Armand's Pizzeria and Grille is closing at 190 Halpine Road in Rockville. After over 51 years in business, the restaurant's co-owners announced on Instagram that they will permanently shut their doors after the close of business on June 20, 2026. This is your last chance to get a slice of Armand's pizza. But it's also another chance to see what the anti-business policies of the Montgomery County Council, and the resulting moribund Montgomery County economy, have wreaked on our business community and underfilled County revenue coffers.
WTOP reporter Luke Lukert wrote that "due to financial reasons and a struggling environment for small businesses, they will have to shut their doors." Lukert interviewed Armand's co-owner Chris Sappe, who told him,"Montgomery County is a tough place to have a family-owned business with minimum wage increasing." Along with recent hikes in ingredient and fuel costs, Sappe said, they had to make the difficult decision to close.
Let's again spin one of the greatest hits recorded by Peter Gragnano of the Suburban Washington Franchise Owners Association, when he and many other business owners and advocates pleaded with the Council not to move forward with their massive minimum wage hike in June of 2016. "That's a lot of extra Slurpees to sell," Gragnano said in the quote of the night. Did the Council heed these warnings? Nope.
Remember the Council's brilliant idea to index the minimum wage to inflation beginning in 2021? Yep, that one hasn't aged well, either. One businessman warned the Council that if inflation spiked as it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s, "there won't be a way to wash a dish in a restaurant." This is the man you should now be asking to generate your lottery numbers! Inflation spike? In America? The County Council clearly does not share that businessman's Kenny Kingston-esque foresight.
Another one of the brilliant minds in the business realm of Maryland is Maddy Voytek, who in 2016 was working at the Maryland Retailers Association. She noted that Montgomery County had already lost 2141 retail jobs between 2000 and 2016. Voytek told the Council that adoption of the $15 wage would "devastate our economy."
What we've seen most recently, as all of these dire predictions came true, are more closings of older businesses. Community institutions. Businesses like Armand's or Flanagan's in Bethesda. Businesses that have survived wars, recessions, and the 2008 "Great Recession," only to be felled now by the incompetents on our County Council. Something is rotten in the County of Montgomery. Have the smelling salts reached your nostrils yet?
Sad News.
ReplyDeleteSad news indeed. One of my favorite all time spots. I went to the original on Wisconsin Ave more times then I can count. And I loved the lunch buffet at this location. Only deep dish pepperoni for me which always had wall to wall pepperoni slices and thick and gooey cheese. Man, that was good. A real shame.
ReplyDeleteNostalgia personified.
DeleteThat rant is both reheated and overheated.
ReplyDeleteAccording to your own reporting, a co-owner attributed the closure not only to the minimum wage but also to (which certainly aren't the fault of county legislators) increasing costs of ingredients and fuel.
There have been a number of news accounts lately about how pizza chains in general are facing problems.
Possibly including (as with all restaurants) declines in numbers and amounts of orders, because of the new anti-obesity medications.
That many people are on GLP-1s?!
Delete10:35: Sounds more like Copium use by the cartel apologists.
DeleteJust asked Google, "What percentage of the American public is taking GLP-1 drugs?"; GoogleAI said, 12 percent. If that's anywhere close, it sounds like a lot to me.
Delete@10:35 this source
Deletehttps://www.rand.org/news/press/2025/08/nearly-12-percent-of-americans-have-used-glp-1-weight.html
estimates that as of 2025, 12% of Americans have used GLP-1's. That would be 41.1 million people.
@8:00 not to mention many people (myself included) have had to cut back on the amount of eating out we do because of the rising costs of literally everything. As usual, things are much more complicated than "Montgomery County Council bad".
Delete12:46: So 88% of their customers are not using the pharmaceutical equivalent of the Shake Weight, and they went out of business? The math doesn't add up there.
DeleteActually, GoogleAI says that 12 percent currently use those drugs, but that 18 percent have used them at some point.
DeleteProbably more will start, unless there are problems with insurance coverage.
Either way, none of this is good news for restaurants, which are well-known to operate generally on thin margins.
And, as one WTOP story pointed out, this (smaller, and local) chain was competing with huge chains like Domino's and Pizza Hut, which could get volume discounts on ingredients.
Bottom line: the minimum wage must have been a factor; but, one among many.
It's not all the fault of the county legislators.
Seek help with your moribund condition before it's too late.
ReplyDeleteThe dishwasher getting an extra 35 cents an hour surely was the reason why the business failed! Why did MoCo do this! /s
ReplyDelete12:23: They certainly were warned a decade ago.
DeleteThe Rockville location lasting so many years longer than all the DC and VA locations = MoCo is moribund. Got it. Makes so much sense!
ReplyDelete12:26: The owner cited Montgomery County Council policies as the cause.
DeleteOne among many causes, not "the cause."
DeleteSee comments above.
Dang!
The cause why MoCo locations lasted so much longer than DC and VA locations? Okay, if you say so.
DeleteYou (conveniently) left out a key piece of information from that WTOP report, Robert.
ReplyDelete“Montgomery County is a tough place to have a family-owned business with minimum wage increasing, food cost increasing, obviously gas and everything else that affects everybody,” Sappe said.
“We can’t compete with national chains like Domino’s or Papa John’s because they just push the food at such a low cost, but we use fresh ingredients every day, we pay the extra money for the high-quality ingredients, but eventually you’ll price yourself out.”
1:09: "Montgomery County is a tough place." Res ipsa loquitur.
DeleteFunny having 1:09 giving out business advice.
DeleteLarge national chains have another advantage in that the leases aren't done with personal guarantees like other small businesses so the typical 5/5 commercial lease isn't a problem along with the regulatory hoops that those companies have an entire division to smooth out.
Mr. Dyer, have you ever run a business in Montgomery County?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it's tough to be a pizza shop in Montgomery County because you have to compete with Andy's, No Regrets, CSNY, AP, Frank Pepe, La Speranza, etc. who are all markably better than Armands at this point and all available for immediate delivery. This isn't the 80s and 90s, where they're competing with Pizza Movers. The apps have leveled the playing field for accessing higher-end pizza and it's very hard for Armands to position itself beyond the nostalgia crowd, which dies off over time.
ReplyDeleteOh, and GLP-1 (and soon GLP-3) have already significantly disrupted and are likely going to completely upend these restaurants. To scoff at 12-20% market usage is insane. Margins are so small for restaurants like this that ANY market contraction will completely destroy them. Their whole ability to exist is based on market growth for pizza. There is literally no margin for error whether it comes from aversion to carbs, fats, or GLP-based appetite suppression.
6:36. Going to ring in here as what most might call a very experienced 'business operator' for decades both in Bethesda and NWDC. I remember when Armands was a Submarine Sandwich shop near Macomb, (no pizza, at all) owned by a National Yo-yo champion, initials "LN." At any rate, LN decided Pizza was his way forward and imho his later operations probably became the WORST neighbors fir anyone living remotely nearby one if his establishments, litter, rat investation, unchecked obnoxious customers, etc. If any pizza operation deserved to go out of business, its Armands.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it was by far the Best tasting pizza in NW DC.
DeleteYou have to admit DC rats have good taste. . .
DeleteRegarding the use of GLP drugs, I suspect that it would be greater in Montgomery County based on our residents’ education and medical awareness.
ReplyDeleteDoes the Montgomery County Council ever order or eat pizza?
ReplyDelete6:25: No, just tofu.
DeleteSoy vey. (Back in the 80s, you would have said, just quiche.)
DeleteWould that be in a plastic or paper bag that is the conundrum.
DeleteThey should try sushi.
DeleteArmoribund
ReplyDeleteJamesbund!
Delete