Crave American Kitchen & Sushi Bar has closed at Westfield Montgomery Mall. The closure leaves a large dining space vacant, which could be turned into a winning opportunity by Westfield if they can attract another big name on the level of next-door neighbor
The Cheesecake Factory. With the planned addition of
Olive Garden at Westfield's Wheaton Plaza clearly having fallen through, I would strongly urge them to pursue an Olive Garden here.
Is the Crave spot a bad location? No, because Cheesecake Factory has been tremendously successful in the adjacent space. While Crave had a wide-ranging menu with mass appeal for the mall-going crowd, other issues appear to have done them in. The restaurant rarely appeared crowded when I passed it.
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| Packing crates inside Crave Sunday |
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| Last call at the bar |
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Would you like to see an
Olive Garden in this space? |
In other mall news, as I reported Friday,
Cinnabon opened this weekend in the Dining Terrace. And the long painful exit of
Gymboree has finally come to an end. They have closed, and their space is being cleared out.
25 comments:
Perhaps the worst restaurant in Montgomery County.
Cheesecake Factory or Bobby's Burgers. Both located before the Crave. The Crave never interested us.
Why the hate? Why do you hate Mr. Dyer. I am pretty new to this site and I know the quality isn't the best, but I appreciate having an alternative to Bethesda Beat as well. Robert seems educated on the area and he is pretty good about openings and closings.
"Crave had mass appeal for the mall-going crowd. The restaurant rarely appeared crowded when I passed it."
LOL
@ 6:05 AM
The Dyer missed his calling as a litigator lol
It would be reasonable to bring PF Changs or Brio to make up for the lost White Flint ones. Crave didn't do it.
8:14 AM Yup- Crave was too "meh". Can't survive next to a Cheesecake Factory if you're not unique or have a lane.
"I would strongly urge them to pursue an Olive Garden here"
Ha. Not a chance. Westfield wants to create a slightly more upscale experience and a middle-market, mass-produced, over-salted "Italian" cuisine chain doesn't exactly cut it.
There's always some bitter guy with a blog who resents Dyer..lol.
Don't be that guy.
I am still semi confused by the MAGA comment. I don't know much about Mr. Dyer, but even if he is a huge MAGA supporter, he seems to constantly be under fire by Anonymous. If anything, the crazy extremist people on this blog don't appear to be Mr. Dyer, but the people who are constantly attacking him. Maybe because I am new, someone can provide a link or something of Robert going and attacking readers? It might help me better understand this blog and the comment section.
Olive Garden: When You're Here, You're Here
@9:42 It's Tarnation Bob doing the criticizing.
8:50: Olive Garden is very similar to Cheesecake Factory in terms of restaurant segments and popularity. With no current location in MoCo, Olive Garden would be a major draw here. Also, as Ruslev suggested, P.F. Chang's as another winning choice.
I see he deletes comments which is unfortunate, but I can understand it some as he is trying to clean up his blog from trolls and foster discussion. Not ideal he deletes, but I still haven't seen Mr. Dyer attack a reader like its been claimed. If you have something I would love to read it whether it can be a link to an old article or a screenshot of him saying something attacking someone.
Crave had absolutely atrocious service and below average food. Surprised Crave lasted this long.
Ok, nevermind. I get it some now. I just don't know why everyone feels the need to harass him. Those are extremely unprofessional remarks from Mr. Dyer, but still doesn't need to be attacked like this.
Wow, that one definitely takes the cake. Still though, why can't people just ignore him. Is there really a reason to call him a Retard and such? People doing that on here seem no better than Robert.
"TD," don't take much of what our resident troll here posts at face value. I'm a real person, real name and real face. The troll is an anonymous Astroturf rep for the local political cartel (you'll notice all of his positions miraculously line up with the cartel's, and he has unending praise for our very unpopular elected officials).
He conveniently leaves out what he has said and done to elicit what have been - by comparison - mild but firm responses that are applauded by actual readers who are as tired of the buffoon as I am.
Just FYI, the troll has engaged in a campaign of harassment and threats. He has posted ongoing statements indicating he has been watching me in public places. As "Anna," he openly stated that he had given me a false tip about a downtown business so that he could watch me go there from a high window nearby.
I have been threatened personally by the troll, and he has gone so far as to run illegal "pretext" background checks not only on me, but even on members of my family(!!). When his identity is revealed, he will be facing 2 years in federal prison for each of these incidents of harassment and threats.
Therefore, I hope you will understand who this anonymous criminal is who is speaking to you. I can safely assume you would not choose to believe him over a known civic activist and businessman in the community such as myself.
"run illegal 'pretext' background checks on me"
What in Heaven's name is this gibberish supposed to mean?
"A businessman in the community such as myself"
How can an entity such as "Suburban Network News", which has no sources of revenue, be called a "business"?
TD, I hope you will note how Mr. Dyer attributes all critical comments on his blog to a single "resident troll", whom he threatens with "2 years in prison".
9:51: You've already admitted to running background checks on me, and have repeatedly doxed me online. After failing to come up with anything in your background checks on me, you then proceeded to run background checks on members of my family. Even in terms of information from public data, this is illegal in the context of your ongoing campaign of threats and harassment, as noted by an attorney:
"Depending on the specifics of the case, doxing may be considered harassment, intimidation, invasion of privacy or even assault. If the information posted online was obtained illegally--for example, through hacking--there could be criminal charges in store for whoever obtained and revealed it. The intent of the doxer may also come into play. Doxing that is meant to intimidate, threaten, harass or lead to threats against someone could lead to legal trouble. In addition, if someone's personal details are obtained through a private rather than public source, the victim could have ground to file a lawsuit for invasion of privacy."
I own several businesses, including Suburban News Network. Just because they are not public companies you can review the financial records of - though I'm sure you've tried - doesn't mean they have "no sources of revenue," moron.
10:11: Do you think TD is illiterate? You just reprinted what I told him above.
Thank you everyone for your responses. It seems as if this blog is bringing the worst out in everyone. I love the news that gets reported here, I just wish the comments were not filled with such nastiness. It sounds like there is a lot of things I was unaware of with the past with this blog. Hopefully the nastiness dies down at some point, but I guess I will just have to wait and find out!
TD, not everyone, just one troll. An orchestrated effort to disrupt a popular news site, an effort that has failed. The news continues to be reported each day.
I liked this place the one or two times that I went there. I think that the location in the mall wasn't that great for drawing people to a non-chain restaurant.
Some stores and restaurants do seem to struggle in this location. I like Bobby's Burger Palace.
I think it should be something that stands out and offers variety.
I don't agree with trying to get an Olive Garden restaurant at the Westfield Mall in Bethesda. They should be trying to attract a better quality and more high end type of restaurant. I, for one, am so tired of these mediocre restaurants with basically the same type of food in the area, like, TGIFriday's and Applebee's. The food in those type of restaurants is not appetizing. So, please let's up our game and get some real food, from real chef's, in Bethesda. Downtown Bethesda also has absolutely nothing in terms of great food. I can't figure out why this is the case. So many commercial locations are vacant.
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