deli closed in Bethesda


St. Elmo Deli
at 4818 St. Elmo Avenue in Bethesda was closed during normal Monday business hours today, March 24, 2025. The interior appears largely cleared out. There's no seating, shelves (such as where you would typically see chip bags lined up) are empty, and the menu displays have been taken down. Signage is still up out front, but there's no note to customers explaining the reason for the closure. St. Elmo Deli has been around since 1997 - an impressive, almost thirty-year run - so it would be sad if this is a permanent closure.




14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Elmobund.

JAC said...

30-year run? Never seen it, never even heard of it.

Anonymous said...

Wow, thank god you let us know, JAC.

Anonymous said...

Kinda sad, they held on this long thru the Chinese Virus (we can say thar now!), and endured MoCo's myopic hurdles. Can't blame Mom and Pop food place failures on the internet. Its all about being competitive in pricing and foot traffic, both arenas where Bethesda 's 'big money' seems to squash.

Anonymous said...

Very nice couple ran that place. Sad to see them go.

Anonymous said...

Apparently no one patronized this deli, not even you, to know that it was cleared out.

Anonymous said...

Some people obviously liked it, even if it wasn’t up to your sophisticated taste

Anonymous said...

That's a bummer, they had really good sandwiches and the owners were nice.

Anonymous said...

JAC, as someone who used to work in the Landow Building (and who still lives downtown), I can vouch that it's been there for decades. However, I don't know how often the ownership might've changed. (IIRC, the person who started Woodmont Deli used to be at that location.)

JAC said...

8:50 - I don't doubt that some liked the place. But literally, I never saw nor heard of it. A thirty-year run makes me think of something like Bradley Food and Beverage which I am sure has been in business longer than 30. Few I would argue has not heard of BF&B.

Anonymous said...

Actually CVII, Chinese Virus hit us at least twice. Just saying...

Anonymous said...

What are you even talking about? In all likelihood the owners simply retired.

Anonymous said...

3:49, btw, viable businesses even in our self imposed regulatory climate can be sold and bought by others.

Anonymous said...

Landow finally hired a real janitorial serice huh?