Rock Bottom space for lease,
Penang closes, Cinnabon already
for sale, as is Aden Pizza
Landlord Douglas Development has put Rock Bottom's large restaurant and brewery space on the market for lease. Rock Bottom is not on the tenant list in this leasing brochure for its building, 7920 Norfolk Avenue, either. These are not good signs for the future of the business, which remains fully open at this time.
Meanwhile, out at Montgomery Mall, a Cinnabon that only opened this past April is already up for sale. A listing online shows the Dining Terrace location, an asking price of $459,000, and states only "personal reasons" as the reason for the sale. Also for sale in downtown Bethesda is Aden Pizza. Its online sale listing shows that buying a pizzeria is a lot cheaper than buying a cinnamon bun kiosk - the asking price for Aden is only $95000.
Montgomery County's moribund economy continues to stall out. The County Council ignored dire warnings from restaurant industry officials and owners when they raised record high taxes and boosted the minimum wage to $15. At that time, a representative of the Restaurant Association of Maryland noted that MoCo's restaurant growth had already been flat for several consecutive years, even as surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia were enjoying strong growth.
43 comments:
yeah a wave of closures even though the article LITERALLY RIGHT BELOW THIS says Matchbox is opening lol nice slant, Dyer!
6:20: One opening (where one just closed) and four more closing? That's called a net loss, Pythagoras.
I called rock bottom and tapp'd closing earlier this year. Crowds just aren't there for such large spaces.
6:24: I did another spot check this past Saturday night by going all around downtown Bethesda just after 11:00 PM - dead, dead, dead. Like a zombie apocalypse. We're in real trouble, folks.
Wow, BTB is using big words when explaining math! Could it be the zombie skittle affect?
It would be a shame of Aden closed. Their pizza wasn't great...but their Turkish Pide were awesome and my kids ask for it every Friday.
Dyer couldn't calculate his way out of a paper bag. Math is not in his wheelhouse.
So Descartes goes into a bar for a drink. At closing time, the bartender asks him if he wants a refill. Descartes replies, "I think not," and disappears.
I'm surprised you didn't mention that Corner Slice now has a "closed until further notice" sign on their door.
6:37: It must have just been put up, if there actually is a sign (remember the troll's fake Olazzo tip last week? LOL). Only God would be able to track every business in the world every second of the day. Oh - somebody just ordered a PSL at the Metro Center Starbucks. HOW COULD YOU NOT REPORT THIS?!
6:54 AM .... EVERYTHING.......
You know Bethesda is in restaurant decline when Dyer provides a raft of closures and folks chime in with even more.
Taste of Bethesda attendance must be down since there have been no press releases touting the crowd size.
The Downtown Bethesda plan was so incomplete. Written by developers and NIMBYs. Development is good, but bring some community benefits as well.
Not so Anonymous weighs in again from the the little boys room.
According to Bethesda Up, downtown Bethesda has 184 restaurants. This is a huge number of eateries serving a Downton workforce of 43000, and a downtown residential population of 9500. Yes lots of visitors come to downtown to shop and dine, but we currently have a huge number of eating and drinking establishments for a modestly sized city. Well above the number of a typical city of similar size. Yes some will close, and some will open. Most if not all of the new mixed-use project under construction, or in the pipeline, have retail on the ground level that have nearby outdoor dining available. Yes, these new spaces will be more costly to rent than a nasty old one story building on Cordell.
Some of the low hanging older restaurants will surely need to close as the competition heats up for diners.
Rock Bottom has been a stalwart in the Woodmont Triangle for decades. Big loss!
Yet "Rock Bottom" is still showing on the Lower Level floor plan of that ad.
Very upset that these closings are happening. I do not enjoy lifetime as I am now a grandmother but I do enjoy the new places to eat. Oaxaca tacos are to die for.
Anyone remember Dyers post a few years back about Sala Thai closing because a for lease advertisement was posted on an industry website? I had dinner at Rock Bottom last night and Sala Thai the night before and expect that to continue for years.
Did Douglas pay Dyer to run this ad, er, article, so they can haggle Rock Bottom into a rent increase?
Here you go:
January 2018
http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2018/01/sala-thai-building-for-lease-in-bethesda.html
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the MoCo blogsphere:
"Smashburger Rockville evicted" (spoiler: they weren't)
"Hooters back in MoCo!" (Wishful thinking, perv)
"Huge gym is coming to old Sears space at Westfield Montgomery"
"Update:Huge gym is now not coming to Westfield Montgomery"
"Update:Huge gym may or may not come to Westfield Montgomery. Give me money so I can give you more reports like this."
I miss The Box!
"Kaldi's is closing"
"Sears isn't closing"
"Tastee is selling"
"The Purple Line is near death"
-BtB
Kaldi's ad claimed they were closing
Other blogs incorrectly claimed (without talking to a live human) that Sears was closing. They weren't.
Dyer broke the story on the correct closing date, which was a year later :)
Marriott spox confirmed Dyer's reporting on tastee at a public meeting
Purple line? Lol. No idea where you got that one. Maybe it was near death at some point. I'm happy to see it myself. More transit the better.
"Woodmont", No he didn't. Stop lying.
Welcome, Linda RG. Enjoy your time here. Hope to see you posting often!
Our household is looking forward to Playa Bowls.
So, Dyer broke the story on Playa Bowls to Cabin John 8am May 9th.
Who reported it before him?
Looking forward to your response!
Please stop lying.
^Linda
"but I can do without mentions of cartels and moribound and all that Jazz"
Exactly. I thought this article was spot on until he regurgitated that moribund nonsense. The loss of Rock Bottom Brewery really really sucks. The real problem is that the younger people who frequent establishments like Rock Bottom, American Tap Room, Villain & Saint etc. can't afford to live in Bethesda anymore. Silver Spring is cheaper, but has more nightlife, more new apartments, and has just as easy access Red Line access to DC.
Thank you for saying Rock Bottom sucks. It used to be rocking and a lot of fun and beer and food were great. Not anymore. Just another crap chain pub.
So how come no one is celebrating the loss of a bank?
2:14pm depends where on the red line you're headed
Nothing new about Bethesda being very expensive. It's been that way for decades. Plenty of new apartments going up.
2:56 PM - If they "can't afford to live in Bethesda anymore" Your "plenty of new apartments going up" won't be any more affordable.
Bethesda is lost. Pan man at Walt Whitman, another Canary in a Coal mine.
When someone creates a Google account just to troll Robert Dyer...
8:15: Yes, and I would advise they at least invent new talking points and phrases if they do so again.
Robert, I think you have to admit that all of these restaurants are not quality. This is capitalism working.
I know some would lament the loss of Rock Bottom, if it materializes. Unfortunately, while it'd be great to have a decent brewpub in that location, it isn't one. Matchbox, which opens this week, is a huge trade up from ATR, which was godawful; even my kids, who were lured in by the cotton candy drink, had given up on it (inexcusably bad mac & cheese the last time they suckered me into taking them there). Hawkers is slated to open on Bethesda Row, still I believe, which should be a great addition. Yeah, there are some closures, and in cases deservedly so. But there are some positive openings.
8:08am Rock Bottom is great. It's the only brewery in downtown Bethesda. It is large enough to handle groups. It is centrally located. Food and beers are good. And they have great events.
Rock Bottom closing will be a huge loss. Much better place than something like caddies.
RB not closing. Confirmed rent increase ploy that just gone a bit further than the past. Tappd spot still open. Zero chance they let RB loose.
If RB does stay maybe they will update the place starting with putting a bathroom in that’s not up 3 stories of steps .
All along on street in Bethesda Woodmont Triangle area...restaurants are shutting down while high rises keep going up including in spaces they used to be... Only around three owners actually own blocks of Bethesda there. Rents go up... And High rises.. Related? TappD around the corner which was Union Jack before just closed. Blackfinn down the street closed a few years ago. Tapas place that went in after that closed. Burger places at corner the other way under Tommy Joe's closed. Both the first and second burger place in that spot. Taco place closed. Community restaurant down the street by Blackfinn and former tapa too closed. Rents keep going up and so do high rises! Related?
Are you sure that Rock Bottom is the space in brochure? Looks like CrossFit place underneath may be for lease.
9:47: If you look at the top photo, you see that the front of Rock Bottom has a white border around it, like the other spaces for lease. The brochure lists all of the spaces and square footage available on the various floors.
Eventually real estate owners will run out of suckers willing to pay the high per square foot Bethesda rates. Sooner than later if I had my way.
The Purple Line is idiocy. Is there a shortage of low paid workers in Bethesda or a surplus of people itching to get to PG County? All of the large buildings you see today were built without the Purple Line.
It's called "business". The lease is up for Rock Bottom in 2 years. All commercial real estate companies start to market their properties 1.5 to 2 years out from the end of a lease. It starts rumors like this and pushes the business to re-up the lease. I don't think RB is going anywhere soon. They just spent a ton of money redoing the floors. Why would they spend that kind of money if they are closing?
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