Kami Ramen Bar "coming soon" to Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Kami Ramen Bar is coming soon to Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, according to signage posted at its future space. It will be located between Wetzel's Pretzels (wow - what happened to them? They announced their arrival ages ago and still haven't opened) and Cinnabon near the entry to the Dining Terrace food court on Level 2 of the mall. Kami Ramen Bar is kind of behind schedule, as well. But it now has a target opening date of spring 2026.

"Major" gas leak closes intersection in downtown Bethesda (Photos)

Update - February 3, 2026, 6:50 AM: MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer says Washington Gas has located the gas leak in a valve box in the vicinity of Old Georgetown Road and St. Elmo Avenue. A Washington Gas crew has remained on the scene and is in the process of repairing the leak.

Update - 10:54 PM: Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer says the area being searched for the leak now includes Cordell and Del Ray Avenues near Old Georgetown Road. Piringer reports there are "high readings of gas in entire area outside; higher readings at utility manholes."

Update - 10:28 PM: Police have extended the closure of St. Elmo Avenue to Norfolk Avenue. Burtonsville Volunteer Fire Department is among the agencies now on-scene.

A gas leak has forced the closure of a major intersection in downtown Bethesda. The four-way intersection of Arlington Road, Old Georgetown Road, St. Elmo Avenue, and Wilson Lane is currently closed due to what one Montgomery County police officer on the scene described as a "major gas leak." There is a noticeable odor of natural gas in the air. Police are directing traffic in the area, which should be avoided at this time.

Target truck rerouted onto Woodmont Avenue 
due to the gas leak road closures

Bob's Shanghai Bethesda applies for liquor license

Bob's Shanghai Bethesda at 7776 Norfolk Avenue, in the ground floor of the Windsor Bethesda apartment tower, has applied for a liquor license from Montgomery County. Its hearing has been scheduled for March 5, 2026 at 10:30 AM. The eagerly anticipated Chinese restaurant is located in the former Anthony's Coal-fired Pizza space next to Medium Rare. Work has been going on inside the restaurant since September, but this is the first visible "sign" of progress, as the windows remain covered.

A look at the final hours of Amazon Fresh in Friendship Heights (Photos)

Today is the last day of operations for the Amazon Fresh stores in Friendship Heights, and across America, with the exception of California where Governor Gavin Newsom has forced the grocery chain to keep operating until March to comply with the state's superior layoff notification requirements for grocery stores. I'm reminded of when some states required TV broadcasts to continue longer, even as living room sets were allowed to go dark in Maryland and other jurisdictions with corporate puppet elected officials. Some states just take better care of their (non-homeless) residents. Let's take one last look at the ambitious Amazon Fresh experiment in Friendship Heights, as the final grains of sand cascade into the bottom of the hourglass:

Montgomery County gets one Bethesda sidewalk slacker to clean up act

Montgomery County has taken action to address at least one of the dangerous unshoveled sidewalk situations in downtown Bethesda. A County code enforcement officer visited the site of the future Artena Bethesda apartment building (7938-8008 Wisconsin Avenue, and 8011-13 Woodmont Avenue), and issued a violation notice for the sidewalks in front of these properties, which remained unshoveled five days after the storm ended. The property owner's contractor has now shoveled a path in response to the order, which threatened $520 in fines if the sidewalks were not cleared in 24 hours, and $750 per day after that. Montgomery County requires property owners to clear sidewalks in front of their buildings within 24 hours of the precipitation ending.

Assault at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a 2nd-degree assault at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda on January 26, 2026. The assault was reported at the mall at 3:15 PM Monday. This is the second assault reported at the mall this year, with the first having taken place on January 10. The mall is now on-pace for 24 assaults this year at this rate; 12 took place at the property in 2025.

Assault at Westbard Square Giant in Bethesda

Montgomery County police responded to a report of an assault at the Giant grocery store at Westbard Square in Bethesda on January 26, 2026. The assault was reported at the supermarket, which is located at 5320 Zenith Overlook, at 9:12 PM Monday. It was related to a shoplifting incident. Apparently the snow and ice were not impacting the movement of criminals in the County this week. 

The Westbard Giant is currently on pace for 24 assaults in 2026, which would be more than Montgomery Mall. An assault was reported at the store earlier this month, on January 7. Along with the many smash-and-grab thefts from vehicles in the garage, and a shooting outside the bowling alley across the street, this is not what the neighborhood had been promised by effervescent County planners in 2014.

Bethesda's sidewalk scofflaws ride out snowstorm shovel-free

The pedestrian crosswalk curb ramp has now been cleared at Wisconsin and Chase Avenues in downtown Bethesda. But four days after the storm ended, some sidewalk scofflaws remained around town. Perhaps not surprisingly, one repeat offender on that list is the property owner of the vacant storefronts that are part of the long-delayed Artena Bethesda apartments project at 7938-8008 Wisconsin (former Saphire Cafe and former Golden Needle tailoring shop, former Ranger Surplus), 8011 Woodmont Avenue (former Sir Walter Raleigh Inn/Bruce Variety), and the former Montgomery County Public Parking Lot 43 (sold to the Artena project by the County several years ago). County regulations require sidewalks to be cleared within 24 hours of precipitation ending (ice stopped falling around 8:00 PM Sunday night in Bethesda). Looking at the bright side, this is about as close as moribund Montgomery County gets to a "shovel-ready" project these days.

Room & Board closes at Bethesda Row

Room & Board has closed at 7236 Woodmont Avenue at Bethesda Row. Their space has been cleared out, and this location has been removed from the chain's website. The furniture and modern design showroom opened here in 2021. In our region, Room & Board still has a Washington, D.C. store in operation.

Both Chevy Chase Amazon Fresh stores closing

The Amazon Fresh grocery stores in Friendship Heights and at Chevy Chase Lake will permanently close this Sunday, February 1, 2026. Amazon is closing all of its Amazon Fresh and Go grocery stores across the country, as a very expensive experiment with Amazon-branded physical grocery stores by the retail giant concludes. In Montgomery County, that means the losses of Amazon Fresh stores at Chevy Chase Lake, Friendship Heights, Shady Grove Road on the border of Rockville and Gaithersburg, and White Oak. It's an especially raw deal for all involved at the Chevy Chase locations, as residents of Chevy Chase Lake had expected to have an on-site grocery store, Friendship Heights residents will now have only the hipster house brands of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market as full-size supermarkets within walking distance, and the Chevy Chase Land Company was counting on both to anchor their respective developments of Chevy Chase Lake and the Collection at Chevy Chase.

Bethesda's next Citibank opening this spring

Another bank is just what downtown Bethesda residents have been asking for, and Citibank is preparing to deliver its second downtown branch this spring. It will be at 8101 Wisconsin Avenue, formerly home to TD Bank. A Bethesda Row branch opened last month in the Flats at Bethesda Avenue apartments. The banking giant's aggressive expansion comes even as Citigroup announces another round of layoffs scheduled for March 2026.

Downtown Bethesda well-plowed while ice hampers residential street snowplowing

Curb ramps still snowed in at Wisconsin Avenue 
crosswalk at Chase Avenue last night 

Roads in downtown Bethesda were generally in good shape by yesterday afternoon, but snow plowing operations in residential neighborhoods have been complicated by the ice that made up a substantial part of the precipitation that fell between 6:00 AM and 8:00 PM on Sunday. I noticed that Montgomery County plows were having a harder time than usual getting down to bare pavement on neighborhood streets, making four passes instead of the typical two, and there being a lot more noise as a lot of the snow and ice were simply getting crushed flatter by the heavy truck. I have also seen smaller pickup truck-size vehicles with plows now being deployed.

One other factor may have played a role where road conditions remained poor. Driving around parts of Bethesda prior to the storm's arrival, I found that much less of the solution used to pre-treat the pavement had been applied to the County streets I traveled, compared to previous years. I don't know if this was a cost-saving decision, a malfunctioning sprayer truck, or a kneebend to environmental organizations. But a couple of stripes in each travel lane certainly meant that the melting function was diminished.

Also, as of last evening, the crosswalk curb ramps on either side of Wisconsin Avenue at Chase Avenue had not yet been shoveled. Property owners are responsible for clearing these ramps, as well as the sidewalks. See the photo at the top of this article. But in general, it's really quite impressive that the County was able to get the downtown streets into the condition you see here, as this snow was very, very nasty to shovel and plow after the ice storm started just before sunrise on Sunday. Despite the recent and frustrating trend of plowing only a single lane on residential side streets (property taxes have not been correspondingly reduced by 66%), we should cut the snowplow drivers a break in this case, because they were really struggling in spots to clear this away.