Bold Bite has closed after seven years of operation in downtown Bethesda. One of their final customers reported the restaurant closed abruptly late Saturday afternoon, and staff began packing up the contents. A source tells me that a Popeyes chicken restaurant will soon take over the space. That would indeed be a boon for the Woodmont Triangle, and eliminate the need to drive to Montgomery Mall or Rockville for Popeyes' famous Louisiana chicken.
On a personal note, Bold Bite was my first on-camera dining review in downtown Bethesda. The
video also provides nostalgia for the time before Montgomery County Councilmember Hans Riemer destroyed nightlife in downtown Bethesda with his "nighttime economy" initiative - which ended up tanking the nighttime economy, including deep-sixing the late-night hours at Bold Bite and other businesses.
29 comments:
Wow, how many failures is that for the Roche brothers?
Boldbite MD
Boldbite DC (on 19th street)
202 Donuts DC (Union Station)
TapaBar
R Family Kitchen
So all they have left is Taco Arepa, and 202 Donuts? Anyone been to Taco Arepa lately? I was there shortly after they opened and food was good, but lack of kids menu means it was too much trouble to go back, but maybe things have changed.
Wonder if Bob the Builder realizes that Dog Haus opening a few months ago and has hurt this business? It's not the politicians policy Bobby, rather capitalism that drives and ruins businesses.
When did Rockville Pike at Old Georgetown Road become "Rockville"?
Thought Robbie might appreciate this headline:
Bold Bite Is the Latest Restaurant Closure on a Cursed Strip
Except that it's Washington DC (19th & L NW) and closed back in January.
That leaves only Union Station, and that food court is quite moribund too.
Say...isn't this a Greenhill property?
This is how you take a photo of a sign, Dyer.
10:46 it is not a Greenhill prop.
Anna @ 12:13 PM - Sharing is caring. :)
12:13 PM Robert Dyer is the guy you love to hate and watch
Pike & old Gtown has always been rockville, if not the heart of rockville. for people who have lived in the area for a long time. When real estate people decided to make up north bethesda 10-15 years ago it changed
Rockville city line begins at Twinbrook , just north of the mid pike plaza
Kinda knew this was inevitable when they were closed at 9pm Friday and Saturday nights, meanwhile Dog Haus was poppin.
Nah, sorry to disagree 2:40, but it was North Bethesda back in the 60's. That corner had a fruit and veggie market, and OG dead-ended at Montrose. And there were crows. Lots of crows. A colony, a flock, a murder, if you will.
At some point it got caught up in the push to make Rockville the main post office for the growing area. There were 5-digit "zip codes" to replace 2-digit "postal zones."
Look at me getting all nostalgic...
7:28: Government policies don't affect business? LOL To top it off, you embarrassingly were debating yourself as to whether or not Bold Bite even sold hot dogs anymore when I noted the coming competition with Dog Haus prior to their opening. You just made a complete fool of yourself again.
Given that several of the Roches' restaurants across the region, including the Bold Bites in the District's "Golden Triangle" neighborhood have already closed, can you please show which specific policies, implemented by Hans Riemer since he joined the Council in 2011, resulted in the Bethesda Bold Bites' closure?
Let's be clear: Hans Riemer will have been in power for nearly a decade and I see no tangible improvement in Bethesda nightlife. Most people are saying it is worse than a decade ago. It is legitimate to examine this since Hans claims night life as one of his major accomplishments.
Residents are still not trusted by our local government to be able to buy a bottle of wine or beer at the local Giant or Harris Teeter.
Will it take Riemer another decade to figure it out? Can we wait that long?
@10:39 The wine in a grocery store thing is a state law, not county law -- each retailer can have one location per county that sells it. The liquor in a private liquor store (I think that's what most of us want) is indeed a county thing, and Riemer is fully to blame for that, along with the other Council members in the pocket of unions that oppose privatization, like Marx Elrich.
"Residents are still not trusted by our local government to be able to buy a bottle of wine or beer at the local Giant or Harris Teeter."
#UnsignedDyer posting at 1:39 AM is hilariously wrong. As 4:51 AM points out, this restriction is STATEWIDE. You'd expect someone running for Council to understand something as basic as this.
Also, being not being able to buy beer or wine in Maryland's grocery stores has absolutely nothing to do with Bold Bites' failure in DC and in Bethesda.
5:20 YOU'RE A RACIST!!!
6:57 I rarely eat Popeyes but I've eaten at locations across the region...Downtown, Tenley Town, White Flint, Montgomery Mall...and you're much more likely to find whites or Hispanics than blacks in Popeyes. In truth, Popeyes probably has the most culturally-diverse and demographically-diverse customer base among chains.
It is certainly a cut above the McDonalds, BK, Wendys etc. in both price and quality, which is why it attracts such a diverse audience.
So please save your stereotyping.
Let's stick to business then shall we? Popeye's fried chicken is the worst possible concept to open on that corner on Cordell. What's more, it'll ruin Tommy Joe's. Why? Because even if they installed a very long vent pipe, the whole corner is gonna smell like chicken frying which isn't what you want to be smelling while enjoying the rooftop deck above. The burger place smelled awful if you remember. Imagine chicken frying all day. That just isn't the type of concept that will bring enough people in this area. That's just the truth. The location at the mall is never, ever busy. Rockville Pike does well because it's properly placed on a busy state road. In downtown Bethesda? No. Failure before opening.
It's odd that Dyer's East County blog never reported on the closing of the Popeye's in Spring Center a year and a half ago. Or on any of the other several dozen businesses in that shopping center, ethnically cleansed to make way for the Purple Line.
Seriously people ... It opened as a HOT DOG place and then did doughnuts on the side which helped .. So then they scrap the Hot Dog idea and now they just did burgers without one Hot Dog option?? Seriously???... Had they mastered the initial product they would have succeeded the problem is they never established an identity ... At least their doughnuts took on a name of its own and stuck to doughnuts ..Keeping Bold bite and not offering one hot dog ?/? Bizzare
Dog Haus is doing very well with hot dogs.
Yes, more money, better marketing, and better product from concept to execution.
"Popeye's fried chicken is the worst possible concept to open on that corner on Cordell...The whole corner is gonna smell like chicken frying which isn't what you want to be smelling while enjoying [Tommy Joe's] rooftop deck above."
Yep. Remember Smashburger's stinking ventilator?
Just wanted to comment that I am black and have lived in Bethesda for 22 years, and have never eaten Popeyes fried chicken. I truly hope the commenter above enjoys the “Unite the Right” rally downtown on Sunday.
8:00: I have to say that the racist commenter hasn't been in a Popeyes in Montgomery County recently. Not only do white and black people alike patronize Popeyes, but I would argue the Asian demographic is at least as strong as those two in the Popeyes I've been to - if not stronger. Latinos are there, as well. Popeyes will do very well in diverse Montgomery County.
I don't really want a Popeye's in Bethesda just because I like having locally owned small businesses in Woodmont Triangle. That being said, I would not mind the smell of fried chicken, because that is a delicious smell.
The concerns about the odor seem overblown - does Momo's reek when you walk past it? No? Then a Popeye's would probably be fine as well.
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