Downtown Bethesda: Where did it all go wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The architecture is horrible. No sense of planning. Too expensive. Too many people with too little taste.

All the new high end rental buildings going up are designed by the same architect and all look the same. No variety.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it’s pretty awful. No good sushi for one issue. We pretty much only eat at Mon Ami Gabi and Milae. Otherwise Rockville and other places get our $$$. Also love Moby Dick and Fish Taco is pretty good. The landlord losing Cork & Fork, Barnes and Noble and that great bakery killed a lot of our random trips there. The retail is god awful for the most part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s pretty awful. No good sushi for one issue. We pretty much only eat at Mon Ami Gabi and Milae. Otherwise Rockville and other places get our $$$. Also love Moby Dick and Fish Taco is pretty good. The landlord losing Cork & Fork, Barnes and Noble and that great bakery killed a lot of our random trips there. The retail is god awful for the most part.

Cork and Fork is gone??? Wow. It was the only good thing about that area. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

If you have to drive to Bethesda and then complain, what is wrong with your area that you have to drive to another area to go out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have to drive to Bethesda and then complain, what is wrong with your area that you have to drive to another area to go out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s pretty awful. No good sushi for one issue. We pretty much only eat at Mon Ami Gabi and Milae. Otherwise Rockville and other places get our $$$. Also love Moby Dick and Fish Taco is pretty good. The landlord losing Cork & Fork, Barnes and Noble and that great bakery killed a lot of our random trips there. The retail is god awful for the most part.

Bethesda sucks! Well, except for these four restaurants that I like. You people are funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s pretty awful. No good sushi for one issue. We pretty much only eat at Mon Ami Gabi and Milae. Otherwise Rockville and other places get our $$$. Also love Moby Dick and Fish Taco is pretty good. The landlord losing Cork & Fork, Barnes and Noble and that great bakery killed a lot of our random trips there. The retail is god awful for the most part.

Bethesda sucks! Well, except for these four restaurants that I like. You people are funny.

So you think that because Bethesda has four good restaurants, it cannot also suck? Man, your bar is low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can anyone say that Bethesda is for old rich people to sip gelato when it is clearly also for their rich teens to go out to dinner with the family credit card.

WTF who sips gelato?

[Anonymous]

Do you guys like Pike and Rose?

[Anonymous]

Bethesda is the BEST!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s pretty awful. No good sushi for one issue. We pretty much only eat at Mon Ami Gabi and Milae. Otherwise Rockville and other places get our $$$. Also love Moby Dick and Fish Taco is pretty good. The landlord losing Cork & Fork, Barnes and Noble and that great bakery killed a lot of our random trips there. The retail is god awful for the most part.

Have you tried the sushi place Hinata? I keep trying and they are always sold out. We like hinaro okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to sound too much like a jerk, but also look at the people in Frederick, compared to the people in Bethesda.

I'm not judging one group as better or worse than other, but there's def a difference in personality type of people who live or socialize there.

The people in Bethesda just feel more comfortable in a chain (like other people have said, it only appeals to tweens and senior citizens).

The folks in Frederick wouldn't patronize those places.

For example, for all the great restaurants in Frederick, can you imagine 3 tattoo shops all thriving in downtown Bethesda?

This thread is started on the absurd notion that downtown Frederick is more desirable than Bethesda. I don’t care if they’re local or national chains, I would take Medium Rare, Anthony’s, Fish Taco, Phillz, Spanish Diner, Fresh Baguette, and even Guapos over almost every comparable restaurant in Frederick. Frederick is interesting for about two hours until you wake up and realize how depressing and provincial it is. OP is acting like it’s Flatbush or Ridgewood and is full of incomparable, unique boutiques and restaurants that everyone’s clamoring to visit. They’re not. It’s just Frederick.

Actually frederick has, in addition to some top restaurants, an assortment of high end as well as funky home and design stores. Many house genuinely interesting finds and those stores in particular attract people with a pretty sophisticated eye, including people from dc. I live in frederick and worked in dc for several years as a professional with my own business and your assessment of frederick sounds about twenty years old. There is money here and there are a significant number of highly educated people here. You are the one who sounds provincial.

I agree. Creme de la Creme, Molly’s, Curious Iguana, Treaty, not to mention Carroll Creek linear park, Baker Park, and better architecture than Bethesda. You can keep Bethesda- I’ll take Frederick any day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s pretty awful. No good sushi for one issue. We pretty much only eat at Mon Ami Gabi and Milae. Otherwise Rockville and other places get our $$$. Also love Moby Dick and Fish Taco is pretty good. The landlord losing Cork & Fork, Barnes and Noble and that great bakery killed a lot of our random trips there. The retail is god awful for the most part.

Barnes and Noble is what took us there. Now we don't go. Ever. Ever.

Flagship bookstores are a real estate asset. Why developers dont get this is beyond me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys like Pike and Rose?

Do you?

[Anonymous]

I think tako grill is good sushi although I know people who think it was better with the old chef before they moved.

We tried tacombi and that seems liek a great spot.

I don’t get the people saying walkability is only good for old people. Bethesda has some issues— Bethesda ave has way too many stores I’d never step foot in and seem like internet brand outposts— but it’s also got a lot going for it with restaurants (many of which are not chains but locally/family owned), the library, the farmers market etc all in a few blocks.

And I actually think the new apt building with TJs and the new Marriott are pretty nice.