Like Redwood, Lebanese Taverna and American Tap Room, Jimmy John's had thrived for years. But in the year since the cineplex closed, all four are fading into the quiet, moribund Bethesda night "freaky fast." So many parking spaces are available in public garages around Bethesda Row at peak hours now that embarrassed County officials have deviously switched the "Spaces Available" sign to simply read, "OPEN."
A study conducted during the revitalization of Towson, Maryland showed that a mainstream cineplex showing current blockbusters draws an average of 20,000 additional people per weekend who would not otherwise visit. Thanks, Montgomery County cartel!
38 comments:
Didn't even know it was in Bethesda. For a lot of success, that place sucks. No really, it isn't any good. With all the jews in the area (I don't say that in an anti-semitic sense) why isn't there one decent sandwich shop/deli? There isn't.
Bethesda wants to be Silver Spring when it grows up. I recently visited the new El Sapo restaurant, and was amazed it's so youthful, diverse, and alive. You can't find parking spots on Saturday night, compared to Bethesda's surplus of parking and restaurant seats. I live in Bethesda, which my friends refer to as geriatric row.
Really? Equating the loss of Jimmy John's to your old theater gripe? How silly.
Bethesda has always had an identity crisis, and has resisted any identity thrust on it. It's never seemed overly conservative or boldly liberal either.
I wonder how this urbanization will work out in the long run.
5:35: It's very clear what's happened - all of these restaurants were able to survive for years and years, until the Regal Cinemas closed. Garages emptied out at the same time. You're talking about up to 20,000 less people per weekend in downtown Bethesda. The Council can't do the math, apparently, but a financial expert like you should be able to.
Jimmy John's is closing stores nationwide.
Another Bethesda sandwich shop closed!
You are creating ties that don't exist.
You know, all these restaurants closed after Easthams Exxon closed. Maybe that was the reason.
Or maybe all the businesses that relocated due to development had something to do with it.
The point is, you don't know. You guess, using your personal biases.
“Please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this”
I used to go there a lot. The movie theater wasn't the issue. They did the vast majority of their business with the office lunch crowd, not movie theater people. They also did delivery, which few places in Bethesda do -- perfect for the office customers.
I think their issue was menu. They only had about 8 sandwiches. On top of that, people are getting away from eating subs and so much carbs (didn't a nearby Subway also shut down?).
"Like Redwood, Lebanese Taverna and American Tap Room, Jimmy John's had thrived for years. But in the year since the cineplex closed, all four are fading into the quiet, moribund Bethesda night "freaky fast."
The cineplex closed TWO years ago.
Several American Tap Rooms have already closed, including restaurants in Federal Realty's Rockville Town Square, Clarendon and Richmond.
The closures of Kapnos Kouzina and Taylor Gourmet are also due to the entire chains shutting down.
"You know, all these restaurants closed after Easthams Exxon closed. Maybe that was the reason."
Ha ha...perfect illustration of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, ANna.
The movie theater generated foot traffic to the restaurants.
7:28 AM - Who are you and how do you know that?
As to the claim that the Regal would attract 20,000 people per weekend based on a "study" done for Towson, MD:
The claim by the developers of "Towson Square" was 15-20,000 visitors to their $85 million project. Towson Square has 3,400 seats in 15 tiered auditoriums, 8 restaurants, and a parking garage for 850 cars. They would have to fill every seat between 5 and 8 times each weekend to meet their guesstimates. Perhaps this is why the development was sold two years after completion at a $45 million loss. In any case, the scale of the Towson multiplex is many, many times the size of the Regal and dwarfs any future multiplex at the Apex site.
4 Pinocchios
Dyer seems to have a few shut-ins who read his blog and think no one goes to the movies.
20,000! ROTFLMAO! You are just as deluded as the orange orangutan/buffoon at 1600 PA Ave. Keep "beliebing" in your fantasy blame game Donny2, cuz no one else will.
Well, the one couple I knew who sold their house and moved to a fancy condo in downtown Bethesda lasted about two years; they hated it. Not enough things to do in walking distance and too difficult to drive anywhere. Too expensive and too dull.
NOT JIMMY JOHNS!~!~!!!! HOW WILL I EAT COMPLETE CRAP NOW?!??!?!?!?
8:07am the Washington Post said downtown Bethesda is the new Aspen
@10:37 - Aspen is a strange place, far more beautiful than Bethesda, but devoid of practical places to shop. It has many expensive restaurants but nobody who works in the shops or restaurants can afford to live there. The people who do live in Aspen are usually wealthy and quite concerned with appearances.
It seems odd that you think the county government can force a land owner to build a movie theater.
12:41pm Agreed...Aspen has more natyrna beauty, not at all comparable to Aspen.
The Washington Post was way off base with that. Better to compare Bethesda to other Northeast suburbs.
1:25pm the planning board has required other projects to have a "high end restaurant", so a movie theater requirement isn't a reach.
The planning board should be looking holistically at projects and get the best deal for residents.
It seems odd that someone who complains about the "anti-business climate" in Montgomery County, wants to dictate to business owners what they can do with their property.
I remember making my first online purchase in 1961.
Thank you. What could be more anti-business than literally dictating how people should run their business?
7:57/2:12: Wrong. The development proposed at 7272 was not legal under the zoning at the time. A minor master plan amendment process was thus used to create an exception. You don't have a right to do something with a property that is currently illegal under the zoning code.
They wanted more, and government has the authority to seek concessions that benefit the community under that scenario. The Council and Planning Board chose to go easy on the developer - who eventually gave up, and handed the site off to Carr Properties - and imposed no requirement for a replacement theater, and no requirement to build the CCT tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue to Chevy Chase.
They did this because they are controlled by the developers, which has led them to take many other anti-business positions, such as canceling critical road projects, increasing traffic congestion and trying to reserve land that should be used for corporate HQs to instead be developed as residential apartments and townhomes.
7:35: The study showed what the average draw of a cineplex would be. If Towson exceeded or fell short of those numbers, it does not negate the study.
Developers routinely sell completed projects after they are completed. And Towson is not analogous to Bethesda; there is much more spending money in this area.
6:57: Jimmy John's is NOT closing stores nationwide. I find no such media report anywhere online.
7:24: Good God, I never even mentioned Kapnos or Taylor Gourmet. Yes, it's been two years, you caught a minor mistake that in no way impacts the facts of the article.
Saul Alinsky would be proud of your comment, though!
"If every letter must receive an answer, send 30000 letters!!!!!!!" - Saul Alinsky
Wow, you are in fine form Dyer - responding to your readers at 2:28 AM EST on a Saturday morning, bombed out of your mind. Maybe that's not such a good time to be writing.
I don't even understand what you are trying to say with all that verbiage in your first three paragraphs. Are you claiming that the UA/Regal theater was illegal when it was built three decades ago?
"The study showed what the average draw of a cineplex would be. If Towson exceeded or fell short of those numbers, it does not negate the study."
So it doesn't matter if "the study" (promotional materials from the builder) is right or wrong.
"Jimmy John's is NOT closing stores nationwide. I find no such media report anywhere online."
You didn't bother to look. Just locally, they've already closed restaurants in Clarendon and Richmond.
"Yes, it's been two years, you caught a minor mistake that in no way impacts the facts of the article."
The difference between one year and two years is hardly immaterial.
"Saul Alinsky yada yada yada"
It's odd that a self-proclaimed journalist would claim that asking questions is a bad thing.
5:34: Sorry your Mom made you turn in at 8 PM on a Friday night.
You're still wrong 12 hours later.
If you were literate, you would have no trouble understanding that the Regal Cinemas/Apex site was NOT zoned for the development sought there by either the original developer or Carr Properties.
That's why they had to have a Minor Master Plan Amendment - a process during which the Council can place any requirement in exchange for providing the zoning exception.
The corrupt Council declined to require a replacement cineplex and CCT tunnel under Wisconsin, nor much of anything else.
Closing two stores in the entire state of Virginia is not a trend, much less a nationwide one.
It is material that all of the restaurants I mentioned closed after the cineplex closed.
It's also material that all the restaurants closed after Easthams Exxon closed.
Also worth mentioning is that during the time in question, "I" also stopped working in downtown Bethesda and stopped my daily frequenting restaurants, although to be fair, I wasn't much a fan of JJs.
okay, that was weird.
GMTAing with someone else! Good morning 7:13!
@ 7:13 AM here. Anna - We are soulmates. Finishing each others' sentences. :)
7:39 AM With no family or friends, your Saturday morning "activity" is cyber harassing a local journalist? Lovely.
Saturday afternoon activity, that is.
10:40AM - shade from the person whose Saturday morning activity is cyber-harassing a commenter? Ballsy.
10:48 AM
FYI, Tenleytown Jimmy Johns closed too.
Quite interesting story regarding Jimmy Johns and its franchisers. You should use your (alleged) super-secret journalism powers to find it, read it and then correct some of your comments.
On December 29, 1852, Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants
How could Jimmy John's stay open just based on the possibility of a movie theater reopening several years in the future? If they can't survive without a movie theater, it's their problem.
Jessie Smollett recently told the media that the closing of the Regal theater caused him undue stress and suggests that was the reason he made up the MAGA hat wearing attack.
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